Latest Book

A new project has been added to my Portfolio - A manga style Unicorns Colouring book featuring a selection of pages which glow in the dark. I'd considered the idea of creating a colouring book for at least a decade. In 2020 I finally got the opportunity to create one after being asked to work on a special Glow-in-the-dark book for Thunder Bay Press publishers. 'Unicorns and Mystical Creatures' has been available to buy for nearly a year now and has received a fair amount of praise and positive reviews since. While I've certainly drawn enough unicorns to last me a life time, I wouldn't say no to working on another colouring book whereby I got to pick the theme.

When is the next colouring book coming?

Customers who'd bought the Unicorns book have asked when my next colouring book is coming out. Unfortunately, there isn't another book in the works as of right now. I have been asked to work on a number of other colouring books since finishing Unicorns. We got so far as producing sample covers and a few pages of content for books on the theme of: Tattoos, Dream Catchers, Kaleidoscope patterns and Horror. Although due to budget constraints we couldn't quite make it work.

I'd be happy to work on another, but because of the amount of artwork needed to produce a good quality 96 page colouring book, I'd need to make sure there was sufficient funds to make it happen. It's tough- the market is saturated with colouring book options. I even saw one on Amazon the other day which used one of my artworks for the cover (illegally)! Although with so many sub-par books to choose from, it seems like a good idea to create a series of premium books. Books which have a lot of nice, high-quality drawings to colour on good quality paper. Perhaps also including how-to guides and advice showing how to use more advanced shading techniques? If you're a book publisher that wants to make this happen, let me know.

In the mean time I look forward to seeing what artists and colourists alike can do with the Unicorns book...

Here's a few coloured samples from the book:

[caption id="attachment_5031" align="aligncenter" width="940"] Colours by @colorfulcarey on Instagram[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5032" align="aligncenter" width="842"] Colours by @bizzie_lizzie.art on Instagram[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5030" align="aligncenter" width="930"] Art and Colours by myself - Little tester with some new marker pens.[/caption]

Other designs:

I printed out a couple more of the illustrations from the book. A Mermaid and Harpy. These were added to A3 Bristol board so I could give them the marker pen treatment. I used a inexpensive set of bullet-point markers to colour these. While I prefer using brush markers, these can certainly do the job.

[gallery size="medium" type="rectangular" ids="4609,4608,4606"]

[gallery size="medium" type="rectangular" ids="4615,4613,4612"]

Horror Book:

As mentioned earlier, I didn't end up working on a sequel, although here's some work-in-progress images for the Horror colouring book which didn't quite happen. I hope you find these interesting. I like the first Haunted Horror sketch, although it was deemed too sexual even though it's for an adult colouring book. I guess the client felt ghouls looked as though they were preying on the girl?

[caption id="attachment_5037" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Horror Cover Sketch 1[/caption]

I then amended to the second Hellish Horrors sketch. I like this one even better and makes it clearer that the girl is the one in charge here! Again, client not convinced. I needed to try again with a different idea.

[caption id="attachment_5038" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Horror Cover Sketch 2[/caption]

I designed the 'Head full of Horror' illustration. I liked the pun for the potential title and thought it would be impactful. It wasn't accepted.

[caption id="attachment_5039" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Horror Cover Sketch 3[/caption]

Eventually the corpse/ ghoul bride and skeleton groom below was deemed a little more wholesome. I especially liked the 'Eyes-cubes' in the glass.

[caption id="attachment_5036" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Horror Cover Final with Colour[/caption]

Making use of colouring books

With books like this, I always wonder how much detail is too much detail to include in a drawing? I've seen some colouring books which are effectively fully-rendered, grey-shaded pencil drawings which are presented as colouring pages. I'm not sure I like this idea. What do you think?

Someone choosing to colour a single page from the book might take several hours to finish. With close to 100 pages in a single book, it becomes a project which could take several months. With so many pages one could potentially colour, it seems to be the case that a colourist will more typically choose to work on just a few pages from each colouring book they buy. In the end I guess it's best to have a variety. Lots of details on some pages and not so much on others. If you like colouring books, let me know in the comments below what kinds of themes and styles you like colouring best.

Unicorns & Mystical Creatures is available to purchase via this site's Shop. As well as sites like Amazon, Wall Mart and Barnes and Noble. The Project / Case Study about this book can be found in my Portfolio here. If you'd like to share your coloured pages from the book, send me a message or link to your social media. I'd love to check them out :)

My Art theft experience

It's still happening. Every month dozens of new products spring up on the internet featuring my artwork. Art which I'd not given permission to use. I'm not a fan of my work being taken by someone else without content- especially when it negatively impacts sales of my own products. I've added a video discussing (and ranting about) my experiences on YouTube and thought I'd share it here:

Removing infringements

After posting the video, I went on to remove 182 instances of copyright infringement! That's at least 300 removals so far in total. There's still more which needs taking down, and no doubt there will be hundreds more to remove over the coming year. For now it's a job I'll have to maintain like cutting my hair or mowing the lawn. If anyone reads this and wants to use my work, that's fine: For non-profit use, be sure to include my name and a link back to this site. For commercial use, send me a message and we can discuss rights to licence high-res versions of artwork you're interested in.

Your thoughts

Has art theft of this nature always been around? Am I wasting time by stressing over it? If people take your art/music/writing/content and sell it without permission online, would you try to do anything about it? Should companies such as eBay or Amazon for example take more responsibility for moderating products for sale on their platforms? If so what might you suggest they do about it? I'd love to know your thoughts.

Also see my previous related posts: 'Art theft and stealing images online' and 'Art theft and further criticism of pod sites' and most recently 'Art theft: The Story continues' for further reading.

MBTI and Art

Much of my life has been spent attempting to understand both myself and the world I inhabit. Part of this journey of discovery involved reading up on Psychology related topics where I'd learnt about the MBTI (Myres-Briggs Type Indicator). It's a test to reveal which 1 of 16 specific personality types you resemble. You can take the test here if you're interested in seeing which type you belong to.

My type? INTJ. I'm a person with the Introverted (I), Intuitive (N), Thinking (T), and Judging (J) personality traits. "These thoughtful tacticians love perfecting the details of life, applying creativity and rationality to everything they do. Their inner world is often a private, complex one", says 16personalities.com.

Are all INJTs artists? From what I've found, most aren't! INTJs like myself are usually given the label of 'Architect' or 'Strategist'. I should be the type to work as a scientist or analyst, playing chess and reading technical books for fun. While I do enjoy analysing things, playing board games and would often rather read a manual or something more factual than fiction, I also love art and design. Rather 'ISFP' types are often considered the artist type in the MBTI world.

Psychology Junkie assigned a Myres-Briggs type to a list of famous fine artists with different personalities on their site. It's interesting but may not be completely accurate. It at least highlights the fact that no matter your personality, there's potential for you to become an artist if that's what you want to do. 

My Experience and thoughts...

One thing I often felt didn't quite work with the MBTI was determining a person's stress sensitivity. Whether or not an individual is more prone to positive or negative emotions makes a big, noticeable difference in one's life choices, habits and interests. Unlike another personality model- 'The Big 5', stress sensitivity wasn't taken into account. Take the big 5 test here. Although 16personalities.com have added a suffix of T for Turbulent / stress-sensitive types and A for Assertive types to help address this. Although this does now kind of indicate 32 potential personality types and starts to defeat the purpose of pigeonholing in order to make quick generalizations. Suffice to say, MBTI is not the perfect personality model, but is still useful.

The reason I bring this up is because unfortunately for me I'm high up on the negative emotions spectrum. A guy with the 'Turbulent' INTJ variant who's easily stressed and cautious. And so my experience of being an INTJ artist might differ from the next INTJ. I want to discuss my experiences all the same.

[Aside: Having a more cautious personality can have it's advantages. Without going in depth; You'll be less likely to get involved in risky activities or having accidents. It'll make you more aware of and considerate towards the people around you - an otherwise common criticism of the INTJ type. To know stress and negativity so well allows one to really appreciate positivity when it arrives.]

Why do you create the things you do?

It's a deep and interesting question.

I would speculate that the type of art you focus on i.e. the theme and style would have some correlation to your Myers-Briggs personality type. Although I'm sure other personality dimensions such as orderliness and agreeableness could be used to more likely determine the theme and style an artist tends to prefer. Our tastes are shaped by both our innate personalities, but also the experiences we've had throughout our lives. Having grown up on 80s cartoons as a kid, then moving to anime into my pre-teens ensured a desire to imitate what I thought was inspiring, hence going on to produce and sell a million copies of manga related art books as an adult.

Being an INTJ makes me very forward-thinking

When it comes to creating art, I'm often focused on the end result rather than process. This can be challenging when I have a 50 hour image waiting to be created and I'm not always 'in the moment'. I've often felt agitated or unsatisfied until I'm on the home stretch and working on the last 10-20% of an image.

I want to bring beauty into reality

My philosophy for creating has always been "because it looks cool". A sentiment I share with one of my favoured anime directors (Yoshiaki Kawajiri). I care about the aesthetics more than the deeper meaning behind the image. Every artwork an artist creates will communicate something, but my aim is to convey my own tastes with a literal illustration. Style, technique and subject often takes precedent over producing narrative, mood, something abstract and ambiguous.

Don't get me wrong, I can walk into a modern art gallery and understand what I'm looking at, unlike the laymen who might question "what the hell is this supposed to be?", but I have little interest in producing modern art and hate the pretentious side to it. Ascribing meaning to nothing then giving yourself a pat on the back? Yuck!

I want to create perfection

If an image doesn't look as close to perfect as I'm able to produce, I'm unhappy. I'm bound by the limits of my own competency, so while I know I'll never achieve true perfection, if such a thing exists, at least I'll try to get as close to the best thing I'm capable of. Not that perfectionism is an INTJ specific trait, but there's satisfaction when the plan comes together and everything looks just right.

Expertness is important to me. In general I like to be good at everything I do. Perhaps it's some ego thing whereby I don't want to believe I'm as useless as I actually am? But certainly I'm happier when others can recognise my accomplishments. If art happens to be something I'm being praised for, then I'll continue to do it. But more important to what anyone else thinks, I want to reach my own self-imposed, exacting standards. 

Best suited art careers for INTJs

INTJs are not the typical, whimsical artist types. I've spent many years dabbling with different artistic jobs and some worked better for me than others. No two INTJs are the exactly same, and in fact some won't even understand the point of art! But INJT types like myself are a testament to how it's still possible to pursue and succeed in different disciplines within the field of art and design. Most art jobs are going to require 1. a lot of time on your own (being an introvert makes this easier) and 2. devoting a lot of time to building competency. If you happen to be an INJT, or even if you're not, here are some job options within the fields of art and design:

Graphic Designer:

Gives an opportunity to create but with tighter restrictions than working with a blank canvas and paint. For example, you might like the idea of exploring the subtleties of typography and becoming an expert on the use of lettering. It's direct, clean, to the point and serves a purpose. No messy paints required since it's mostly all digital. Freelancing from home might be the way to go if you don't like the idea of mixing with other employees in an office or studio.

Web designer:

Allows for planning how a site should look and function, while coding gives the mathematical and logical circuits of the brain a chance to fire up. There's something quite satisfying about being able to read a page of code as well as design the visuals for an attractive, functional site.

Illustrator:    

This can be for books, ads, promo material. I suspect that understanding the rules of art and design and then applying them is the best way to go for an INTJ type. There are rules to art such as composition and colour theory, and once those rules are established, being able to come up with a plan to maximize each design's potential is the way to go. Illustration has a clear goal to communicate something specific up-front. Often the best advertising illustrations are well thought out and witty, giving an INJT like myself an opportunity to make use of that part of my mind.

Concept Artist:

For those who love to create characters or environments for games and films. INTJs may prefer this as it requires becoming a competent technical artist. Non-INTJ artists who are keen to create but have no talent, little skill or patience may instead gravitate towards abstract, modern art or learn to blag their way to a successful art career. Of all the artist fields, I would guess Concept art might be one of the hardest art professions to succeed in due to the fact it's so popular and already holds a large pool of highly competent artists. 

Tattoo artist:

One of the few art careers these days which will allow for a lot of time away from the screen. You'll be more likely to get praise from customers on a daily basis, which helps facilitate the need for acknowledgment of accomplishments. It means working with people and being social which introverts generally prefer minimizing, although it's primarily 1-1 communication. Having worked part-time as a tattoo artist myself for over 10 years, I can say that the aspect of dealing with customers can be challenging but has helped me grow as a person.

Animator:

Although having worked on a few basic animation projects, I've not professionally worked as an animator.  It requires technical skills and patience which an INTJ might have a better time dealing with. Although animation takes a long time to reach your future vision and it's often repetitive. Despite being a huge fan of anime, cartoons and animation, I've always been put off by the prospect of needing to devote an entire day or more just to making a character walk from one room to other for example.

Manga / Comic Artist:

Requires high level of technical ability. If you can handle lot of time on your own, this will suit you. If you like to write and conceptualise your own stories, this is the career for you, although most employed comic artists will end up spending much of their time working from another writer's script. Having a successful career as a manga ka (artist) or comic artist is extremely tough. I would imagine the task of conveying different emotions through characters might be a little challenging to INTJs at first also.

Fine Artist:

You'll specialise in a particular medium and concentrate on a particular subject matter and type of art i.e. landscapes, portraits. It allows for a lot of autonomy which is great, but you'll need to work on selling which will be the hardest obstacle for an INTJ as selling will involve interactions with other people either face to face or through online videos. Having the freedom to create whatever you want is the dream of many artists, but for most, monetizing your creations will be extremely difficult.

[Aside: Being an artist is not someone who does modern dance, plays drums or writes poetry. As per what was described in a Reddit thread I was reading while researching this post. All those things are considered creative pursuits, sure, but you're only an artist if you design and create something tangible in 99.9% of cases. There's no criticism towards being a dancer, musician or creative writer, however there's no point over complicating definitions.]

To finish off

While I love art, design and illustration I often wonder, if I were to re-play my life would I have chosen it as a career? It's probably too late to trade up this profession. I've been doing it a while and can't bare to give up the 20,000 or so hours I've invested in my pursuit of art and design. I suspect that inheriting my dad's INTJs while having an artistically minded mum encouraging my creative side would always lead me to where I am now?

I can't regret the time I have spent on art. I'm sure I would engage in it even as a hobby, if not a career. To think of an idea and to then bring it into reality through one's creative endeavours is an amazing thing and a worthwhile goal. No matter your 'type', if you're making or improving something, even through analysis and carefully considered critique then you're on the right track. I would argue, to bring beauty into existence is one of humanities' most important contributions to the universe. What do you think? Are you contributing?

Thoughts about Etsy (as a seller)

I've had my Etsy store online for a few years now. Etsy being an online marketplace built to house arts, crafts and creations by original content creators, artisans and designers. I've never actively promoted it since the store here at Benkrefta.com lists everything I sell on Etsy and more. Also at a lower price since I do not need to pay Etsy's middle-man fees.

This isn't going to be a huge in-depth article about Etsy as a selling platform with how to guides on how to set up an Etsy store. Instead, just a few current thoughts I have after using it for a few years now.

Why do you have an Etsy shop, if you already have an online store?

Initially I set it up hoping to use it more as a marketing tool. A way to direct people from Etsy's market place to my shop here. As it turned out, people preferred just buying via Etsy. Despite mentioning this website on my Etsy page and profile and despite my products being cheaper here at BenKrefta.com, customers didn't seem to want to venture off-site. They were happy to simply complete their purchase through Etsy. Perhaps the thought of going to the source doesn't cross a potential customers mind? Or customers miss the call to visit my site? Perhaps it feels like too much effort to click an extra few links when the product is already right there in front of them? Perhaps customers value Etsy's buyer guarantee in the case something were to go wrong with an order?

Ultimately it doesn't really matter what platform a buyer purchases from. It's all good so long as the customer is happy with the price they pay and I'm happy with the price I get. It's just a shame I can't get to pass on the saving to customers I'm otherwise paying Etsy to host a product listing, process payments and communicate. I already have these facilities set up here.

In short, I've learned that it never hurts to list your products on as many platforms as possible. It's been a benefit to use Etsy in addition to my own website and generates additional sales I would otherwise not have had.

What's it like to use?

As selling platforms goes, It's not bad. Setting up and editing listings or multiple listings is straight forward. More so than my own site which uses the WordPress eCommerce module 'Woo Commerce'.

Payments reach my bank account within a day or two. Not instantly, which is a shame, but a lot quicker than Amazon.com for example. Amazon insists it holds my money for 3 months in case of needing a reserve to deal with potential returns and refunds.

Layouts are clean and everything works as it should without being overly complicated.

A battle against art thieves

One thing I, along with many marketplace sellers often complain about is the amount of businesses which abuse the platform. The site is set up for individuals and small businesses who produce handmade, niche products. However, there are way too many sellers on the site which will, for example, steal a load of images and content online then reproduce it on t-shirts, posters and apparel. Yes, it's against Etsy's terms of service, but there's so much of it and not always easy for a layman to tell who has the right to reproduce what. It becomes a complicated and time-consuming task to moderate. 

On a personal level, I've now seen 8 different sellers who have stolen my artwork and attempted to sell it printed onto products without my permission on Etsy. I don't even regularly search for it, and often just stumble across my stolen art. No doubt there's someone on Etsy right now attempting to profit from my work illegally. I've simply not got around to finding it yet.

I have managed to get my artworks removed from each of the Etsy seller's listings. However as far as I know the offending sellers have never received any disciplinary action or been banned from the site for breaking the law. They are all are still able to sell other products. One or two of my artworks being taken down from their store doesn't seem to be enough to raise questions about the authenticity of their remaining products. So far as I can see these sellers are still blatantly stealing and profiting from other artist's work. This suggests to me that so long as Etsy is making money they're not going to go to any great lengths to remove seller accounts listing products which all obviously infringe upon copyright.

Therefore it seems that the responsibility to educate customers about this situation has fallen upon us artists and original content creators. I went on to mention this on the site in "My Ebay Story".
See below:

My Etsy Story

"I graduated with a 1st class BA Degree in Graphic Media in 2008 and have since worked in the art and design industry since. I've written and illustrated several best-selling how-to-draw books, selling close to a million combined copies to date, translated into 4 other languages and sold globally.

The work I sell on my site and Etsy store is original- created by yours truly from the ground up. Typically an image starts out as a sketch, the line-work then refined before adding the colour and tone. I try to bring my love of varying art styles; from manga to tattoo to graffiti art into my work and with the aim to make each piece eye-catching and unique.

On a personal note; The art game can be tough. I often feel frustrated that I (along with other original art creators) am competing in a huge arena of sellers who produce little more than a carbon copy of an existing picture or art thieves who literally steal an image from Google and stick it onto a product to sell. Several times a year I'm having to request that stores online, including a few other Etsy sellers stop stealing and using my art - it's a never ending battle and I'm just one artist of many this is happening to.

Prospective buyers are often none the wiser to this situation. I'd like to see shoppers support artists who have made the effort to bring something original into this world, who aren't looking for shortcuts or to make a sale off of another artist's works. So please read about the individual creators on Etsy- find out who they are and how they create their arts and crafts. Are they genuine? If you were to purchase an item on Etsy, will the profits support an artisan or simply fall into the pocket of an art thief or merchant who may not even have permission to reproduce the work they've made use of?

Thank you :)"

Enhancing Art

Nothing wrong with returning to your older artwork and attempting to improve it, right? Sometimes old artwork just needs a little tweak or a few small changes to make it significantly better or more consistent. I decided to amend and update my previous frog girl illustration to give it a Sugar Skull twist. I also limited the colour pallete with some tonal adjustments. It matches some of the other artwork in my gallery a little better and people have told me they're liking my skull related artwork. Now here's another to add to the collection! Maybe one day I'll figure out how to match this stuff up with the all the various manga styles I like playing with also? Producing a consistent gallery or range of images is always going to be a challenge when you love so many different types of art.

A3 size prints are now available of this one to buy via the site's Shop. I decided to give the option to purchase this new version along with the original no-make-up version plus the marker version I'd create a while back. Do you have a preference?

[gallery type="circle" link="none" ids="4548,3540,4554"]

If you're interested, check of my Traditional Vs Digital: Frog Girl blog post to see some work in progress shots of this one.

New Product Updates in the Shop:

Many of the large / A3 prints in the Shop have now been amended to include Matt, Gloss and a Special Metallic paper finishes. Although the print company I just started using for these is currently closed due to the pandemic lock-down, so frog girl will remain as Gloss only for the time being. I'll get some photos of the new metallic prints in due course. For now, you'll have to take my word for it but they look really great and managed to put a smile on my face :) There's something really cool about an physical piece of art be it a print or original, which you just can't get from looking at a screen. Especially if it happens to be metallic and has light bouncing off it as you move it in your hands.

At the moment prices for most of the A3 prints are:

£11.99 for Matt: Satin smooth paper avoids reflections
£12.99 for Gloss: Deep colours with a sheen
£16.99 for Metallic: Special finish for spectacular effect when in the light

Postage here in the UK is: £3.40 per print, Europe: £5, USA and rest of the world is: £8.

For a limited time I'm running the promo code 10OFFPRINTS at the checkout stage. It allows 10% off when spending over £30 on art print orders.

Some anime inspired prints are listed in the site's shop including: Mokoto and friends from Ghost in the Shell, Tattooed Goku and Kitty anime girl along with other artwork creations by yours truly. Each print is individually signed and dated (with the year), and can add a name or sign the back rather than the front if you want to keep it tidy- just add a note in the order box and I'll do my best to accommodate each order :)
For now I'm keeping the prices at £11.99 (currently around $15.50 in US dollars) which I'm considering to be an introductory price, and they may rise to £14.99 in the future. These aren't mass produced or are big, bulk orders, so each time a sale comes in I need to manually pack the work and drive to the post office to get it shipped out and think £14.99 is a reasonable price for art and print collectors to pay who can't get to me at the occasional comic con I attend each year here in the UK.

If you'd like to purchase more than 1, I'm also running an offer: 3 prints for for £24.99. Just mention the names of the prints you'd like (currently available in the store) when you get to the order checkout stage and I'll have them sent together. This is pretty much a buy 2 get 1 free offer, saving £10.98 along with reduced shipping cost if buying individually.

And speaking of shipping and postage costs, it's £3 to send a single print in the UK and £8 to the USA for example. I don't make any profit on shipping. If anything, a small loss but I know how annoying shipping costs can be so want to keep this as low as I can.

Frequently Asked questions...

Sometimes it can get tiring re-writing the same answers to the same questions week after week despite answering on social media so often and the fact they they still come up all the time makes me suspect this post might go noticed also.

I don't want to appear ignorant, so will always courteously reply but I'm sure I'm not the only artist who's bored of answering things like "Can you draw me a picture of X?" and "How much do you charge for art?". I'll answer the questions with the same response I give to those who have asked in the past as well as comment (or perhaps moan is the right word? ha ha) on the question itself in italics.

How much do you charge?

I'm honoured to know you like my work enough to want to commission me. I will need to know exactly what you want created before I'm able to give a price. For example a pencil sketch of a head will take considerably less time and therefore cost less than illustrating an entire book or creating 6 months worth of video game assets. The Hire Me page on this site was created to answer this question and give customers an understanding of how to commission artwork from me.

Please appreciate this question gets handed to me at least once a week so can't help let out a sigh every time! Imagine asking a builder "how much do you charge?" to build a house. It could be inexpensive if you only want it for your kids to play in or dog to lay in, or it could cost tens of millions if it needs dozens bedrooms of and 20 bathrooms! Or what about walking into a restaurant and asking "how much do you charge?". There's going to be a big difference between a side salad and lobster dish, so surely most people would at least ask if they have a menu if not specifying, for example, "how much do you charge for a salad"?

I appreciate it might seem like a genuine query and perhaps wrong of me to expect the potential customer to consider an artist's services don't carry a single value e.g. £100. And, unlike a restaurant, a menu of prices is difficult to create when you're an artist like myself who posts/ advertises/ is able to create a wide range of different types of art. However it has become evident that the vast majority of potential customers asking little more than "how much do you charge?" aren't particularly serious about commissioning work to begin with and/or wouldn't be prepared to pay my prices anyway. The serious ones have already done the sensible thing of researching me on this site (perhaps arriving here via the link in my bio on social media sites) which can answer most preliminary questions before continuing to contact me. When clients write an introduction, a brief and specifics with politeness and etiquette I'll sit up and give the request the attention it deserves :)

What materials do you use?

Mostly Photoshop CC software with a Wacom Cintiq 27QHD graphics tablet. I'll occasionally use pencil, ink and markers for traditional work.

1. I've likely already posted #photoshop and #cintiq in the description on social media art posts, yet people still ask on these posts what I use. I do wish people would pay more attention.
2. I think a lot of people are looking for expert insider information with this one to help give them the edge, but does it really matter what I use? You can achieve similar results to most things I create with dozens of different software or traditional media, so much of the time it comes down to personal preference and my methods may not suit other people. It's strange that most other artists also list this as a most frequently asked question when there are so many other important or interesting questions that could be asked.
3. I've written art tutorial books which discuss tools of the trade in far more depth than I can cover in a reply online, so better just to buy those- they're reasonably priced and not going to break the bank.

Can you draw me a picture for free?

Sorry. I'm too busy with work and commissions.

There's a few reasons why I wont do this:

1. I feel it's disrespectful to ask an artist or any professional to work for free. It's like walking into a hairdressers and asking for a free haircut. 
2. Like most creatives, I have so many ideas for things I'd like to create that I don't have time or want to devote mental energy to focusing on someone else's project (unless compensated).  I especially wouldn't have time if I'm spending vast amounts of my life drawing pictures for anyone who asks.
3. Giving away freebies would be unfair to customers who have happily paid me to have artwork created for them in the past or will do in the future.

Does anyone ever actually say yes to this request? I would imagine every artist gets asked this question all the time and I'm sure we all face-palm every time.

How long have you been drawing?

I'm in my mid thirties so quite a long time. Read my Backstory for more info.

Can you give me some art tips?

I'd rather aspiring artists buy and read my How to Draw Manga books (in this site's Shop or via Amazon) which gives hundreds of tips. If you've read my books cover to back I guarantee you'll learn something new and anything needs more clarifying, let me know and I'm happy to help as much as I can.

I know everyone's looking for a free education, but sometimes putting your hand in your pocket and investing just a small amount in a tutorial book can be such a time saver. I also think if you've paid for information, you're more likely to take on board what's being said plus I'd feel happier to see people using what I teach in the books than me handing them some general advice on social media which wont stick or be sufficient to make people want to sit down, try a new technique and feel inspired to create.

Can you tell me how to become a pro artist?

I don't have a good answer to this one. Every artist will need to find their own way to success. I'm not deliberately trying to be vague, but it would be impossible for anyone to replicate what I did to established myself. Why? The internet was still in it's infancy when I started out. Opportunities to promote yourself online were quite different than they are today. Plus luck had a lot to do with it. For now I'd advise just working hard on improving your portfolio and skills, start small and work your way up. So far as Social Media goes, I will say, unless you're work is phenomenal, simply creating a Facbook page or other social media account and posting up art once a week isn't going to be enough to secure any work on it's own. You'll need to devote a lot of time and energy to marketing yourself and making others aware that you and your awesome, unique art exists. That might involve interacting with other people's content, liking, following, sharing and being a good online-citizen in hope of reciprocation, or finding a use for your services within communities you're involved with, both on and offline.

POD = Print on demand. A service that prints art and designs on products on an individual basis rather than batch printing in greater quantities.

Check out my 'Art theft and stealing images online' post if you've not done so already. I'm trying to make people aware of the fact that all of the artwork floating around on the web is property of the person who created it unless a license or rights transfer has taken place. Unless this is the case or permission has been given by the owner, such work should not be used for monetary gain by third parties. 

However it does get used and I suspect more art is profited from illegally than legally and that's not something to be ignored! The internet as it stands is never going to be stopped. Perhaps in decades to come a block-chain style attachment to all digital content including images will come in to place whereby digital data can be traced to it's origins while leaving behind records of every time that data has changed hands, been bought/sold and so on? Such a system would at least prove ownership in disputes. And personally I don't have a problem with people printing off an image for their bedroom wall, using it in an online avatar or generally small-time, non-profit, personal or private use.

It's directly profiting from another person's efforts which I find so repulsive. It's something that these unscrupulous individuals or companies should not be allowed to get away with. Artists can take steps to help safeguard themselves by being aware of the issue and making sure to reduce the resolution of their files online or watermarking. The art they display might not look as pretty but it's an option.

Unfortunately I also know some artists who have a much more relaxed attitude this, and allow the occasional small-scale rip-off to take place, passing it off as an inevitable reality of sharing content on the internet. A top-tier professional, with an endless supply of high-paying assignments or commissions may be able to get away with looking the other way, or not feel triggered into doing anything about art theft, but the art game is tough and the last thing artists should want is to compete against their own stolen artwork and living in a world where this kind of thing is allowed to happen.

To quote Snazzygaz - a designer on DesignbyHumans (an online POD t-shirt store.):

"I’m not exaggerating when I say I believe almost every single listing on DBH and Redbubble has been scraped by what I believe to be an automated chinese operation and being applied to products there for sale on Aliexpress and the like and as a consequence listed against official listings on Amazon, as well as Spreadshirt and potentially more PODs.

These people are not only stealing straight from the artists but also the legitimate PODs like DBH by offering the “same” product much cheaper and with inferior quality on what looks to the average person like an official outlet via Amazon and the like, they’re taking money out of your hands by DIRECT sale and pushing inferior quality work which severely dampens the average public opinion about what the company offers.This is like the most criminal shit I’ve seen relating to copyright theft and counterfeiting and it’s absolutely insane."

There's a few of us that are aware of this issue, but unfortunately not enough and I feel both artists and authorized retailers of their art and designs do not take this issue at all seriously enough.

I contacted Society6 to see if there was anything to be done about my stolen artwork being used by online retailers-

"Hi there, I've found my artwork which I had submitted to Society6 having been taken without permission and sold by Chinese retailers via Aliexpress.com. Would you be able to assist in getting these products removed from Aliexpress?

Artwork in question: [Link to Artwork]

Instances of it being used without permission by sellers outside of Society6:
[https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Dragon-Ball-Tattoo-children-s-T-Shirt-Pure-Cotton-Short-Sleeve-O-Neck-Tshirt-Tees-Boys/32797095017.html]
[https://www.aliexpress.com/item/T-Shirts-Free-Shipping-Saiyan-Dragon-Ball-Tattoo-Men-s-Organnic-Cotton-Shorts-T-Shirt-2017/32816945296.html]
[https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Dragon-Ball-Tattoo-T-Shirt-XXXL-Short-Sleeve-Custom-Men-s-Clothes-Fashion-Street-Wear-Cotton/32815144101.html]

It's also been stolen by Hoodietime: [https://hoodietime.com/collections/dragon-ball-z-3d-hoodies/products/dragon-ball-super-z-super-saiyan-blue-tattoo-goku-hoodie-pullover-3d-hoodie].

I have contacted Hoodie time asking to remove it and still awaiting response.
I have submitted a report on each of the Aliexpress items, but was told there is not enough evidence that I created the work. I hoped that S6 would be taken more seriously than a single artist like myself.

Regards

Ben"

Society6's reply:

"Hi Ben, Thank you for contacting Society6 Support. Unfortunately, Society6 has no legal standing in this matter. So we are unable to contact the websites in question.

As the copyright owner, it is your responsibility to contact the infringing party. We are unable to provide legal advice and recommend you seek counsel if this matter persists.

We are sorry we are unable to help any further. Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,
S6 Legal Team"

I didn't expect help with this, but thought it was worth a shot and would at least make S6 aware of yet another instance that this practice is still taking place. The trouble with S6 for example is that they require high-resolution files for their products and don't protect the artwork used on these items (as of 2017). The art uploaded by artists and designers to POD sites should be automatically scaled down and watermarked making it harder to steal and make use of while keeping the original submitted clean, larger images stored offline and completely inaccessible to scrapers (people or systems which extract content from the net to then make use of). If POD sites aren't doing this then they should have a responsibility to help resolves these cases.

If I effectively licence a design to S6 and the design is stolen from S6, I would argue that theft was due to negligence on their part. And after-all, if for example 1000 S6 or DBH designs get scraped and added to shirts and sold elsewhere, S6 and DBH lose out too. More so, since they often take a larger cut then the designers.

I would guess that most (more than half, but possibly 90%+) products that display art and designs of which are sold on the internet (as well as comic conventions) are counterfeit, illegally unlicensed, infringing copyright or stolen from artists without permission.

The state of affairs regarding stolen artwork on the internet is ridiculous. An epidemic one person on their own, or even thousands together could never hope to even reduce by a tiny amount. To say this upsets me and to attempt to make people aware of what's going on here seems like a wasted effort while the sounds of a thousand virtual cash registers ring from the profits of stolen art every second of the day!

I don't even look for it, but I see it all around me. I often recognize my favourite artist's work being used on questionable products by relatively unknown online marketplace retailers and know a lot of the fan art and concept art I see isn't being licensed to certain low-grade knock-off merchandisers. Instead it's simply been saved off of the internet and slapped on top of a product...

And then it happened to me. I did a reverse image search on one of my works to find it for sale by three different Chinese retailers on Aliexpress and two other separate T-shirt and apparel stores! I'm attempting to get these works taken off, but it's not always easy. Stores often ignore or don't seem to take these kind of complaints seriously~ so long as they're making money and aren't getting an official 'cease and desist' letter through the post, they'll carry on profiting from a stolen work, while the original artist gets a zero percent share of the income it generates.

To help combat this in the future I've spent a few hours lowering the resolution of each image in my portfolio on this site. They should still look fine, but originally I was hoping to future-proof by posting larger sized images as screen resolutions continue to get bigger and that's something I won't do anymore. I've also applied watermarks to the bottom corners of selected works. The only trouble is, I can't stop people stealing 'without watermark' images I've already supplied added to my online 'print on demand' stores such as Society6 and DesignbyHumans :(

I appreciate that most buyers wont even consider there could be an issue with the items a shop has to sell, but I just ask that before you buy a print, t-shirt, mug, key-chain, etc, please do you best to find out if it's legit and make sure you're not lining the pockets of a thief. Buy from original creators or verify the products being sold are official and licensed. In the world of anime, comic and gaming merch it doesn't take too much practice to spot a fake from higher quality original.

I'll be attending along with 100s of other artists at what looks to be the UK's biggest comic convention yet. I've got a 'comic village' table from Friday 28th of May until Sunday 29th, so anyone who'd like to drop by and say hello, buy a signed print or book is more than welcome. We can discuss potential commissions- this is something I'm happy to do after the con, as I like to put in more time, effort and a better level of finish than is achievable while I'm there throughout the day.

This will be the 12th UK Con attended so far. MCMs are difficult to get secure a table. Too many artists and not enough capacity I suppose, so while I'd like to also attend future MCMs at London, for example in October later this year, it's likely I'll be unable to get my booking sent off in time. I usually book within 5-60 minutes of the booking form going live, but even then there's no guarantee of getting a reservation secured, so we'll have to wait to see what happens.