Solar final fixing

[Máirín Duffy]

Hi Samuele,

Samuele Storari wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> as today told on irc channel (#fedora-art) I've uploaded on fedorapeople.org an archive with screenshots attesting my work is now fixed so there will be no problem about any part of the file.
> 
> You will find all at: http://sstorari.fedorapeople.org/
> 
> Please check this out and if all is correct i will go on creatin the Solar Theme.

It is quite obvious you have done a lot of work here to retrace and 
document carefully your steps and I really, really appreciate that. 
You've done a tremendous job!

I walked through all of your screenshots. My main question (which I 
asked you earlier on IRC but I don't think I got a response from you on) 
  is where did the original flare bitmap that you traced come from? I 
feel a little nervous about giving you an okay when I don't know the 
source of that bitmap, because I do not want to encourage tracing of 
unknown-licensed works.

I think in some cases using a photo or other work as a guide can be ok, 
and you've certainly done some manual work in tracing it and applied to 
the solar graphic so that it's not that recognizable. However, I do want 
there to be some recognition that at least in spirit it's a bad practice 
to trace other people's work like that (if it is another person's work). 
This is especially true if you plan to publish your tutorial on doing 
the flare to a wider audience (which I would love to see you do! It's 
very useful :) ) I would really encourage you to cite that image in the 
tutorial if so. If the image it's from is not openly-licensed, I would 
encourage you to modify the tutorial such that it uses an 
openly-licensed photo.

I know this may seem very strict and perhaps it's overly so. But I think 
you have to be VERY careful, especially in a tutorial setting when you 
are setting an example for others, to send the right message. Being very 
responsible and clear about your sources can only set a *good* example 
to your audience.

So here are just two things I'd like to hear from you before I give you 
my approval on this:

- Can you tell us the source of the flare bitmap that you started from? 
(I considered that perhaps you created it on your own, but it would be 
rather recursive to create it, trace it, and then re-create it - 
wouldn't it? So I assume it came from elsewhere. Where?)

- Can you provide the final XCF? I would feel a lot more confident 
giving you my approval if I had the chance to look it over beforehand.

Again, this is a tremendous effort on your part Samuele, thank you so 
much! I'm really looking forward to working with this new improved Solar 
artwork so I can start creating banners for fedoraproject.org and 
working on the disc and disc sleeve artwork! :)

I hope this mail isn't a discouragement to you; it's obvious you have a 
lot of talent and I think you will be a very valuable member of the art 
team!

~m