Another Artist Using Doll Likenesses Without Crediting?

The cover of his book reminds me of this photoshoot by MB Lilac:
http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?405510-Icefields-Quest-(Elfdoll-Ryung)

 

Yep, that's Sleetwealth's work. I dropped her a comment.

Uh-huh. A "friend's" art. With "permission." Pull the other one, it has bells on.

(deviantART allows you to post, for example, pictures that other artists have drawn of your characters, with permission -- there is no way they'd ban an account for posting a friend's image. It had to be reported for art theft in order to come to their attention.)

*nodnod* I'm pretty certain, based on my experiences with dA (I've been on the site for 9 years), that he simply stole someone else's work and claimed it as his own, just as he's doing now -- and he got caught at it once, and now has been caught again.

That is a VERY good idea. Do you have a link to his Etsy? I'd like to take a look through the "sold items," to see if any of them use stolen artwork. If so, they should be reported to Etsy by the copyright holders.

Oh, cool, you guys beat me to it -- I found it through a Google image search. Glad the original artist has been contacted!

Seriously, good work, everyone -- I'm so glad that his comic that uses stolen work is no longer going to be sold by his publisher. I know that some people believed that contacting his employer (which was apparently more like a contract position) was going too far, but since he was selling stolen work through their company, they could be liable for damages if they *weren't* notified and the copyright holders went after *them* for publishing the stolen work.

I regularly deal with serious medical and financial issues, and I have a child with severe heart problems, and money is sometimes terrifyingly tight -- and I still don't choose to steal in order to make ends meet, much less make a career out of it.

(And I'm a digital artist as well -- using PhotoShop and Painter can *absolutely* produce amazing, original works . . . but if they started out with someone else's copyrighted material as the bottom layer, the end result wouldn't be "my" art, it would be the equivalent of tracing lines from a drawing and then claiming that it was original work -- except this takes even less investment of effort than a tracing, since it is simply adding layers of distortion and filters on a fully-realized original photograph.)

Given his dismissive, defensive responses, and his repeated claims that he created the stolen works himself, I have no sympathy.

-- A

P.S. "The Grove" is still available to purchase through What The Flux Comics -- while they did respond to us, they need to update their webpage to remove the book from their site. A reminder request might be in order, from someone who has their contact info.

 

Or this one?

 

@thessalyrose: Yeah, it's downright tragic that he was able to sell that stuff. And considering his commission rates on DA, it wasn't cheap either.

Haha. HOOAH!!

 

oh boy, I thought for this one he just used inspiration from the photos, but no he did the same as the others. I guess MB Lilac hasn't seen this thread yet.

This is depressing, I mean this guy is in his mid-40s and that is the sum total of his career, a bunch of stolen pictures?
I also feel sorry for the co-author of the comic who may be an innocent party in this.

 

Yes, she has, feel free to post the link!
http://www.antiquelilac.com/1/post/2014/03/artist-using-others-photos-without-permission.html

 

It's interesting you brought that up. Has anyone contacted him or asked him about what's going on here?

Here is the co-contributor to the comic, "The Grove":

Robert Rumery in his YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUth_2SfxWg

Robert Rumery's official website, promoting "the Grove" comic book: http://robertrumery.com/category/the-grove-comic/

Robert Rumery on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robertrumery

 

I'm glad MB Lilac is aware this is going on!
Here is the copied cover for people who don't want to check all the links:



"this piece has taken me well over a week to sort out, sketch out, and detail"
I'm floored by his lack of shame

 

I noticed a picture on his Flickr which is a poor-quality "edit" of a painting by Sylvia Ji. I have notified her through Facebook. (I linked to the dA/Tumblr discussions rather than DoA, since I don't believe that she is a member or a doll person.)

In case he deletes it or it's taken down, here is a screenshot of "his" work (hilariously, marked "All Rights Reserved"):



Sylvia Ji's original piece:



If anyone wants an easy "model" letter to send to other artists whose work is discovered to have been stolen by this sleaze, here's what I sent to Sylvia -- feel free to copy/paste if desired. (For doll artists/doll photographers, I included the link to this thread, but I don't think it is visible to non-members.)

 

awww I feel really sorry for Robert Rumery - just looked at his website and only today he's posted how excited he is about The Grove coming out soon. He's only in his 20s - young, hopeful writer - he'll be so disappointed. Looking at the text he wrote, I'm wondering if Matthew Nelson was using it for his kickstarter book? I can't remember how it went exactly....not sure if Rumery was involved in that too?

 

On the Facebook page for "The Grove Comic" (which I can't view now), Matt Nelson had posted that his collaborator, Robert Rumery, had been "let go", and that Nelson was going to produce issue #2 himself. It didn't look like there ever was an issue #2.

EDIT: Elve, it looks like Rumery's post was from 2013?

 

a note about posting links for this guys stuff... he's is in hiding mode and removing as much incriminating evidence as he can.... (around 1,000 images came off his Facebook account alone in the last 24ish hours)

So... if possible take screen shots and/or save the images (of his) and repost them here... example the MB Lilac one I doubt you can find in any of his stuff now... And especially if possible screen captures that would contain time/date stamps AND most importantly comments he has made about 'his ownership' or that the work is of his creation 'originally' (meaning the base image was his and NOT from a photo). Many of 'his' links now lead to empty and/or closed pages. ^^ Just a thought.

 

Alewife I didn't see the year LOL - thanks for pointing that out! Meanwhile I just had fun with the MB Lilac pic he's used for his cover - took 2 filters and some sliding about with the colour tabs to get the same effect - in fact mine was nicer! He must be whacking these out - it took no time at all to do (not QUITE a week!) How does he feel any pride in it? Maybe just the pride of someone who believes they've outsmarted everyone else - Thank goodness Aliciea spotted his kickstarter, or he'd have got away with it!

 

Oh yeah! I remember reading that now... but still, Mr Rumery's name is now connected to this farce, and that's a tragedy in itself.

 

Okay, jumping in now! But, I've been keeping up so far. Has anybody considered that this guy has been Catfishing all these people, his fans, his 'publisher', the interviewer, his 'partner'? And, that this whole persona is a fabrication? I mean, thinking about it, if anyone in his real, physical life were aware of this stuff, he would have to produce actual paintings or sketches. No one is going to mistake a color printout for a hand-drawn piece of art. I don't believe this is who this person really is at all. I do hope that, if there is any kind of investigation, the people in authority manage to get an IP address so he can't re-appear as someone else and do the same thing.
Okay, that's my two cents! I've been DYING to say that this whole time. Whew!!

Also, this may mean he could be a member here.

 

I don't think so. If you look through the history of this person; his older DeviantArt account, past comments, etc., you can establish a "pattern" of behavior. Lying to get attention. Stealing art and being banned for it on DeviantArt. Lying and fabricating an artistic process, and making up stories. Basically, demonstrating a sociopathic behavior, and doing whatever it takes to make money and get what he wants. I don't think people are jumping to conclusions here, and it's the evidence is overwhelming that this man is a con-artist and thief.

 

I know, I feel sorry for the guy. His name is plastered all over the stolen image on the Grove cover. Maybe instead of being "let go", he left the partnership voluntarily.

 

Oh, yeah, Livelaughlove!! He's definitely a con artist and a thief! I'm just saying that "Matthew Christopher Nelson" may not exist anywhere, except online--like his "paintings". And, if you Google him, he doesn't show up before a couple of years ago. I just hope Facebook and Deviant Art and anyone else looking into his plagiarism makes a note of his IP address so he doesn't fabricate a new persona and start up again. Does that make sense?

 

Oh, and, whether that's his real name or not, he's definitely a psychopath. The world is his clip art book, lol!

 

That's not the photo he used, but it was shot in the Canadian Rockies, just like the photo he did use.

Yes, that's the photo he used.

Yes, I am aware of what's going on, but because I was away the entire day this all came to light, I didn't get to see any of this guy's so called "paintings", other than the ones posted in screen grabs here. I came home very late that night (after visiting my brand new grandson, which is four hours drive each way) and my email inbox was filled with personal messages from members here (Thanks, by the way) I'm not on Facebook, but created an account the next morning so I could go look, but by the time I did, I couldn't find any of my images. I suspect most of mine were part of his Kickstarter book project, and that is not available anymore.

It's totally laughable that he claims it took him a whole week to make that "Painting". It's so clearly been PhotoShopped.

It really is great how everyone has come together on this.