So, apparently the horse famous artist known as Drawponies got caught tracing directly from a show screencap on one of his streams. Naturally, because he's a Patreon artist and sells commissions, folks got a little bit upset with him. Who'd have thought that people would get so riled up about paying an artist for stolen art? Anyway, while he does damage control in a desperate attempt to salvage the shattered remains of his reputation, let's discuss the scandal.
It's kinda alright to me, since he actually apologized everything. I will see if he continues that or not... Until then, I will forgive him.
I think that he should pay back everyone who ever bought something from him. Also were he really that stupid that he did it in a stream?
His excuse is that he only traces for his comics, which I would accept if not for the fact that several pieces of merchandise that he sells feature traced artwork. There's also the fact that he has a Patreon, which basically makes him a sponsored artist. He's one of the most successful artists in the fandom, and has made thousands of dollars, possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars, from traced assets. If Hasbro or anyone else decides to pursue legal action, he could be in a world of hurt.
As I understand it, the debacle is over the apparent betrayal of Drawponies, not necessarily the idea that he used tracing at all. As I understand it, his site and such actively banned the use of such practices and has claimed many times over that they do not use traces. And now, it's been rather let slip that he has been. Despite apology, patrons and such are angry at him for giving them materials they believe to be 'rip-offs' as many have been proven to . Me? My response is: "Eh! Good luck. You're going to need it! Badly." I'm not hugely involved with anything he does so, I'm not getting excited despite the powder keg that's been underneath the issue for a long time. It's not beneficial to lie to your customers about something relatively trivial. If Drawponies is going to survive, it's going to be a while before he comes back without this on his back. A looong while.
What surprises me is that people are just catching on to this now. I've been following Drawponies for about a year, and it was quite obvious that his comics were traced. What bugs me is that he had the nerve to set up a Patreon and sell commissions of what is basically stolen art.
I always thought he used stolen bases and stolen vectors. It seemed pretty obvious to me in his comics. I wouldn't expected stolen screenshots from the show. I recently found this that explains it all: http://www.horse-news.net/2015/04/drawponies-scandal-popular-artist.html
This actually reminds me of Tom Preston's fiasco involving a drawing of Big Ben some time ago. People forget about these things, but no reputable artist steals their work. Like as not, the artistic community at large will remember.
A fool and his money are soon parted. Stop giving your money to these people. Or don't. It's up to you.
I don't know how many conventions are following suit, but Drawponies was removed as a community guest for Everfree Northwest. I feel this is a wise move.
