Another Bruton Update

Although he has taken down the last two drawings that I posted about, I keep finding more. This is another stolen piece of art that Mark Bruton STILL has up on his web page . . . despite being called out numerous times.


You'd think after all the embarrassing publicity, he'd go through his portfolio with a fine tooth comb and get rid of ALL the evidence. Instead, like a child, he continues to live in la-la-land where denial, and distasteful ethics are a way of life.

UPDATE - 10/10/10

Mark Buton's web page has been taken down! Was it voluntary or coerced? Don't know. Not sure what it means in the long run, but hopefully, at least for the time being, it means online artists are safe from copyright fraud.

Really, Bruton...really?

Dear Mr. Bruton,

After all that has happened, sir, you continue to fail at being an artist. Not becasue of your lack of abilities, but becasue of your lack of morality.


It is clear, through your continued malevolent behavior and refusal to comply with the simple requests of your colleagues, that you have no intention of ever changing. It leaves me with a simple question . . . a challenge if looked upon from a certain point of view. Can you, in fact, do any art that is truly your own? Only time will tell, my sad, sad friend.

The sales pitch on your web page promoting your services gave me chuckle:

"There is absolutely no better or lasting gift than a drawing by a caricature artist who can humorously reveal the true character of your friends and loved ones, colleagues and business associates."

Well, here's a line drive right back at'cha:

"There is absolutely no better way of revealing an artist's true character than to make readily available to his friends and loved ones, colleagues and business associates, the drawings he has stolen."

I hope everyone who knows you will eventually come across these posts. Just so they can discover who the real Mark Bruton truly is.


P.S.

Oh, and I figured I'd include your contact information for anyone who'd like to drop you a line and tell you how they feel about your "work":

m_bruton@sbcglobal.net
(620) 339 - 9240

UPDATE - Sept 8th, 2010

15 hours after this post, Bruton's web page was updated . . . excluding the above drawings for the inventory. Only time will tell if things remain this way.

The Art of Stealing - Update

Some of you are familiar with my recent run-in with a character by the name of Mark Bruton who was caught plagiarizing artwork from the internet. I was one of his victims, as he stole a John Wayne portrait of mine, altered it, and was selling it on his web page as his own art.

Following a fairly severe backlash from the online art community, and a cease and desist letter from yours truly, Bruton took down his web page, privatized his facebook, and seemingly disappeared.

Well, it's been about a month and Bruton is back. Two days ago he republished his web page and is back in business . . . and he seems to be up to his old tricks again. Or at least he was until he was called out, yet again.

This time around, the art in question is not mine so I won't post it here on my blog, however if you're interested, here is a compilation of works that Bruton has ripped off, one of which featuring a certain bodybuilder-turned-politician was involved in this current Bruton scenario.

Since it's not my art, I have little control over the situation, but I did email Bruton and assure him that the original artists would be informed. Soon after that he took the questionable works down. I don't know if this was because of my email or because one of the original artists came down on him. Regardless, the images are down and Bruton is no longer using them to market himself.

I'm not sure what it's going to take to convince this guy that stealing another person's art is wrong and illegal, but I can say that I'm beginning to loose patience with Mark Bruton and his childish antics. If anything, perhaps he will realize that he is being (and always will be) closely watched.

I really hope that anyone who is considering making an art purchase from Mark Bruton will come across stories like mine and will be inclined to make an educated decision as to whether or not the art he is selling is legit, and whether or not he deserves their business.

This is a call to all hard working artists out there to please help keep Mark Bruton and characters like him as honest as possible. Spread the word.

The Art of Stealing

An unfortunate situation has been forced upon me, one I never thought I would have to deal with. Thanks to an informative post here on my blog from artist Bob East, I learned that a person by the name of Mark Bruton was suspected of stealing a digital painting I did of John Wayne. So I began to investigate, and this is what I found:

My initial reaction was that a mistake had been made. It seemed that this person had simply used the same photo reference as I, but upon closer examination I discovered that Mark Bruton's John Wayne drawing was in my opinion an altered version of mine own.

It seems he has taken my painting off of my blog, drawn or painted on top of it, and put his name on it. What's more, he was selling it on his webpage.

Now, had it not been for Mark Bruton's lame attempt to dodge the blame in his response to the cease and desist order I sent him, I wouldn't be spending all this time and energy providing evidence of his obvious infraction against me. Mark writes:

". . . it is a well known fact that all artists [use] reference photos and others works. After comparing these drawings I can see how one might draw the conclusion that they are very similar. However mine has many color differences and others as well. Many artists have done renderings of this photo."

Nice try Lao Che! Here's my retort:

Not entirely obvious until you start to compare the simplified
shapes for the eyes, nose, mouth, and chin.

Notice the highlights on, and the general outline of, the nose,
and the graphic shadow shape of the nasal labial fold.
Also pay attention to the brush strokes in this region.

In my opinion, it doesn't get any more obvious than this.
The brush strokes are exactly the same. Also, notice that
the shirt in the reference photo is red while in both
drawings the shirt is blue.

And in case he still has doubts, here is a video of the two images superimposed together.

Some may say I'm coming down a little too hard on this guy. Perhaps, but take into consideration that I'm not the first artists he's stolen from. 75 percent of the art for sale on his web page was stolen from other people. He even had the audacity to put a copyright symbol on them.

Check out these blog posts from other's who have caught Mark Bruton stealing from them:

Emily's Caricature Sketchblog
Monty's Muse

The bottom line is that i believe Mark Bruton has stolen from me. This is my opportunity to expose his dirty deeds and hopefully he will get the hint that he is not welcome in the art community as long as he continues with his dishonest practices, especially if he's not going to be MAN enough to admit he's done something wrong.

If he really wants to do the right thing, this is my advice to him. Own up to your misdeeds, give credit where credit is due, and stop trying to profit off of other people's hard work. An apology would be nice too.

Working within the realm of honesty and integrity is the first lesson for an artist to learn. The second lesson is . . . simply redrawing or recreating another person's art DOES NOT MAKE IT YOUR OWN . . . legally, ethically, or artistically.

UPDATE - June 4th, 2010:

I've come across a few more examples of work that Mark Bruton has stolen from other legitimate artists. You may have to get out your Google Translator for some of these, Bruton's gone international:

Colectivo Bicicleta
Wittygraphy
Noticias De Cartoon
Bruton Facebook Fan Club

Also, It's been twelve days since my email and I have yet to hear back from Bruton. No witty retort, no defense, no apology. I guess this shows how "big" a man Mark Bruton really is.