EDIT:

* I have a big pile of old discontinued prints and other goodies on ebay starting at .99
Link to auction: [link] *

I will be at Anime Central in Chicago/Rosemong IL this weekend (May 16-18) [link] in Artist Alley with prints and more. Unfortunately I don't have a giant banner to help you find me.

I will have comic books there but I'm still waiting for more to get here

I've finally finished the painting book, except for organizing some files and small details. It will be nice to paint something that's not a fairy soon. I have lots of ideas and things in my sketchbook.



Note about requests: I cannot do free art or requests. Commissions are available though. Please note me or read my information on commissions: [link]

DO NOT REPOST MY ART TO PHOTOBUCKET, other photosharing sites or anywhere else without my permission.

*******************************************
• Prints are available at [link]
• Ebay auctions [link]
• Etsy shop [link]
• Zazzle Shop (t shirts) [link]
• Cross Stitch Patterns [link]
• Mercury Brightman books [link]
• Online comic [link] and lj community for it [link]
*******************************************

I have the wonderful luck of just having my HD die. It's being sent in for repair so I will be away for a few days. Luckily I had all art but my latest painting backed up. So there will be no prints of that I'm glad I didn't have to get a new laptop, but it's still expensive.

ps....I am going to go insane with no intarnets ;_;

--------

Back! I have borrowed a computer until mine gets fixed. I checked my backup and I seem to have all the art up to date so that's great. As long as I can get my scanner and printed and everything to work on here

Oh yes, lack of internet made me actually go to the library, get a card and check out books!



Note about requests: I cannot do free art or requests. Commissions are available though. Please note me or read my information on commissions: [link]

DO NOT REPOST MY ART TO PHOTOBUCKET, other photosharing sites or anywhere else without my permission.

*******************************************
• Prints are available at [link]
• Ebay auctions [link]
• Etsy shop [link]
• Zazzle Shop (t shirts) [link]
• Cross Stitch Patterns [link]
• Mercury Brightman books [link]
• Online comic [link] and lj community for it [link]
*******************************************

about the orphan works debate...

I was aware of this years ago, so when I was having a very bad week, had PMS and had just payed the government my starving artist tax and heard that it would be been brought before congress again I was a little pissed off. I figured the last thing they needed to do was make anything harder for me. But I'm more optimistic now.

There's been much discussion and I've read a lot of things from people totally dismissing it because they have dissected the 2005 bill, and others crying "OMG ART THEFT IS LEGAL", and others claiming watermarking will solve the entire problem.

The was a 2005 bill. It was shot down and won't be passed. That's not even the concern at this point. There have been discussions about a new bill being drafted as recently as March 2008. Hopefully things people were concerned about will be fixed, but we don't know what will be in a new version. Watch news on the subject or wait until you see a new bill and then decide whether you want to give your congressmen input. Right now we don't know anything for sure. Don't panic and tell them they are are jerks and art thieves. Just let them know what your experience as an artist is.

Many things are passed in the US without people knowing about them until it's too late too have any say. I think it's a very good thing that many more artists are aware of this than were a couple years ago. At some point when I decide I need to I will write to my congressmen because I don't think it can't hurt for them to hear about various copyright infringements and how they happen from my own experiences. They don't have first hand knowledge of that but I do.

A couple things:

- You can watermark your work online, but I know from experience anything published can be scanned by others and passed around until no one knows where it came from and someone thinks it's ok to sell. Artists can't always protect themselves from that.

- Most non-artists don't understand a lot about copyright and believe a lot of myths. So one concern is that like some of this got blown out of proportion, rumors can circulate on forums until many more people get the idea it's ok to use anything without a name on it. You don't need to worry about large corporations stealing your art. It is the individuals and small businesses that do it. They either don't know know or don't care. Thieves are good at convincing themselves they are right.

You can start by educating your friends and family: [link]
10 big myths about copyright: [link]

- We don't know what happens when it is decided something is an orphaned work. Is it put in a list? Is it ok to be put in a public domain clip art book? If so and the original artist pops up they'd have problems as long as copies of that book are around no matter if they can sue or not.

I don't want to debate or get 20 million links sent to me. I just want people to wait and see if there is a new bill, and maybe then have their say to the people who decide.

Misstress of spam posted a lot of good links: [link]

And most recently someone from DA actually wrote to the creator the 2005 bill and got a response: [link]



Note about requests: I cannot do free art or requests. Commissions are available though. Please note me or read my information on commissions: [link]

DO NOT REPOST MY ART TO PHOTOBUCKET, other photosharing sites or anywhere else without my permission.

*******************************************
• Prints are available at [link]
• Ebay auctions [link]
• Etsy shop [link]
• Zazzle Shop (t shirts) [link]
• Cross Stitch Patterns [link]
• Mercury Brightman books [link]
• Online comic [link] and lj community for it [link]
*******************************************

Note about requests: I cannot do free art or requests. Commissions are available though. Please note me or read my information on commissions: [link]

DO NOT REPOST MY ART TO PHOTOBUCKET, other photosharing sites or anywhere else without my permission.

*******************************************
• Prints are available at [link]
• Ebay auctions [link]
• Etsy shop [link]
• Zazzle Shop (t shirts) [link]
• Cross Stitch Patterns [link]
• Mercury Brightman books [link]
• Online comic [link] and lj community for it [link]
*******************************************

in no particular order...

Amy Brown comparisons:
I get it. It's got wings and it's watercolor and girly so it must = Amy Brown in the mind of anyone who's not familiar with many fantasy artists. I was willing to put up with that 5 years ago and now that it happens much more rarely it's twice as annoying when it does. You should see the faces I make when people say it at conventions. Apparently I scare them away.

There's a wide range of fairy painting artists out there, and most of them have differences. There's are some who copy their style from the above mentioned and quite a few more who have their own look. It's like if you called every impressionist Monet or a Da Vinci a Van Eyck ... and maybe I'm overreacting because I'm an art history geek, but no one owns fairies or any other subject or medium.

But she's a nice lady and I own couple of her older prints and she owns one of my originals

Spec work:
Contests where companies give away payment or publication as a prize or websites where designers do free work in hopes of getting picked and getting paid. Stop giving your work away for free! If it's fanart and fun that's one thing but most reputable publishers will look at portfolios and commission someone they like to do exactly what they want.

The same goes for people who don't have any idea of how many hours work goes into art when they ask for something.

Rips on DA:
I noticed quite a few people lately with the nerve to submit ripped or copied art as prints. Now I think it's ok to copy for practice while you're learning but putting up prints is not ok. Yes, I reported them all too.

Rips in comics:
This is nothing new in the history of comics. It seems to happen a lot though. Maybe you've heard the latest news that David Mack is in a long list of artists lifting poses from published photos or other comics. I'm disappointed because I always thought he was an awesome artist. I have nothing against using photo reference if you take your own photos or have permission, or change the features and make it your own art. But copying someone else's published photo from a magazine or cover for your own cover is just so stupid I don't understand why anyone would. That's just not a smart thing to do for a major publisher.

I don't understand how some of those artists get hired when they have to copy poses from photos all the time and can't come up with them on their own. It's something you should be able to do on your own with *help* from references, not copying. I wouldn't submit a portfolio for things I didn't think I could draw competently.

Prints:
I wish people wouldn't request prints for images I have for sale my website for a lot of things. They're even linked in some descriptions and don't cost a lot more than the prints here for the same size. Paypal works there too.

If you note me you accidentally put in a request and don't tell me what it's for I won't know. DA doesn't tell me when someone does and I don't keep track of that anyway.



Note about requests: I cannot do free art or requests. Commissions are available though. Please note me or read my information on commissions: [link]

DO NOT REPOST MY ART TO PHOTOBUCKET, other photosharing sites or anywhere else without my permission.

*******************************************
• Prints are available at [link]
• Ebay auctions [link]
• Etsy shop [link]
• Zazzle Shop (t shirts) [link]
• Cross Stitch Patterns [link]
• Mercury Brightman books [link]
• Online comic [link] and lj community for it [link]
*******************************************