Another Artist Using Doll Likenesses Without Crediting?

I'm Facebook friends with Sleetwealth (Nita) so I messaged her about that.

There is no way this guy thinks what he's doing is okay. If he did, he wouldn't be lying about having sketched it out, getting finger cramps from drawing, etc. Also, his followers are not deluded into thinking it's okay because it's a derivative work or something, they are deluded into thinking he is making it from scratch, since he keeps telling them that. I just can't understand how they could continue to think it's all him when so many of these pictures are obviously photographs. Some of them are figurines with solid bases. Why would you paint something like that? And all the pieces look so different from each other in terms of their basic drawing styles. Nobody has that much range in drawing style. People just don't think.

 

Surprisingly enough, Youtube, the one place with issues of wrongful copyright take downs here and there...it actually did the right thing this time.
The videos was all dolls, though? Maybe he is trying to get a rise out of the people he's stole from...
>.>

 

I made side by sides of his non bjd "artwork" and the original pieces that I could find. If anyone needs them they're here. I'll add more as I go along.

Edit: Oh, is his fb gone now?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuiLRDScGmc-
His actual art, or traced pieces? Just found the video, apparently made by a friend of his...

 

Wouldn't it be safe to say that his point that he's been caught? I mean... how can you look at this link, see all this artowork side by side, and not realize this man outright STOLE copyrighted material and tried to profit from it. His life is ruined once the lawyers get the ball rolling.

 

He has another dA account (it's old) he may start uploading the photos to: http://ghostdragonpoet.deviantart.com/

Kyrenea was sent this from a mutual doll friend whose DoA name I don't know so I won't post her real name:

"posted this on his page this morning... If you want to support me being an artist and to back my word, then maybe you could write kickstarter, letting them know that you support me and my work. If you would like to, email them at [email protected] I will tell you this...I took my interpretation of a 3 dimensional doll and turned it into 2 dimensional painting...how is that wrong? Easy, it isn't. If you call me friend, I ask you to write them and help me."


So gather the evidence for your emails to Kickstarter.

 

I made a Journal about this on my Deviant Art account, with over 900 Watchers, I'm sure he'll get a lot of *cough* attention now, and I included your "side by side" photo gallery comparison which is the BEST proof that he's a thief.

 

What's your DeviantArt account?

 

This guy is a trip. He won't let up....and calling what he does a "two-dimensional painting" is laughable and an insult to those who actually paint...

 

Even worse than the fact that it is laughable is the fact that he seems to honestly think that turning doll photos into flat images is "inspired" rather than copying.

 

I've been following the developments of this thread and I really got to say--

WOW.

Its great to see so many people band together to help each other out especially when it comes thieves attempting to steal creative work and try to profit off them.

However I highly doubt ANY of us are qualified to be playing detective or psychologist (unless actually someone here who presently holds that position?) We have no place to analyze this man's life on whether his whole story is fabricated or whether or not he may (or may not) be suffering from a mental illness.


It is simply not our place to make these calls. Speculation is pointless.

I admire the strength of this community and how everybody participated in reporting this man -- as rightfully deserved. But to take it to the next level and cuss/hurl abuse at him (no matter how much you think he deserves it) hurts us more than it hurts him. I've seen the things posted on the Gofundme page and as much as I do not support the cause of a thief, I think is the kind of testament outsiders of the hobby will view this community as a whole as. And it looks bat shit crazy.

I think this situation has spiraled out of hand from something as simple as a general discussion to a full-blown witchhunt. Let the law take care of the rest, we've already done our parts. It is not our place to prosecute an individual as we see fit.

 

*shakes head*
Is that guy for real? I mean, I've read this thread - well, most of it - and checked all the links etc. but this is just surreal. That he's actually got the nerve to paint himself the victim here and still ask people to support his art thievery ... guess that's what you call "chuzpe" ...

 

Seriously? Seriously?! I know I've been a quiet reader of this up to this point (though I reported his art theft yesterday at Kickstarter, when all of this had barely started, of course saying none of it was my art, just telling them about it...) but I cannot maintain my silence any longer. This is the icing on the cake.

How can he not get, or pretend to not get, that what he's doing is wrong?
He may paint a 2D picture of 3Ddoll, okay. But selling that picture? And it is not as if he really painted the dolls himself, he's just adding those shabby looking filters.

Wow.

 

I've been watching this since it started. I'm too mediocre a photographer to steal from. . . an odd bonus I suppose.

His behavior strikes me as having many characteristics of a sociopath. They just don't see that they are doing anything wrong and feel entitled to use any means and any people to get what they want. Fame and fortune in his case. He's getting it in a way that seems odd to the rest of us, by getting negative attention and playing the victim he is getting what he wants. He'll glibly tell whatever lies needed to his backers to get them to stay with him. He'll tell whatever lies he needs to get sympathy or to get those against him to back off.

Maybe it would be better to gather as much hard evidence as you can and let the authorities deal with him.

 

A 3 dimensional thing made 2 dimensional... yes that's called a photograph. Those are flat too, just like paintings and drawings. What a self serving jackass.

 

Yes, only of dolls. Amazing!

 

Guys, it's understandable that our community is very upset about this situation, but please be mindful of your language - DoA is a 13+ forum. Thanks!

 

For folks that are still worked up about the Kickstarter... no, no one's money was taken, he did not receive any money for it. He had quite a bit of time left on that Kickstarter when it was found; Nothing is charged until the campaign closes. (I've funded plenty, and never had a cent taken until the closing; those that don't succeed don't take any money out of my account at all.)

And the Kicktraq site is NOT another funding source, or another attempt at putting the project together. All that site does is keep automated statistics on existing KS projects; since he had one of those, he has an automatically-generated Kicktraq site that shows the information on it. They do not handle money and he cannot receive any money from it; messaging them will not do any good.

I'm glad to see the Kickstarter is down, as well as the deviantART account full of stolen images, as they should both be... and I think the side-by-side comparisons collected will be important as he contests the Kickstarter decision, which does raise the question of whether anyone happened to catch screenshots of the doll images in his Facebook gallery--not just the thumbnails? It might be hard to prove just from the saved comparisons and thumbnails that he intended to use these photos in his book, however, I do recall plenty of them being labeled as different characters for it, scenes, and so on, which is quite a bit more incriminating. I don't think he should be harassed at all, however, the Kickstarter at the very least needs to be stopped completely, not simply suspended as it is currently.

 

Thanks for spreading the word. It came to my attention the other day too when cdrcow posted on his dA about it. I added to my journal and I'm glad to see it's going everywhere. The dude messed with the wrong community XD

 

I made a dummy fb account to check on the photo status. Looks like the bjd photos have all been taken down, possibly one left.(the possible book cover?)
Otherwise all the other non-bjd stolen stuff is there still.