has anyone seriously ever ripped off another artist and was caught? i have. i thought i needed to share this with yous.
ok, i dont know if this was a topic here on emptees or anything, but in my earlier years of designing, salt the wound asked for a design that had a skeleton praying, with a sort of tattoo influence about it. i was stoked that salt the wound asked for a design so i wanted to make it as bad ass as possible, so i started getting references from tattoo sites and whatnot, but stumbled across horsebites' 'faith' design that i felt at the time REALLY suited what they were after( heres a link to horsebites work:
And my deadline for the design was coming close and i had nothing for em, so it was a spur of the moment thing when i basically ripped that design and gave it STW. at the time i was young and didnt really understand what designing was all about, so i honestly didnt feel like what i was doing was SO bad as i didnt draw the EXACT same thing. i uploaded it on myspace, and surely enough i came across horsebites' myspace and added him, he then, shortly after accepting my add, sent me a message that said that he knew bout the rip and whatnot, at the time i was shitting myself, i was like "fuck ive been caught", so i apologized to him and told him that i will pick up my game and draw all original pieces.
to be honest, at the time i didnt feel i did anything that wrong, until it happened to me.when i found a guy who ripped my work, i was nothing short of pissed off and wanting to rip the guys face with a rake, and after i was finished telling the guy off, i realized that thats how horsebites must’ve felt when he found me out, and thats when i decided to never rip another artist off again.
i just thought i needed to share this with the community i surely have come to love, i hope that yous dont think any differently of me, and i hope horsebites has come to accept the fact that im deeply sorry for doing what i did.
i dont know if many of yous would feel comfortable to share your story ( if anyone actually does have one) but it would be great if you did.
Who’s talking?
itcamefromthesky!
sockmonkee
edgillustrator
Cole
skullfacegodmachine
horsebites
edword
derekdeal
gaunty
Acid
hideouscarwreck
LitoQ
discordantart
collisiontheory
jaynajaynajayna
Josh | Diamond Diet
kevinsylvia
jimmyheartcore
quakerninja- ninjapig
JeffK
justgeoff
JBennettDesigns
mbennett 
DrewGliever
jimiyo
kenny g
4Sevens
Keithr
Nicolo Nimor
esquire
valorandvellum
alexcampbellart
justinryan
Matthew88
matt901
beth
52 Comments
itcamefromthesky! said 4 months ago
I can honestly say I haven’t ripped anyone. Although not everything I do is super original, either.
sockmonkee said 4 months ago
very humbling post
edgillustrator said 4 months ago
thats great man :]
but honestly who can actually say nowadays that everything they made was SUPER original? everything we actually draw has come from an idea at the back of our head that came from another idea.
i think the only people who can say that they made something really original is the pioneers of art, and theyre dead.
edgillustrator said 4 months ago
thank you :]
itcamefromthesky! said 4 months ago
Absolutely. I’m more of an execution nut, anyway. I see your shit and drool over how well it is executed more than the detail or colors.
edgillustrator said 4 months ago
haha aww thanks man :]
Cole said 4 months ago
one of my first designs ever was a pretty straight rip of nick schemecas design for heartcore. jimmy sent out a million bulletins and i had people IM’ing me for a week calling me a fag. that taught me pretty quick what i did was a no-no.
kinda funny i live with him now.
skullface said 4 months ago
I used to be into pixel art and once I tried over a Hamtaro pixel that this famous-in-the-community girl made. got called out and it never happened again. luckily I was 11 so I learned my lesson early!
it’s great that Salt the Wound still has you doing so many shirts for them after that! but your style/work is insane, no one ripping your stuff could go under the radar for long.
godmachine said 4 months ago
nah...i havent got any story like that that comes to mind...
edgillustrator said 4 months ago
damn man haha :]
i actually didnt have anyone have a go at me except horsebites about that, but when i joined and found the manticores posts about rips and such, i felt like a bag of shit because i thought something like that was posted about me haha
edgillustrator said 4 months ago
thats because your too cool for that shit man ;]
haha hamtaro, that show had the most annoying theme song but cutest characters, and thanks for that, some guy actually got into an art school by showing my old designs, thats why i never post anything without my name on it, actually, i dont post anything anywhere else except here and DBH, and when i do post it soemwhere like myspace, i crop it and never show the full design :]
edgillustrator said 4 months ago
oh and incase yous were wondering how my rip looked like, here it is:
horsebites said 4 months ago
At least you did a good job ripping it off. I forgot who alerted me about it but since we talked on myspace and whatnot I forgot about it. When I first started I was probably guilty of ripping someone off.
I’m sure there is a saying for someone to admit there mistakes and come out with them, I just don’t know one.
Anyone?
edword said 4 months ago
hahaha
derekdeal said 4 months ago
when in rome? i dont know i got nothin
gaunty said 4 months ago
hahaha again
Acid said 4 months ago
When I first started doing pixel art I ripped someones computer and changed it a bit, some people thought it looked similar but I kept denying it saying that it was similar, but I made mine from scratch... havent admitted it until now when Im pretty much free of it lol. Unless anyone here used to go on habbomeadowforum.com?
Still though since then i havent done it since I realised what kind of crap Id get if I did it again so I havent.
hideouscarwreck said 4 months ago
LitoQ said 4 months ago
hahaha, at least your a good sport and didnt disappear off the face of the planet
Edgil, I have a whole new level of respect for you for posting this
discordantart said 4 months ago
that takes a lot to come out and admit it, i always knew about that one being a rip, never came forth to say anthing to you about it though.
nothing really comes to mind in the last few years, but i’ve ripped off things when i was younger, there is an artist by the name of J. Axer that i was nuts about, and i did a lot of rocktoons by adapting his style. i was like thirteen though and never made a cent off of it.
props on owning up to it though, most people don’t. having everything ripped from me from my artwork/style, to something as ridiculous as my myspace layout and bio-- has been nothing but an annoyance for the past few years, and largely a slap in the face coming from some of the people.
collisiontheory said 4 months ago
That’s a great story dude! So awesome for bringing it out in the open.
jaynajaynajayna said 4 months ago
Being open about it is pretty great, you know you have mad respect on here anyway. You know cause like, you’re really talented and stuff. But yea thanks for sharing
Josh | Diamond Diet said 4 months ago
Isn’t Richard a member here? Yours is different enough that if (hypothetical, no one stab me) I were to have done that I would’ve at least flipped it horizontally and changed the color scheme.
I’ve done a shirt with a "pokedude" a shirt with a certain irish guy wearing a golden vest leaning on a cane and a falcon with a hockeystick (google springfield falcons) but I’ve never gone and ripped an artist.
When I was younger though I got started with Photoshop doing signatures on forums and I had some douche’s from other sites steal my stuff but that’s about it.
edgillustrator said 4 months ago
haha aw thanks :]
yeah i mean i just didnt feel right that most of you didnt know about it, plus im really glad that richard confronted me, because that was a MASSIVE slap to the face and made me realize it was wrong :]
haha in the case of ripping J. Axer, its not really a rip, its just experimenting and working in his style :]
hahaha i definitely see your style in all the new artists work man, you definitely have a style that appeals to the public, i dont blame them trying to rip you off, your style is great :]
but about the whole myspace layout/about me, it happens to me alot aswell, i hate opening a message from someone saying how much they enjoy my work and then me opening up their myspace to find that we have the EXACT same layout and about me, just with their name in place of mine.
but there was a serious matter with this one kid that just took my designs from myspace, printed them on high quality paper(because i was stupid enough to put hi-rez designs on my myspace)and showed them to an art school and got accepted using MY designs, i was DEFINITELY pissed off
oh and actually chad, i dont remember where but i saw this kid with the see you next teusday design as their default and it was the one you put on your myspace where it was just the face and he said that it was him hahaha idiot yeah?
kevinsylvia said 4 months ago
I’m not sure if you’re aware or not, and it kind of seems shitty, but Salt The Wound just printed this shirt, and it’s now available over in their store. It i great thought hat you came forward with all this.
here’s the store link:
http://www.indiemerchstore.com/saltthewound/item.php?s=226&c=&id=5441&ref=L3NhbHR0aGV3b3VuZA==
jimmyheartcore said 4 months ago
Oh damn.
quakerninja said 4 months ago
My miller rip I’m not worried but it is lazy on my part, go media bush and miller.
The only thing I changed really was the daft. I think its funny.
ninjapig said 2 months ago
great thing to remember. sounds suspiciously like this
JeffK said 2 months ago
very true.....very honorable of you to post this edgil =]
justgeoff said 2 months ago
I’ve only ever ripped off Clint English. But that’s a victimless crime.
JBennettDesigns said 2 months ago
totally recalled that but never called it.never thought it to be intentional of you. i never try to rip another artist and all good artists dont but i think influences can very easily flow into your work after seeing so much other techniques. good man
mbennett said 2 months ago
i will come out
i have riped alot in my past but i think that was becuase i was young an dumb and looked up to many people.
and chad you where my biggest addiction.
sorry for the past.
DrewGliever said 2 months ago
I’ll come out with one too, then..
several years ago when I was real into tattoo designs and pencil drawings, I completely ripped off this chestpiece I saw in bmezine, a skull/crossbones with wings, and it’s still in my portfolio. I regret doing it any time anyone ever tells me how great it is and every time I show it to someone as my own work.
jimiyo said 2 months ago
The other day something caught my eye...
And a couple seconds later, my eyeball got ripped out and dragged miles down the street.
kenny g said 2 months ago
we might be thinking of the same thing... it was there... then poof.
4Sevens said 2 months ago
Yeah.... no.
So remove it from your portfolio.
DrewGliever said 2 months ago
well before now I had never come clean about it. I don’t think I’ll be showing it off anymore.
Keithr said 18 days ago
I own this shirt, and I’m wearing it right now. haha
Nicolo Nimor said 18 days ago
rip that fucking guys face wit a rake!!! you guys shoul do a design about that!
esquire said 18 days ago
Its not shitty if I wasnt aware of it being ripped when I printed it homie, when I commisioned this design I was new to the world of designer and put out a very loose concept to an artist because all of us in the band are VERY into tradional tattoos and have alot of candy skull tattoos and thought it would be rad to have a shirt based on it. We printed this shirt months and months ago and have had it in a few different colors and I just found this post today and discovered its rip factor, and even so Edgil is still one of my favorite people ever, tip top designer, great dude all around and very honorable that he could come clean on something like this and stand with his head held high, props to horsebits for the original and props to edgil for moral fiber
valorandvellum said 18 days ago
Wow, props for coming clean... it’s definitely interesting to hear a rip off story from the other side.
The only time I ever felt like I was ripping someone off was at work... my boss showed me artwork by some random artist and wanted me to paint something just like it for a big event (to go on all their promotional materials). I pretty much stole that artist’s style, but made something sort of new with it. I still feel a little icky about it – it’s "fine art" and that guy makes a living with his painting style. I’d feel weird if somebody did that to me.
alexcampbellart said 18 days ago
This thread is going to make me tear up. Even more respect for everyone now.
I’ll admit I’ve tried ripping, but I feel terrible when I do so I just throw it away.
edgillustrator said 18 days ago
i love you jake
esquire said 18 days ago
STW is a big family Edgil, we kill for each other haha, we always have your back
justinryan said 18 days ago
this post kind of confuses me. so, it is cool to rip someone off if you later make a thread and fess up to it? I’m not trying to hate on you, edgil. I’m sure this was a one time thing and you usually do super solid work.. but I feel like comments like you are being praised and congratulated for doing something wrong, just because you admitted it. does that mean it wasn’t wrong anymore? you still profited off of someone elses ideas and work.
i don’t know. just rubs me the wrong way.
Matthew88 said 18 days ago
RIP’s are wrong, we all know that, and there are probably a vast amount of highly skilled designers that were very frustrated in their early days and wanted to be super good super quick, and got too tempted and did a rip.
He knows he did wrong, and it was just the once quite a long time ago. People should get forgiveness at least just the one time.
justinryan said 18 days ago
I feel that for sure, but why does that only apply to the more popular designers on this site? if this were some random dude that came on and posted this, everyone would have went nuts (as this sites history has showed). totally not saying that I wish people would have reacted different.. I' just surprised that a community, that is normally so big on not awaiting an explanation and just attacking, is able to turn a blind eye to a situation like this for a second (or possibly more) time, just because it is someone who is popular on the site. oh well, just sayin...
matt901 said 18 days ago
I think it’s a fair point. It highlights the point about the public execution style call outs that get thrown around on here. People should take a leaf out of how horsebites handled the situation. A poilte email saying ' I know you ripped me, take it down or else....' is usually enough. It isn’t neccesary for a whole online community to bombard that person with hate mail and make post about it on here in order to get some kind of vigilante action going
think on people.
derekdeal said 18 days ago
i hear where you are coming from justin, but since the original artist isnt even making a stink, may as well live and let live. heed the words of the horse...
justinryan said 18 days ago
good points, I suppose. hopefully this was not seen as me trying to start anything. I was/am just legitimately confused as to why certain rips are worthy of a beating and others not haha. most of you know I love everyone anyway. just being curious haha
justgeoff said 18 days ago
I like trying out new styles. I don’t consider it ripping, per se. If I try to emulate some artist, my own style is still going to sneak into it. Sure, it might look like I was influenced by the style, which I was, but it’s still putting my twist on it. That’s how artists evolve. Now, blatantly ripping their art is another story.
beth said 18 days ago
This was way to long to read....but I read the first sentince and I know what this is aobout. A loooong looong time ago when I lived many a states away lived a secret society. Though little is know about them now...We believed they had naked photoshoots and carple tunnel from prolonged time spent on thier computers.