In art and design, an original is the first, source, or independently created work rather than a copy, reproduction, replica, or derivative version.
Original describes a work, design, model, drawing, carving, or other object that stands at the source of subsequent copies, reproductions, casts, replicas, or adaptations. In ordinary artistic usage, an original is produced directly by the artist or maker rather than being copied from another finished work.
The term can refer either to authorship or to sequence. An original drawing is the artist’s own drawing rather than a reproduction; an original model may be the source from which molds, enlargements, carvings, or editions are produced. The term therefore does not automatically mean innovative, unprecedented, or stylistically novel.
This distinction matters in sculpture, where one conception may pass through clay model, plaster, pointing, enlargement, casting, carving, edition, restoration, or later reproduction. The word original should identify the source object or direct act of authorship with as much precision as possible.
Etymology
From Latin origo, meaning beginning, source, rise, descent, or origin; originalis means pertaining to the beginning or source.
Sculptor Notes
In sculpture, original needs qualification. A clay model may be original even when a bronze cast is the intended finished work; a direct carving may itself be both conception and final object; a plaster may be an original model, a working enlargement, or a cast from another object. The production history determines what the word means.
Do not use original as a synonym for originality. The first concerns source, authorship, or sequence; the second concerns the character of creative thought.