http://lexxercise.tumblr.com/

softowl: All right, I have received permission to post these...

Sun, 27 May 2012 02:14:09 -0400

All right, I have received permission to post these pictures. Thanks to the person at Anime North who sent me these.

This was the booth in question. As you can see they were selling ugly, poorly made HS bootleg items, plus lots of others (Adventure Time, etc).

Let me be really clear here: I don’t like it when people sell their fanart prints or handmade fan items, but I can understand. This, however, is an act of pure scumbaggery.

This is apparently the “company” selling these items. I urge everyone out there not to buy from them at any convention they may attend, and to ask others to do the same. Don’t support thieves.

I wanted to reblog this as a follow-up to my previous signal boost, seeing as though the offending vendor has been identified, along with some supplemental discussion inspired by related posts. I’m sorry I can’t hide this wall of text under a Read More tag, but this is an image post and thems the breaks.

Distribution Rights

Most everyone who follows me has likely read my post on US copyright law with regards to creative intellectual property.

While things like fanart and cosplay are difficult to pass definitive judgment on for a variety of reasons, copyright law is crystal clear on the distribution of the original property itself. By law, the creator of the content is the only entity who can distribute said content in any way, shape, or form.

The creator doesn’t have to make some sort of public statement forbidding this kind of activity. This isn’t an “I can do it unless I’m told not to” scenario. Their content is automatically protected by copyright law the moment it appears in a fixed medium. It’s theirs. Forever. Unless they license, sell, or give away said rights.

The products above don’t even fit a single criterion of the Fair Use clause. The images on the products were lifted directly from the comic itself, put on mass-produced items almost completely unaltered, and are being distributed for commercial purposes. The audacity is pretty astounding.

(Incidentally, this is also largely what is wrong with scraping/content aggregation apps and sites, even the free ones. Unless those responsible for offering these services received explicit permission from the artists whose work they feature ahead of time, they are violating the artists’ exclusive right to the distribution of their content.)

Fair Use (Within the Comic)

I can’t count how many times Andrew has been “called out” for copyright infringement of his own, both with regards to images used within the comic, as well as songs released on official albums. I can’t blame those who are unacquainted with copyright law for being genuinely confused, and genuinely wanting to know why “x” is wrong but “y” is okay.

Online, the comic falls into the same nebulous grey area all photomanipulations, collages, and otherwise altered imagery and content fall under. Since the images themselves didn’t appear on any commercial products, it would have been difficult to argue the legitimacy of their use. I mean, you could do it, but that would be taking most blogs, galleries, forums, news/media sources, and search engines to task as well.

Which people still do, I guess, but that treads dangerously close to the same line of thinking that brought about policy proposals such as SOPA and PIPA. You have to temper this kind of legal interpretation with the concepts promoted by the Fair Use clause, which takes into consideration the nature of the derivative work, its purpose, and its impact on the source.

That being said, Fair Use will always, always be a confusing grey area. It is vague in its guidelines because it is a subjective concept that, from a legal standpoint, can only be decided on a case-by-case basis. In court. That being said, the closest you can get to such a determination without actually having to be taken to court is through legal advisement. From a lawyer.

Which they have.

As a reminder, licenses were purchased by Andrew for the tracks that covered existing songs. They are strictly on the up-and-up. They have also consulted with their legal adviser on the subject of printing and selling the comic, which contains digitally altered photographs, celebrity likenesses, and brand names. As such, it can be safely assumed the books are on the up-and-up as well.

I could go into the minutia of how each celebrity/brand representation constitutes parody, and how the photographs pulled from the internet are edited to the extent that the substantiality of the original content is likely negligible, not even taking into consideration the fact that they may be available for such use through creative commons or public domain, and how photography is probably the most legally confusing form of art because copyrighted and privately owned content is photographed all the time SO WHO REALLY OWNS THE RIGHTS TO IMAGES CAPTURED BY A CAMERA?? but A) it’s not my comic, so I don’t know the particulars of every image used and B) I’m not a lawyer, nor have I spoken to theirs, so I could speculate all I want but it would all be legally and objectively irrelevant!

Nonprofit vs Non-Commercial vs Free

There has also been, and continues to be, confusion on the matter of what counts as “selling” products based on copyrighted property. Not making a profit on an item you have sold, i.e., selling something at the cost of materials, does not have anything to do with being nonprofit, which refers to charitable and educational services, nor is it non-commercial, which refers to the use of something in a way that explicitly does not involve commerce (often in the context of a nonprofit).

The minute money or its equivalent is exchanged, the use becomes commercial. Notice my inclusion of “or its equivalent”; the exchange of a service for a service (say, an art trade) or any other sort of bartering (services for items, items for other items) falls under the definition of commerce.

Free is the only free, but even that comes with legal restrictions. As another tumblr user aptly put it:

…if you don’t have a license that explicitly permits noncommercial usage, it is not even legal to give something away for free if it’s covered by someone else’s copyright. Music piracy is the obvious example. You’re not gonna make money uploading your Beatles albums to The Pirate Bay, but it’s still illegal without explicit permission from the Beatles.

To be fair, in this context, most creators are about as equally concerned with the private bartering of fan-made items and private art commissions as they are with fanart itself, but it all comes down to the point I made at the beginning of my post, which is the exclusive right of the creator to control the distribution of their intellectual property.

If you’re not sure they’re okay with it, ask before you do it. If they say no, don’t do it.

It’s not personal, it’s their right.

kitten-burrito: hamletmachine: softowl: if anyone is at Anime North (pretty sure that’s the con)...

Sat, 26 May 2012 15:34:26 -0400

kitten-burrito: hamletmachine: softowl: if anyone is at Anime North (pretty sure that’s the con)...

I finally got around to watching this just now and it is just an...

Wed, 23 May 2012 19:36:02 -0400

I finally got around to watching this just now and it is just an incredible inspirational (and entertaining) speech for any artist of any age and background in any genre. Neil Gaiman is a treasure.

I know this was on my dash in rebloggable form somewhere recently, but I am lazy and this was faster. Watch it, and make good art.

A couple of fine folk I know are celebrating their fourth...

Tue, 22 May 2012 15:19:02 -0400

A couple of fine folk I know are celebrating their fourth anniversary! Every year so far, they’ve commissioned one of their artist friends to do a commemorative piece for it, taking turns and surprising the other person with their choice. This time around, the fella chose me, and wanted it done in the style of the bus stop scene from My Neighbor Totoro:

It was completed this weekend, but I wanted to wait until I was sure it wouldn’t spoil the surprise for the other person!

Messy painting practice of my favorite D3 class! About 2.5 hours...

Tue, 22 May 2012 02:34:00 -0400

Messy painting practice of my favorite D3 class! About 2.5 hours in SAI, no ref for the figure but I used this photo for palette inspiration.

(edit: fixed the link)

I RECEIVED MY COPY IN THE MAIL JUST AS I FINISHED THIS...

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:22:00 -0400

I RECEIVED MY COPY IN THE MAIL JUST AS I FINISHED THIS COMIC

FATE???

(Chopped it up for better dashboard viewing. Happy Launch Day, everyone!)

alexneonakis: Game of Thrones fan art But a taste of...

Sun, 13 May 2012 22:09:32 -0400

alexneonakis:

Game of Thrones fan art

But a taste of what’s to come if you follow this fine blog.

Alex Neonakis on Tumblr

Sun, 13 May 2012 22:05:05 -0400

michaelfirman: I’m lucky to be pals with the extraordinarily talented artist Alexandria Neonakis!...

I’ve been dying to paint this guy since the strip went up...

Thu, 10 May 2012 08:54:50 -0400

I’ve been dying to paint this guy since the strip went up on Monday, and now that the PTL project is over, I have a bit more time to do practice pieces and work on my painting!

This handsome fellow is The Black Fleet Hierarch from Penny Arcade. A bit early for Fanart Friday but whatever, close enough.

Couldn’t sleep, so I scratched out a mid-late teens Arya...

Wed, 09 May 2012 04:21:00 -0400

Couldn’t sleep, so I scratched out a mid-late teens Arya based loosely off Maisie. I imagine her staying wiry and big-eyed for a while.

In celebration of finishing my last Paint The Line TCG...

Tue, 08 May 2012 20:18:54 -0400

Robert Khoo

Kiko Villasenor

In celebration of finishing my last Paint The Line TCG assignment, and gratitude for bringing me on board for the project, I did some dramatic ping pong portraits of Khoo and Kiko from Penny Arcade! Thanks, guys!

Happy Birthday Moechael Firmoen!

Fri, 04 May 2012 15:39:49 -0400

Happy Birthday Moechael Firmoen!

This is kind of a 180 after doodling anime earlier, but...

Tue, 01 May 2012 05:21:00 -0400

Gendry Waters - 2 hours

Brienne of Tarth - 3.75 hours

This is kind of a 180 after doodling anime earlier, but I’ve been kind of frustrated with the quality of my painting lately. I feel like I’ve been doing better, but it’s not really the caliber of work I’d like to be putting out for fully painted scenes. It’s been an extremely long time since I’ve done any kind of painting study from references, so to remedy that and maybe jump start the habit, I did a couple of my favorite Game of Thrones characters.

The sketches were done freehand, and all colors were picked by hand as well. The only time the eyedropper tool was used was to pick the background colors. I recorded both paintings with Procaster on Livestream, so you can see the references and watch the process for Gendry here (initial sketch) and here (continued work), and the entirety of the Brienne painting here.

The idea behind doing pieces like these is to become better acquainted with realistic lighting, anatomy, color picking, texture rendering, and so on. The more familiar you are with these things in practice, the more intuitively you’re able to implement them in original works!

When I don’t know what to warm up with, I draw anime girls...

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:50:48 -0400

When I don’t know what to warm up with, I draw anime girls in flowy dresses.

Yumemi from Munto.

I called it quits much sooner than I would have liked on this,...

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 03:05:22 -0400

detail shot

detail shot

I called it quits much sooner than I would have liked on this, but I had to cut myself off in order to submit it on time for the contest! Some things I wish I could have cleaned up more, others I wish I would have left more loose, and I’m still getting used to the process of adding colors to a value painting, BUT I’m proud of how this turned out and I think it showcases my recent improvement! I may touch it up a bit again in the future, since I’m already dying to fix some stuff, but for now I’m going to move forward with my other projects.

So I’ve recently picked up a previously suspended...

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 03:25:56 -0400

New (today)

Old (one year ago)

So I’ve recently picked up a previously suspended commission to help pay the bills next month! Some of you who have followed me for a while might recognize it, but some of you might not because it’s over a year old. After not looking at it for a year, I was immediately put off by the perspective, depth of field, and sketch quality. The idea was still good, and I wanted to stick with the composition, more or less, but I deemed the old sketch unsalvageable and started fresh.

As you can see, I think that was a sound decision.

One of the hardest things to make yourself do as an artist is let go of work you have already done, but it’s extremely important to teach yourself this ability. I’ve become much, much better at not being too precious with my work, and not letting the fact that I’ve spent time on a drawing prevent me from scrapping part or all of it if I feel like something isn’t working. You’re only limiting yourself if you can’t let go.

I’m too tired to keep working on this tonight, but the next step is value painting! Trying to get better at using that technique, gotta practice!

soselfimportant: SAD PIANO: THE LIFE is a new album by the...

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 08:02:55 -0400

soselfimportant:

SAD PIANO: THE LIFE is a new album by the handsome and talented James Roach and is available now! A collection of improvised piano pieces, it is sure to titillate the senses and stimulate the mind!

I’m actually not great at self promotion, haha! So here’s a new album for my lovely followers and fans! I’ve set it to pay as you will, but you can get the entire album for only $3! Pretty cool!

Album art by the wonderful Alexandra Douglass!

My friend James has just released an album of pretty piano pieces, for which I had the distinct honor of drawing a cover. Have a listen!

Made lots of progress on this in a few short hours! Nervous and...

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 22:00:07 -0400

Made lots of progress on this in a few short hours! Nervous and excited about adding colors later, but I need to do some work-work for a while.

Today’s warm-up sketch is the Diablo III female monk!...

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 12:48:00 -0400

Today’s warm-up sketch is the Diablo III female monk! Feels nice to do draw with pencil and paper from time to time.

Might throw some rough colors on this later…

edit: made it a little darker

Worldbuilding Wednesday: Cloud Factory Flora I I can’t...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 12:53:00 -0400

River Lily

Watergrass

Marshflower

Moon Blossom

Worldbuilding Wednesday: Cloud Factory Flora I

I can’t believe it’s already Wednesday again. Time to reveal more about the setting of The Cloud Factory, I guess! Today I’ll share some of the more notable varieties of flora that managed to survive in the valley. There are many other flowers and herbs in this world that can be grown in a greenhouse environment or outside of the valley, but I’ll talk about those later.

River Lily

By far the most important plant in the valley to its inhabitants, this waterbound flower not only survived the decades of rain from the factory, but flourished. It grows best in still and slow-moving water, and has a very low dependency on UV rays for photosynthesis, so the marshy, overcast environment is well suited for its cultivation. They are also pollinated solely by the sturdy luna bee, which I will discuss in my next worldbuilding entry.

The reason river lilies are so important to the valley residents, and the people of this world in general, is that they have powerful curative properties. River lily petals are the standard ingredient in most medicines, poultices, and salves, stimulating the immune system and promoting healthy cell regeneration. They also have a very light, sweet fragrance, and are sometimes used in perfumes.

River lilies are far less common outside of the valley, only growing in still ponds and along sheltered portions of riverbanks. That being the case, it has played a large part in the survival of the valley’s remaining villages economically, as an export, as well as medically.

Both the flower and lily pad are white in hue. In sunnier environments, the stem, veins, and bases of the petals turn a soft green color, whereas in more overcast climates, these portions of the flower take on a more ashen hue. The intensity of sunlight has no bearing on the effectiveness of the flower, and like aloe plants, they do not have to be processed to provide a benefit to the user.

Watergrass

As its name suggests, watergrass is another aquatic plant. Resembling a reed that unfurls into a broad, blade-like leaf, it grows in marshy terrain and along the banks of most rivers and other freshwater bodies of water. The entire plant is edible, though the tough, stringy stock needs to be boiled or stewed before it can be easily consumed. The leaf portion, however, is fairly supple and can be eaten raw. It is very bitter, like a thick, chewy spinach.

Watergrass grows quickly, not unlike bamboo, but its height caps out between 6 and 8 feet above water level.

Marshflower

Contrary to what its name suggests, marshflower isn’t a flower at all, but a root tuber. The flower its name refers to is actually the radial arrangement of its scrubby above-ground leaves, which are bright red at the center fading out to a dark green. They require wet, but solid ground to grow in, so crops are patchy and scattered where the villagers can find high enough terrain. In the wild, they are often found around the bases of trees and towards the outskirts of the valley, where the incline of the surrounding mountains begin.

The root itself is white-grey with rusty red root hairs, and has the consistency and flavor of a cross between a potato and a daikon raddish. Not the most appetizing of foods, but they’re hearty and nutrient-rich, thus making them the staple of a lot of valley dishes.

Moon Blossom

These elegant plants are a mystery to most lifelong village folk. Their stems droop heavily with the bud of what would appear to be a flower, but they never bloom in the valley. It is said that they only bloom in the light of the moon which, unlike sun lamps, technicians cannot seem to replicate for a greenhouse environment. On nights when the cloud cover is unusually thin, the buds almost seem to glow.

Moon blossoms aren’t especially edible, but make a cool and airy perfume.