Attention! Tracer and fraudster on tumblr. Spread the word
Hey all, wanted to put in a warning about an artist I had admired and even promoted; although he does predominantly human work, he does have an FA and offered anthro work. I also feel terrible because I had promoted and referred him before I knew about this. His name is Gregory Welter, and he unfortunately turned out to be someone who traces art; I received a note from a person with all information intact about it. He had traced works, scammed some people, made sloppy work, even ripped off and used others’ art for commercial purposes, and said rude things about clients.
The only art I received from him was for free for promoting him, so I kinda just brushed it off for being a little disappointing/missing some key parts, but looking at the drawing he made and the photos I supplied him with, it did look very traced from a variety of the pictures of myself and my boyfriend I had supplied for reference. I don’t feel entirely comfortable sharing the image since I would need to post lots and lots of photos of my boyfriend (and he doesn’t really like that).
However, I do have a link to the dA journal which contains the same info the person had noted me, and contains comparisons, evidence, and overlays:
fav.me/d9zy1j5
“We would like to warn you about about a Russian "professional artist” (as he calls himself) Gregory Welter and ask you not to promote him, or at least think twice before you do.Here are some reasons why:- he traces photos to make his “art” and the completed piece is often just a photo with some photoshop effects and a lineart drawn over it.
Gregory’s artwork: gregory-welter.deviantart.com/…
Photoshop effects proof: s019.radikal.ru/i612/1602/01/e…
Also if you look closely, 90% of the time he just pastes his own face/body in place of the characters he’s drawing, just think about it for a moment:
Gregory’s “artwork”: gregory-welter.deviantart.com/…
Proof this is Gregory’s pciture painted over: upload.akusherstvo.ru/images/9…
He uses the same technique for his potrait commissions, which results in masterpieces like this one (it’s our favourite, honestly):cs7064.vk.me/c540107/v54010717… )- he discusses his clients in public and allows himself to make negative and inappropriate comments about their appearance(Here’s what he writes in his open vk group (and his audience is about 1k people) (translated by us)
“That moment when you have to draw not quite the prettiest curvy ladies and you have to make them look better without loosing the resemblance”.
Comments from his followers below:“this is the heavy burden of all the comissions with not-so-good-looking chicks”
Gregory replies:“Aleksey, I wouldn’t say it’s a burden, at least it adds some variety to my workload But trying to draw ugly women and keeping the resemblance while making them look tolerable enough at the same time - yeah, it’s a little sad.”
There’s proofs - s019.radikal.ru/i603/1604/67/a… webcache.googleusercontent.com… )
Moreover, he steals works from other artists, sometimes for commercial purposes(Here i.imgur.com/C1L1vzc.png he’s requesting people to remove the watermark and make the image transparent and offering a small payment. The best part is that he then sells this very image as an original artwork and then it appears ib this book cover: www.litmir.co/data/Book/0/2280… .
So obviously he got paid for stealing artwork (made by a person who has nothing to do with him and has no idea their image was stolen).Here’s the rightful owner of this picture:www.shutterstock.com/pic-48618… )- he is very irresponsible when it comes to making the commission answer customer’s demands. When he receives the payment, he often just disappears without finishing the commission.
I ordered a picture from Gregory. A simple one. The fandom was Kuroko no Basuke. References were provided, as were color/mood requirements and basically everything else he could need.
Here is what he delivered: pp.vk.me/c622719/v622719219/3a…
When I commissioned him, the pose I aked for was different, character’s roles were switched (blue hair was supposed to be kissing red hair’s hand, not the other way around). I wrote to Gregory, but as it turned out a paying customer’s request is not at all important to him. I asked for a bright red haircolor and got a pink-haired guy. By the way, the yukatas are drawn all wrong too.Nonetheless, I just thought it was my own fault, my description wasn’t precise enough or something and decided to order yet another artwork from Gregory.
After Gregory recieved the payment in advance, he ignored me for month, then he wrote me this:“Hello! I have some sudden issues with my tablet, sorry I haven’t warned you, I’ve lost the link to the thread. Right now I am trying to get used to my friend’s tablet and finishing up your commission. I am very sorry for the delay."And then he disappeared. Gregory just took the money and I never got my commission.Proofs are here: holywarsoo.net/viewtopic.php?p…Story №2A girl commissioned Gregory to draw a portrait of her friend who recently committed suicide. Any other artist would have shown some respect and attention because a commission like this isn’t something like a picture for your avatar on social media.
Original: s017.radikal.ru/i411/1604/59/5…
Gregory’s artwork: i056.radikal.ru/1604/22/5189dc…
The customer was highly disappointed in the artwork. Gregory Welter decided not to make any adjustments to the picture and just took the money which were paid in advance.Meanwhile she ordered another portrait. She requested her friend to be drawn as an angel and gave Gregory the photo with the man holding a glass.
Final result - s017.radikal.ru/i406/1604/60/a…
After some debates Gregory agreed to remove the glass from the picture.Both of the resulting pcitures were very sloppy and of low quality, the customer is unhappy with them. Besides she is really offended with such a disregard for commissioners and lack of respect and she takes this as an insult to the memory of her late friend.
Very unfortunate to have this be true, I did somewhat have my suspicions, but brushed it off as paranoia or envy. Although on one hand I am happy I can rely on my gut feeling, I’m also really disappointed this is true of an artist I really liked.
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