#did you know i was uploading things to redbubble like two years ago

[gerbiloftriumph]

cinderella moment

halo from lily-fox

(4)

[billyboymiki]

5 Works Tag Game

Rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 (ish) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and post or link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

I got tagged by @tippenfunkaport and @caramelaire for this tag game!!

I’m not one to compliment myself on anything honestly. Recently I remember thinking about how I barely drew anything this year. There was a part of my brain nagging at me to check how much I had drawn last year. So, I uh did. Turns out I drew basically nothing?! I triple checked this in fact. My DeviantART, Tumblr AND my camera roll. Nothing . . . I drew 5 very basic pinback button designs and that was it. I couldn’t believe it; but, it made be feel so much better about what I did this year. Basically my whole instagram is all artwork from this year, since I am actually really new to IG. I got super close to 40 works this year!

Now onto the works! They are in order of when I drew them 😊

Glimmer Inspired Patterns

I wanted to teach myself how to make patterns on Clip Studio so bad! I watched a couple of YT tutorials, and I can’t even remember why I decided to make She-ra ones specifically; I’m glad I did though! The Glimmer one means so much to me. Just looking at makes me so happy! The fact that so many people have now called it ‘aesthetically pleasing’ makes me feel as though I actually created a work that others could relate to. That was enough praise for me; to create something for myself that everyone else loved as well 💖

Glimbow Cuddle

This was my first real She-ra artwork. When I saw there was a Glimbow Week again I knew I had to join this one. I don’t know if anyone knows this; but, drawings take me forever to make. I used to be strictly a traditional artist and still prefer to draw rough drafts on paper. I couldn’t decide if I wanted them on Glimmer’s window seat or in Bow’s dads’ library. I was afraid of doing backgrounds; so, both sounded absolutely terrifying. I decided to go for the fireplace even if it meant fancy lighting on top of the background aspect. I think I actually spent more time on the lighting that’s hitting Bow than on anything else in this picture. It was worth it though. I studied how the show did backgrounds and lighting for a while. I tried so many different attempts at how I wanted it to look and ultimately went with this one! I love it so much 🥺

Bow’s list with doodles

Ah, yes the drawings I did for Tippen’s birthday!! I knew I wanted to draw a scene from ‘Tuna Cans’, but I was worried to try something like this. You see, I’m somebody that likes to stay in a comfort zone and only uploaded fully rendered perfect artworks. This year was the first time that I let the ‘fun’ aspect overrule my perfectionism. I’m so happy that I stepped out of my comfort zone for this, because I love Chibi styles so much. I can’t even explain the absolute joy I had drawing these. I didn’t tell anyone what I was up to, so it was just me laughing at myself for being an absolute goofball. The end result and everyone’s reactions were more than I could have ever expected. I’ve decided I’m going to revive this style soon as well so please look forwards to it!!

Space Suit Squad

Okay, so I cheated a little with this one! I couldn’t just pick ONE of the squad. Honestly though, I drew these with the thought of making them into prints in the back of my mind. I taught myself how to draw a space background and I’m really proud of it! So much in fact that the one in the final pictures is the first and last one I ended up doing! If I had to pick my favorites I think I’d have to pick Glimmer, Bow and then Catra. I LOVE the way I draw Catra I don’t know why? Maybe the eyebrows I’m not sure 🤔 It took me a while to decide on expressions and poses; although, I figured these were the ones because I could look at them and go ‘yep that’s them.’

Winter Glimbow

This one took me soooo long; I actually had to tell myself that I should put my pen down because it was done and I should stop touching it!!! I was sketching pictures in my sketchbook to make more patterns for my Redbubble account, and of course I’m like 100% Glimbow brainrot. My brain went, oooo you know what would be cute? If this skate was actually Bow’s and not just generic. So, I ended up sketching Glimmer’s as well. The heart that their skates make is like the cherry on the top for me, it had to be done! I’m not sure I did the background justice on this one? It doesn’t matter to me though because the concept was worth the effort. It was snowing here and I needed this picture like I needed air, even if it wasn’t even December at the time I posted it 🤣 I liked this one so much that I have similar ideas for the other seasons sketched out as well 👀

I’m sorry that I ramble so often. I’m like this quiet person; yet, it’s hard for me to get out everything I want to say? I’m horrible at it actually my brain runs at a hundred miles a minute and I’m not good with words most of the time. This turned out as more of a thought process than my actual feelings on each one I suppose. SO, in conclusion. I drew A LOT, I stepped out of my comfort zone, taught myself digital art and patterns. I let myself come to terms with the fact that not every piece of art has to be ‘perfect’. I drew at least 5 FULL backgrounds and I never used to draw them! I’ve also always been one for simple shading and lighting, and I do think there’s a time for that type of style, while other times sometimes a more difficult one might be appropriate. I’m glad that I did both because now I know I can do both, and they each give a characteristic that I adore 🥰 Thank you to everyone that has followed me through this journey, or just anyone who read my rambling! I have an honorable mention under the cut and some originals for anyone that made it this far! 💖

I’m not going to tag anyone; but, if you want to do this PLEASE do it. It was so great to reflect on what I did this year, it really surprised me and I think what you have done will surprise you as well! It’s been a rough year, and in the end we have been here supporting each other and that’s one of the most rewarding parts of being in a fandom! 💜

Glimmer screencap redraw

Another picture where I really tested myself on drawing a background! I love it even if it killed my hand!! The background definitely took the longest on this one too. My sister literally said ‘Wait, you did the background? I thought you just drew her?!’ And that was the only validation I needed!! I ended up thinning out Glimmer’s outline so she matched the background better. If you use the vectors on Clip please use this feature! You can do the opposite as well, it’s super useful!

Oh hi! Remember when I said I couldn’t decide between the two locations? Truth is, I also couldn’t decide if I was going to make it traditional or digital. I ended up getting really mad at the traditional version unfortunately. I haven’t gotten the hang of traditional backgrounds. In the end, I should have also done it in Copic and not cheap pencil crayons 😫

Just some space friends! There is something so rewarding about traditional art. Yes, I can see the mistakes and the proportions are most likely off; yet, it doesn’t bother me? I wanted to also show these bonus drawings because nobody is perfect and I thought some of you might like to see some of my process. Being able to hold it in my hands is something I will never tire of, in a way it’s super rewarding. I keep all my art actually and sometimes I like the rough drafts more than the finished work 👀 Outlining artwork can actually ruin the charm every so often 😔 I do really love the final versions of these though!

Annnnnd the last bonus!! As you can tell the final version stayed pretty true to my sketches! I almost went with a more realistic look and made the symbols ‘stitched’ onto the skates. In the end it felt like it didn’t fit the rest of the drawing unless I wanted to add extra details to the clothing as well. The wings on Glimmer’s skates turned into ‘Shwings’ PLEASE tell me other people know what that is? I had a pair a few years ago and misplaced them. I was doing the rough draft and it popped into brain and I treated it as a joke at first, until I gave it a proper chance XD In the end I fell in love with it!!!

[mysticsparklewings]

Watercolor Kitty

Look, paint!   So not that long ago I more or less made the decision with myself that I wanted to branch out into watercolor. I've been avoiding the world of painting for a while because...I mean, have you guys seen that gigantic rabbit hole of supplies to pick through, for one thing?? Beyond that, just overall my past experience and knowledge of paint up until this point hasn't been that inspiring. (I'm going to describe past experience now, but in small text so if you're not interested you can just skip it.) For starters, it wasn't until like halfway through high school that I finally understood there were even different kinds of paint that behave differently, and I did not learn that from art class, either. I'm not sure when and where exactly, but I found out on my own and was like, why were we never taught this. A thought I still have regularly, I might add. You'd think that would be a pretty high-ticket item in art classes past Elementary school. All of my watercolor experience until recently was contained within my elementary and middle school years. The colors were always super washed out and even though at one point we went over techniques, we didn't actually get to use them more than like twice. And then high school art never addressed watercolors again. Other than that, I had heard the term "oil paint" thrown around, but I didn't really understand what it was. The closest thing I knew of was oil pastels, but that didn't help because they were like older cousins of crayons and not very paint-like at all. I have done a few things with acrylic in the past, but mostly solid backgrounds (or not very interesting school projects that never explained they were acrylic paints in the first place; it's paint just use it as instructed) in which I spent entirely too long trying to mix just the right color and enough of it, and then you have to bend over backward to keep the stuff from drying out. No thank you. Then last year I started my adventure in trying to recreate this thing called the Rainbow Sponge (and have done so to moderate success, but that's a conversation for another day) and in that process acquired some inks by Dr. Ph. Martin. When testing colors to make sure I was grabbing what I wanted, they reminded me of watercolors, and the general impression I got during that time (from experimenting and from researching) was that they pretty much were watercolors, the exception being that once they dried you couldn't re-activate them. (And they were purely liquid; most watercolors are either the little panned cakes or the more traditional "paint consistency" you find in tubes and apparently the liquid watercolors you find are usually dye-based instead of pigment based, so they behave slightly differently on paper.) After seeing a couple of Youtubers I trust try them, I decided to spoil myself with some commission money and ended up with this set of strange watercolor sheets, and even though I didn't know much about watercolor, I really liked them and the idea of a water brush instead of a traditional paintbrush and 50,000 trips to change paint water. Plus, by this time I had learned that watercolor doesn't have to be all totally washed-out pastels. Who knew, right? Somewhere in this mess, I was attuned to the idea of first the Derwent Inktense, ink-based pencils and watercolor pencils, which both came as side-effects of my deep-dive into the world of colored pencils. They both sounded intriguing--Pencils you can blend out with water to get rid of the streaks?? What??--and after I checked the Faber Castell Polychromos off my Art Supply Wishlist, watercolor pencils went next. The set of Arteza ones that I got, I like pretty well. After that, since I had at least two watercolor supplies I rather liked using enough though I didn't really know what I was doing, I figured I might start looking into gaining some knowledge on what to do with them. A couple of weeks ago I acquired a book called "Watercolor Workshop" by Sasha Prood because it instantly caught my attention for telling you on one page what to do with an example, and them providing you with a space to give a try for yourself, which is not something that is all that common to me in "how to X" books. This book made me want to procure a set of tube watercolors, and after some poking around on Amazon with a specific budget and requirements in mind, I ended up with a 24 set by Crafts 4 All and an empty travel palette by Meedan to put them in. (As I've come to understand it, this seemed like the best route to go for tube colors; I know myself too well to trust just squirting the paint onto a regular palette every time and not wasting it, especially when it comes to mixing colors, so I went the route of putting some paint in little half-pans and letting them dry to hopefully prevent that.) I won't go too much into detail like a review of that set of watercolors or my tube-to-pan process here, because I want to play with the paints some more to get a better feel for them before I truly sing their praises or condemn them, but so far they're actually working out a lot better than I thought they would, considering they were pretty inexpensive. So far my biggest complaints are A. I'm not crazy about the smell, as it's a pretty "industrial" scent, but I get the feeling a "paint smell" is relatively unavoidable; and B. I wish there were more colors. The range in the 24 set feels pretty balanced out (though one more purple wouldn't have hurt), I just wish there were more in total. (And for all I know they sell a bigger set, I haven't looked into it, but this isn't really a bad thing; I like what I've seen so I want more.) As is maybe obvious, I meant for this to go up closer to Valentine's Day, but my palette didn't come in until the day after, I had to wait at least a day after that for the paints to dry out, and I can only paint so fast. (I had the sketch done on like the 12th, I think, and the line art on watercolor paper on the 13th). And by then I had a couple of other pieces backlogged, so since I had missed my holiday window, I figured I'd just post it at the next available opportunity. (And after I got off my lazy bum to write this description ) I was inspired by some very red-furred kitties on Pinterest for colors and I've been trying to get a bit into hand-lettering, though I didn't get too fancy with that here because I mostly just wanted to play with the paint and see what I could do (and I was also putting a new set of Sakura Gelly Rolls to the test on just how waterproof they were--fortunately they passed!). It's going to be tricky to break my habit of how I like to usually blend and shade with my other supplies, as watercolors just don't behave the way markers and pencils do, but as I said earlier, these were working to my liking much better than I had expected. My little fluffy kitty here isn't perfect, but I do think she turned out quite cute. I was trying to avoid using my other supplies to really let the watercolors breathe and do their thing, but I did have to add a gold border with a Pentel Sparkle Pop because it just needed something. The only real issue with this piece I ended up having is that the physical copy has a nice stain where at some point I wasn't careful with waving my brush around and got a little blop of yellow ochre paint near the bottom right corner. I lifted off what I could, but apparently, I had not noticed it for long enough it did get to settle in a little. Fortunately, I was able to crop it out on the scan, though! I do have one other art piece ready to go for Wednesday, but beyond that, I am hoping to do more with these watercolors and I should have some new supplies coming in the mail this week with a couple of planned test-pieces in mind. (Does anyone else just get this relieved sort of exhilaration from getting new supplies? No? Just me? ) (Also I'm mostly trying to get into a consistent upload pattern, even though I keep missing a couple days here and there ) ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

[ask-agent-candy-archived]

Well look who's back

Howdy everyone! It's been a very long time since I last made any formal announcements on my Tumblr! Firstly, I'd like to apologize for such a long stretch of inactivity, especially when I had so much time to be active over the summer. I've had a lot on my mind and on my plate that I've been chewing on. Thankfully, I can quit chewing as much now, as I've cleared up a lot of drama that's been going on, cut a few toxic people out of my life, and I've gotten a lot better with school work. Personal stuff aside, let's talk about social media stuff now, shall we? I've done occasional posts on here now and again, mostly from commissions, art I did in my free time, or simple sketches that I'll never finish. If I'm going to try and keep up with this page, I might as well start by updating it to my liking. There's a lot of things that need to change but I think those can wait until I've got a proper night's rest. Aside from that, I've been really working hard on my YouTube channel. For those of you who don't keep up with it or want to starting now, I played Sister Location, Tattletail, Welcome to the Game 2.0 (Adam owns my soul now), and I'm currently doing a play-through of Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator. Check it out if you're interested. Those of you who keep up with my Tumblr (whomst've the fucketh??) may notice that it hasn't really been up to par when it comes to posts. After the whole incident that happen about a year ago (or was it two? Honestly I can't remember...) I kinda pulled back from the SCP Fandom a little bit (I mean a lot) and shifted my focus to writing a Wattpad book (which is, ironically, SCP-related), and building my own WTTG RP blog instead (like I said, Adam owns my soul). My Twitter was mostly reserved for helping spread word about video uploads but now has its own kind of sketch dump and news reblog kind of theme to it. As for my RedBubble well, I have cute "merch" for my channel and /Reflect Studios officially sponsors the creation of my WTTG merchandise/, which at the moment is just stickers. More is soon to come though, and if you buy some 50% of proceeds goes back to Good Guy Adam, the developer of WTTG and Rides With Strangers. If you guys would like to keep up with my social media, here's a link to all of them! DeviantART: https://silverwolf20106181.deviantart.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNMfusY247nKlFmOfYBcdMg Tumblr: YOU'RE HERE! RedBubble: https://www.redbubble.com/people/silverwolf6181?asc=u Twitter: https://twitter.com/oppyrational FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/Oppyrational-Art-268626223648758/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oppyrational/ Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/user/SilverWolf2010 Now let's talk about Tumblr specific things. Commissions I am now doing commissions and if you would like to inquire about them, you may contact me at my business email, operationalartsandcrafts@gmail.com. Please look at my commission chart first before you contact me. Requests Are for friends. Meaning I either know you in real life, or you're an online friend I've known for a long, long time. Art Trades Anyone can come to me asking for an art trade, but please keep in mind that if I turn you down, it's likely because, between our art styles, I feel like it wouldn't be a fair trade, or I may be too busy to complete the request. Sorry in advance. Roleplaying I've always enjoyed Roleplaying on Tumblr. The format is so simple and easy to read and I genuinely enjoy them. I do have a few new rules for Roleplays since I've matured a little bit. I prefer to write in sentence-paragraph format rather than asterisk format. It helps me stretch my writing fingers and gives me the chance to experiment with new horizons of writing. The difference between these two is simple. Sentence-Paragraph: She turned to look at him. Her stance read anger but her eyes read hurt. Asterisk: *looks at him, standing intimidatingly and her eyes showing hurt* xD In essence, they are similar but I prefer S-P because it gives me better ways to flesh out details and really help an RP story-line. Just a personal preference, sorry. Themes I can roleplay include fluff, angst, smut, friendship, fights, ships, crackships - pretty much anything. Also keep in mind - TIMEZONES. I run on Eastern Standard Time, so please keep that in mind. Also, I have a life off of the Internet. So please bear that in mind if I don't respond immediately. Or within 5 days. Now that that all has been said, I'm back guys and I'm here to stay and hopefully be more active! I look forward to chatting with you all, posting more, and reconnecting with you cool dudes, dudettes, and non-binaries! ^ ^

[smokedoutcoldstar]

Dear Anon who sent me the ask involving Ao3...

Sorry that I have to reply to you like this, hotel wifi is spotty and when I went to post the reply properly Tumblr just went fucky and refused to repost it. Or maybe it'll upload in an hour or so and I'll look like a fool. Either way, I wanted to reply.

Thank you for letting me know! I had read bits and pieces of the ToS when I first joined Ao3 but that was several years ago, and i was just sifting through the laywer talk to make sure I own my uploads, so I did not know about the commerce policy. I have since removed the links to my RedBubble simce getting your ask. I have seen many other authors link kofi, so I think that I am okay there since I'm not selling anything (though if someone dropped me a kofi and asled for a doodle, I would oblige). I don't thiiiink i have links on anything older than my Moomins work, since I only started really promoing my RedBubble after their payment policy changed (to get paid monthly instead of annually, gotta make over 20$ in sales. RedBubble is a pocket change thing for me but getting paid only once a year is stressful as hell. Especially after PayPal's polocy change for US users) but if I missed one or two on my older stuff, I will check just in case when i have computer access once I'm back in the states.

Again, thank you for bringing that to my attention! I didn't know my works were read enough that someone would be looking out for me like that, but it's nice to know 😊❤️

Good day, Anon!!

-Pyro

[sugercoatit]

Lately, I’ve been on the hunt for some low-cost artwork for my office. Artwork? Maybe, calling it something more like decor or wall prints or something would be more accurate. Stuff for the wall, you get the drift. I found a few great, affordable, options during my most recent office makeover and thought I’d share. Plus I’ll share some photos from the office (from before I moved my desk, again).

  A gallery wall has always been something that featured pretty heavily in my office.

  Back in my first home office in the Jasmine house, I used floating shelves. Since we moved here, it was a million and one plaster puppies (actually name, I believe) in the wall opposite my desk. Which, when I started planning the refresh of the office, I planned to scale back. Which, I have done, but well, I’m not sure how long that will last. What can I say, I love being surrounded by beautiful things people have made, that I love and inspire me. I’m just always going to be a gallery wall kind of girl, I think. Here’s where I got my latest stash from.

  Use the things you have

My brother and his partner gave me a Disney calendar from Typo for Christmas last year. The hook was weird and I never really hung it on the wall. But as a Disney fan from way back, I knew I was going to use the images, all of vintage Disney movie posters, as wall art. My first choice was 101 Dalmatians which is my favourite, and I just put the rest of the pages in the frame behind it so I can swap them if I feel like it.

This is the case too with all the magazines I have around. I collect magazines for beautiful covers and to tear ‘inspo’ images out of sometimes. And, that makes them perfect for hanging on your wall. I use a clipboard so I can keep the magazine intact. But you could rip the covers off and frame them or something. Or go full Gigi and blu-tak them to your million dollar apartment bathroom wall. If that’s your thing.

  Print free images

Something I did this time that I’ve been saving photos for forever, was print from my collections on Unsplash. The main A3 photo (the chalkboard print) and the smaller prints you’ll see below (in the box and on the wall) are Unsplash images I loved and had printed online. I won’t say too much about where because the quality isn’t that great. But I wanted to feel okay about replacing them in the future, so it’s good enough. In the end, I printed two posters (for the large frame) and six A5 sized so I’ve got plenty of options now. Not to mention I have heaps more saved that if I wanted to, I could print on my home printer anytime.

  Shop the Big Guys

I picked up this storm print from Kmart but it could have easily come from any of the big home decor stores with larger scale prints and canvases. Places like Target or Ikea. Sure, every man and their dog will own them, but when you want big you can’t go past it. This one is meant to hang vertically, but because I was covering a bunch of existing holes in the wall from my previous setup, after some fiddling around, I rather it horizontal. There’s a very good chance that if I put a gallery shelf on the brick wall, it will end up there. But for now, I’m happy with where this is situated and the stormy background it now gives me while I work.

  Support the Little Guys

There is an endless supply of talented artists online, and when I asked for some suggestions on Instagram you guys came through. I purchased the stunning print you see in the featured image of this post from Jess Hutchison Art. I have two of the Native Floral Prints called the Follow your Heart and In Full Bloom, and Swifty the Swift Parrot. The one in the image is here. Originally I purchased them for the office, but the longer I have them here, the more I want to use them in the house. So, they’re on the move. After I get them some frames.

My recommendation? Ask people you know for suggestions of artists or makers they know. If you don’t see any you like, many artists use community-based platforms to print and sell their work. So, if you’re looking for work from smaller-scale businesses and artists try places like Etsy, Redbubble and Society6. The Do Something Today print in the image is from an Etsy seller YEARS ago. I have stickers from RedBubble on everything I own. And Society6 was the home for some test products back in the day involving a Suger Tee. Don’t ask.

  Take a look at my office (sort of)

Now for a sneak peek into my office makeover including some of the other options I have for prints, wall decor and artwork. As I mentioned, I’ve already moved the desk (despite the power points being on that wall). The sun coming in from the top windows was too much. I’m back working under the camera shelves but who knows how long that will last. Watch this space. Maybe I’m finally at the stage where I need to get some kind of blind. But all that natural light, it’s almost too good to give up. Anyway, this post isn’t about the refresh, it’s about the wall art, let’s take a look, shall we?

  There we go, team. I hope you found an option that you haven’t considered before. What do you use in your home or office to decorate the walls? Are you a prints kind of person? A wall art, canvas print, photos of the fam type? Want to know more about any of the other items you see here, let me know. Most are one-off buys or things I’ve made ages ago; but if I can help, I will. Until then, happy decorating.

  …

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Low-cost artwork for my office makeover Lately, I've been on the hunt for some low-cost artwork for my office. Artwork? Maybe, calling it something more like decor or wall prints or something would be more accurate.

[neptunecreek]

Volkswagen Claims Ownership of an Entire Group of Insects

Using word searches to find infringement is a bad way to go about things. It is likely why Volkswagen filed three takedown requests for art of beetles. Not Beetles with four wheels and headlights. Beetles with six legs and hard, shiny carapaces. For the record, Volkswagen holds no rights to literal bugs.

Peggy Muddles is a scientist and an artist who marries her two lives by making science-themed art. Among her many digital prints are a number of works featuring beetles—the type of insect. And, well, Volkswagen was not having any of that.

Muddles sells some of her prints through the website RedBubble. On December 1, 2017, she received a takedown notice for her rove beetle art from Volkswagen. Now, the rove beetle is a common insect found throughout Europe. A Volkswagen Beetle is a car.

Volkswagen, it turns out, does not own beetles the insect, the largest group of animals on this planet. Nor does it own rove beetles, the largest group of beetles alive. And it does not own the depiction of the species Paederus fuscipes, the species Muddles depicted in her art.

In response, Muddles did the right thing: she consulted a lawyer, crafted a counter-notice explaining that her bug was not the same as a car named for a bug, and sent it to RedBubble and Volkswagen. “After VW’s option to pursue expired, I repeatedly attempted to contact RedBubble to have my listing reinstated, but received only automated replies indicating that my email had been received,” Muddles told EFF. “After about two months, I chalked it up to a simple error and re-uploaded the design.”

Oh, if only that were the end of it. Mistakes made, corrected, and everyone moves on having learned something. However, months later, in mid-2018, Muddles received two more takedowns for drawings of beetles from Volkswagen. Once again, the art was of insects and not cars.

Faced with the takedown of prints titled “Buprestic rufipes - red-legged Buprestis beetle” and “Rhipicera femoralis - feather horned beetle” (you can see how Volkswagen got confused and thought these were prints of cars), Muddles once again went to her lawyer.

This time, the lawyer sent a letter saying “the beetles that are the subject matter of our client’s works of art evolved over 300 million years ago, pre-dating the fine motor vehicles manufactured by your company by approximately 300 million years.”

“The next morning we had an apology and my listings were reinstated,” said Muddles in an email to EFF. “While my illustrations on RedBubble do not net me a huge amount of money, my sales there do contribute to my financial stability, and so I was immensely frustrated.”

Muddles is lucky. She knew the law and had access to a lawyer. Not everyone is in her position. Deciding to file a counter-notice can be a very fraught thing, even if you know you’re in the right.

This is why it’s important that actual human eyes, backed by actual human judgment, look at things before takedown notices are sent. Simple logic says that a sweep for the word “beetle” is going to turn up a lot of false positives for Volkswagen. And not every artist is going to be as knowledgeable as Muddles.

It’s also concerning that RedBubble didn’t get back to Muddles after the December incident. It should not take a sternly-worded letter from a lawyer after the third ridiculous takedown notice to get a response. After Muddles explained it and, again, human eyes confirmed that there was no infringement going on, her art should have been restored to the site.

At the very least, she shouldn’t have had to guess whether or not she was in the clear. Especially since receiving repeated, unresolved takedown notices can result in someone losing their account on a site. She should have known if she had a strike against her or not.

This kind of story really bugs. And, in case Volkswagen is reading, that’s in the colloquial sense, not the car.

from Deeplinks https://ift.tt/2MCNHHu

[mysticsparklewings]

2018 Art Summary!

I've never done one of these before because usually, I don't even have to look to know I'll have several months left blank, as I have a bad habit of finishing things and either just waiting to post them or uploading things in bulk. This time though, I felt more confident about having a piece for every month...Turns out somehow I lost February in terms of art-making . Oh well, 11/12 ain't bad. (And I'm very positive I drew something in February, but evidently, I didn't think to post it. Which is weird because February usually isn't that busy for me ) Also, I think I'm a few days late to the party on these, but whatever. And now for a short description and links to each artwork so you can understand & see them better. January: Coraline One of my earlier attempts at just straight fan-art from one of my favorite movies. I'm still really happy with how it turned out, almost a year later February: Surprisingly, nothing! (Seriously, I have no idea what happened to February...) March: Killjoys, Make Some Noise! The first piece of My Chemical Romance fan-art I ever made.  Poor me and poor them, they look a wee bit feminine, but I'm working on getting better at that. Maybe this year I'll take the time to color the line art to honor the anniversary again--we'll see! (I put this one in sideways because I couldn't size/crop it to fit the other way to my own satisfaction) April: Ivy Enchantix 2018! You know, I would've thought if there was any month I had no art posts, it would've been April. There was Spring Break and Easter, school stuff including taking a trip to New York...And yet it seems April was actually one of my busier months, considering what all I had to pick from. But it was really no contest of which one to pick as my favorite. While I definitely only rarely make Winx art anymore, when I do there's a lot of heart and soul poured into every piece, to the point there isn't much I can find fault with. This may not have been the "grand return" I was hoping for, but it stands as a reminder that I'm not ready to fully let Winx Club go anytime soon. May: Watercolor Stars The tail end of May 2018 marked a big milestone I almost never thought I'd see; My first display drawing tablet, a Wacom Cintiq that I stalked eBay for months (possibly even years) to finally get my hands on. This was also the first time I actively revisited my Mini Magnet Challenge from the year prior, using one of my favorite poems as inspiration for the first piece of art made with the tablet. Looking back on it now, I really am in love with the overall atmosphere. June: The Sandman This month proved to be a busy one, and I have to say honorable mentions go to my Art Style Challenge and The World is Ugly, the second piece of MCR fan-art I made. But ultimately I went with this one because I'm still obsessed with Mr. Sandman's unique character design and for as simple and quick as the image was, it's honestly one of my most favorite pieces I think I've ever made. (I even have it posted as a Portfolio piece on my website). The other two are great and easily tied for close seconds, but they don't haunt me the same way this one does. July: One Little Spark Early July was time for my family's annual theme-park vacation, specifically to Walt Disney World.  After we got back, I had that feeling I usually do about being just so inspired by everything we saw and did, but not really knowing what to do with it. Every year I want to do a small series for every day we're at the parks, but I never have the time or means to do so. So an obscure crossover of Figment from Journey Into Imagination at Epcot and Animal Crossing: New Leaf was my compromise for 2018.  I still think it's adorable and though it is ridiculously unlikely, I have to say I would absolutely love to see Figment appear in an Animal Crossing game someday now. August: Grav3yardGirl Once again, August had a few different options but ended up being a no-contest. This is the first piece of fan-art I ever made of my favorite Youtuber, Grav3yardGirl , made and posted at basically the last minute for her birthday on August 3rd.  I'm not sure she ever saw it or knows it exists, but there's always next year! I do still think it turned out really cute for how much of a rush I was in to complete it. Also, someone needs to remind me to use that parchment paper in my artwork more often... September: Marco Renoir Colored Pencil Test This month was relatively calm with only a few art pieces to choose from. I went with my test piece for the Marco Renoir pencils because I do still really love how it looks and also because it sort of marked the beginning of my hunt for colored pencils and would eventually lead me to pick up a few other specific brands. Plus doing all these test pieces ends up boosting my colored pencil skills overall.  This also marked the beginning of me using galaxy/sky pictures to test colored pencils, which has proven pretty effective, I think. October: Outfit of The Day This was my busiest October art-wise in a while, I think. For once I wasn't competing with art/theatre classes that demanded a ton of my extra attention, and this was also the first time I was super committed to seeing Inktober through to the end. And admittedly my Inktober 2018: Wrap Up! picture was very close to getting this spot, but I ultimately decided against it since I would be really hard to tell what it actually is and that seemed like cheating since I'm not sure I could pick a favorite Inktober piece anyway . So I went with my first-ever Outfit-Of-the-Day drawing instead. I am still really thrilled with it and it was one my first real holiday-specific pieces I made also. I was also rushing to get this one done, and I still think it came out really good, all things considered. November: Why, Curious Butterflies! This one was honestly the hardest to pick because this was easily the busiest November I think I have ever had art-wise. For at least four years prior I always had a ton of theatre stuff to do, but not in 2018. (Don't get me wrong, I really miss that class but it was definitely a big commitment). In the end, I went with the picture that makes me the happiest; this little fan-art inspired by a purse I had just gotten IRL. It's cute and its mixed-media, which I am increasingly convinced is where my artistic talent really shines brightest. December: The Nutcracker Oddly enough, this feels like the sparsest December I've had for art in a while because I think before Winter Break was like my main comeback after months of having to put stuff off. I may not have made that many art pieces this December, but the ones I did were pretty elaborate/in-depth for me. I went with my Nutcracker girl since it's a concept I've been wanting to play with for a while now, and once again this was a mixed media piece that I think really showcases my skills. And it's also one of the first real like Christmas-y drawings I've made. I also spent a good chunk of this month acquiring new art supplies to play with . All in all, I look back and I'm pretty happy with what I've accomplished art-wise is 2018. It was a year of experimenting and milestones, and I think I'm in a much better place as an artist now than I was a year ago. Lord knows my journey is not over yet, but I like where I am so far. Art Goals for 2019: Keep experimenting, maybe learn to draw faster, post more consistently; and most importantly, keep striving to be better. ____ Template (c) DustBunnyThumper Artworks (c) me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram