Thank you for your report!
We have received your report and it is currently under investigation by a forum moderator.
Copyright
Welcome to the forum.
Here you can discuss all things art with like-minded artists, join regular painting challenges, ask questions, buy and sell art materials and much more.
Make sure you sign in or register to join the discussions.
Hang on Studio Wall
This is a Studio member-only feature!
Join our Studio membership and save your favourite Painters Online content, from gallery artwork to step-by-step guides, to your own online mood boards. Create your go-to place for inspiration and learning. Plus, members can also enjoy a range of exciting features including monthly art videos and a digital magazine library.
If you are already a Studio member, simply login to your account.
Not a Studio member? Why not try our free 30-day trial - no commitment, no credit card required
Message
Posted
Licence the photo before you go to sell the portrait and it'll cost you not very much. Bear in mind that the celebrity might just say "No" if they don't like how you've portrayed them.
Try to licence it after you've sold your portrait and it will cost you hundreds (maybe thousands) of pounds more; maybe even more than you made selling the portrait. Fighting a copyright theft action will cost you bucketloads before you even get to court.
Posted
Alan - don't scream, it's so unsettling!
But I agree - please don't copy 'celebrity' photo-portraits - by all means take a few studies and adapt them (difficult though that is) but just copy an image from the internet and you really are asking for trouble; apart from which - we can all copy. If we're any good at all, we can copy. Freehand, tracing, it's not so very hard - because someone else has done all the work for you - but literal copies of photographs are invariably dead, dull, academic at best, and doing this is no way to build a professional reputation.
Finding a celebrity and getting them to let you draw them, on the other hand - there's certainly a market for that.
Not every photograph on Instagram is copyright protected, but if you start to make a profit by copying images from that site in your drawing, sooner or later the copyright owner is going to come after you.
You could draw me, of course, and I won't sue, because I'm vain ...... but seriously: don't try it with George Clooney.
Posted
Reading the above has sort of made me glad I never sell anything. Takes a bit of fun out of doing versions etc, but hey-ho, money must be made and go to the right areas. p.s. It's a good job Jane Austen never had a portrait done; at least I'm safe with her, but I've done a few sketches etc from film and T.V adaptations of her work. I'd better be checking that none of them actually look like anybody alive...:I think you're okay Colin.....hehe: