BookLust

Books & Cute Cartoons

Two of my big passions combined yet again. Everyone loves books, even cute cartoony animals! This is a rough pencil sketch from a very fun project I’m working on.

If you're really nice to me, maybe I'll post the final colour art when it's done.

Amis Angst

Yes, I know, why in heaven's name am I bringing up this subject again? I'm sure that everyone has had their fill of Martin Amis, including, well, me.

Thing is, a fellow illustrator made some comments on my blog post about copyright which now has me concerned, so I am interested in what others have to say about the subject.

First, this gentleman assumed that I was using scans of the various popular kidlit icons. That really worried me, that folks might actually think that all I did was draw Amis' head and then just plop it on to a piece of art that I'd found on the internet. Please let me be very clear if anyone else thought that: All the art from the Amis spoofs are hand drawn, and definitely not traced.  Copied, yes, but all drawn by me, and then coloured in Photoshop. This includes the pigeon, too. I went through the trouble of using a grease pencil to give it authenticity. I ink with a brush anyway, so it just made it that much easier to imitate the style of say, Dr. Suess or John Tenniel. To get the fine cross hatching detail of Max, I used a thin Pigma pen. The only thing that was not hand drawn was the background for the Wimpy Kid. Yes, I took that from the net. I had thought that without the background, it might not be so obvious that the sketch was the Wimpy Kid. So am I a hyprocite? I'm beginning to wonder now.

In my original blog post showcasing this art, I did make this statement at the end: My sincere apologies to all the authors and illustrators who took part in my silly fun – it's only because I love your work so much that I chose you as part of my spoof.

I had hoped by doing that, that I was making it clear that this creative exploration was a parody. It's been brought to my attention that I may be in some trouble copyright-wise in regards to copying this art, and then having it printed in The Times and the London Evening Standard. I also want to make it clear that I received no fee for having the art reprinted. I also want to add that the Wimpy Kid was not reprinted in either paper, and when I provided art for The Times, I deliberately did not add the background, because I knew I hadn't drawn it.

So what do others think? It seems a bit late now to remove the original blog post, but perhaps I should? Of course I've just linked to the original post, and I've posted the artwork again, Gaaaaaaa....I'm so dumb sometimes...

Copy This, Mate

Oy, what a week. I was super busy with deadlines & a bit stressed out because on Tuesday I was lucky enough to be one of the author/illustrators presenting workshops for the Burlington Book Camp. (It was a great experience, by the way, and the kids were super smart and talented).

In between all the work to be done, I had to deal with a slightly unhinged lady on Twitter who had taken some of my artwork and used it as her personal Twitter wallpaper without my permission. I eventually got her to take the art down, but what was really disconcerting was her understanding of artist's copyright and the internet. She insisted that since she found my art on Photobucket, and since she found it via a Google image search, that it was hers for the taking. I doubt very much that I was able to convince her that she was wrong, and no doubt she's still out there, using art without an artist's permission, driving other artists crazy.

And then I had some frustrating client experiences where once again I feel like I'm being taken for a ride and I start to wonder if maybe I should just throw in the towel and take up waitressing, except that I remember that I was a really lousy waitress, and if I'm truly honest with myself, I'm probably not fit for anything else in this world but drawing goofy cartoons.

So I confess that by Friday I was not in the best of moods. And that's when I get this email from this vet in Australia, who says to me, that she notices I'm "not claiming legal copyright" on my blog or my web site, but she's "gonna do the right thing" and ask if she can use one of my drawings for free for some internal memo for her pet organization. My first thought is Huh? What the heck is she talking about? And then my second thought is...crap, I'm scrambling here trying to make a living in probably the worst economic climate ever, and I'm just not in the mood to give stuff away for free. So I tell her no (nicely, of course), as well as mentioning to her that I own copyright as soon as I create something, and she responds nicely, but with a final comment, "but you need to know that you need to formally claim copyright in Australia."

And yeah, my third thought is, Huh??? So thanks to Twitter & Facebook (they really are useful tools, ya know) I confer with all my very talented writer and artist friends, and yes, get confirmation that this lady is misinformed. So fool that I am, I email that vet links to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, as well as updated information on Australian Copyright Law, and boy did I piss her off. She angrily responds to me, "we will not only avoid any of your works but will happily un-recommend them to everyone else we can find. We have plenty of artists allow us to use a single piece in return for advertising (and they actually thank us for asking)."

Classy. And this gal is in charge of a large pets organization in Australia.

You know, I'm not an egomaniac, and in fact, I struggle a great deal with confidence, especially when it comes to my work. But I gotta say, I've been published by many well-known publishers, my cartoons have been published in The National Post, MIT Press and the bloody Times of London. I don't need any advertising in a bloody pets memo – I need cold hard cash to pay my groceries! Just recently we had to fork out $2,000 to our vet because our beautiful cat Maggie was sick and needed tests, x-rays, and an ultrasound. Do you think the vet would have gone for my suggestion – "Hey, how 'bout you shave off some of that bill, and I'll mention you on my blog and Facebook. It will be great advertising for you, and you should be bloody grateful that I do this for you!" I'm sure he'd jump at that opportunity, right?

Yes, I know, I know – this is a tired, old subject. Artists don't get no respect. But if I or others don't squawk about it every now and then, well, these asinine attitudes won't change a bit, will they? And it is draining. I don't want to focus my energy on getting clients to pay me, or pay me a fair rate, or stop people from stealing my stuff, or educate people on copyright law, I just want to get paid to draw goofy cartoons and make people laugh.

But unfortunately, I can't depend upon the kindness of strangers, so even though I shouldn't have to, you will notice from now on that I will be putting copyright stuff on every piece of art that I post. And over time, I will have to change all my art on my Flickr site as well. This probably won't stop everyone from stealing my stuff, and it certainly won't change people's beliefs about copyright law, but if it deters a few misinformed Australians, then it's worth the effort, mate.