nightmarexdream:

swiczeniuk:

katiewoodger:

Let me start by saying I really dislike posting negative things on here, so if this issue does get resolved then I’ll remove this post too. I’m not naming anyone right now either. I think they should have a chance to sort it out themselves first.

Now this morning I discovered that someone had copied one of my 2NE1 paintings of Minzy, they then submitted it to a contest online and won it.

My image was submitted to tumblr in January 2011 for Minzy’s birthday. here and to my blog in March here
The copied image in question was posted to a personal twitter account in June 2011, then sumitted to an online facebook group for UK Kpop fans which is where I found it.

To me the similarities are very apparent, it’s like a game of spot the difference. The style of my original painting is slightly erratic and spontaneous, letting ink blob and creating an abstract edge. Now the copied painting is done in what seems like this way too at first, until you see that many of its seemingly random shapes and colours of paint match mine.

This image of Minzy is a common one to paint, I’ve seen it done in pencil, felt tips and watercolour, but each one is unique completely in style and colour palette. This person has pretty much sat down and tried to copy my painting almost stroke for stroke. :(

The most frustrating and upsetting thing to me, is not that she won a facebook contest with it, but the fact that fans of the same bands/music/idols etc, do this to other fans. We’re all meant to be a team.

I’ve contacted the facebook group, hopefully they will see the problem and take the image down. I can’t be the only one that can see this right?
I’ve also contacted the person who made this.

THIS MAKES ME SO FUCKING ANGRY. Katie, screw them, they know what they have done, and they even had the CHEEK to enter it into a competition. It isn’t like the UK Kpop scene is particularly vast, the stupidity of this is unreal. ESPECIALLY with a painting/illustration that is quite abstract - they would have had to really TRY to copy it. 

Does anyone happen to know any legal mumbo jumbo when it comes to this? (I know about photography, I don’t know about painting) I know Katie won’t want to get a lawyer involved but it is often enough to just threaten the person with legal action. 

This is terrible. :( Maybe the artists on my flist can give advice on this sort of thing?

This is a frustrating and horrible thing to happen, but it is something that is inevitable to happen if you are to become a successful artist.
The culprit has won a competition with your work, but what they haven’t got and can never have, is your imagination to create your work in the first place.
Anyone can learn skills, but you can’t learn an imagination.
It’s sad that they can’t think of something to create by themselves, but you should take it as a credit to yourself that someone would like to copy you.
You can’t control what other people do, but you can change how you look at the situation.