OCs and Artists

Based on #Project Cloverkit / Mentor Apps. are open / No current classes planned

[etheringtonbrothers]

The ONLY WAY to combat the lack of funding in arts education is for professionals to take a few hours a week to share their skills for FREE, to empower and encourage the next generation of artists. THIS IS WHAT THE INTERNET IS FOR. Here’s 200 tutorials:

How to draw ANGRY EXPRESSIONS How to draw BATTLE DAMAGE How to draw BIRD HEADS How to draw BOOKS How to draw BOTTLES and GLASSES How to draw BOXES How to draw BREAKING GLASS How to draw BRICKWORK How to draw CABLES and WIRES How to draw CAR CHASES How to draw CATERPILLAR TRACKS How to draw CAVES How to draw CHARACTERS (3-SHAPES) How to draw CHARACTERS (FLIPPED-SHAPES) How to draw CHARACTER SHAPES How to draw CITYSCAPES How to draw COMIC COVERS How to draw COMPOSITION   How to draw CONTRAST How to draw CONVERSATIONS How to draw CREATURE TEETH How to draw CROSS-CONTOURS How to draw DETAIL AT DISTANCE How to draw EARS How to draw FABRIC How to draw FEET & SHOES How to draw FEMALE HANDS PART ONE How to draw FEMALE HANDS PART TWO How to draw FLAGS How to draw FOOD TRUCKS How to draw FOREGROUND MIDGROUND BACKGROUND How to draw GAME BUILDINGS How to draw GEMS and CRYSTALS How to draw GHOSTS How to draw GIRL’S HAIR How to draw GOLD How to draw GRASS How to draw HAIR (1940s styles) How to draw HAIR IN MOTION How to draw HAPPY EXPRESSIONS How to draw HEAD ANGLES How to draw HOOVES How to draw HORNS How to draw HORSE HEADS How to draw IMPACT DEBRIS How to draw IN 3D How to draw INTEGRATING LOGOS How to draw INTERIOR BASICS How to draw IN-WORLD TYPOGRAPHY How to draw JUMPS How to draw JUNGLE PLANT CLUSTERS How to draw JUNK HOUSES How to draw LAMP POSTS How to draw LAVA How to draw LIGHTNING and ELECTRICITY How to draw MECHANICAL DETAILS How to draw MUSHROOMS and FUNGUS How to draw MONSTER HEADS How to draw MONSTER TENTACLES How to draw MONSTER TRUCKS How to draw MOUNTAINS How to draw NEGATIVE SPACE How to draw NEWSPAPERS How to draw NOSES How to draw OVERGROWN VEGETATION How to draw PEBBLES AND GRAVEL How to draw PERSPECTIVE BOXES How to draw PIGS How to draw PILLOWS and CUSHIONS How to draw POD HOUSES How to draw POURING LIQUID How to draw ROBOT ARMS How to draw ROCK FORMATIONS How to draw RUNNING FIGURES How to draw SAND How to draw SAUSAGE DOGS How to draw SEA WEED   How to draw SHADOW COMPOSITION How to draw SHOULDER ARMOUR How to draw SIEGE WEAPONS How to draw SILHOUETTE THUMBNAILS How to draw SMALL FLAMES How to draw SMALL, MEDIUM, LARGE How to draw SMOKE EFFECTS How to draw SNOW How to draw SPACE BIKES How to draw SQUIRRELS How to draw STICK FIGURES How to draw SWORD FIGHTS How to draw THE HORIZON How to draw TIKI STATUES How to draw TREASURE CHESTS How to draw TREE BARK How to draw TREE ROOTS How to draw USING THE SHATTER TECHNIQUE How to draw VEHICLE STANCE How to draw VINES How to draw VINTAGE PLANES How to draw WATER How to draw WOODEN HOUSES

[tarantula-veins-deactivated2023]

Holy shit I’m actually tearing up this is so much helpful stuff

[leatherfacebishoujo-deactivated]

[calvin-arium]

It’s here !! The guide for two-legged people who don’t know how to draw wheelchairs !!! 7 pages of infodump ! Disclaimer : I don’t know everything, I have one (1) experience of wheelchair user who used both bad and good chairs, and I share what I learned.

Image description :

1) Calvin in his wheelchair saying “yo” under a huge title “how to draw manual wheelchairs properly by Calvin Arium, a wheelchair user comic artist”.

2) A character says “my character self propels in a chair that was outdated in 1970 lol” Calvin says “so it looks like you two legged people don’t know the difference between an hospital chair and a chair made to be independant” an arrow point the crapppy chair, saying “we never want to see this again”

a bubble says “the hospital chair is extremely unpractical, tough considering it’s cheaper than a good custom chair a lot of us have only this”

3) a character hurt himself trying to reach the wheels of the hospital chair. Several arrows point why the chair is unpractical : “high backrest restrain shoulders movement” “huge armrest restrains wheel access” “separated footrest : amovible, cheap, bulky” “x structure, foldable but heavy” “huge front casters for stability” “heavy wheels”

4) Several arrows point an active wheelchair (the KSL by Küshall) : “usually no armrest” “a low backrest allow more movement” “light, design, ferning expersive” “special cushion to avoind injuries” “knee angle is usually 90°” “one single piece of frame, sometimes entirely welded” “weight : from 4 to 10kg” “often rigid” “center of the wheel is the center of gravity” “higher quality wheels : less spikes”

5) A hand grab different parts of the wheel, pushing harder in the second half. Bubbles says “some have gloves, some don’t. The hand must grab the biggest area possible. Less movement = more energy. This is a common but not only way to push.Calvin is on his back wheels, rolling on grass and dirt bubble says “popping a wheelie is when a wheelchair user rolls on their back wheels to roll on every complicated surface.

6) several drawings illustrate the folding frame, the ergonomic but rigid and expensive backrest, the separated footrest (only for folding frame), the handles, the folding handles, athe amovibles handles, or no handles, the cool fancy loopwheels, the pretty custom colors 

7) More Features ! The fancy rigid-foldable frame, the anti tippers (sometimes used by beginners), the motorization (wheels, smart drive) when propelling yourself is difficult Calvin says “and now vroom vroom motherfuckers”

[drawingden]

[Tutorial] Mermaid Tails 2019 by inkogeki

[angelfruitloop]

ATTENTION COSPLAYERS:

I would like to make the paint brand “Angelus” known. It is a special paint that is for leather, faux leather, rubber, and similar surfaces.

This is literally the best paint you can buy if you love a pair of shoes, but they aren’t in the right color for your character.

This stuff coats VERY well AND the coats of paint bend with your shoes. This means no cracking!!

In the photos above I took black rain boots and painted them with Angelus Turquoise. As you can see, they don’t look black any more! It’s so good!

I managed to paint two boots with a little one ounce bottle of the paint, and I still have a third of the bottle left over!

The paint dries very fast, so you can put layer on top of layer on top of layer without it streaking.

You can get the paint on Amazon and it comes in every color!

I just really wanted to make this known!! :D This stuff is amazing!

[hollowlaughter-deactivated20181]

https://angelusdirect.com/collections/paint

[coelasquid]

Don’t buy Angelus pain’t on Amazon, it’s like $6.99 an ounce. Buy it direct from their online store the poster above linked, the single ounce bottles are $2.95 there. Also, a little goes a long way, unless you have something HUGE to paint, you can probably do it with a small bottle. I barely dented the one I got doing all the black on this;

[thegoddesswater]

Things I wish I had known last year.

[coolbeansph]

This is going to come in extremely handy!

[naimly]

Gonna post this silly little tutorial thing here too, just in case it helps anyone else out or if anyone was curious about how I personally like to colour stuff!

Enjoy reading my chicken scratch :^)

[rattyarts]

Okay, well apparently people seem to like these quick junk tutorials I’ve tossed together for people, so I guess I could drop some of these onto the blog every once in a while

Made this last year for… someone. Not sure, probably my wife???

[artist-promos]

Artist Of The Week (Submissions Open!)

I’m excited to announce that Artist Of The Week is up and running! You can now nominate your favourite artist to be interviewed and be given a shoutout on Sunday the following week! The aim of this is to show appreciation to fellow artists on tumblr, of any medium, skill, level, and subject matter and to give them a spotlight to get their works recognised! This is also for a chance for you to get to know the artists that you look up to!

A more detailed explanation is available on the rules page and the google form submissions page!

Click here to read the rules

Click here to submit the artist you’d like to see interviewed!

We’d love to see all your responses! Submissions are open until Friday this week!

[artists-everyday]

Another way to help the artists here on tumblr! Reblogs are greatly appreciated to spread the word!

[catpishogue]

Sebastian: if i crack open a cold milkshake in my yard

Sebastian: do you think joseph will come back?

Kidman:

Kidman: only one way to find out.

[kaylapocalypse-deactivated20201]

Actually

The question I get the most is how I write characters that feel like real people. 

Generally when I’m designing a human being, I deconstruct them into 7 major categories:

1. Primary Drive 2. Fear: Major and Secondary 3. Physical Desires 4. Style of self expression 5. How they express affection 6. What controls them (what they are weak for) 7. What part of them will change.

1. Primary Drive: This is generally related to the plot. What are their plot related goals? How are they pulling the plot forward? how do they make decisions? What do they think they’re doing and how do they justify doing it. 2. Fear: First, what is their deep fear? Abandonment? being consumed by power? etc. Second: tiny fears. Spiders. someone licking their neck. Small things that bother them. At least 4. 3. Physical desires. How they feel about touch. What is their perceived sexual/romantic orientation. Do their physical desires match up with their psychological desires.

4. Style of self expression: How they talk. Are they shy? Do they like to joke around and if so, how? Are they anxious or confident internally and how do they express that externally. What do words mean to them? More or less than actions? Does their socioeconomic background affect the way they present themselves socially?  5. How they express affection: Do they express affection through actions or words. Is expressing affection easy for them or not. How quickly do they open up to someone they like. Does their affection match up with their physical desires. how does the way they show their friends that they love them differ from how they show a potential love interest that they love them. is affection something they struggle with?

6. What controls them (what they are weak for): what are they almost entirely helpless against. What is something that influences them regardless of their own moral code. What– if driven to the end of the wire— would they reject sacrificing. What/who would they cut off their own finger for.  What would they kill for, if pushed. What makes them want to curl up and never go outside again from pain. What makes them sink to their knees from weakness or relief. What would make them weep tears of joy regardless where they were and who they were in front of. 

7. WHAT PART OF THEM WILL CHANGE: people develop over time. At least two of the above six categories will be altered by the storyline–either to an extreme or whittled down to nothing. When a person experiences trauma, their primary fear may change, or how they express affection may change, etc. By the time your book is over, they should have developed. And its important to decide which parts of them will be the ones that slowly get altered so you can work on monitoring it as you write. making it congruent with the plot instead of just a reaction to the plot. 

That’s it.

But most of all, you have to treat this like you’re developing a human being. Not a “character” a living breathing person. When you talk, you use their voice. If you want them to say something and it doesn’t seem like (based on the seven characteristics above) that they would say it, what would they say instead?

If they must do something that’s forced by the plot, that they wouldn’t do based on their seven options, they can still do the thing, but how would they feel internally about doing it?

How do their seven characteristics meet/ meld with someone else’s seven and how will they change each other?

Once you can come up with all the answers to all of these questions, you begin to know your character like you’d know one of your friends. When you can place them in any AU and know how they would react.

They start to breathe.

[20th-centuryghost]

HEY ARTISTS!

Do you design a lot of characters living in not-modern eras and you’re tired of combing through google for the perfect outfit references? Well I got good news for you kiddo, this website has you covered! Originally @modmad made a post about it, but her link stopped working and I managed to fix it, so here’s a new post. Basically, this is a costume rental website for plays and stage shows and what not, they have outfits for several different decades from medieval to the 1980s. LOOK AT THIS SELECTION:

OPEN ANY CATEGORY AND OH LORDY–

There’s a lot of really specific stuff in here, I design a lot of 1930s characters for my ask blog and with more chapters on the way for the game it belongs to I’m gonna be designing more, and this website is going to be an invaluable reference. I hope this can be useful to my other fellow artists as well! :)

[elvi-loci]

How to do “extra” facial expressions!

Drawing basic facial expressions is not the hardest. Most people can draw a sad face, a happy face, angry etc., but making more multidimensional expressions is more of a challenge. I have gotten a lot of compliments on how I draw facial expressions, (specifically “angsty ones”) telling me that they are very dramatic and well… expressive! And there are actually only a few things I think about when I draw faces that take them to the next level, so I thought i’d illustrate them all here!

SUPER IMPORTANT TIP BEFORE WE START: Look at your own face when you draw faces. Even making the face when you are drawing (you don’t even have to look at it), will give you some sense of how the face muscles pull and where things fold and stretch, because you can feel it. You are the best reference when it comes to facial expressions!

Angles 

Draw the head in an angle that matches the expressions you want to make. It is not a requirement, but is going to add to the effect.

Symmetry vs asymmetry 

A face is rarely symmetric. Unless the face the character is making is 100 % relaxed or even dissociating, the eyebrows, mouth and facial muscles will have different placements of their respective side. This image shows the dramatic impact asymmetry has on a face: 

That’s the difference between a smile and a smirk!

The first one’s like “oh yeah?” and the second is like “oH YEAH??”

The “balloon squishing principle”

This is something I did subconsciously, and I didn’t know about until I made this tutorial. And this principle goes hand in hand with an asymmetric face. Basically, if you squish one part of the face, you need to even out the empty space by “inflating” the other part of the face so that it doesn’t appear shrunken. The picture hopefully explains it:

Teeth 

Don’t forget to add the gum when the mouth is open to its full potential!

Squinting and folding

Adding folds around the eyes when a character is squinting makes a HUGE difference. It makes a smile more genuine and a growl more intimidating. Adding folds to the face in general makes your characters more lifelike and ‘visually relatable’. Like, they look human, and less plastic or fake.

and so on..

Pupils and irises 

The placement of the iris and pupil in relation to the eyelids is very important! The less of the white you see, the more relaxed the character is. 

And then of course eyebrows and eyes go hand in hand!

Gestures, spitting, sweating… 

Adding more elements than just a face is key to making the character actually look like they are feeling what you want them to feel. Just the tiniest sweat drop adds to their anxiety, spitting adds frustration to their rage, slouching shoulders, waving hands, a double chin, extreme angles, the list goes on! Add whatever and see what kind of impact it makes! Does it do the trick? Great! Add it! 

Over exaggeration!! 

Remember that you can almost always exaggerate more. Don’t be afraid to do draw “too much” because you’re just experimenting. See what works and what doesn’t. What do you like to exaggerate?

Now that you know some theory, it’s time to practice!

Practicing!! 

The 25 Essential Expressions (a classic! I’ve done it multiple times)

And the one I do when I’m bored:

Fill a page with circles and fill them in with different expressions. Try and exaggerate as much as you can! 

This is mostly for experimenting. They are quicker to draw than complete faces, but the same rules should apply!

And that’s about it!

I don’t know if I covered everything in this tutorial, since some things might be obvious for me, and this post perhaps only scratches the surface. So feel free to send me a message if you want an explanation about something more in depth! Thank you for reading! And now DRAW!!! ✨🎨

[studiofruke]

this sat in my inbox for a while but i finally made a small glow tutorial thingy! more conceptual than step-by-step, but hopefully it helps! 💙✨

[leareth-svraiel]

Dealing with art reposters: copyright and website takedowns

Recently, I’ve been seeing a lot of my artist friends complain about people reposting their art on the internet. Not just complain, but rant, plead, and beg reposters that reposting their art is disrespectful, that it hurts the artist, and please, please will people stop reposting their art without permission?

Dear artists: you don’t need to beg. You created art, you own the copyright in it.

That gives you power.

THE BASICS

Disclaimer 1: I am not getting into the issue of fanworks and the interplay of original works/derivative works. This post is just sticking with the basics: you, an artist, created an artistic work through your own effort, which you own the copyright for, and someone has reposted it in its entirety without your permission to their own website or social media account.

Disclaimer 2: For simplicity’s sake, this post is just talking about copyright. Issues like moral rights and Creative Commons won’t come into this, those are whole subjects in themselves, and this post is long enough as it is.

How do I get copyright? Automatically. There is no need to register anything, no need to get a lawyer to sign documents, no need to pay any fees, no need post it to yourself or make a sacrifice to Zuul, NONE OF THAT IS NECESSARY(1). Copyright arises automatically the moment you express your idea in material form, ie., the moment you put pen to paper, Photoshop brush to white space, take a photograph, etc. You make it, boom, you automatically own the copyright in it(2).

(1) Yes, the U.S. has a copyright registration system but it’s there as an option to access certain legal extras under U.S. law. It is not a condition to have copyright in the first place. (2) There are exceptions to the “you make it, you own it” rule, the most common one being when you are employed to make the art (eg., you’re employed in an animation studio drawing storyboards, all the storyboards you draw belong to the studio). Being employed to make art is NOT the same as being commissioned as a freelancer to make art: if you are commissioned as a freelancer to make art, at default what you create will be copyright to you, and your client gets a permission to use that art for the purpose they commissioned it. If the client wants to own the copyright, they’ll need a written document signed by you that transfers copyright from you to them. And yes, professional artists do charge more for that transfer.

Is my copyright recognised in other countries? Yes, provided your country and the other country are members of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. Under this treaty, all signatory countries agree to recognise copyrights from other signatory countries. Since the Berne Convention currently has 172 signatory countries, in the vast majority of cases when someone else uses your work online, they’re doing so from a country where your copyright is recognised and can be enforced in that country’s legal system.

What does it mean to have a copyright? As a copyright owner, you have exclusive rights to deal with your work. The precise rights may vary depending on the type of work and what jurisdiction you’re in, but fundamentally in the context of reposting they are:

the right to make reproductions of your art (ie., make copies); and

the right to communicate your art (eg., transmit it to or through a website).

These rights are exclusive to you meaning you are the only person who can copy and transmit your art. Anyone who wants to make copies of your art or upload it to a website will need your permission to do so (and you’d be within your rights to charge money for that permission if you wanted), otherwise they risk infringing your copyright. Which brings us to the next part.

PERMISSION VS. INFRINGEMENT

What’s a licence? A licence is a permission from you to another party that lets that other party use your art. For example, if you upload your art to Tumblr/Twitter/Facebook, you have granted Tumblr/Twitter/Facebook a licence to reproduce, display, and host your art within the Tumblr/Twitter/Facebook system. (Want to know the exact wording of that licence? It’s set out in the terms and conditions you agreed to when creating your Tumblr/Twitter/Facebook account).

That permission does not extend to every person, mutant, and unicorn to use your art. If you upload art to Tumblr/Twitter/FB to display, you’ve given a permission to that website, and no one else. Now, Tumblr/Twitter/FB allows other Tumblr/Twitter/FB users to share/reblog/retweet things from your page to their page, and that’s fine, they can do that because it’s a function of the website’s system which you’ve agreed to operate in. That is completely different to a person downloading your art from your page and reuploading it to their own account either on the same website or a completely different website for hits and likes, ie., reposting, ie., likely copyright infringement.

What is copyright infringement? Copyright infringement is when someone uses (eg., copies) all or a substantial part of your art without your permission, and when no copyright exception applies.

Internet defence myth: “The artist put their art on the internet, that’s permission for anyone to use it!” – NO. The artist put their art on a particular place on the internet (ie., their own website, own Tumblr, own Pixv) on their terms. That is not permission for anyone on the internet to download and use their art. If you find some art online that you really like and want to use, contact the artist and ask them.

Internet defence myth: “I changed 10% therefore it’s okay!” – NO. “Substantial part” does not work like that, it’s not about how much you’ve copied, it’s about what. If what you’ve copied is the key, distinct, or essential part of the work, that will be a substantial part even if it’s only 1% of the whole picture. Think of “The Scream” by Edvard Munch: the screaming face is, proportionally, a very small part of the larger picture, but it is the most recognisable and distinctive part. Now, what is and is not a substantial part gets very subjective, but in the context of reposting where a user reposts a whole picture, or crops the edges to remove a watermark/copyright notice/artist credit but keep the pretty art that caught their eye in the first place? That is clearly a substantial part amounting to copyright infringement (and in some jurisdictions, an infringement of laws regarding artist attribution and/or metadata).

What’s a copyright exception? An exception to copyright is a situation where the use of your art meets certain criteria that the law says using art without permission is allowed.

Internet defence myth: “It’s fair use!” – Are you in the United States/South Korea/Israel/other fair use country? If so, then sure, let’s talk fair use. If you’re not in a country with fair use, then you do not get to claim fair use. No fair use for you, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

The majority of jurisdictions in the world do not have fair use. I’m not going to go into every country’s variation, but many (e.g., the U.K., Canada, Australia) will have fair dealing which is a very different creature to fair use. Basically with fair dealing, in order to not be an infringement of copyright, the use of an artwork without the copyright owner’s permission must be for a specific purpose, such as parody or satire, or criticism or review, as well as be fair. If the use of an artwork is not for that specific purpose, it is an infringement of copyright. Reposting art for hits and likes or aesthetics without any serious attempt at comment? Definitely not going to get the fair dealing exception.

For those in the U.S.A.: yes, you get fair use, but it’s a defence against copyright infringement, not a get out of jail free card. The number of times I see people slapping “this is fair use!” on things that are clearly not going to pass the test is ridiculous, and there’s a line of thinking around the internet that just invoking the words “fair use” summons a magic shield to ward off any legal action. It doesn’t do that. Yes, you can claim that what you’ve done with copyright material is fair use, but a copyright owner is free to disagree with your claim and, if they think they have a case, take legal action against you at which point the fair use argument will be tested in court (as the Star Trek Axanar guys found out the hard way – spoiler, judge said no fair use). Now, the fair use debate is huge and ongoing, and this is not the place for it, I’m just focusing on reposting. And in the vast majority of cases where art is reposted in its entirety for hits and likes with zero attempt at critique or parody, it’s likely that fair use won’t apply.

Internet defence myth: “Reposting is okay because it gives the artist publicity/exposure!” – NO. “Giving publicity/exposure” is not an exception for copyright infringement, and helpful as publicity/exposure is, it doesn’t pay the bills. Creating art is work, and just as I get paid to do my work, so should professional artists get paid for their work. There are plenty of think pieces and articles and comics on how harmful it is for the creative sector to be expected to produce high quality work “for exposure”. And when reposting is done without attribution or credit or a link back to the original artist/source, then the exposure “argument” is utterly worthless (and may also be an infringement of moral rights where applicable).

Internet defence myth: “I credited the artist therefore it’s okay!” - NO. Some artists may be all right if you repost with credit. Other artists are not okay with it. Check the artist’s website/statement/permissions, don’t just assume that they’re going to be okay with credit. As far as law goes, the fact that you credited the artists means nothing: you reposted the art without permission where no copyright exception applies, therefore you infringed copyright and the artist copyright owner can act on that.

Internet defence myth: “I’m not making any money I didn’t mean any harm therefore it’s ok!” - NO. As far as liability for infringement goes, none of that matters: you reposted art without permission where no exception applies, you infringed copyright. The fact that no money was made may be taken into account in terms of damages or remedies, but at the end of the day, copyright was infringed, and the artist can hold you liable for it.

WHAT CAN I DO WHEN SOMEONE REPOSTS MY ART?

You can take legal action, which yes, comes with costs, time, effort, and stress. That being said, as a copyright owner, you do have that legal right, and if your art is being infringed in a way that’s earning money for the infringer, court action would be worth considering. Get legal advice first.

In the majority of cases where you don’t want to get a lawyer but do want a repost of your art taken down, you have two options: contact the reposter and get them to take it down, or contact the website hosting the reposted art and get the website to take it down.

Contacting the reposter: A lot of artists seem to take the gentle, friendly, almost apologetic “could you please?” approach to this. That’s up to you, but I will suggest that although you should certainly be polite and courteous, you shouldn’t be afraid to be firm. (Do NOT be aggressive/insulting/rant in all-caps). You’re the copyright owner, you’re the one with the exclusive rights, you’re the one who can hold the reposter legally liable for the infringement. Send a calm, professionally-toned message/email stating that:

you are the artist,

you own copyright in the named images (provide link to images on your official website/blog);

that you did not give permission for the person to reproduce the image and reupload it (list specific HTML links to where the infringing images are located);

that you request that the images be immediately deleted, and/or a new repost be made with credit, and/or an apology;

that if no action is taken or you don’t receive a response, you reserve your rights to further legal action.

Most decent people would, in response to such a letter especially from an artist they admire, respond and apologise and do as requested, hopefully having learned a good lesson. But let’s say you’re dealing with someone who doesn’t care, who sends back a ranty message with <insert>Internet Defence Myth</insert> and that you should be grateful that they like your work. What do you do then?

Contact the hosting website: Almost every social networking and filehosting site, certainly all the big-name ones like Facebook/YouTube/Tumblr/Twitter/Instagram/etc., have notice and takedown procedures built into their systems. These are methods by which copyright owners can send a notice to the website telling them that someone on their site is infringing their copyright, and the website will remove that infringing material.

The exact procedures used by Facebook/Tumblr/Twitter/etc., and places like RedBubble/Society6/Etsy/etc., vary. Some make you click through and fill in a whole bunch of form fields, some ask you to send an email to a specific address. Whatever procedure, the majority of these websites are based in the U.S., meaning that the procedure meets the requirements of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA). Essentially, the DCMA grants websites immunity under U.S. law from infringement actions provided that they have and act on certain procedures regarding infringements on their website. The notice and takedown procedure is part of this procedure.

Even if you yourself and/or the reposter are not in the U.S., if you want the website to take down the repost you will have to go through the DCMA form. Importantly, when you go through the process there will not be someone at the website’s offices making a legal judgment on whether or not a repost infringes copyright; all that matters is that you, the copyright owner, have sent in a correctly filled form/letter stating that the website is hosting material that infringes your copyright.

Second important point: whether you file a notice through a website’s reporting form or send in an email, that notice/email will very likely be shared with the reposter. As the DCMA process requires that you include your full name and contact details, this means your personal details will likely be given to the reposter. If you’re comfortable with doing this you should do so, however some artists understandably don’t want that personal information sent to a disrespectful reposter. While I certainly don’t advise making up completely false ID information to file legal notices (amongst other things, it’ll give the infringing reposter reason to file a counter-notice, see below), it may be worth using instead of your full legal name, the online handle your art is known by, your secondary email, a P.O. Box address, or try generalising your address to a city, state/province and country. If this approach is rejected by the form, you’ll just have to fill in your contact details properly. If you’re a professional artist with an agent or lawyer or other authorised representative, that’s easier: you can name your representative as a contact instead.

Links to major social network notice and takedown forms

Facebook: Report A Violation or Infringement of Your Rights. Form-fill notice. You do not need a FB account to file a notice.

What right is being violated or infringed? Check Copyright then (presuming you are reporting an actual image, and not someone using your idea or style which can’t be protected by copyright) Continue with your copyright report

Copyright Report Form: Click I found content which I believe violates my copyright then Please click here to continue with a copyright report

Contact information. Fill in all the fields, and include direct links to the infringing material on Facebook, as well as a link to the image as it appears on your official website/blog.

Click Yes at the bottom then enter your name before hitting Send.

Twitter/Vine/Periscope: Report copyright infringement. Form-fill notice. Note that it requires a Twitter account, and you have to be logged into Twitter to file a notice, so the notice will be linked to your account. Note also that Twitter says that they will send a copy of all DCMA notices to Lumen for transparency (with your contact information redacted).

Tell us about yourself: Click I am the copyright owner. This opens more form fields below.

Contact information: fill this all in.

About platform of infringing material: Click Twitter/Vine/Periscope as appropriate.

About your copyrighted work: Give the title of your original work and a link to your official website/blog where the original image can be viewed.

About the infringing material: Click Tweet/Moment/Profile image as appropriate. This will open another form field for you to give the direct link to the infringing Tweet/Moment/Profile. There is also a form field for you to describe how your image is being infringed (you can say “[username]’s Tweet has reproduced my copyright image without my permission” or something to that effect).

Required statements: Click both boxes, type in the exact statement as required by the form, and type your name (try your online handle?) otherwise Twitter won’t let you submit.

Hit Submit.

Instagram: Copyright Report Form. Form-fill notice, that is almost exactly the same as Facebook’s notice form. Does not require an Instagram account to file.

Click Continue with your copyright report then I found content that may violate my copyright then Please click here to continue with your copyright report.

Contact information. Fill in all the fields, and include direct links to the infringing material on Instagram, as well as a link to the image as it appears on your official website/blog.

Click Yes at the bottom then enter your name before hitting Send.

Tumblr: DCMA Copyright Notifications. Form-fill, but less detailed than the ones previous. Note that Tumblr explicitly says that the form is for external content that has been reposted on Tumblr without your permission (eg., it was taken from your website/Facebook/other non-Tumblr site and someone posted it to Tumblr). (They have a separate form for stuff you posted to your Tumblr account and another Tumblr user has reposted without attributing you.)

URL of infringing work or material: give the exact HTML link to the infringing image file on Tumblr.

Source URL for work (optional): I’m actually not sure what this is referring to (Tumblr, you and your inexact drafting, why) but it’s an optional field, so it’s not necessary to fill it in.

Add more exact URLs to other infringing works if necessary.

Description of work claimed to be infringed: Give the title of your copyrighted work, maybe the year you created it, and a link to where it may be viewed on your official website/blog.

Contact information: as usual.

Click all three of the click-boxes, and your full name (I’m not sure if typing your online handle as a pseudonym will suffice?) and hit Submit Notification.

As you can see, while the exact boxes and click throughs may vary, each website is asking for the same DCMA requirements: contact details, link to infringing material, link to your original material, legal declarations, and electronic signature. Etsy also has a form system, but other websites (eg., RedBubble, Society6, eBay) require you to send an email to their designated email address. This email has to fit the requirements of the DCMA, and a simple Google search for “DCMA sample notice” will turn up plenty of examples with wording you can use.

NB: The DCMA notice is a notice under U.S. law, and thus should only be used with websites subject to U.S. jurisdiction. If you send a notice saying “this is official notification under section 512© of the DCMA to remove infringing material” to, say, WeChat, or the website of the local community of artists in Canada or Singapore or France, you’ll accomplish nothing except maybe giving someone a good laugh.

What happens when you file a notice: The website should take down the infringing image file you have notified them about. How quick this is depends on how well the website is managed, although the big social media sites are fairly prompt and will typically take down infringing material in 24-48 hours.

Counter-notices: When infringing material is removed, the reposter who put it up would be sent a notice saying that it has been removed, and why. Under a typical website’s DCMA notice and takedown procedure, the reposter may, at that point, send in a counter-notice saying that the original takedown notice is incorrect (eg., that the person claiming to be the if they truly believe they were not infringing copyright (ie., that they had permission from you to upload the image, or their upload comes under a copyright exception). If that happens, the website will forward the counter-notice to you and give you a 10-14 days to come back to them with a legal document saying that you have commenced legal action for copyright infringement against the reposter, or a court order that prohibits the website from reinstating the material. If you don’t get back to the website with such a document, the website will put the material back online.

In theory, this means that even though you have successfully filed a notice to have an infringing repost taken down, the reposter can, if determined or malicious enough, get it put back up. I have no idea how often counter-notices are used, although I’ve seen some commentary that counter-notices aren’t as common as often as people think, particularly when it’s clear that the infringer is infringing copyright. If you do get a counter-notice, your only option to get the infringing material taken down again and stay down is to deal with the reposter and potentially commence legal action. Sometimes this may be worth it, particularly if you have a good case for infringement and the reposter has maliciously sent the counter-notice when they have clearly infringed copyright, because the reposter may have then exposed themselves to extra penalties in a lawsuit. Sometimes it might not be worth it. This, however, is for you yourself to decide, and maybe get private legal advice about.

FINAL NOTE

Reposting is incredibly frustrating for artists, especially when artists don’t even ask people to pay them for the privilege (even though artists have every right to if they so wished), they just want a credit or link back. Do the right thing: if you want to repost, ask permission from the artist, make sure you include full credits to them and links to where people who like the art can contact the artist. It costs hardly any effort to do that, the artist will be grateful and likely create more art for you to enjoy – and you won’t be exposing yourself to any potential legal action.

Artists, it’s your art, you own the copyright in it. Don’t hesitate to use that power where necessary.

This post is general information only, not legal advice. Anyone who needs legal advice specific to their situation should consult a lawyer.

[amazonmandy]

Foam & Sharpies: two of the biggest weapons in my cosplay arsenal! Did you know that you can use Sharpie markers for coloring plastic gems? It works beautifully, it doesn’t cut down on their translucence at all, but allows you to turn in any color you need! A super cheap way to convert gems when you can’t find exactly what you need in the right color! These are for my new NoFlutter costume that I am working on! Instagram Facebook Twitter `

[effingdecaf]

SO YOUR ART’S BEEN STOLEN AND PUT ON TEECHIP

You spend hours on a design. You slap it on tumblr. It gets lots of likes and reblogs. Two weeks later, some shitlord steals it and uploads it to Teechip or some similar cesspool and makes hundreds of dollars. You throw a fit, you start a flamewar, you get nowhere. That’s because you’re dealing with greedy enablers who don’t care about you. They don’t, and they won’t. Ever. You’re dealing with a company whose BBB rating has zero positive reviews and whose twitter feed is 99% boilerplate infringement replies to defrauded artists. Their business model is largely funded by turning a blind eye to the black market they cultivate. And they will do the absolute minimum to protect you against their own financial interests. So here’s what I’ve learned from dealing with these useless assholes.

1. The infringing parties follow a pattern.

If you’re dealing with some generic idiot, you might try contacting them via message or comment first. However, most of these guys are part of a well crafted abuse system. You usually spot them in a Facebook fan group. The biggest warning flag is text that resembles this:

[insert name here] - Just Released - Available with Tshirts and Hoodies Get it here => [insert link here] Not sold in stores - Tag your friends who love it.

This account probably belongs to some shady offshore bank account that would piss on your parents’ graves if it got them another buck, so don’t bother trying. Facebook is very responsive to takedowns, just report the page and follow the links to their copyright infringement form. Easy peasy.

The next thing to note is the timeframe of the campaign. Seasoned infringers set up automatically repeating 24-hour campaigns so that, by the time you’ve noticed the infringement, the damage is already done. Teechip’s max DMCA response time is 24 hours, and their minimum campaign time is also 24 hours. Criminals use this to their advantage. Teechip knows this. They don’t care. So….

2. Don’t take it personally.

They don’t see you as a person. They will go out of their way to service their soulless, thieving sellers, but the best you’ll get from them is a week-long runaround while they rake in illegal payments without incurring any liability.

We artists are often temperamental. It’s OK to be angry and to even fly off the handle. But no matter how much energy you expend arguing with Teechip, they will not budge without you taking the proper steps. So take a deep breath, pretend you’re a cool, silicon-based being of pure and absolute logic, and read on.

3. You have to deal with this their way or not at all.

DO NOT immediately engage Teechip on social media. It will feel good, but it is useless venting and you won’t get anywhere.

DO NOT send your friends, fans, and family on an email crusade. Teechip will respond to some or all of those emails with a form letter and then wipe their hands of culpability.

INSTEAD:

*** You must send one concise, properly written DMCA takedown email to [email protected] ***

Here is the format I used, which was for a piece of fan art that I created:

My name is [insert full name]. A campaign that your company hosts is infringing on a specific piece of artwork that I created.

The original artwork [add a creation date if you have one, you want to establish a timeline] can be found here:

[insert link to your original work, or say “see attached” and include attachment]

The unauthorized and infringing copy can be found at:

[insert link to infringing work]

This letter is official notification under Section 512( c ) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (”DMCA”), and I seek the removal of the aforementioned infringing material from your website. I request that you immediately notify the infringer of this notice and inform them of their duty to remove the infringing material immediately, and notify them to cease any further posting of infringing material in the future.

Please also be advised that law requires you to remove or disable access to the infringing materials upon receiving this notice. Under US law a service provider, such as yourself, enjoys immunity from a copyright lawsuit provided that you act with deliberate speed to investigate and rectify ongoing copyright infringement. If service providers do not investigate and remove or disable the infringing material this immunity is lost. Therefore, in order for you to remain immune from a copyright infringement action you will need to investigate and ultimately remove or otherwise disable the infringing material from your servers with all due speed should the direct infringer, your client, not comply immediately.

I am providing this notice in good faith and with the reasonable belief that my rights are being infringed. Under penalty of perjury I certify that the information contained in the notification is both true and accurate, and I have the authority to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright(s) involved.

Should you wish to discuss this with me please contact me directly.

[insert your full name] [insert your mailing address] [insert your phone number] [insert your email address]

It is ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NECESSARY to do it as close to this as possible (it may need modification if you are acting on behalf of a company). Do not leave off any of the contact info. If something essential isn’t in there, you’re gonna have to do it all over. They won’t take a DMCA notice in two parts. Remember, you are a being of pure, cool, unmovable logic right now. Do it this way, and only this way.

*** Take note of the opening phrase “infringing on a specific piece of artwork that I created”. If you are fighting the theft of your fan art, you must never claim copyright over an IP that doesn’t belong to you, accidentally or otherwise. As a fan artist, you’re already on thin ice, and Fair Use may or may not protect you from a counter-DMCA; so unless that’s your original IP, make sure you only claim copyright over your specific piece of artwork. ***

Teechip will respond to a properly written DMCA sent to their copyright address in 24 hours. You can escalate it by calling them on the phone. If they don’t take the infringing campaign down within 24 hours of your 100% properly formatted DMCA email, THEN you can consider additional legal action. If they do take it down in time, you might still be entitled to damages from the seller – ask a lawyer before making any demands of Teechip, though. I can’t advise you further on this matter.

TIP: If, like me, you fear for your privacy, rent a PO box. They’re usually not prohibitively expensive.

[monkeyminionpress]

@chetart

[thatmew]

Maybe people have forgotten over time but Wacom deliberately makes their tablets with a rough texture that has been getting increasingly more and more severe over the last decade or so to increase wear on both the nib and the surface itself and if you buy a $10 surface protector you will never have to replace the nib again, and, more importantly, your tablet will last for years as opposed to the surface getting scratched to hell after a few months.

Wacom makes good tablets but they’re a shit company as I’ve said many times throughout the 10-odd years I’ve been using their tablets.  After putting the protector on over a year ago I have not once needed to replace a nib.  And anyone who knows me knows that I use a lot of pressure on the pen.

Get a surface protector.  Don’t put fucking pasta in your pen.