Sorry, Guys, This Post Will Be a Long One...
Opinions needed on a tough problem. :c
So as some have known for a few years, There's a prominent artist in the Hazbin Fandom that had made a lot of art requests of me. I thought we were friends though, so I obliged on things.
one of my watchers reported to me that the art they saw me stream live was being sold on Etsy... Naturally I was going to request it be taken down or something. Figuring it was probably some lame account with no sales.
But I was wrong. Not only did they have a lot of sales, but they were my friend who had made the art requests..
I didn't want to ruin our friendship though, so I asked the people who knew to just leave it alone. I Thought, maybe they credited the originals to me? or like, mentioned me as having helped? But, gain, no...
Then, I posted one animated gif on FB. A sketch I had in progress for about 18-20 hrs at that moment, then puppeted it with a motion capture of myself from my phone camera.
I didn't think much of it, because I wasnt uploading it for galleries or anything. Just to be an animated icon for Discord. But I was excited about starting work on my Hazbin Comic Project, and shared the gif with this artist. Didn't say anything much about it, just who it depicted. which was my version of Lucifer.
Well, Needless to say, they accused all my Digital and Traditional illustrations over the last 25 years of being Ai slop. I was unaware this was going on and when I logged in to FB, my analytics were lit up, obviously, some sort of drama.
Turns out, They deleted my post, But not before making rude comments about me, accusing me of Feeding their art to ai bots, Pinning a jab about it to their pinned Tumblr post, and Then, Finally, They blocked me so I couldnt clear up the situation.. Which is Sus... Because we were friends. So why didn't they talk to me before saying all that?
Then My watchers weighed in on the situation... Saying they probably got mad and scared that the art they traced from me was AI generated !!
No, it was not, and none of my art is. And I livestream for the purpose of showing process work as well as for educating some students I apprentice.
Niw, I admit, I had had a rough day with my ex violating the order of protection I have against him, stealing our mail, and Cyber stalking among other things.
So when I saw all this, I was so shocked and hurt, I posted out of anger. Which was wrong. I should have taken a moment to breathe. Then figured out a mature response.
So I checked to see if I could contact them via Etsy, since I wasnt blocked there. But what I wasnt expecting, is that after all these years, they're still selling enamel pins of the art I made for them !!!!!! I mean, Really???...
So now Im just extra upset, because they dumped me to the curb the second they thought they couldn't use me..
So I have to ask you guys a serious question..
Do I make an official Artist Beware on them? Asking for what they had promised in exchange for some of the pieces They promised for some of the art? Royalties from the commercial sales made without permission? At the very least, Request that the Commercial Sales of Derivatives from my Illustrations be halted immediately... Or should I just let it go and let them continue to sell it all?
Don't do a Beware, they'll just retaliate...
Do the Beware, Your probably not the only artist they're taking from !!
Beware & Demand compensation for the commercial usage of the pieces in question!
Just walk away, its easier than going up against a community artist well known.
Voting ended onJul 31
And, Because my new account, @naphilux doesn't have a lot of mutuals yet, Im posting this poll here, on my old account for the sake of getting advice. It's not to be mean, I genuinely don't know which way to handle this, and I'd really like some advice...
