#those sites are known for reposting fanarts from artists

[dizznee]

because i’m sick and tired of the instagram fandom’s shit. (x)

mallowmelting: i'd like to talk about a problem in fandom—reposting art without credit.

why have i decided to make a post about this now? maybe it has to do with maggie stiefvater's recent post about piracy. maybe it has to do with the fact in the span of 24 hours, i have had to ask five people on instagram to put credit on reposted art. maybe it has to do with my phone, which now autocompletes "credit to" with "siocynder". "not my art". "credit to artist". "found on google". i've seen this too often in the captions of kotlc fanart on instagram. this isn't okay. when people don't credit artists, they are stealing the art. even if they put "not my art" in the caption, they are still stealing.

here's why. when art is reposted with credit, it can be easily traced back to the original creator. people who see this reposted art see the credit, and the recognition goes to the original creator.

but when art is reposted without credit, it becomes an island. what i mean by this is that there is no longer a way for a viewer to instantly find the original creator of this reposted art. all recognition is lost. by reposting art without credit, the reposter deprives the original creator of exposure that this creator would have received if their art had been reposted with credit.

but say this reposter thinks it's not harmful because they're not making any money by reposting someone's art without credit. well, let me tell you a story about the most famous—and the most reposted—fanartist in the kotlc fandom. her name is siocynder. even if you haven't heard her name before seeing this post, i can guarantee you have seen her art. her art is the profile picture of countless accounts on instagram, pinterest, and deviantart. her art is on dozens of wattpad covers. her art has been reposted again and again and again, with credit almost never being given.

it soon became impossible for sio to track down every repost of her kotlc fanart and request credit. she, a young twenty-something fresh out of university, was spending much of her valuable time making content—without being paid. and she was getting no recognition for it. names were being given to her that did not belong to her—credit to artist, credit to google, credit unknown.

so she quit. she stopped posting her kotlc fanart, almost stopped creating fanart entirely. this is a real-life consequence of reposting without credit. the fandom lost siocynder, one of its best artists, because of it.

and the problem isn't just about sio's fanart. even i, a small tumblr editor who is nowhere near as well-known as sio, have found uncredited reposts of my kotlc edits. and it hurts to see those reposts. it hurts to see someone has taken your content without even caring enough to find the original creator, seeing only the artwork and not the human being behind it.

now, there's nothing wrong with finding art on google or pinterest. all people have to do before reposting this art is find the original creator. the kotlc fandom is fortunate in that its most popular fanartists all have very distinctive styles. it's easy to tell siocynder's art from xylia's or dragonwinnie's. so often a piece of fanart can be sourced by just looking at the style.

if the style isn't recognizable, reverse google image search works wonders. so do sites like tineye, which finds every online copy of a picture and can help people find the original post. if no matter how hard they try, they can't trace an image back to the source, a general rule of thumb is simply to not repost it! done and done.

finally, i'm not saying that people who repost without credit are trash, deserve to die, etc., but they need to learn and correct themselves. or else more creators like sio will leave, and this fandom will be all the poorer for it.

please remember that "google" is not an artist. "tumblr" is not an artist. people are artists, and people deserve credit where credit is due.

#Keeper of the Lost Cities #KOTLC #disk horse

[elphelt-valentine]

A little rebuttal

I tried to keep this short, but in response to this. 

You know, I’m going to be honest about the fanart on Tumblr, especially Guilty Gear fanart. As a die hard fan of the game, there is some fanart that I find so….redundant–like boring and repetitive.

Not to be that person, but around the time you joined Tumblr most of the well known artists who produced more already moved on to Twitter due to it being more of a crowd to support them. With that being said there has been more reposts from those artists, Twitter only artists, and Twitter only artists who use Pixiv onto Tumblr. I agree it can be a bit repetitive, but reposters (including yourself) are trying to spread artwork you all think Tumblr GG fans haven’t seen and it becomes a race to see who can post it the fastest for notes. This results in some fanart being reposted several more time than it probably would have been if the OP were on Tumblr to post it themselves. 

For example, I tend to see too many “cute” fanarts of Ramlethal in her dress, looking all innocent. Don’t get me wrong, it is cute and whatever, but isn’t Ramlethal supposed to be this scary, powerful weapon of mass destruction? A badass female fighter that wields giant swords without a care in the world? I want to see creative fanart of Ramlethal fighting, flying, and most especially that terrifying Cheshire Cat grin. Seriously, I want to see Ramlethal look more “intimidating” than “cute”. 

Ramlethal ISN’T a scary, powerful weapon of mass destruction anymore. We saw in SIGN when she gained her emotions that she became more of a caring human being that’s how Sin taught her to be. Yes, she was introduced as a weapon, but her story was meant for her to be more than that. Her compassion is even used to destroy her in Revelator by Ariels. Remember the fake child in the alley or do you have selective memory? This is not to discredit Ramlethal, she’s still a badass female fighter, but understand she’s a badass female fighter to PROTECT the innocent. If you want to see more fanart of Ramlethal looking more intimidating I suggest you take up learning how to draw or commissioning an artist. Bonus: If you make it yourself there’s no one to tell you that you can’t draw Ramlethal a certain way, plus you can have a sketchbook full of what you love. 

Another thing to point out is the fanart of Jack-O without wearing her mask. Seriously, why is she NOT wearing her mask?! The mask makes her standout among all of the Valentines! It’s not impossible to draw it out, right? 

No, what makes her stand out (not just against the Valentine) is she’s the only character with visibly two toned hair (Kum (when not in her robot) counts, but we will rarely see that), she’s the only character to have split personalities without it disabling her, and she wears a straitjacket like jumpsuit. You’re nitpicking at the effort artists do just because it doesn’t fit your own personal taste. Once again: learn how to draw so you can understand it’s not as easy as you think it is or commission an artist to draw the characters how you want.

And finally, I have yet to see any good fanart of Ariels. Revelator has been out for God knows how long and nobody has bothered to ever do a picture of her? As much as I hate her for trying to kill off Ramlethal and tormenting Elphelt, Ariels is a unique and interesting character that I’d love to see more of! 

Going back to the very beginning, Twitter only artists and Twitter only artists who use Pixiv draw her all the time. Just because you don’t see it here doesn’t mean it’s not happening. You’re very demanding for someone who doesn’t support the artists and hurting them by reposting their artwork with no source/a source that’s Pinterest, Zero Chan, or Safebooru. All these sites don’t really redirect people lurking the GG tag to the artists who put in their hard work to make something of a character they love. 

Show other characters some love and do something new with specific ones! I want to see something good and creative!

You’re not a company looking to hire artists, you’re not paying anyone, and you’re someone who’s not willing to listen to people who want to help you out or tell you to not be so disrespectful (mainly the second one). Your entire post was nothing more than demands and no one should be compelled to follow the demands of someone who feels so entitled to tell people what they should be doing with their talent. Even the new artists out there who want to see what they should be drawing for GG fanart, they deserve the freedom to do whatever whether it’s your cup of tea or not. 

Until your put in effort you will forever be unpleased. Fanart, no matter what it is, will be real art to the one who made it. Learn to be more respectful to artists.

#guilty gear #valentinecult #long post

[hotarla]

“Quan Zhi Gao Shou” - Art and Translation

As many of you on Tumblr may have noticed, the fandom for “Quan Zhi Gao Shou” / “The King’s Avatar” / “Master of Skill” has not become fully developed yet. However, in China, the fandom is far more advanced, as the light novel was written in 2013 by Butterfly Blue (蝴蝶蓝). For those interested in the light novel, you can read them on Qidian or Gravity Tales. A manhua was also drawn as well by artist D.LAN.

As I was searching the web for fanart, I came across a major (at least to me!) discovery: China’s version of Tumblr, Lofter! From there, I found a few art blogs with plenty of QZGS art. Since QZGS has literally been out for around four years in China, I’m not surprised by the amount of art and shipping! Listed below will be some of those links plus a small translated list of Chinese names in the anime.

Some Lofter blogs. Please support the artists and do not repost their art on Tumblr!

Hello_Rabby - I came across this first site via the art in the end credits in the anime; lots of Yu Wenzhou and Huang Shaotian 

呪禁分歧 - also from end credits

+LC斐尔+ - lots of Zhou Zekai and Ye Xiu shipping

无罪之罪

Anserenia - thank you to Shinageha on Tumblr for this recommend!

And now, a list of relevant names translated from Chinese to English.

全职高手 - Quan Zhi Gao Shou -  高手 literally means “master” which explains the other names “The King’s Avatar” and “Master of Skill”

叶修 /  叶秋 -  Ye Xiu / Ye Qiu - 秋 is literally translated as “autumn,” hence the name of his previous character, One Autumn Leaf

君莫笑 - Lord Grim -  君 literally means “lord” while 莫笑 literally means “do not smile,” hence “Lord Grim”

千机伞 - Thousand Chance Umbrella, Lord Grim’s weapon

一叶之秋 -  One Autumn Leaf - Battle Mage, known as the “Battle God,” currently being used by Sun Xiang

陈果 - Chen Guo, owner of the internet cafe, plays a Launcher called Chasing Haze (逐烟霞)

苏沐橙 - Su Mucheng, pro-player of Excellent Era, plays a Launcher, known as Dancing Rain professionally (沐雨橙风) and as Cleansing Mist (风梳烟沐) in the 10 server

包子入侵 - Steamed Bun Invasion

唐柔 - Tang Rou, plays a Battle Mage called Soft Mist (寒烟柔)

神之领域 - Heavenly Domain - the main server where all the normal servers can meet up and play

蓝雨 - Blue Rain (quite literally translated), one of the top gaming clubs in Glory -  蓝溪阁 - Blue Brook guild in-game

喻文州 - Yu Wenzhou, captain of Blue Rain, plays a Warlock called Swoksaar, known for his “disabled hands” (slow APM)

黄少天 - Huang Shaotian, vice captain and ace of Blue Rain, a chatterbox who plays as a Blade Master called Troubling Rain (夜雨声烦), nicknamed the “Sword Saint,” temporarily known as Flowing Tree in the 10 server

许博远 - Xu Boyuan, the guild leader for Blue Brook guild in the 10th server, plays as a Blade Master called Blue River (蓝河) - also known as Blue Bridge Spring Snow (蓝桥春雪) in the Heavenly Domain

魏琛 - Wei Chen, former captain for Blue Rain, plays a Warlock called Windward Formation, nicknamed “Old Wei”

微草战队 - Tiny Herb, one of the top gaming clubs in Glory - 中草堂 - Herb Garden guild in-game

王杰希 - Wang Jiexi, captain of Tiny Herb, plays a Witch called Vaccaria, nicknamed “The Magician” (and Big-Eyed Wang)

乔一帆 - Qiao Yifan, pro-player currently playing for Tiny Herb, plays as an assassin called Ashen Moon in the club and later as a Ghostblade called One Inch Ash (一寸灰)

车前子 - Plantago Seed, guild leader for Herb Garden in the 10 server, plays as a Witch

霸图 - Tyranny, one of the top gaming clubs in Glory - 霸气雄图 - Tyrannical Ambition guild in-game

韩文清 -  Han Wenqing, captain of Tyranny, plays as a Striker called  Desert Dust (大漠孤烟), nicknamed the “King of Fighting”

张新杰 - Zhang Xinjie, vice captain of Tyranny, plays a Cleric called Immovable Rock (石不转), a Master Tactician

夜度寒潭 - Cold Night, guild leader for Tyrannical Ambition in the 10th server, plays as a Knight

蒋游 - Jiang You, guild leader for Tyrannical Ambition in the Heavenly Domain, plays as an Elementalist, known temporarily as Crowd Lover (爱凑热闹) in the 10th server

嘉世 -  Excellent Era (世 literally means “world”), one of the top gaming clubs in Glory - 嘉王朝 - Excellent Dynasty guild in-game

孙翔 - Sun Xiang, captain of Excellent Era, plays with the Battle Mage One Autumn Leaf, the account once played by Ye Xiu 

刘皓 - Liu Hao, vice captain of Excellent Era, plays a Spellblade

轮回 - Samsara, one of the top gaming clubs in Glory, also an in-game guild 

周泽楷 - Zhou Zekai, captain of Samsara, plays a Sharpshooter called Cloud Piercer, nicknamed the “Great Gunner“

For more information on names, please visit Gravity Tales for more information!

#quan zhi gao shou #qzgs #the king's avatar #master of skill #ye xiu #ye qiu #glory #fanart #lord grim #blue rain #blue brook #tiny herb #herb garden #tyranny #tyrannical ambition #excellent era #excellent dynasty #su mucheng #tang rou #chinese names #lofter

[coolenglishproyect-blog]

Public Speaking

Don’t steal art, give credit to the artists

Nowadays is so difficult to be an artist, traditional artist or digital artist, because a lot of people is looking for the same, is difficult to get noticed and get the attention that one is looking for, and it's very sad that once you can have a little of visibility in this world, the reward to you is people wanting to rob to you

I'm going to focus on digital art because it's my thing. There are many ways to steal to an artist, and you could think ''How can you steal something that's on the internet?'' but you can! there are laws that protect artists, but most of them were created for traditional artists and don't protect digital artists in the same way, any person can one day wake up and decide to publish another person's work on their website and take the credit, there are people who repost an artist's work in fandom forums, they give credits to the artists and in a way that's good for you to get noticed, some of them don't ask for permission before reposted it and others don't give credits, but that it's almost permissible compared to stealing. This kind of people repost the illustration, comic, work, on their websites or pages and take the credit for that piece, and although often the truth later is known, mainly thanks to the artist's followers, it is still awful that someone else takes the credits of your work, usually these people keep reposting other's work and even if there are people who no longer trust them, new people who find them will do.

Moving on, there is the merchandise, a lot of digital artists have their own online store where they sell stuff like posters, keychains, pins or even customized duct tape, they can send it to everyone at a reasonable price, it's not difficult to buy stuff to them! but still, there are many, MANY! cases where a person takes someone's art and creates merchandise for their stores or to sell online, some of them don't even deny that it's not their work and that is sad sad, one would think that a copyright law would protect someone in such cases, but those laws say it is totally legal to sell original art or fanarts, this law obviously refers to their own art! but it's so short and underdeveloped that is so easy to misrepresent it to protect themselves, i know some artists that being fans of something, would happily give approval for a store like that to sell their merchandise without getting a part of the money, it's good for people to know them too, but some people are dumb enough to not even ask first.

There are even professional stores that either take a picture from internet and sell it on their site, or create a platform for artists to sell their own merchandise with them getting to earn a small percentage of profits, but in the end those websites that want to help artists, often are used for people who steal other's art and get money from the work of another person who was working for hours if not days struggling for it. Obviously, you can sue these people, but it is a long and tiring process.

If we are not these artists, what we can do to try to help making this a little less toxic is to tell an artist when we see someone using their work, and avoiding buying from other sites and stores, there is no need to give them the attention much less income to someone who has not made an effort to have it. Theft is theft wherever.