&quot;Artists Beware&quot;

that's completely blatant art theft. in its most concentrated form; reuploading an already finished image by another artist, and using it for personal gain.

i watch DeadRabbit on DA. she's a really neat artist and all of her work is her own creation. the second i went to the entries page (before reading this whole post) i recognized the piece immediately.

now, no offense to your friend, but Trixie doesn't even VAGUELY look like the mascot character. she has a big fluffy brown foxtail, not a skinny striped cat tail. she has a totally different haircut and has red dye in it. she's the wrong color. NOTHING about her is even vaguely simmilar to the intended character. HOW did your friend not notice? especially when the picture itself says Trixie?

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anjel-kitty.livejournal.com

Well I guess she was just so overwhelmed by how awesome the piece is she didn't investigate into it. I mean she put it up for vote and about 50 members voted for it to be first place, so she wasn't the only one who didn't take notice. I really loved the piece myself, so when I compared it to the real Fuko, I thought hmmm maybe this is just her take on Fuko? But yeah I had a feeling she was a stinking art theif, and seeing that you follow DeadRabbit for a while now, I believe you that she stole it from her
Do you know DeadRabbit personally? and Can you tell her that her pieces are being submitted by this person?

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Just Take a Gander at Dead Rabbit's gallery.
It's obvious it's her own work. you can tell by the style.

Also, like I said, the other didn't even have an e-mail or gallery that we could look at.. in fact, I was rather dissapointed that Lj usernames or even galley links were put next to the artist's names.

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weren't.. weren't..
blah
but yeah
one should ALWAYS include either e-mails or gallery addresses with gift/contest artwork.

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i've already commented to DeadRabbit and linked her to this thread.

again, i apologize if i'm coming off alot harsher than i intend, but if i hold a contest for someone to draw me a little boy in a costume and someone enters the Mona Lisa... well i don't care how GOOD it looks; if it doesn't fit the theme of the contest, i'm going to get more than a little suspicious.

it's cases like these that make art theft so easy. if an image is really pretty, no one will know it's completely ripped, right? :/

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yeah. mods should always check back on their submitters, look at their galleries, and if they don't list any type of gallery anywhere, THEN I would be consearned. I mean, any artist will pimp out their art in one form or another.. and if they're not doing that, chances are it's not theirs.

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drake-anaya.livejournal.com

the sad thing is that exact image has been ripped off at least once before; that's part of why I immediately recognized it (it was originally being used in a cafepress account, now removed). blargh. :/

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you think it may have been the same person?

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drake-anaya.livejournal.com

nah, I don't think it was the same person; the other time I saw this being stolen, the thief had the brains to edit the signature. XD

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The idea of the contest was to use the original picture of Fuko as a very rough reference then to draw the picture of Fuko in the artist's own style. THe original picture is located here (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/zentranconphiladelphia/)

Thats why all the contest entries are very different but different is good! As long as the picture had some semblance of Fuko i.e. similar hairstyle etc, it was fine by us judges. For marketing purposes for our convention..uh lets just say we needed artwork of the mascot idea in a format thats much more agreeable to the public than the original form of the cat girl.

But that aside blah what a mess.

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i'm not talking about a style difference. i'm talking about how Trixie doesn't even vaguely resemble Fuko. none of the markings match up or anything. no matter what style an artist draws in, it's easy to pick out a character with such distinct markings. if nothing else, the huge poofy brown tail should have been a dead giveaway.

i'm not sure if you're at all familliar with Anthro artists on Devinat Art, but i'll try to use an example.

Malii/Malice/Skorne has a very distinct anime-descended striking style that often times (especially in the old days) did not accentuate muzzles. she drew a picture of Lock/RavenofDooom who is a white fox with a rainbow tail and bandages. other artists with exceedingly different styles with accentuation on chibiness or muzzle length, or western comic book style have drawn this same character and even though the styles are polar oposites, the character is still recognizable. artists such as Zeriara and Chival/BungleChiv, and myself.

style doesn't make a difference when it comes to just plain recognizing a character.

i hope you don't think i'm saying all this to be a bitch, i'm saying it because (since you seem to be in charge) i want you to be able to recognize theivery in your contests before they get entered. as an artist it makes me really paranoid to know that there are contests out there where thievery slides by unnticed.

but yeah, i don't envy you your position. good luck with the cleanup

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The offending artist told me that the art piece was "a persian cat" which I wanted to believe. Since Fuko is a cat, therefore, I thought it was an okay submission. THe artist in questoin was a trusted friend of mine, and people who havae hung around her enough (also friends) have told me that she can sit and sketch nice looking art out right infront of their eyes- so there'd be no reason ever to think she'd NEED To steal somebody else's work thats what puzzles me! Also I'd seen a portfolio of her older work as well, so I had no reason to believe that it'd be used in a dishonest fashion.

Regarding use as a mascot, the contest was for fanart of the original mascot drawn by a fellow named Nathan Smith..and darn it if 'trixie' didnt look AWESOME on the teeshirt previews on cafepress before I discovered the truth and took all those images down.

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cat species regardless, where were her stripes? or her coloration?
sometimes art thieves re draw things they've seen and people vouch for them. other times art thieves may get stressed or dissappointed in their own abilities, and steal images from time to time.

did anyone recognize her style? you say you've seenher other work, did you not notice the distinct difference in styles?

my biggest problem with the general attitude surrounding this is the statement
"darn it if 'trixie' didnt look AWESOME on the teeshirt previews on cafepress before I discovered the truth and took all those images down."

it implies that if an image looks really really good, people are less inclined to suspect art thievery, and less inclined to believe accusations. in cases of art theft, the BETTER the image looks, the more suspicouls you should be.

again, please don't get upset with my tone. i'm just really distressed that art thievery is so easy to get away with.

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Well No, actually I dont hold that its true that the better an image looks the less inclined I'd be to suspect thievery, thats not the point of what I said at all. My point was "oh man, it did look really nice too bad it was stolen" and the stolen part is the most important part being as how no matter how nice it looks, stolen art is never okay with me. Okay so it didnt look exactly like the original Fuko..but the point wasn't to totally imitate the original artist's exact vision, it was to paint her using a differnt vision (but yes I agree it should have looked more like fuko with the tail etc). But hey we're all incredibly short sighted, naive and stupid sometimes, I guess right? I will admit, as club president and one of the major persons in charge of the con, I made a mistake, I trusted too much, I didnt make an issue over how that fuko didnt look just like the original. But I will also say that nobody else made any mention of any concerns to me whom I worked with, and alot of us were apparently duped not just me. Its very hard working mostly by yourself to launch a first year con when the others in charge are either very volatile about artwork (i.e. pretty much hate anyones style that isnt close to their own, and therefore a very biased judge as well as cant take criticism without exploding), or not even online and have to be corresponded entirely with by phone, or via internet printouts. That is mostly the reason i delegated judging to mostly club and other random people.

I personally have had some of my art stolen, namely animated gifs that I toiled to make, and so these issues are no small ones for me either. Luckily the offending party decided to credit me like I asked her to.

Actually given her other art that I have seen (which she took down recently because she told me she was experiencing alot of art theft of her pieces) was really well drawn as well (now, assuming it WAS actually her art). The people who vouched for her are just as puzzled, dismayed and betrayed as I am, no fakes there. They're also real personal friends of mine, so I dont think this was a really thickly contrived case. A sad and misguided individual stole some art, thank god it was discovered. She was also really bad at stealing it by leaving that signature on there and having see through excuses. Its my fault for not micro scrutinizing it but I couldnt make out what was written on there. And when I talked to her about it, her excuses were really feeble and she made no attempts to really clear her name.Thankfully i got all the stolen images away from anything associated with either my anime club or the con, so thats over and done with. I dont imagine we'll be having other mascot art contests for the con as its just a first year con and we needed art work. But if we do, rest assured, we will take measures to verify any and all entrants into any subsequent contests.

I appreciate your feedback and input, because your advice will be well used in the future.

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hey now, i'm not saying "HEY YOU AND YOU ALONE MESSED UP, SO FEEL BAD NOW!" but as the person in charge of it, and the most readily available one to talk to, i'm pointing out a flaw that could cause future trouble. please do not take everything so personally. if anything i'm MORE worried that alot of people looked past the obvious differences in markings and character traits.

i feel as though you misread my tone of voice and felt like i was pointing the finger solely at you.

then again, i myself could be misreading the tone in which you wrote that. this is why i hate conversing on the internet. it's so hard to read tone and intention in words.

umm, i guess pooint is; as the person in charge you have a big responsibility towards people blahblahblah ummm... yeah

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*i guess the point is

sorry for the sloppy typing

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Yeah blahblahblah :D
No, rest assured I do feel very bad about it because this wasnt just an art theft it was a loss of someone I thought a friend too. So both things are pretty crappio. I do appreciate your input though. Education is teh best thing to thwart dishonest actions etc etc.

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glad we're on the same page. i get frustrated when i don't think i'm communicating my thoughts effectively, then i get sad and just kinda mash keys on the keyboard XD

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I don't suppose this 'deadsquirrle' character ever posted an art gallery when they submitted the work.
Also, with the lack of LJ user account, or e-mail, and my guess is the name is made up
someone just wanted the first place prize is what I think.

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anjel-kitty.livejournal.com

No deadsquierll is the real artist apparently. Chaynz Childers is the person who submitted the art to the contest, and thus is the art theif...
I should clarify that in the post

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oh so you mean 'deadrabbit'
I was confused there.. information on the submitters on the site and LJ was very sparce, I wasn't sure if the theif submitted the art under than name of DeadSquirrle and the real artists name was DeadRabbit

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frisket17.livejournal.com

I'd inform DeadRabbit, honestly.
Since it is her finished work that won it, why not ask her permission? Tell her the entire story?

If not, move to second place winner.

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I added deadrabbit's aim name to my list in hopes of catching the artist themself to talk to them..

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cyrus-l.livejournal.com

Dead Rabbit is, indeed the artist who created the piece in question. Unfortunately, she is away from her home at the moment, and will not return until Friday.

If one of you could give me some contact info regarding this contest, I'll be sure to give it to her once she returns. I'm (and I know she will be) very glad that you guys took the time to look into this and attempt to contact her :3

Thanks!

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cyrus-l.livejournal.com

Oh schnikes! YOU are the person in charge XD. Sorry, I'm half asleep at the moment ^^;

My AIM name is Rrunoc13 if you want help in contacting her. She doesn't use the AIM name posted on her DA page that much ^^;

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i've sent her a link to this page, so hopefully she'll be aware of this whole mess. i'm going ot go see if i can find her email to give to the runners of the contest, too

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sadieyah.livejournal.com

Art theft: Yes. The artist in question used someone else's work to aquire something; in this case, status. In most cases it's money, but you know.

Amoral? Yeah. Should it disqualify her? Yes, plz. Is it illegal? Hells if I know. Something like a small anime con might well slip under the broad scope of our governmental laws, no matter how nit-picking they seem.

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she used it to win the contest, which as i understand it had a monetary prize.

it actually IS illegal, and this girl CAN be taken to court, though i doubt it's worth anyone's time or money since she has been stopped already.

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trixie-squirrel.livejournal.com

Enter Deadrabbit...

Wow...I'm amazed, angry, yet relieved. Relieved that all this was resolved. Thanks so much to you guys for taking care of it. The sad thing about this is that it's not so much of a shock cuz it's happened so many times before. In one case a few of my drawings were being auctioned off on Furbid and the thief actually managed to sell a couple prints. Luckily she was banned by the Furbid admin.

But anyhoot, I am forever grateful. Thanks so much <33

p.s. I'd like to see the other pic if anyone has a link to it...or if it's posted at all^^;

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trixie-squirrel.livejournal.com

nevermind....i thought that someone redrew Trixie and did some adjustments...or something...>_>;;

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