|
|
|
I'm not sure what the worst disservice to an artist is, but I'd bet tracing their work and claiming it off as your own ranks pretty high. Given that I'm willing to go out on a limb and risk mass disapproval and flames, or being banned from several online forums and services to stand up for what I believe in and in doing so....showing some people for who they are and what their work REALLY is. That person...specifically would be Deviant Artist "Disney-Bubbles" aka Alram aka Alex. Not only does she trace Disney work, she scales things in Photoshop, cuts heads off one image and then pastes it on to the body of another, she mixes and matches her copyright protected material as she pleases, traces, and brands the final product with her own name. She even sells her services as "commissioned artwork". I'm getting entirely sick of people messaging me to tell me to back off because she's "popular". Would she have gotten popular with her own actual artwork, or just the art she traced from? Her popularity is a product of theft and deception. So get over that. Popularity really means nothing in this case. Are there lots of other artists online who do the same thing? Yes! Am I showboating their pathetic rips off's as well? No. Why? No one advertises herself so much as Alex....no one claims it's "real" work as much as Alex, no one tries to hide her so-called references like Alex, and so ....no one deserves to be hung out to dry as much as Alex. After a number angry members of an art theft blogging service provided me with the information and enough side by side comparisons to log a complaint, Alex was forced by DA to link to every reference she supposedly used in the gallery description. This is meant to be a footnote of honesty. It's a nice sentiment, but admitting to tracing doesn't give you permission to steal. It's quite obvious she's changed very little in each of "her drawings". It's also obvious she often links to screen caps a few frames away from the actual cap she used to trace, leaves images flipped or cropped, links to poor quality images, very small images, or broken links, so that it appears as if her work is not a near copy when in fact it is. This is deception, deception the real artists on DA should not tolerate. Just because she traces from coloring books and screen caps now, what's not to say she will trace from other peoples work? Where will DA draw the line? I would have hoped they'd draw the line based on real copyright laws and common sense but so far they have not. Maybe no one at DA has followed up. I'm not a mod on DA and I don't assume they endorse her work and her methods, but it sure looks that way. In my opinion she should be banned from DA, however the fact that they seemed to have forced her to link to what she stole from raises concerns with me that DA is actually supporting copyright infringement. Am I disrespecting copyright laws by posting on my own page with out permission? No I am illustrating an article therefore this should all be covered under fair use. Yes, I imagine some really witty troll will tell me why I am wrong, or how their lawyer is going to send me a letter. Well when I receive that letter we'll talk. However I am pointing out a crime more so than committing one. So please....no lectures on copyright laws. Not only do I already KNOW the laws, frankly I'll risk it. My goal is to have her removed from DA, therefore showing DA is willing to hold artists to decent standards. If DA should remove me ... I make my art for me. So being banned from DA is not something I am going to loose sleep over. I couldn't care less because I am responsible for every line of every drawing I've made. I trace nothing, therefore I have nothing to fear. That fact that people have called this opinion harsh shows the degrading value of copyright, or independent vision, on the internet. I am not saying people should come up with something "new". What is "new" in the art world is up for wild and woolly debate, this is not what my point is, and not what my complaint is. People say that the fact that the genre of fanart is so overrun by lazy assholes who trace is a testament to the genre, and I am saying it's a testament to the number of stupid people online who lack respect for copyright law. Somehow mass offenses of infringement didn't elevate the good artists or art to a higher or more admired status, but only made the thieves and the rip offs more accepted and trendy in the artistic online society. Her work, and every other traced work, is the bastard child of a once respected process called "art" whored out for 15 minutes of internet fame. It's a disease born out of laziness and selfishness. Although many think this is some personal vendetta, I've gotten use to stupid people online. If I had a personal vendetta against every stupid person who crossed my path online believe you me I wouldn't have time blink, let alone post a webpage. If you're really dying to know why, it's because she put her own copyright logo on a Glen Keane sketch she traced. Glen Keane!!!. That's where I draw my line. If people want to call this personal, then it's personal because I respect Glen Keane. That's the straw that broke the camels back.
Here's the proof.... I think that when you see the side-by-side's all in a row, you see the theft, you see the scope of the theft, you see how deceptive the process and the art is. I seriously doubt this is "art". Alex's boyfriend just contacted me saying he has SEEN her draw. Well okay then I guess that's the soild proof we all need to pack it in! Hardly. Look frankly people can hate me, people can call it an obsession, or suggest I use my time more wisely and go to Africa and feed starving babies with Angelina Jolie. The fact of the matter is, it's theft, it's tracing, and 90%+ line wouldn't match up if it wasn't. That facts that Alex has people who are willing to blindly support her means very little to the rest of the legitimate art world. Alex' boyfriend claims that "because everybody's against someone doesn't make them right"...and I could say the same thing that because everyone supports someone doesn't make them right either. All people think they're on the right side. Most people who have seen the proof agree that it is indeed tracing. Many people are very angry she steals work from other artists. Few people have any proof she didn't trace. I can't say this is my side of the story, because many people were involved in this research. All I can say is here is our hard proof to our side of the story, where is the proof from her supporters? The fact she has support doesn't prove that she didn't trace. If she is so innocent where is all the proof? By all means, prove us wrong.
|
|
My favorite quote out of her gallery comments:
|
 My favorite quote from her Artist Comments: random trivia - if you look at her face very closely you will see my old lineart.
(Actually.........that would be Ollie Johnston's line art. Thanks.) |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
My favorite quotes out of her
gallery comments:
So she almost admits it's tracing, but she never uses the word if you notice. I may have found a screencap one or two frames off her facial expression but the leaves, face, and hair all match 100% in Photoshop. Coincidence? |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
 My favorite thing here is that she has flipped the screencap (as have I for this comparison) but the tattoo on his head is not only on the wrong side of the characters face, I am also told it's backwards. Many people noted this in the comments on DA. I can certainly understand not getting everything about a character right in fanart, but how does one draw something backwards and on the wrong side on accident? When you flip a screencap, trace it, and hope no one notices. That's how.
Edit: After people in her gallery mentioned it was backwards, she flipped it. Still traced though. |
 |
 |
|
My favorite quote from her
Artist Comments: This is pretty interesting that she leads you to believe her reference was from Lion King I, when actually the screencap is from the sequel.
Again, she had a chance to fess up to her image sampling. She didn't even use vague responses like "I worked hard on this project" or "thanks it took forever"....she actually claimed once again that ~she~ ~drew~ this.
|
 My favorite quote from her Artist Comments: It's quite sloppy imo, but it captures her well enough. I'm sorry for the size. I realise it's quite small compared to my other pictures lately, but I didn't work at a very high resolution, and I still needed to skrink it for it to look nice... The reason it is sloppy is she's painted over a screencap. The average resolution of all her "drawings" is well over 1000 pixels wide. So why is it this image, and her Jack one, only 500 or less pixels wide? Because she uses vector paths to trace hard lines. Vector lines are special in that they can be blown up or down in Photoshop or illustrator with out loosing any quality what so ever. So it's easy to trace a coloring book of screenshot and then blow it up and work from there. However when you're painting over a screencap without vector or hard lines here is nothing to blow up. Which is why the resolution is so poor when compared to all her other "works". |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
 My favorite quote from her Artist Comments: ...This has been one of the few drawings I did lately at low resolution... Again, she wasn't just working randomly at a lower resolution, she actually just used the coloring book size point blank. She didn't even bother to trace this. |
 |
 |
 |
 My favorite quote out of her gallery comments: Toasterfrog67: I love this! The pose is so wonderful... you're very good at the Disney style. Disney-bubbles: practiced it too much... it's getting a bit tricky for me to draw non-animated stuff lol P:P but it's okay, since I am not looking to pursue a career in art, I can always just draw whatever I wanna :D I'm sorry?! Where was the mentioning that it wasn't her actual drawing? When ever she takes a compliment she makes it sound as if she actually drew the image and that the skill comes from practicing.
|
|
|
 |
 |
 My favorite quote from her Artist Comments: ...which I lazily drew almost exactly....
So.......she almost says she
drew it exactly! Almost. So....how does one draw something exactly? They
trace. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 This is the "most favorited" NMBC image on DA. She's painted over a screencap. The average resolution of all her "drawings" is well over 1000 pixels wide. So why is it this image, and her Sally one, only 500 pixels wide? Because she uses vector paths to trace hard lines. Vector lines are special in that they can be blown up or down in Photoshop or illustrator with out loosing any quality what so ever. So it's easy to trace a coloring book of screenshot and then blow it up and work from there. However when you're painting over a screencap without vector or hard lines here is nothing to blow up. Which is why the resolution is so poor when compared to all her other "works". |
 |
|
|
 This is admittedly not the best overlay. Still she traces the tuffs of hair exactly, as if tuffs of hair were hard to draw. The direction of the eyes have been changed, and his faces is scaled down so that it is narrower. It's still pretty easy to tell this "art" is from the cover of LK2. |
 |
 |
 |
 In her "making of" drawing you can tell the face appears at a different time on a different layer, which is because it's from a different coloring book. I don't understand why anyone would trace hair strand for strand. Hair tuffs are not that hard to draw. If you look at the hair closely and where she's shaded you will see the hair and head is traced exactly. |
 |
 |
|
What can you do about this? Well you can contact DA, and you can contact Disney Bubbles and express your displeasure. You can also go back and "un-fav" all her works on your DA account and take her off your watch list. Please don't be an ass when you contact DA or Alex. Popping off hate mail is not my goal and it'll get the situation no where. DA does in fact allow artists to copy work to a certain extent, but I would not go as far as to say they allow people to trace work. It's a grey area to them unfortunately. Here is their policy However it does state that: "If you believe that a deviation or scrapbook addition is an "edit" of another work rather than a true recreation, or if you have evidence that it has been directly traced then you should report it as a potential violation. Recreations which have been reported will be judged on a case-by-case basis by the appropriate administrative staff." Click here to send a complaint to DA
Disney Bubbles/Alram can be
reached here: This is where you're most likely to get a
response
Special Thanks goes out to all
the DA members and a variety of Art Theft Community members for providing
me with a great deal of this research, screencaps, and links to foreign
websites and images. I would not have been able to spot certain traces
from movies and fandom's I have never seen or do not participate in. You
guys really put the scope of her theft into perspective, and I am sure
many real artists on DA will appreciate it.
All side-by-side comparisons are property of their respective owners. Primarily to Walt Disney and Warner Brothers. They are used without permission from their owners, however they are covered under fair use since they are being used to not only educate , but also used to illustrate a point in an article. |
|
|
