Vulgalour Arts - VW Beetle Sketch

[Noel Tidybeard]

i for one have no problem with you using the term queer a LGBTMGBQ+ seems a right mouthful!

 

then again i'm of an age where being queer could just as likely mean you are strange and being gay means cheerful!

[vulgalour]

I reckon that's why I like Queer more, it gives you free license to just be yourself and it's entirely okay.  The ever expanding acronym takes too much explaining.

 

Got the first 4 of 7 images completed today, 2 of these originals are off to folks that made suggestions that I could use in the set.  I'm planning to sell the other originals - Hovercraft, Caraboat, Helicopter - with the profits from those going to charity too.  The proceeds from the sale of the Hovercraft original will go directly to RNLI rather than Pride, but sales from the final Pride themed image that include it will go to Pride itself.  Send me a message if you'd like to purchase the Hovercraft, Caraboat, or Helicopter, and we'll sort that out.  These would normally retail in the region of £40-60 each, unframed, so donations in that region would be appreciated.

 

 

On the charity front, I shall probably be sending proceeds from this little project to Northern Pride: http://www.northern-pride.com/ as they seem the best fit for what I want to do.

[UltraWomble]

I reckon that's why I like Queer more, it gives you free license to just be yourself and it's entirely okay. 

 

I think people get too hung up on lablels. 

 

Im a male nurse working in a jail - the world is split into two types - Twunts, and Not Twunts. Anything else (such as who you like to get jiggy jiggy with) is utterly irrelevant.

 

Lovely artwork though.

[Parky]

For the ultra camp and flamboyant, have you googled the Liberace car museum? Absolutely Fabulosa, lots of customised stuff as you can probably imagine. Definitely not for the subtle of heart though. Shall we just say I doubt he ever came out of Asda and wondered to himself “where the fuck did I park the car?”

 

Definitely a potential source of ideas anyhoo.

[vulgalour]

I'm familiar with who Liberace is and his vehicles.  Style icon, right there.  In unrelated news, I'm off to buy my own bodyweight in mosaic mirror tiles.

[Parky]

And feathers.  Don't forget feathers

[Felly Magic]

I'm a big supporter of pride, my next door neighbour is transgender, and I have many gay friends, and every one of them are fabulous people, and I'm so happy that I'm friends with them, as when I've been out on the lash with them, it has been an utterly brilliant night, usually ending with us karaokeing some seriously camp songs.

 

Ayngl, you seem a top bloke to me, and have some seriously artistic skills, I wish I could afford a commission of my old Skoda Favorit, maybe one day eh?

[vulgalour]

You know where to find me when you're ready.  If you have a relative/friend/loved one who is struggling for a gift idea, commissioned originals are a great option.  Also, if you have a smaller budget, then ink-only or even pencil sketches are much more affordable because they're less labour intensive.  I do try and add one new vehicle to the shop every month and I try and keep tabs on suggestions and things people would like to direct me on what to create as the prints are much more affordable for full colour, even if it's not exactly your car.

 

Too many cars, not enough time, that's my problem!

[vulgalour]

Got an early start for once today so I've completed all of the artwork for this project now.  I've just got to wait for the ink to finish drying and then I can do the processing and stuff to get this rolling properly.  Pretty difficult to photograph all seven together with just my little phone camera.

 

[vulgalour]

The print is now live: https://www.redbubble.com/people/angylroper/works/32467920-pride-2018?asc=u

 

 

Profits from ANY of the printed items featuring this design will go to www.northern-pride.com and at Shep's suggestion, I've poked the GCCG about this too.  It has been a lot of work to get it done in a fairly short time but hopefully it's worth it.

[Noel Tidybeard]

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^  

[vulgalour]

Copyright, trademarks, etc. and the infringement thereof have led to an encounter with a large automotive company.  I'm not in any trouble, and I'd like to keep it that way, but now I'm a little confused about the legalities of produced car artwork.

 

It was my understanding that a totally original artwork of an already existing product - be that a Ford Ranger, or a can of Campbells soup - was permitted and that reproduction of the same even for profit was not a problem, especially so if that item was no longer in production.  However, it appears it gets rather complicated and on trying to self-educate about copyright law I'm more confused than when I began.

 

For the time being, that means car artwork for profit is on hold until I can clarify this.  I do not want to be doing anything illegally accidentally.

 

The prints in my shop shall remain where they are for the time being as even though this is where the problem has arisen, there's no point admitting guilt if I don't know that I'm guilty of anything, especially since it's only one company that's got an issue with my work so far.

 

I'll be visiting Citizen's Advice Bureau to get some clarification if possible, or at least some direction, but it seems this particular angle is specific and messy.  If it proves too difficult to keep things on the right side of the law I will stop producing car artwork for profit.  It would be a shame if it came to that, and it probably won't, but I want to keep everything above board.  I'm too small to fight any sort of corner on this and it's not the main portion of my income, so I can (grudgingly) afford to let it go if I have to and focus on other aspects of my work.

[New POD]

Copyright, trademarks, etc. and the infringement thereof have led to an encounter with a large automotive company. I'm not in any trouble, and I'd like to keep it that way, but now I'm a little confused about the legalities of produced car artwork.

 

It was my understanding that a totally original artwork of an already existing product - be that a Ford Ranger, or a can of Campbells soup - was permitted and that reproduction of the same even for profit was not a problem, especially so if that item was no longer in production. However, it appears it gets rather complicated and on trying to self-educate about copyright law I'm more confused than when I began.

 

For the time being, that means car artwork for profit is on hold until I can clarify this. I do not want to be doing anything illegally accidentally.

 

The prints in my shop shall remain where they are for the time being as even though this is where the problem has arisen, there's no point admitting guilt if I don't know that I'm guilty of anything, especially since it's only one company that's got an issue with my work so far.

 

I'll be visiting Citizen's Advice Bureau to get some clarification if possible, or at least some direction, but it seems this particular angle is specific and messy. If it proves too difficult to keep things on the right side of the law I will stop producing car artwork for profit. It would be a shame if it came to that, and it probably won't, but I want to keep everything above board. I'm too small to fight any sort of corner on this and it's not the main portion of my income, so I can (grudgingly) afford to let it go if I have to and focus on other aspects of my work.

I am positive the CAB with be as much use as a chocolate tea pot. It's totally putt of their sphere of understanding. Unless you strike lucky amd one of the advisors is a retired silk who used to specialise in that stuff.

 

As an aside my advice is to form a Ltd company. take a salary and run it at a technical loss.

If sued, they can have the company.

 

Note i am not a lawyer and can not offer a warranty on my ideas.

And i ain't going to prison for you.

[New POD]

When you've formed the company get professional indemnity insurance for it.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

That sounds like a world of woe, for the sake of a few car pictures.

[Pillock]

I agree that CAB, and any solicitors offering half an hour free, will have absolutely no idea about this.

 

I haven't a clue who would though, unless you can tap into an artist network and see if anyone else has experienced this. My very, very vague understanding is that copies for parody or review are OK.

[chaseracer]

Vulg: get some proper legal advice, not CAB.

 

The position of the unnamed corporate entity would suggest that commercial photography of cars might be equally threatened, and I can't see that being the case.

 

Interesting...

[SiC]

Is it copyright infringement or design right infringement?

[Felly Magic]

Bloody hell fire, this takes the mickey here Vulg, it's about right for a greedy automotive manufacturer

[captain_70s]

Copyright, trademarks, etc. and the infringement thereof have led to an encounter with a large automotive company.  I'm not in any trouble, and I'd like to keep it that way, but now I'm a little confused about the legalities of produced car artwork.

 

It was my understanding that a totally original artwork of an already existing product - be that a Ford Ranger, or a can of Campbells soup - was permitted and that reproduction of the same even for profit was not a problem, especially so if that item was no longer in production.  However, it appears it gets rather complicated and on trying to self-educate about copyright law I'm more confused than when I began.

 

Could it be the use of a particular brand name that is the issue? While a drawing of a particular thing may be fine marketing it as it's brand name could cause a company some grumps, especially if it completes of one of their own branded products...

[richardmorris]

This seems a little odd as there are thousands of people using 2cvs and Citroen logos for commercial design products ( mugs, t shirts, toys, pens, etc etc ).

[DodgeRover]

It sounds ludicrous that you can not sell a picture of a car?

It was always my belief that if it was made clear that it was not an official product then it wasn't a problem.

Is it Land Rover who have contacted you?

[barefoot]

If it's VW, just stop painting their cars, vans, buses & logo's, they're like twats.

[vulgalour]

It's copyright and trademark infringement.  I don't want to go into the particulars of which manufacturer or pieces of artwork this involves at the moment and I'm looking at other avenues than CAB.  CAB are a good starting point, they can sometimes offer a direction to look in.

 

It's nothing serious yet, and I want to keep it that way.  I doubt I can actually afford to hire a legal professional for advice on this one and for what I earn from car artwork, I'm as well just dropping it if I have to play things super safe.  For now things are just on hold until I can find someone that knows about this.  So far all I've had is very vague "well so and so did this" type advice that merely muddies the waters.  I want a clean "you can't do this" sort of guidance on this from someone, which may not be possible since it's apparently a fairly muddy area when you take into account international markets.

[Ian_Fearn]

Whilst this won't help you.... Earlier this year I was admiring some automotive artwork (VW campervan) in a small-time gifty type shop in some out of the way backwater. I'm no art critic but I thought it was really good and not typical scene stuff. The owner of the shop saw me admiring it and told me the story.

 

The lady that had painted it had been contacted by said company and been seriously threatened with legal action which had obviously had really upset her such that she was never going to produce automotive art again. What a flipping joke. The campervans painted were split screens. Out of production for years and surely of little/no commercial value to the OEM?

 

With all the knock-off shite that comes out of the far east they decide to go after an innocent person probably making less than minimum wage on every painting she created.

 

Anyway, best of luck with your artwork. I hope you can find a way through this.

[dollywobbler]

Copyright, trademarks, etc. and the infringement thereof have led to an encounter with a large automotive company.  I'm not in any trouble, and I'd like to keep it that way, but now I'm a little confused about the legalities of produced car artwork.

 

It was my understanding that a totally original artwork of an already existing product - be that a Ford Ranger, or a can of Campbells soup - was permitted and that reproduction of the same even for profit was not a problem, especially so if that item was no longer in production.  However, it appears it gets rather complicated and on trying to self-educate about copyright law I'm more confused than when I began.

 

For the time being, that means car artwork for profit is on hold until I can clarify this.  I do not want to be doing anything illegally accidentally.

 

The prints in my shop shall remain where they are for the time being as even though this is where the problem has arisen, there's no point admitting guilt if I don't know that I'm guilty of anything, especially since it's only one company that's got an issue with my work so far.

 

I'll be visiting Citizen's Advice Bureau to get some clarification if possible, or at least some direction, but it seems this particular angle is specific and messy.  If it proves too difficult to keep things on the right side of the law I will stop producing car artwork for profit.  It would be a shame if it came to that, and it probably won't, but I want to keep everything above board.  I'm too small to fight any sort of corner on this and it's not the main portion of my income, so I can (grudgingly) afford to let it go if I have to and focus on other aspects of my work.

 

It's Porsche isn't it? I've had this before! They are very protective.

[vulgalour]

I'm not going to confirm or deny who it is, I'd rather folks didn't try and guess.  I'm just letting folks know this is a thing that has happened and looking for legal information to protect myself and my work going forwards.

[Mr Lobster]

I've known VW are very protective of their copyright too.   A few years back they had a big go at anyone and everyone using Beetle / Camper images without a licence on stuff like tea towels, mugs and all that sort of thing. That.s why you tend to see a lot of unlicensed VW stuff doesn't have an actual VW logo on the front.

 

Most manufacturers are reasonably sensitive about their copyright and logo being used though - they get a decent income from licensing manufacturers who want to use that image etc so if someone uses it without a licence they can get a bit litigious. Some more so than others, Ford are pretty happy to licence more or less anything, VW very much less so.

[Jim Bell]

I copied off Tony Tenniswood in our GCSE Geography exam. He did his best to obscure his working out like a prize prick.

He passed and while I failed, I think the moral victory is mine because if youre a good person, you really should help your friends out when theyre too lazy and hungover to do their own work.

Hes a teacher now.

Hope this helps.

[dollywobbler]

I'm not going to confirm or deny who it is, I'd rather folks didn't try and guess.  I'm just letting folks know this is a thing that has happened and looking for legal information to protect myself and my work going forwards.

 

I'm not sure there's much you can do. Some manufacturers are just VERY touchy about this sort of thing. I was trying to sell a picture of a Porsche 911 I'd taken at a show - a really nice picture showing the car off rather well I thought! I got told that wasn't allowed. Which is pretty bloody stupid I reckon. I wasn't selling a knock-off picture of a knock-off Porsche!