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Vulgalour Arts - Patreon, Prints, and Trying to Survive


vulgalour

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  • vulgalour changed the title to Vulgalour Arts - Renault Estafette
  • 3 weeks later...
  • vulgalour changed the title to Vulgalour Arts - Commer PB(ee)
On 25/02/2021 at 18:25, vulgalour said:

That's still one of my favourite Imp mods ever.

You might like to know some 'back story' on the reason Smiley Imp has no mouth/airbox.

I crashed off the road and stove in the front wishbone mounts/boot floor. A local 'bodgitt n scarper' place repaired it all (porta-pak + oxy bottles) and returned it.... But it had a massive sharks mouth, where the bottom panel was missing. I considered a dealer airbox/lower panel [oof... So Long Ago] but too pricey >>> enter local scrappie, looking for a shell to 'chop out'. Nope :(

..... BUT....

An old yellow Commer PB P.O. van! Yes.. Perfectimmundo ;)

CHOP the waistline/curve out... Straight cut horiz, no welds & no ribs... and I went back round to bodgitt and they seamed the piece in. End of........

Weren't we all Yung n Daft B.I.T.D.

*purists note: This car had Mini sealed beam h/l with sidelight 'glow in bowl' ... This year model had 'joghurt tub' pull-off red/orange rear light units BUT I had, in my PartsBox, old style Rootes 'screw retained' orange rear winker light units >> seen here. :)

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Bee Bus is no longer in the shop.  'Volkswagen AG' have claimed it's their's so Redbubble have removed it.  I can challenge the decision by supplying all my personal details and getting a lawyer but frankly, I'm not about to do that.  I simply don't make enough money from a piece to justify the cost so yet again I have to let it slide.  Getting very fed up of these take downs, especially since this was a piece I really liked.

This is also a BIG reason I really knocked the automotive work on the head a while ago.  The risk that someone puts in a spurious claim, or you inadvertently infringe copyright, or some other legal thing, means that smaller creators like me are in a position where basically our work can just be destroyed simply because we haven't the means - time, money, energy - to fight it and don't have the knowledge to know exactly what we're fighting.  I've tried to understand what laws I'm actually infringing and honestly, it's all about as clear as mud.  Just makes you want to give up.

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  • 2 months later...

A couple of A3 sized sketches I'm working on.  Fancied trying something larger for fun.  This is the layout sketch stage, lots of work to tidy them up and get them into focus.  Probably going ink and watercolour on these, we'll see what fancy takes me when I get to that point.  Might end up in the shop too.  Rover and Austin (Maestro) is usually safe from the copyright claim stuff, Lanchester I'm not so sure of.  Lanchester might get hit by Jaguar-Land Rover due to the Daimler connection.  It might also get hit by Mercedes, also for the Daimler connection.

Lanchester.thumb.jpg.27ea4dbba2af77dfcc71dd7ef8822905.jpg

Maestro.thumb.jpg.3456d0806cf101b20be058f49dd170f4.jpg

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While I think on, small update on the PBees piece.  Turns out, one of the bits of VW that deals with copyright occasionally go on a bit of a claim binge and find any images that look like they contain VW campers of split and bay window variety.  This regularly hits Commer PB artwork and quite a few artists have been quite cross about this.  When you put a counter claim in, VW almost always wins and, if you do win, they put a fresh claim in pretty much straight away and then you usually lose.

Honestly, for the hassle involved on a piece that I might sell a handful of copies of, it's too much stress.  I love the piece of artwork I did, I'm happy to keep it, and it will likely make a great gift for someone in the future who falls in love with it.  Likewise the Volvo-Lego icon I had on the shop for ages, that disappeared due to Volvo Commercial (the lorries etc.) put a copyright claim in on it even though it's protected under the parody side of things (as far as I can work out at least).  Volvo cars don't actually care, and neither did Lego.  If I put an umlaut over the O in Volvo then it'll probably pass but again, it's a lot of hassle for not a lot of gain.  Shame, it made a great sticker.

Also, for those that might be curious, this is my list of companies whose products I can't draw without hitting copyright issues now:

  • Audi
  • BMW
  • Commer (VW being arses)
  • Dodge
  • Honda
  • Jaguar
  • Lamborghini
  • Land Rover
  • Range Rover
  • Volkswagen
  • Volvo (commercial)

There's plenty of companies whose products are still perfectly safe and that I'm happy to draw.  Just a shame so much is now denied to me as prints

 

 

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  • vulgalour changed the title to Vulgalour Arts - Lanchester & Maestro

What a load of bollocks about this copyright. I don’t understand how artists’ drawings and paintings even come under the copyright umbrella, it’s not like the manufacturers in question are losing out. So why do they care? Surely, if anything, it’s in their interest to encourage these sort of drawings as they might encourage people to buy their products.

The classic stuff is even more pathetic, as it’s not like a split screen VW camper is even available new to buy. What do they gain by such a heavy-handed approach?

Oh well, I have a decent list of companies to add to my “boycott list”.

Love the artwork by the way. You have a real talent there.

 

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Thank you, I'm glad you're enjoying the work I put out :)

It's to do with trademarks more than it is copyright really, but they're using copyright to take action.  It's all quite confusing.  BMW were one of the quickest, they took down the BMW piece I did a few minutes after it was posted.  You can circumvent it by removing all reference to what the thing is, like debadging and not mentioning the manufacturer but if, as in the case of the Commer, it resembles their property then some of them are pretty fierce about it.

Other companies, Citroen in particular, seem much more laid back about it and don't mind a bit of fan art.  The interesting thing is, the actual artwork belongs to me, that doesn't belong to the companies in question, but sometimes the logo, name, or even vehicle silhouette does.  I haven't the time or money resources to employ someone to go through each piece I make to make sure I'm on the right side of everything so I just have to fire things into the void and hope.  Not the best approach.  What's more galling is some artists don't get targetted at all, and if they're a bigger company churning out stolen imagery they seem completely untouchable.  I've learned to just roll with the punches on this one.

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I see what you’re saying. However, it’s a very different kettle of fish to someone (for example) making and selling BMW wheel centre caps or badges, which firstly carry the registered trademark, and secondly are a part that BMW sell, so they would of course have an interest in stopping the counterfeits.

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Maestro sketch is now cleaned up and in inks, here's a photo because I can't be doing with pulling the scanner out at the moment (I'm waiting on longer cables arriving for it).  Also shows why I scan things rather than photographing them, it gives much better results.  Decided to make this a portrait of my actual car, warts and all, rather than making it a generic Maestro because I'm feeling selfish.

IMAG6036.thumb.jpg.d7c33f55946a8961ae16b7c18c76db27.jpg

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It would be interesting to see who owns the rights to Commer vans- I wouldn't be surprised if Dodge still have the rights under their umbrella, and as they're now owned by Fiat... You should write Dodge and tell them that VW is attempting to claim their intellectual property as their own and set them on a rampage against VW.

That would make me smile.

Dodge seem to like people who love their brand.

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20 minutes ago, PhilA said:

It would be interesting to see who owns the rights to Commer vans- I wouldn't be surprised if Dodge still have the rights under their umbrella, and as they're now owned by Fiat... You should write Dodge and tell them that VW is attempting to claim their intellectual property as their own and set them on a rampage against VW.

That would make me smile.

Dodge seem to like people who love their brand.

Didn't Dodge commercial vehicles end up as part of Renault?

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  • 1 month later...
  • vulgalour changed the title to Vulgalour Arts - 2CV Progress
  • 2 weeks later...

Right then, the 2CV art is completed.  I've done a few variations on the theme too and will make those available later this week.  For now, the blue version is up for grabs on all manner of Stuff.  Quite a few little tweaks all over the design too to take it from the previous update to this, the final form.

https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/93662103

1464491046_Citroen2CV2.thumb.jpg.42691ea78d25276201ce7d5c57e33902.jpg

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1 hour ago, vulgalour said:

Right then, the 2CV art is completed.  I've done a few variations on the theme too and will make those available later this week.  For now, the blue version is up for grabs on all manner of Stuff.  Quite a few little tweaks all over the design too to take it from the previous update to this, the final form.

https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/93662103

1464491046_Citroen2CV2.thumb.jpg.42691ea78d25276201ce7d5c57e33902.jpg

Funnily enough I only heard of redbubble yesterday for another 2cv artists work. I’ll have a look.

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It's a reasonable enough site for what it is.  Low volume print-on-demand is good for the artist since I can put a lot of designs out without having to carry huge quantities of stock that might never sell.  On the flip side, the amount I make from each sale is quite small and I have no control over the quality of the items.  Over the years I've been using Redbubble the quality has improved, particularly tee-shirts, and the best items from feedback I've had are definitely the smaller ones like stickers, mugs, and magnets.

Every sale is welcome, all the same, it all helps keep my little business afloat and it's nice to have a creative diversion from my regular work to indulge in whatever automotive fancy takes me.  There's more Citroen content coming as I'm working on an XM piece at the moment.  Just trying to find the best way to make the image in my head match the image that I'm drawing, once I can get that figured out it'll be good to go.

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  • 1 month later...

322360024_CitroenXM-red.thumb.jpg.71b73c5dedecb42abcf7ac9bc8222d6c.jpg

 

Citroen XM spaceships arriving in the shop early next year.  Been having some technical issues with the Redbubble uploader so we've been trying to resolve that.  Seems to be some sort of software conflict, it'll sort eventually.  HOWEVER, there's plenty of other Citroen stuff in the shop, namely BX, DS, and 2CV.  I'm planning to do more Citroens as time goes on; an H van, a Saxo, and a Visa at the very least.

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  • vulgalour changed the title to Vulgalour Arts - Citroen XM Spaceship

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