AndyFairhurst

So it would seem I've been a member of Deviantart for 10 years as of today! As you were.

I have a facebook page if you wanna follow www.facebook.com/AndyFairhurst… I have lots of other stuff going on around the web too like a new Behance page www.behance.net/AndyFairhurst and Twitter, which I'm still getting used to twitter.com/andy_fairhurst

So if you want to follow you can find me at those places as well as here

Here is an interview I did for Blurppy.com blurppy.com/2013/11/21/exclusi…

                                                                                  *


How cool is this? Ray Park and my Darth Maul print! Big thanks to Mike S. Miller and Oly Pittman for setting this one up over in the US




Facebook - www.facebook.com/AndyFairhurst…
Twitter -     twitter.com/andy_fairhurst
Pinterest -  pinterest.com/andyfairhurst/bo…
Society 6 - society6.com/AndyFairhurst
Redbubble - www.redbubble.com/people/andyf…

Facebook - www.facebook.com/AndyFairhurst…
Twitter -     twitter.com/andy_fairhurst
Pinterest -  pinterest.com/andyfairhurst/bo…
LinkedIn -  www.linkedin.com/profile/view?…

I don't pretend to understand exactly 3/4 of these sites though, but I'm learning. So join/add/like/block me if you want to

Howdy all. I have a dilemma.

For a few years now I have had people ( who I am very grateful to ) alert me to the fact that someone or other is selling prints of my work...mostly my Batman picture andyfairhurst.deviantart.com/a… and other fan art, on ebay and the like. There is never much one can do about these situations other than report the issue to the admin of the sites and they rarely do anything.

So here I am a struggling freelance artist with 3 kids to feed blahdy blah whilst someone else is making a profit out of my work, and I, the creator of these images has not made a penny.

My dilemma is this. Should I start selling signed prints of my Batman image and others such as my Boba Fett andyfairhurst.deviantart.com/a… and Vader andyfairhurst.deviantart.com/a… pictures? I have resisted the urge over the years to do this due to IP and copyright issues which may occur. But as my family and I struggle to make ends meet (I know a lot of freelancers are in the same boat ) I wonder if this is something I should be doing, after all if people are willing to buy them at least they will be from the actual artist who painted them and not some dodgy art thief selling low res crappy giant wall posters. If I sold them they would be of a MUCH higher quality than the terrible stolen copies that I have seen - and that people are buying unaware they have been stolen. I would get them printed myself and hand sign then them for the customer.

I have contacted Warner Brothers and D.C a few times now regarding the issue and asking for permission and have had no replies apart from one saying they would get back to me in due course...months have passed by, now. I will contact Disney too but fear I will get the same 'no response'.

I get more requests for these images than any others but I always decline. All my fan art is my own interpretation of the character rather than a copy of an existing image that is already out there, so while the character is not mine the painting is all mine.

What would you do? I am particularly interested in what other freelancers have to say but the opinion of everyone is more than welcome

Cheers

Andy


***OK the Consensus was 'Don't do it you fool! Don't join the dark side!' Which I sort of knew all along. Oh well, I will still be selling signed prints of my own ( not fanart ) stuff on ebay. And I will try my best to get in touch with relevant people regarding licenses/permission. Thanks everyone for the great replies ***