Oh my God, what a week, hahaha. It was a headache with my store on Society6. I will tell you more about the situation (in this post) after talking about the drawings of the week. I would even make another separate post just for that, but I think it's silly to extend the topic. I just want to explain why I don't have a store there anymore to make it clear, you know?

Anyway, let's get to the drawings first :)

NOTE: I like to make it clear about the use of references because it's something that every artist does and needs to learn and develop their art. Not everything can be created from scratch, you know? In my case, I can already make some faces, environments, animals, bodies, etc. (because I trained these references a lot in the past), but if it's something I've never drawn or that I've drawn little, I'll use reference to learn.

It's not about what it shouldn't be used or that it's wrong (yes, some people think so), on the contrary. You learn a lot and little by little you'll be able to create your own characters and head environments as long as you practice. That's how you learn.

Well, those were the drawings of the week. As promised, let's talk now about why I no longer have a store on Society6.

On Tuesday (10/25) I tried to access my store and I saw that it was making an error and that it didn't exist. I thought it was extremely strange, because it was something that never happened. After some time, I received an email from Society6 informing me that my account had been suspended.

And that's what they sent. No information, nothing. I sent a message later asking why and they simply reinforced the same thing: copyright violation. Okay, that's fine. At first I was extremely upset, because if you don't ask and go back they won't report anything at all. I even thought it was because of some fan art I had done (Pokémon, Elfen Lied, etc.), even though all my works were 100% created by me.

I figured that maybe they could just delete the art (s) that violated their terms and that's it, I would have my account back, but no. Remember that I had that account for about 4 years or so. Can you imagine the amount of original art and everything I had done left there with them? Absurd.

I even apologized (as you can see in the message above) because I really didn't know that I couldn't create my own original fan art and sell it. On the one hand, it was worth it for me to know this... because we see everyone out there selling fan arts like crazy and apparently nothing happens — well, after talking to an artist who LIVES on fan arts, I learned that he even has his arts taken out sometimes... and his work is sensational, all created by him, even though its fan art — just like mine.

At the end of that message, I even asked them to delete my works from their site - because then I read their terms and they say that they don't delete their art from the site, even if the account is suspended. Obviously, it's not for sale, but it's still unfair, isn't it?

I was still scared because I saw several others complaining that they sometimes even sell other people's art, even if the person deletes the account or the account is suspended. It's very complicated. Oh, by the way, I wasn't the only one who had my account suspended. Several other artists had the same problem and they complained on Twitter. I even exchanged ideas with some to try to understand what was going on.

Wonderful artists, even. Each one with a more beautiful job than the other and whose accounts were suddenly suspended. What I noticed was that everyone had some fan art on the site - so I assumed that it had been some fan art of mine that caused the suspension.

Among the messages I received from them, I received the one above as well. When I read that they also verify elements in art and that they were not stating that I had violated copyrights, I was in doubt and then asked which art would have caused the problem. So far I was assuming it was the Elfen Lied fan art or the Pokémon I had made, until I received the email below:

And I'm crying with laughter so far. Is it the poster that I had made for my Design course back in mid-2014 to blame? It was one of the first works I posted on their site too, hahahahaha. Oh my God. I had even made some variations of the poster... They couldn't have told me when I posted it? I've heard from several other artists that sites like this simply delete the art in question or give you a deadline to delete it yourself instead of suspending the general account, hahahaha.

They treat you like a criminal and they even say in the message (the same one above) “that the violation of the terms includes, but is not limited to: Kill Bill”. I know, hahaha. If it weren't just limited to that, they would have said so, wouldn't they? Also: so many copy/paste of various parts of the same texts and that they sent to others as well. No respect for the artists who work with them. None, incredible. Especially someone who brought some return to them and always produced new art — I didn't sell much there, I confess, but it was something.

I'm just thankful for the fact that at the time this happened I hadn't sold anything. Some people even had their royalties to be paid blocked eternally! Very, very unfair. And I bet you that it's very likely that those royalties shouldn't have been from the art (s) that they say violated the terms. I bet. Who's the criminal now, isn't it? Again, extreme lack of respect.

Obviously I didn't even follow their suggestion to open another account there. After this disastrous treatment, I decided to go to Redbubble. Many artists told me well about the platform and that they are more reasonable in this matter - they let you know before doing anything absurd, such as informing me which art is having problems so that you can delete it. Anyone who wants to follow me there on Redbubble, by the way, just click here.

Of course, everything that happens to us serves as a lesson. I didn't know that I couldn't create original art inspired by characters and franchises — as I said above, many still do and it's something very complex. Because of this, I even deleted it from my Brazilian store in Colab55 any art that was fan art and I left the others that are 100% my ideas.

It's so strange to say “I left what was original mine”, "100% my ideas”, because even fan arts are. Those who know my work know that I don't copy other people's art, this isn't CTRL + C/CTRL + V. Here it's everything from my head, my vision, my world. In any case, I now know that even if you create original art inspired by franchises, characters, etc. you can't, you have to be careful. Or the report it may be next door (hahaha).

Anyway, that's it. I apologize for the long post and for my bravado on social media. I needed to speak up, because regardless of what happened, I'm a professional artist who didn't know the extent of this problem. I feel that the only vision they have of me (and of others who collaborated with the platform and helped make it what it is today) is that of a copyright violator because I wrote “Kill Bill” on a poster that I consider to be one of my best minimalist works and that celebrates the art that is Tarantino's movies.