Using existing art for the at gallery?

[ThroughMyEyes]

Hey everyone. I am planning to submit a piece of art for Aisha Day to the Neopets Art Gallery in hopes of getting chosen. I read the rules and one thing really stood out to me:

 

"1. It must be 100% your own work, adapting an existing picture is not acceptable."

 

What does that mean exactly? The picture is my own artwork, but I've posted it on other sites (DeviantART and Instagram specifically). The picture on those sites have a watermark with my username on it. If I submit this picture and put my Neopets username on it instead of my other username, will the staff consider that stealing, even though I didn't steal the image to begin with?

 

I'm sorry if this is all over the place, I just really don't want to get my account frozen!  :sad01_anim: 

[androidTurret]

It basically means that you shouldn't be tracing or using other pictures other people made but I'm not sure if they'd check those other places to see if it was yours or not. I've seen the tumblr users have their art posted there and deviantart and still get into the art gallery so I don't think that's going to be a problem for you.

[life_eclectic]

I do not know for sure, but it seems to me they shouldn't consider it steaing because you can't steal from yourself. If it's your art, they shouldn't care if it was on other sites. All you are doing is taking something you created and showing it on another site. As mentioned, I think it would only be considered stealing and against the rules if you found someone else's art, modified it and attempted to pass it off as being your own. If the entire picture was created by you, regardless of where you have uploaded it, you shouldn't have a problem.