User banned: JFotos

[davi]

The sucessful and popular artist Jay Fotos aka JFOTOS is being removed from this site.

MCotie noticed a slight similiarity when browsing Judge Dredd artwork.

Evidence #1:
http://www3.mistral.co.uk/pwelch/jimweb/images/mortis.jpg

This is a piece of Judge Mortis by the artist Jim Murray.



Evidence #2:
Http://www.creatureone.com/non/evildead.jpg

This is a piece 'by' jay fotos found on his website at http://www.jayfotos.com/gallery/image.php?image=evildead.jpg

So they look at two different pieces with two different subjects, but please review the the hands. Case closed. A blantent rip off.

I'm now going to try to find an email on http://www.2000adonline.com/ so i can find a way to contact someone in charge to let them know about this.

[davi]

Jim Murray has been contacted about jay fotos's photoshopping... or should we say... fotoshopping?

[I.was.ink]

At first I was going to defend the guy and say that he was just inspired by him, but then I downloaded the pics and flipped them, and saw that he just retouched the existing pic. :eek:

Huge mistake! :nono:

[mcotie]

I've been stewing on this one for some time. But since the recent events in the entertainment industry, my tolerance for this bullshit is nil.

create what's in YOUR mind. don't take someone elses blood sweat and tears to make your journey less difficult. these people don't realize what takes place, what must be sacrificed to create something of thier own. If you want to study someone elses style, technique, tools; fine. but then try to apply them yourself. If you try hard enough something truly magical will happen and you CAN call it your own, and be proud of it. copying someone elses work, throwing some frickin filters on it, ctl+U, whatever, does not qualify for originality.

Call me wrong if you want, but if my work was used in such a way, one would never know the hours I spent away from my wife and kids, the money spent I didn't have, the numerous sketches I cranked out, the thought processes involved or the seeds of my own imagination that I planted to create the image that would be tweaked in 5 minutes. RAPE!!

Mitch

[tyboogie]

theres two things i hate in this world

1) a thief

2) a liar


bye jfotos...ba-bye:waves:

[R_M]

davi, what did jim murray say by the way?

[killing.people]

wow, crazy. what respect i had for him is lost in a way. i dont know what to believe is his real work..

tsk tsk ..

[MindCandyMan]

that's so messed up...man....ridiculous. Jason most likely knows Jim Murray or can get ahold of him and then jayfotos is gonna be messed up.

[BadMange]

Heh, someone should post this on his forum and see what he says about it. Would be an interesting read, to say the least!

-Bad Mange

[MindCandyMan]

What is the address for his forum we should post it right away to let him know this is going on

[egerie]

I was wondering how much time it would take for someone familliar enough with this artist's work to pick that up. And it was quite suprising this user got so much talent all of a suddent.

Oh come on I've been nice in mostly all of my today's threads answers !!!!!!! :)

[tarwater]

Why,OH WHY!, would/could someone do something so stupid. In an industry so small, a thing like this can seriously ruin him. Some have said it before, but let this be a lesson to anyone contemplating the same thing.
Good eye mitch.

[strych9ine]

The thing that gets me is that it wasn't even used as a reference, it was altered slighty in PS. Wow, I just lost a ton of respect.

MCM, here's the link to his forum. Have fun, gentlemen. http://www.jayfotos.com/forum/index.php

[BadMange]

MCM, his forum is House of the Dead (http://www.jayfotos.com/forum/).

-Bad Mange

[MindCandyMan]

Oh I thought you meant Jim Murray's forum...oh I don't want to post on his forum... I just wanted to inform Jim Murray of what was going on.

[MindCandyMan]

Looks like someone already got to him on his own forum...good.

[davi]

mcotie contacted murray.
thanks for posting on his forum too, i'm too lazy to register... yet

[Gezstar]

check out this old sijun thread - he was looking pretty dodgy even back then..

http://forums.sijun.com/viewtopic.php?t=31785&highlight=

[N D Hill]

You'd think that if he'd have to paste on that hand, the remainder of the piece had to have been ripped off as well. The hand is probably the least detailed thing on there.

I noticed another similarity with this piece. Look at it's head and the head of on the top right corner of the piece that Davi posted. It may not be a copy and paste but it's way too close for comfort for me.

Http://www.creatureone.com/non/walkingdead.jpg
http://www.jayfotos.com/gallery/image.php?image=walkingdead.jpg

It's a real shame. Even that Spawn pic, the body seems to have been copied directly. Look at the detail on the chest and then look at the chains which he probably rendered himself. The quality is not nearly as good with the chains. Just think. This guy's inked Spawn comics!

[davi]

the hand in that img doesn't match the rest of the piece, totally photoshop added. he adds tons of black so he can mix and match different copied shit from jim murray...

[davi]

http://www.jayfotos.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=463

he deleted it hahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa omggggg

[keyth]

sad....oh so truly sad:(. that one would be so cheap.

[MindCandyMan]

maybe he will have a future in graphic design it seems he knows how to copy, paste, and adjust the levels really well...he's been practicing that for years no doubt. The reason he could ink spawn comics is probably because he is drawing over top of someone else's work...he probably feels right at home doing that. So ridiculous.

[ceenda]

On an odd note, (aside from jayfotos being a complete arse), can someone tell me whether this artist is a 2000AD artist or whether there's been a new Dredd vs Batman graphic novel. I've got the Bisley one and the sequel, but I didn't know any other Dredd/Batman stuff had been done for a few years. I wanna buy buy buy (kinda ironic, as I wouldn't have found out about this if that cretin hadn't stolen his work).

Oh... and on yet another note:
http://www.spawn.com/images/board/jayhammer.jpg
Name: Jayfotos, Species: Cretin. "BRING DA RACKUS!!!"

[endregan]

hmm thats sad, low of lows. Didnt think Id see too much ripping in the art scene but hey it happens and I have just observed it. Too bad, so sad, please someone be careful he can decieve us again on another IP. I hope he learns his lesson and actually gets off his arse and learns to do some art!!!

A lesson has been learnt for all of us today! including him

[keyth]

ha. i bet he even stole that hammer from Thor.

[strych9ine]

The Spawn image too??? No doubt the vast majority of his "pieces" are direct ripoffs of another artist's blood, sweat, and tears. Holy shit, this guy has no shame.

--EDIT--
Hey Keyth, whereabouts in Chicago are you? You attending school here? Rock.

[BadMange]

Whoa, there's three of us in Chicago in this thread?

Let's take it over Chi-town style, boys!

-Bad Mange

[subhuman]

*COUGH*

http://65.60.32.140/~subhuman/temp/jayripsjim.gif

[I.was.ink]

good one subhuman! :D

[MrSmith]

it must suck to be jayfotos right now.

[strych9ine]

Crime doesn't pay...

http://www.mcgruff-safe-kids.com/a_mcgruffhomep.gif

Chi-town bastids represent... where you guys going to school? I'm at Columbia College, admittedly not the best school choice in the world. Nice to see some other Chicago boys around here.

[RudeCorleone]

what a shame......i hate losing respect for artists.

[jmascho]

http://www.gamespy.com/articles/september00/lgpeeps2/thief.jpg

[bizarre]

ha-ha.... not only that, but did anyone notice the Mudvayne soundclip in the intro? i mean, i could be wrong, he might have credited them somewhere... lemme see. but then again... it doesnt matter, right? what is he to do? make the sound effects himself? use royalty-free libraries? nawp. just rip em.

he does have talent, i'll say that, but.. um... shut up, bizarre.

[N D Hill]

Shit! I knew it it! He copied the head too! It's just skewed and distored to look different! Look at the teeth, the senew on the jaw. theire all blury to make it look like it's smiling. The chine and the nose are a dead giveaway though. What rat-bastard.

On Murray's piece, it's the second head from the top.

http://www.creatureone.com/non/evildead.jpg

http://www3.mistral.co.uk/pwelch/jimweb/images/mortis.jpg

[wassermelone]

Oh man...
His credibility just went down the drain!

Things like this get around on the internet...
I also noticed with the first pic that he also copied the head second from the top as well as the hand...

-toasty =)

[bat]

You could do the coup de grace, subhuman, and post what you did at sijun onto his own boards.

bat

[tarwater]

What a petercheese! If he sold any lithographs with stolen images, he could be in DEEP SHIT.:argue:

[Avetice]

its probably pixelsoldier again =P

[davi]

Joy fotos removed some of his rip off pieces from his server so i uploaded them to my host, so try not to direct link the images onto other forum or something......

[donkeyslayer]

http://donkeyslayer.kpanime.com/02.jpg
http://donkeyslayer.kpanime.com/03.jpg
if you can't tell, i just put them on top of eachother ^.^

[gasmask]

Fuck what a letdown, i liked Jay and i thought he was original but i guess hes just a fraud. That makes me sad....

[davi]

what makes that image funny is that he even stole the teeth
check it out, he closed the jaw and altered the gumlines

[Dodge]

yeh nicking someones artwork like this is just a pi££ take, and really you gotta say its not acceptable in any way shape or form.

One word: Bustedddddddd!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[davi]

http://www.jayfotos.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=462

[darkcult]

Sh*t man, I have his web site in 'my favourites' folder..:(

:mad:

[keyth]

thanks for the link davi and the find in general :chug:

[N D Hill]

He did it to pump out new artwork?...Just do what every other artist does!... Amphetamines!

[jester]

What a looser....

Jester

[killing.people]

http://images.deviantart.com/large/indyart/indymisc/jayfo_avtr.jpg

poor guy .. :( (http://www.jayfotos.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=462)

[BadMange]

You actually feel sorry for that guy? *shakes head* He brought this upon himself...

-Bad Mange

[tomi]

man, what a sucker...just because he is unable to learn something, he steals it. there are many of these type, but most of the time you wont even notice that they have stolen their "artwork".
i don't feel sorry for him..

[helix7]

It's one thing to use someone else's work as a reference and maybe learn something from it by trying to recreate it... hell I do it pretty often.. just last night I was trying to recreate this ceiling light in one of Feng's images. But this guy just completely ripped part of an image and called it his own. What balls on this guy. And then to show a new level of stupidity he goes and makes it available online, where it is only a matter of time before someone will notice that it is a rip. How did he think he wouldn't get caught?

[sic1]

Originally posted by helix7
It's one thing to use someone else's work as a reference and maybe learn something from it by trying to recreate it... hell I do it pretty often.. just last night I was trying to recreate this ceiling light in one of Feng's images. But this guy just completely ripped part of an image and called it his own. What balls on this guy. And then to show a new level of stupidity he goes and makes it available online, where it is only a matter of time before someone will notice that it is a rip. How did he think he wouldn't get caught?

I don't know what people hope to gain from such bs, a job? Don't they realize if they are not caught, and land a job, that they will be asked to perform at the caliber of art which they stole? Idiots! Just practice! It's a lot more satisfying :)

[bat]

He is there, deleting replies and threads related to this issue, right now. If he truly felt guilty and really wanted to take his lumps, he would just take what he has coming. Deleting posts and not facing the issue is not really helping his image.

bat

[BadMange]

I hope someone on that Spawn board (http://board.spawn.com) he and all the people on his board frequent know about jayfotos ripping. Everyone on that board thinks he's a God or something.

Also, on the jayfotos board there's a thread topic called Jays Tutorials (http://www.jayfotos.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=432). I SO want to post there that his tutorials would consist of two steps, 1) Copy; 2) Paste. But he'd probably delete it...

-Bad Mange

[Kortez]

Originally posted by BadMange
Also, on the jayfotos board there's a thread topic called Jays Tutorials (http://www.jayfotos.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=432). I SO want to post there that his tutorials would consist of two steps, 1) Copy; 2) Paste. But he'd probably delete it...

-Bad Mange


That's hilarious, you should do it man! Or I will! :D

[bat]

Originally posted by BadMange
I hope someone on that Spawn board (http://board.spawn.com) he and all the people on his board frequent know about jayfotos ripping. Everyone on that board thinks he's a God or something.

Also, on the jayfotos board there's a thread topic called Jays Tutorials (http://www.jayfotos.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=432). I SO want to post there that his tutorials would consist of two steps, 1) Copy; 2) Paste. But he'd probably delete it...

-Bad Mange

I already did, and he deleted my post from that thread. He already has a new full time job, cleaning up his messageboards.

bat

[Socar MYLES]

OMG! I don't believe it! Well, I do, but that's horrible! I was even in a comic book with that dude. How embarrassing!

[Frost]

This makes me feel better. One less person "better than me" to worry about. =) (kidding)

[GhostofMacbeth]

Didn't really know his stuff (though I may have seen it and thought it was someone else's style wise) but it is a shame.

At least he just posted this and let it stick for a bit. Maybe he will learn.

"Made a bad mistake (07-30-2003 until 12-31-2003) ___ __ __ _ _
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A ways back in the middle of juggling a few comics I took it apon myself to use "pieces" of other artwork to create my own. At the time I thought it was harmless, I never made a habit of doing it. I was lazy and just thought it was a quick fix to get some ideas out. I realized at that point that's not a good thing to do, it only weakens my talent. I dropped that like a bad habit and moved on. To my regret I posted some of these pieces on my site, why? Because they looked cool and wanted to present some eyecandy....wrong move. In event of my laziness I was called out...and rightly so. I took what I could of done myself and "just made it easy". I come from many years of hard work and dedication to my craft and paid alot of dues....alot. I've had a lot of people come to my forum and sling mud. I stood up, took many hits and got hit hard....I deserved it. I will take some time for mine and yours wounds to heal, after all I did cheat you too....and I apologize. I still believe in this forum, I throw contests, talk shop, help anyone in need of help and vias versa. For years this forum has been a heathy environment and I plan to keep it that way. With keeping that in mind I'm laying my cards on the table and sharing with you this very hard lesson that I have learned. With that said I would like to put this behind me and concentrate on my art and move forward. Thanks for your time- Jay "

[strych9ine]

It was originally a thread in which people could reply, but he took the easy way out (yet again) and just made it an announcement.

[darkcult]

WARNING !!!

http://www.humorweb.net/pictures/1100.jpg

ART PATROL NEVER SLEEPS!!!

Let J.F. be a lesson to you all…

[nil]

man, this really sucks ass. i really quite liked Mr Fotos' work, and to see evdience of some of it being ripped, it leaves me feeling disilliusioned and not sure wether or not i can trust any of the rest of his work. i mean i guess he must have some skill or talent to be able to land and keep a job in the art field, but its a shame. you have lost a fan Mr Fotos.

[BadMange]

He's actually working in the "business"? I wonder if he used any stolen pieces in his portfolio to get hired...

-Bad Mange

[Beer Baron]

His current employer(s) should be made aware of this.
(Would they be liable if a copied artist sued them?)

[Socar MYLES]

It depends. Most employers put a clause on their contracts that says the artists are solely responsible for ensuring that all content submitted is original, and that they are the copyright holders. I was chatting to one guy who employed him on ICQ, though, and he said he didn't put anything like that in the contract. I won't say who it was, in case there COULD be legal problems--it really would suck, especially for a small publisher, to get dunned for something an irresponsible artist did.

[davi]

alot of his 'new' work looks some what stole and the rest of the stuff he tries to do looks like hack work

[BadMange]

Socar, is your message board still active? I used to lurk there but have since lost the addy...

-Bad Mange

[Socar MYLES]

No, I didn't have time for my message board, so I got rid of it ages ago. I might bring it back some day if I have more time.

[sepulveda]

I'm glad this is being exposed. As an artist, I am always very skeptical about posting my work online for that same reason that someone who knows a lot of tricks on photoshop might cut and paste and try to pass it as their own original piece, but knowing that there are forums like this one, that will expose whoever does it actually gives me a little bit of ease...

Thanks guys!

[amphex]

i hope he doesnt get in any legal trouble..i dont think he deserves that..or much more than what hes been given so far..lets just let him be.

[Coma]

Originally posted by amphex
i hope he doesnt get in any legal trouble..i dont think he deserves that..or much more than what hes been given so far..lets just let him be.


I hope your joking.
No matter how much he repents of his rips, repentance is only a sign to show the person learned from it's mistake.

Conscience is NOT changed by repentance...

He should be sued and lose his job, I'm sure he won't have the respect of the industry any more.

[Ant4d]

haha..nice
I see his announcment is pretty convincing.
but why didnt he just put some sign under the picture that its combination of other artist work like ppl usually supposed to do?

[Tedsuo]

Hey, I brought hot dogs! Or is the roast almost over?

[MadSamoan]

He swipes Murray on several occasions and as of a few months ago claims he never heard of him. Possible, but plausible. I don't buy it.

[fungi]

man i remember seeing his work and looking up to him :(

[keyth]

LOL Tedsuo!!!:p

[Lono]

GAWWWD!!! this thread is still going??

come on people ,, we killed him a long time ago..
now were just jumping up and down on his lifeless corpse..

funs over,,, lets put out the torches and go back to our village..


-Lono

[MrSmith]

come on people ,, we killed him a long time ago..
funs over,,, lets put out the torches and go back to our village..

awwwwww...
MrSmith takes his pitchfork and goes home...

[Chris Noeth]

Hey this guy is not the only artist who copy others work and gets money for it.

Take a look at the HOT comic artist Bryan Hitch and look into his work of "The Authority". Right now I don't have the issues here, but in one of them there is a full page of the head of the engineer which is an exact copy of the cover of Sorayamas "Gynoids".

Maybe someone has the issues to hand and can post the number.

What do you think about this? I mean he is one of the 'hottest' comic book artists right now!? :confused:

- Chris

[Socar MYLES]

It's sometimes rather hard to tell in comics, in fact. It can be a rather incestuous field, so to speak--a lot of "tribute art" goes on, generally with the permission of the original artist. Usually, tribute art is in the form of a cover or pinup that uses a trademark pose of another artist, with the knowledge of that artist. Or it can be subtler things, too, like drawing someone else's character into the background in a crowd scene, or using a vehicle design that belongs to someone else.

Tribute art is meant as a nod to the original artist, though--it isn't supposed to be a shortcut. Without having seen the full-page head you're talking about, and without knowing the artists personally, it's hard to say whether that would be plagiarism or not.

Accusing someone of plagiarism is always a tricky business--some types of derivative art are perfectly legal, especially if the person doing that art has the consent of the original artist, or if the original artist is dead. Hell, I've even done it myself--a background painting I did for Wildstorm Comics had a composition that was a tribute to the work of Martin Johnson Heade (a Hudson River School artist, long dead, of course.) It had orchids in it, just like a lot of his paintings, and a similar softly-lit atmosphere. If you knew the original paintings, you would probably notice the influence.

Copying a pose or a face is a lot more iffy than borrowing a style of landscape painting, I realize, but often consent IS given for that type of thing, and it IS legal.

[Chris Noeth]

There is much tribute art in comics. It is one of those artforms where many 'inspired' artists work and I love those stuff there is nothing wrong with it. For example: Alan Davis draws much of this great tribute stuff.

The head from 'Bryan Hitch' has nothing to do with tribute at all... it is a complete rip off of Sorayamas painting.
I have nothing against 'photo reference', but a complete copy of another artists work is a little to much... and a famouse artist too... stupid stupid. That man gets money for those bad actions.

It makes me angry because there are so much talented artists out there working their a.. off trying to 'break in' and others get money for copy artists. :(

- Chris

[Socar MYLES]

Yeah, I agree with you there. There's a lot of stuff that's not so good with the comics industry these days, though. Well, I guess that's a whole other rant. I'm just worming my way into that field myself at the moment, and I've seen some pretty ugly stuff going on already.

I find it odd that the editors of these comic books are not noticing a lot of these ripoffs. I mean, I probably wouldn't recognize a lot of them, since I'm pretty picky with my choice of comic reading material. But some of the ripping that goes on really ought to be obvious to someone who is a professional editor for the comics industry.