Starscream: What's the Question?

UPdate at the bottom...

RE: Art Theft

There has been a situation recently with a person claiming to be an artist, where in actual fact this individual was taking art and signing over signatures and whatnot to claim it as their own.

Art theft, when the person has gone and cut off the signature of the original artist or signed it themselves is intentional, no matter they claim. The intent was to pass it off as their own.

Usually the point when an art thief is found out, they panic and say "I didn't mean to..." I am sorry, but you did and nothing you can say can make be believe other wise. Usually once told that they'll scream for you to leave them alone or cuss like hellfire. The ideal situation would be a public apology, but they are so panic stricken they can't see the forest for the trees. Or at least that is the optimist's view. It is also possible they feel that they have the right to steal art.

Now I have seen this a few times on Deviantart and I do not usually comment on it. But this time I felt the need to blow the whistle. At first I was fairly private. I took it to my own message board and posted my concerns in the private rant and grumble forum. I then took it to another forum and made an inquiry there. My fears were confirmed.

Each artist has an individual style of doing things, the way they do their lines, the way they colour or how they sign a piece or their methods of describing the work.  I can tell the name of the artist just by their style alone. Each person as a unique something that they impart to an article and unless the artist is an absolute master, it's unlikely that they can reproduce someone's art exactly.

Art theft, could be considered a sort of veiled complement. The artists work is such a pleasure to the thief that they want to call it their own. But it can hurt. ~cymrudragon had a piece of art work physically stolen from her and we never found it. It upset her because she was going to sell it to someone and then she could not.

I would not consider a person who posted art and gives full credit to an artist a thief. It could be bothersome to some people though, but at least the effort was given to credit the artist. Basically, if a person uses stock photos, credit the original source. If an individual uses comics or screen captures of movies, tv shows or whatnot, credit it. That is all artists want, some form of credit for all their hard work.

I am a colourist, I can say that now. I finally found my niche in the artist community. I can draw, but not very well, takes time and practice which I am working on. But I get pleasure from bringing another artist's lines to life. But if one looks at how I credit an artist, It's there on the actual piece. Lines by: artist name. Colours by: (usually) my name. In the description there is a link to the original line art and to the Artists page. I do this as well on my website where I will eventually host the works. I make efforts to contact the original artist and if they request, I would remove the art. So far I have not met any who have objected to their drawing being coloured.  I am attempting to learn how to do inking in Photoshop because there are a number of uninked sketches out there screaming to be coloured.

It takes a fair amount of time and effort to become good at anything. And I encourage anyone who is starting out to keep practising, keep posting your works of art. Keep listening to the comments and criticism of your peers and strive to improve. Attempt to better yourself and don't give up if your work is not like IDW or Dreamwave. It will take time and if you put your spark in it, you will succeed. Taking the shortcut means you have learned nothing and gained nothing but a bad and lasting reputation.

The Transformers Community of Artists and Fans is a very tight knit community. They are often familiar with each other's works even if they don't interact. Someone somewhere will know if a piece is ripped and will blow the whistle; I have seen it time and time again.

I am proud to be a part of a community that cares about each other.

So that is it from me.

The Game:

quoted from silsolo

"When we had the art thief issue, it was brought up more than once that each artist has his/her own style, so why not start a little game? It'll be just like the 10 features thing"

Oddly enough its easier for me to do than to describe...

You know you are looking at glass work by (cymrudragon)
When:
1. when you find intercate mosaics
2. she "paints" with her glass
3.  her colours are bright, rich and rarely pastell
4. Find odd and interesting mosaic work, goards, bowling balls
5. free form suncatcher with lots of dangling peices.
6. Purples red and greens


You know you are looking at artwork by (wayward insecticon)
When:
1. You see very angular character
2. Very sharp features
3. Thin flat wings on Seekers
4. detailed pencil drawins, hard to decribe them but very different from her cg art.
5. Sharp angular cell shading
6. rather feminine looking characters.

You know you are looking at artwork by (ursalav)
When:
1. Seriously Dark humour appears
2. Vegetables as animals
3. Surreal and unreal situations
4. Cute yet evil
5. Rocks that seem phalyic
6. cute animals, homicidal hamsters
7. dark twisted stores
8. hilarious descriptions which are worth to read
9. puns


You know you are looking at artwork by (tunaferit)
When:
1. You see pencil drawing that are photo realistic
2. Intense details
3. you have to see it to understand.


You know you are looking at artwork by (Silsolo)

1. Has a very cute chibi style Seeker with cute backsides...that'll shake their booty! >.>
2. Female figures are long and graceful.
3. Anime style drawings are very nicely detailed and professional in appearance
4. Has a very different style of Seeker feet on chibi and sometimes full sized Seekers
5. Costuming on characters are Asian in appearance
6. Has a taste for Starscream and Seekers in general
7. Often features characters with swords
8. Her art work is definitely evolving and improving

- Sunstar

[link] Sunstar's Seeker Sanctuary Website
A safe haven for Seekers
[link] Sunstar's Seeker Sanctuary Forum

My evil cohort:



Transformers fans or artists



Other interesting Artists:



Burlington