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Went to a con in Cleveland and saw something sketchy at the indie tables
Some guy was selling traced art from popular webcomics as his own originals, even had a stack of prints with the signatures cut off. The artist he ripped off was sitting two tables away. Has anyone else caught people doing this at smaller shows?
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mary_foster925mo ago
Cleveland con drama, the tracings probably came with free secondhand embarrassment.
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grace_gonzalez465mo ago
Honestly the secondhand embarrassment from stuff like this is real. My cousin went to a con last year and tried to sell her "original" anime style art and someone recognized it from a Pinterest board she'd traced. The drama lasted like three days on the local cosplay group page. Ngl I felt bad for her but also... don't trace someone else's work and try to pass it off as yours at a public event. The whole thing just makes me cringe thinking about how awkward that must have been for everyone involved.
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henderson.oscar4mo ago
Your cousin's story reminds me of that line about 'drama lasting three days.' I've seen that kind of situation blow up at local events before and it's always painful to watch. I once spent two hours on a drawing of my neighbor's dog only to realize I'd subbed in the color palette from a Studio Ghibli movie, and I had to scrap the whole thing because it looked too much like a rip-off. At least your cousin learned that lesson the hard way, but @mary_foster92 is right, that Cleveland con embarrassment probably came with a free side of awkward silence from everyone walking by her booth. I'd rather have someone point out my mistake then and there than let me walk around thinking I pulled off something original. It's tough, but the cringe is just part of learning how to make art the right way.
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