Now, this is one of those stories, when all you can say is “OMG…”

I just read on Luc Latulippe’s blog that someone scraped the contents of Darren Di Lieto’s (The Little Chimp Society) website and published it into a book which is sold online for $100.
This book (“published” in Hong Kong under the title “Colorful Illustrations 93°C”) reprints without permission several dozen artist interviews, which Darren had posted on his blog, including the artwork.

Apparently it even includes a CD with all the illustrations from the book, all stolen off the site as well. Here’s a link to a gallery of scans that Darren made of each page of the book.

This is not only wrong, but it could be a worrying trend and quite a bit more problematic than it appears. In countries like China, where counterfeits flourish and copyright laws are practically non-existent, it seems pretty easy to steal any content from the Internet and publish it in a book form. What can a poor artist or a writer do?

Well, one of the good thing of the Internet is the ability to INFORM.

Do not buy this book!

Joanne Brooker is an Australian, Canadian, Kiwi who travels the world teaching, exhibiting her art and experiencing other cultures. After studding Commercial Art at the Queensland College of Art Joanne joined Queensland Newspapers as an editorial illustrator.

Under the name, Applegate, Joanne created artwork for News Ltd for ten years. Her artwork covered realistic, symbolic, cartoon, computer graphics specializing in caricature. Joanne is recognized in the industry as one of Australia‚s leading media artists. In 2001 she left Queensland Newspapers to travel the world. Returning in 2002, Joanne continued traveling and working throughout China and Australia as a Caricaturist and Art Teacher.
Joanne’s dedication to her craft saw her undertake a solo journey to Iran during the Danish cartoon protests in order to understand the power of political cartoon from within a Muslim country.

Joanne has been exhibited in Barcelona, Iran, Scotland, France, China and all over Australia. Joanne has been published worldwide as an artist and writer. Joanne is an award winning professional media artist that understands the creative process of art and its application.

See Joanne’s Gallery of Works here

Since a little kid I have been amazed by Leonardo da Vinci.

Here you can see his drawings:

http://www.drawingsofleonardo.org/

I LOVE Paul Zanetti’s loose, but precise drawings and wacky characters:-)

Paul is an award-winning Australian cartoonist. At 23, Zanetti became the youngest cartoonist awarded a ‘Walkley Award’ (Newspaper industry recognition) for Best Editorial Cartoon. He has pioneered syndication of editorial cartoons in Australia, making him Australia’s most widely syndicated editorial cartoonist.

Check out his portfolio at http://www.zanetti.net.au/

WOW!

The real question is — how do people without any interest in art find paintings like that…

If you have a pet (or even if you don’t), you will love the art of Wendy Ann Gardner.

Wendy is an artist originally from Toronto, Canada. She began Scary Stories Inc. in 1997. Inspired by her own quirky pets, she created the Naughty Naughty Pets line of characters. These unique plush toys are playfully scary with angry eyes and growling teeth. The dolls are sold in boutiques, design stores, gifts shops, and museums throughout the world.
The Naughty Naughty Pets are also featuerd in Wendy’s books and an animated TV series.

Check out Wendy’s web site: http://www.scary-stories.com/

Mike Lynch has a very interesting link on his blog. If you would like to learn how Lynn Johnston describes the process of making the FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE strip click here.

Ghost Eats It All! is the first book written AND illustrated by Janee Trasler. The second book in this series comes out next Fall.
Ghost wants to eat everything in the house! But Monster is hungry too – will Ghost share his food? Janee Trasler’s cheerful illustrations and playful text will have readers clamoring to read this short story again and again.

Way to go, Janee!

I love this illustration… HRVATSKA 2006 by BEACH
For the love of Soccer/Football, here comes ‘Football Heroes‘ — a complete collectors picture album featuring 60 World Cup teams: all the 2006 qualifiers plus the most famous teams from World Cup history, including England 1966. It contains over 700 individual player portraits drawn by 50 illustrators from 17 different countries.
All the illustrators involved have donated their time and talent for the love of the game. The book was conceived and designed
by Jerzovskaja and Ashi, two Swiss illustrators obsessed with football, sticker albums and illustration.