Artists Using Doll Likenesses without Crediting [Mijn Schatje discussion]

I was appauled when I saw these paintings - I draw dolls, and I use dolls for likenesses, but these are pictures that I draw for personal experience (and occasionally to put on my dA if I like them enough) but never for profit!
But the ones from this artist aren't just based on the photos of dolls, they ARE photos of dolls, with some pretty paint on top.

 

i agree, if anything its like shes making recasts of said dolls, given her art goes for around a $1000 or more

 

WHAT THE FRICK >:O?!! It´s like she takes the doll faces and just photoshops them in! That´s wrong! I´t would be alright if she was inspired by the dolls but, copying them? No sir! Press some charges doll companies! You got the right to! Just look at the comparison photos! D:< The photographers copy rights are broken this way! PLAGIARISM!!!!

Ohh, man xd this made me angry..lol

 

Ughh I hate people like that! First she isn't original enough to make her own work, and she can't even give credit to the talanted makers and owners of the dolls! I hate how she is making such a large amount for copying others! It just makes me so upset. Anyone who has ever waited for a doll to be made, or a doll to come out knows how long it takes, yet she just takes a picture adds a few new colors, and its "hers"

 

I feel horrified. She didn't even create these paintings herself, she stole from the honest artists who worked hard to create their dolls. The worst part of it is that people pay her for this.

 

That's terrible. All of the doll companies she "referenced" said she did not have permission to use their photographs, even though she stated she did...
Seriously, that's absolutely horrible. D:

 

I cant under stand, that with all this solid proof, this is still going on and she is still producing 'work'. Boils my blood.

 

After reading all of this, I am one very pissed off individual! D<
Who the crap thinks they can get away with this?

 

brings to mind vanilla ice!

 

She still is doing this. I just found her facebook, which mind you...4,218 people like her page. She had posted a link saying 'More Debates on My Art' and when I looked at the page (it was all in a different language) I seen some comments. Someone had stated that this was stolen art, only to have an avid group of fans attack saying it was 'inspiration' and 'exceptional' and that 'even if it was a copied vector, she created the whole world around the dolls!' Did art fans really just side with a thief? I honestly think this a disgusting and that her art work is something I wouldn't even second glance at. She's copying BJD sculpts and adding a TokiDoki feel to her art. The focus point of her work isn't even hers. It's things like this that make the art world really questionable, especially when you have a mass amount of fans backing up a fraud.

 

It's appalling that she's still insisting what she does is not wrong. There's this article she linked on her facebook, but it's not in English. I'm guessing it's her response to what is being said about her artwork?

In the comments section she posted this:

"I&#8217;d like to answer this first comment even if I have been talking about it long and wide already a while ago, I do draw the faces and the whole of my pictures, even if the actual dolls exist, the process is time consuming and paintaking, just have a look at my &#8220;in progress&#8221; works pictures on the facebook &#8220;fan&#8221; page and if you know about digital drawing I think you&#8217;ll understand what I mean. Drawing from the existing world to reinterpretate and show it differently is what art is about. The artists paint and draw what they think is beautiful to make it visible and magnify it, then maybe you think I&#8217;m not skilled enough to do this and I just fail, but this is another question."

I think it would be difficult for doll companies to sue her though, taking into account the fact that they are from different countries, not to mention the language barrier.

And after reading the comments on her facebook, it's obvious that those of us who know she is an art thief are simply being labelled as "trolls" and "bullies" by her supporters. Sigh. I wish there was something we could do.

 

Mijn Schatje fans are as delusional as her. They don't understand the cost of having art copies and stolen. Despite being a thief, her fame outweights it and allows her to continue to do what she is doing. It's kinda like how there are celebrities getting caught for drugs, gambling, assault and rape; they eventually return back to their careers like none of that ever happened.

 

She can try to justify it all she wants. If she felt she had to repeatedly lie about the source of her "artwork," she knew she was doing something wrong from the start. It's idiotic that there are people who actually support a person as disrespectful and deceitful as this.

 

I'm flabbergasted that she's still getting away with this. I'm an artist, and occasionally I draw my dolls, who doesn't? However what she is doing in by no means drawing a doll or drawing something based from a doll. I'm surprised Disney hasn't sued her over the totoros, and I hope that the companies involved nip her in the bud soon, otherwise she's just going to keep doing it and make an even bigger problem about it for herself and everyone else involved. She's made it pretty obvious that she isn't going to be apologizing or stopping anytime soon, so best that some legal action occurs to stop this before her work becomes even more popular and she gains even more money off of her blatant copies.

I'm not going to say that she has bad taste in subject matter though. I mean, BJDs are highly adorable and visually interesting. That's why we purchase them in the first place, right?

 

I am coming to this debate - obviously - late. However, after 91 pages of comment, there is absolutely no doubt - NONE - that this woman is stealing photographs and altering them digitally to make her living. This is theft of intellectual property. It is illegal in most countries in the world. And, as many of you have written, it is disgusting. The only way to make her stop is for people to stop buying her "art." Every gallery who stops showing her work because they are aware that it is not "hers" will be a victory in this fight. Every consumer who learns of her duplicity will be another notch in the belt of this discourse. And every website that connects her name with dishonesty becomes a battlefield where right will prevail. How many of these things does she claim to have sold? If anyone can do an estimate, this is the number of people who need to understand they purchased junk - not art. At best, these "portraits" are the same ilk as a cheap mass-produced poster - an inexpensive piece of color that people use to add interest to their walls. For $1,000.00 I could purchase a beautiful original watercolor or oil from a promising and talented original artist. Granted, this will not be a Van Gogh - but today's artist will produce the reknowned artists of tomorrow. And digital art - especially this digital art - is not going to be the Van Gogh of tomorrow. Who are these idiot consumers who purchase wall posters for $1000.00? They obviously have poor taste and even poorer investment strategies. This will die out. But every gallery that handles her stuff would do well to stop carrying it. Perhaps the appropriate query should be to ask these galleries why they are carrying junk. True art lives on. Dishonest art, fakery and thievery are time-limited events. How sad that this person devotes her life to producing trash. What will live on for her? She will be remembered as a charlatan and as a counterfeit bootlegger. If she was ever an artist (which I doubt) wouldn't she rather be remembered for one stunning work of her heart rather than these cheap copies? Her things will join the endless garage sale of velvet paintings of yore - cheap, disposable trash. If her consumers understood this, they would stop buying. She will stop when she no longer has an audience or a profit.I hope this happens soon.

 

Being an artist myself, I completely agree with what you're saying. However, I feel that Schatje would just rather get paid fistfuls of money than be remembered as a great artist. Remember, it's not unusual for artists to become famous only after they've died.

 

While I agree with everything else stated here emphatically, I don't believe this is the case. Dismissing a broad range of media entirely as having any potential to create lasting artwork is, I feel, tremendously short-sighted.

Edit: Her crap? Faddish. Hers isn't what I'd call embematic of all digital art.

 

Agreed. Just look at the works of Lichtenstein, who has elevated the comic-book style to a classic art form.

Just because the art exists as pixels on the screen instead of oils, acrylics, watercolours or pastels on a board or paper, that doesn't make it any less art. It just makes it a different form of art. A medium may not be to your taste but that doesn't render it inferior.

 

Even if she wasn't outright stealing the doll photos, I would be kinda "iffy" on this issue. I think that bjds themselves are art. And if you were to take a photo of an art piece it's just common art-courtesy to cite your source (unless you are on Deviantart, where you will see numerous artists not citing sources).

 

I have not read the whole thred, just the everytomorrow site.
First of all: who bought these for over 1000$? They look so "childish". (with childish I mean something you can find in a toystore) Okay, I don't know much about modern art but really?
It makes me so angry. Seriously. I think it's horrible, really, I wouldn't say anything if she had looked at a BJD and painted it. But she seems, if I have understood this right, to have taken a photo, copying it in to Photoshop and just put some color on it. Putting som flowers all around. Wow.
She isn't even an artist anymore, how does she feel? I feel so sad for the dollowners, and others involved. Horrible. Art is supposed to be pure, fun and a passionate thing for the artist, but she just seem to do it for the money.