Well, hell. Someone has stolen my work.

I hope this site can help you out a little, http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/. Initially after seeing this I wanted to post for you, but instead I’ll hand you the honours! :)

And please, don’t stop the tutorials and examples, they are by far too valuable to a mass quantity of people. Thank’s for sharing and teaching Ray, please don’t let one lame ass individual screw it for the rest of us.

That’s a shame. Especially if he is making money off of this image. However, I’m not convinced the process or the prelims (by being made available) would have made a difference anyways. People like this are always appropriating what they can get their hands on, near to the criminal level.

I guess what I’m saying is, if he has balls to this, he could have equally just stolen a finished piece by you that had already been passed on to your client.

Forgive me if that WAS what had happened. Perhaps I misread you and thought he stole an unfinished piece.

Please don’t stop your process based posts. It’s very educational. You should just watermark them and lie and say they are already given to clients, but continue to share with us the process behind the scenes.

Nevertheless, thank you for your work. I appreciate what you do.

i say we ride?

is he in LA?

See, this is the downside of computers, the internet, and all these art communities.

Everyone has a cracked copy of photoshop, a handful of zitfaced punk friends with no criticality, and now everyone is a “Designer.”

This is what this leads to. I hate to be elitist, but it’s a shame one of the kids “implicated” in this is entering design school in september.

he’s obviously representing the rest of us poorly.

After doing more digging, it turns out this kid “Adolf” rips other artists constantly. His real name is Erick Sanchez.

He claims to not know me or my work, despite having left several comments on my Flickr page and leaving me messages on the Emptees forum asking if I’d do branding work for him.

Lame.

Ah well, at least the work is down.

Ray, I think this is part of the price of fame and skill. I’m not saying you should be flattered or happy that it’s happened, as if you’ve reached some sort of milestone, but I think your work must have been seen by *so many people* by now that it’s just statistically likely that a small number of them will be amoral scumbags, just like in any other large enough group of people.

I assume the benefits that your open sharing of your work and thoughts have brought (and will continue to bring) to your career must far, far outweigh any *actual* damage a joker like this might cause you (as opposed to emotional harm – pissing you off, etc), so I’d urge you to keep doing what your original instincts told you was the right thing to do.

On the one hand, somebody somewhere said something about imitation and flattery.

On the other hand, you don’t want somebody out there to be jacking your stuff and using it to expound upon even the slimmest opportunity of making money.

But, the way I see it is simple: it’s a piece of shit knock-off for a piece of shit line in a piece of shit part of a notoriously inconsistent industry. 2Crew? Rebel?

Call me jaded, but there’s a little claw inside me that tugs toward the ‘who gives a damn what shitty people do’ side of things. That said, you did the right thing by confronting them (assuming you did). Moving forward, however, don’t let kids like this change what you’re doing…you work hard, and you deserve to stay the course.

Remember: some people were given a face just so you could find them and step on it.

Good work, as always.

That’s just so …wrong…

I am so glad that the plagiarized images are no longer visible

But Ray, don’t stop doin’ that voodoo you do! You have, single-handedly, renewed my excitement with Manga Studio and digital art creation through your videos and this blog. If it wasn’t for you, I feel the update to Manga Studio for the Mac wouldn’t have happened so quickly.

I’m so sorry that unprincipled scum bags stole a bit of your trust and generosity, rest assured, it will grow back. You have my thanks for all the sharing you have done and hope it will continue.

Thats way fuckin’ lame man. I’m sorry that happened to you dude, especially when you’re one of the great few who share their process with the world. I think D! has the right idea:) You know what happens in LA when someone mistreats your artwork…

Thanks for the thoughts, guys. I largely agree with the sentiments espoused. I fully intend to share my process. Though, I may do so more often in the forum of a video than still image. The former is harder to rip!

John, at least the dude in question took everything down.

I started to soak in your thumbnails last night. Wicked ideas!

Thats not right, man. Find out who it is and get some $$$!

That sucks.
People always ask me why I don’t have a website or post any of my work online. There’s your answer. People just can’t go to inspiring websites like yours and just be ‘INSPIRED.’
They have to take it and put their “spin” on it.
Don’t stand for this, find out who snaked your work and come down on them. Even hacks should have morals.

Hey Ray.

The same thing just happened to designer Von Glitschka where Imperial Toys jacked one of his tribal tattoo designs and included it as part of a sticker pack type thing.

the original post has been removed from his blog, but here’s this: http://artbackwash.blogspot.com/2008/05/creative-leftovers.html

He seems to mean business now. Anywho, maybe you can flip him an email for advice on how to stop stuff like this from happening in the future. I’m sure he’d be more than happy to give you decent outline for protecting your work.

on a side note, this is the first time i’ve ever left you a comment. i found your blog thru Drawn! and have been following your work ever since. your advice has really helped me out a ton.

i’m with d!, the guy that left a comment above. i say we find this sanchez dude and stomp him out.

Welcome to the big leagues, Ray. In the case of work for a client, alert the client and let them act if they feel it is harming their company, products or brand.

As for the theft itself, if someone wants to steal an idea, they will. It doesn’t matter whether they see it online, in a magazine, at the museum or on the TV. If they want, they’ll take it.

My advice is to write Shepard Fairy and Coop and ask them how they deal with imitators and thieves. I’m sure they’ve seen it all.

Glad to hear you’re back on track, but I do agree that videos would give you an extra layer of protection from thieving bastards.

Also, if you continue to post preliminary sketches and final art pieces, maybe you could down-rez them and put a watermark across them.

Thats bull, unoriginal people like that aren’t even artists, there just bums. Wait, that stupid Orphan Bill wasn’t passed already was it?

That is so bullshit; I’m so sorry. It looks like everyone has already lent a lot of encouragement and competent advice, so I’ll just scoot in on their loving coattails and say, What they said. Keep on keeping on, Ray!

Hey Ray, check this out:

http://fortressofortitude.wordpress.com/2008/06/07/beauty-and-the-beast/

Hope that makes you feel a bit better :D

Charlie, the client had gotten things trademarked and all rights had been transferred to him ages ago. You are absolutely correct that, aside from moral outrage, the ball was more in his court than mine.

GC, I made two videos this week but Screenflow ate one and blanked a bit of another. Ugh.

Bradlee, bums indeed!

Jenn, bullshit AND bums. Definitely. Thanks for the scooting!

DSKZ, it turned out to be a youngin’. Things were resolved pretty quickly. Moreover, I am absolutely humbled by the amount of emails and well wishes offered. You guys rock!

I have a great set of peers and readers, that’s for sure.

Mike, I need to pretend that link doesn’t exist for a few more days. Then I’m hitting it hard. Neato-keen!

Ha! He simply showed how bad he is. He couldn’t even copy well. He took a creative professional design and recreated an amatuer wanna be. It’s pathetic really. I don’t think you have anything to worry about Ray.

Damn, that’s weak. Deviantart is rapidly losing it’s credibility if you ask me. Lot’s of copy cat artists out there.
I must say I find your work very inspiring too but that doesn’t mean that you should just copy it.

Extremely lame. Hope that guy gets what he deserves. (A thorough spanking perhaps?)

Sorry to see it my man, but it looks like you have a team of scouts for the next time it happens, and my friend it will happen again. and again…

Once something hits the net its so hard to track the possibilities of its whereabouts. My advice, just keep doing it big, the biters never last in this game.

Thats absurd.

And it frustrates me.

I keep waiting to see one of my photos used without my permission.