Inktober Book Plagerism Accusations

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@NessIllustration Jake can’t win no matter what. these people of little minds will always think he plagiarized Dunn. If it will be proven that no plagiarism happened, I want Dunn to make a public apology.

[xin li]

@pixel-dsp It is such a mess. Highly respect Jake and the whole team at SVS: everyone dealt this matter in such a professional and calm way - the way a true art sensei would do.

@Nyrryl-Cadiz In my opinion, Jake already won.

As an old saying goes - "And this, too, shall pass away."

I look forward to this year's inktober, and can not wait to see all the beautiful art that will come out from the svs family.

[Julia]

I also think it is not fair to assume the commenters are young and inexperienced : first it is unkind to the youth. I know bright youngs whose opinions are balanced. Saying this, without real study or statistics to back it up, tends to generalise the profil of the commenters and to create a generation gap.

Second, I feel it exonarates the commenters or at least diminish their responsability.

When someone makes a comment on social media (or, as a matter of fact, any forums, blogs, etc. Anywhere public), there is an individual responsability going along as well as a moral commitment. This is even truer for hateful or racist comments.

Going back to the comments below Alphonso's video, yes, most of them show an immediate, emmotional reaction of support and sympathy towards Alphonso, and plenty of them carry a bias and sharp judgement against Jake. Finally another substential percentage include some racist or hateful statement. This is very shocking and very sad, unfortunately Internet allows behaviours that would be sanctionned "in real life" in democratic countries. Internet is also real life but didn't seem to have solve this yet... maybe Youtube should be the one looking at the hateful and racist comments and take appropriate action?

[Coreyartus]

@Julia You're right, I was overgeneralizing.

Just an FYI, during my own blocking/muting/restricting efforts to save my sanity on Instagram and Twitter, I visited a lot of those accounts. I have absolutely no statistical evidence other than my own personal anecdotal observation, and I am sure I looked at things with my own biases. I discovered about a third of them were new, with 0-10 postings and 0-10 followers, implying to me they may have been made specifically to post with anonymity as "stab accounts". Another third seemed to be accounts that had under 100 followers. Generally, of all of those, the profiles that most commonly had ages listed were on Twitter, and usually those ages were under 25 years. I didn't see any ages listed older than that.

That probably gave me bias confirmation and led me to overgeneralize. Apologies. And also the fact that I teach students of that age at university means I see a lot of really immature stuff, but I have to remember that I also see awesome, integrity driven young people I'm now proud to call peers and colleagues.

Interestingly another thing I noticed was that about half of the accounts I visited were not illustrators or even artists of any kind. Which was really curious. About half the number of accounts I visited on Instagram were Private, and I couldn't see anything they posted.

All told, I have blocked/restricted about 100 accounts on Instagram slowly over the last 3 days so as not to pop the algorithm or flag my account, and about 75 on Twitter.

Of course, I opened tabs in my browser for each account on Saturday and slowly addressed them as I worked, so who knows who is posting now. A lot can happen in 72 hours.

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@xin-li This whole thing is stressing me out i just want it to be over

[hakepe]

@jsnzart there's your angle of approach then, politics is nuts.... now start drawing

[xin li]

@Nyrryl-Cadiz just keep drawing, just keep drawing...

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@xin-li haha thanks

[StudioHannah]

I came here looking for some sane conversation, and found it! Thank you! I've been upset about this whole thing, because I really like Jake, and I respect Alphonso, so it's sad seeing these accusations unfold and cause so much anger in the art community. It will end eventually - everything does - and I hope it ends well. I hope. Still, there are going to be people who irrevocably dislike Jake and boycott Inktober no matter what happens. Alphonso probably did more damage than he realized.

I also made a video about this that I hope is ok to share here. I want to be fair to both artists, though I do have a definite bias toward Jake because of how long I've been lurking around YouTube and SVS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GCWSBuTKPs&lc=Ugz3ffqfJk67EKJMTkJ4AaABAg

Thanks for making this thread, Lee. I hope Jake sees all the love he's getting in here.

[carrieannebrown]

@Nyrryl-Cadiz it's genuinely stressing me out too! I'm worried about being in the public eye in the future now. I tried deleting my social media apps to stay out of it but it didn't last long . I don't want to argue with strangers on Instagram but some of the comments really wind me up!

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@carrieannebrown I TOTALLY AGREE! It's frustrating

[danielerossi]

@StudioHannah Just a side note: I came across your video a few days ago and enjoyed it very much. Not only did you raise excellent points. I got curious and watched your Inktober one. I’m still laughing at “you insult me, you insult my dog!”

[George Broussard]

@StudioHannah said in Inktober Book Plagerism Accusations:

I also made a video about this that I hope is ok to share here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GCWSBuTKPs&lc=Ugz3ffqfJk67EKJMTkJ4AaABAg

Good video.

It's going to now ultimately come down to Chronicle lawyers looking over both books and rendering a decision. That's just how it's going to go. They may well want to change some pages. If they delay and change pages this will hurt Jake. If they cancel the book this will hurt Jake (likely being responsible for paying back advances).

Suing people takes a lot of money. I doubt Jake or Alphonso either one will initiate action on the other one, themselves. You can vaporize 100k in no time.

I still think Dunn acted rashly and caused damage to Jake's reputation and even monetary damages with potentially unfounded accusations.

• Jake either blatantly copied the book. Unlikely as he knows what would happen and there's no history of anything unethical in his past.

• Jake got lazy and when writing it flipped through some books for "what are good textures to put on these cubes?". That's not even lazy. That's essentially research and inspiration and there are 100's of sources online or in books of textured material forms.

I think you have to give Jake the benefit of the doubt here. He's a pro, he has a high profile and he full well knows what accusations like this can do to a career. He's not stupid enough to willfully do this or even be lazy enough to do it. I'm sure nobody ever thought anyone would care about some textured cubed or value charts etc. It's silly to even consider it.

As it is, Chronicle and Jake have little choice but to fight. Chronicle may throw their hands up and just say "not our fault" leaving Jake holding an expensive bag, legally.

So it comes down to how Chronicle reacts. Will they stand behind the book and Jake or not? All we can do is wait to see their response.

[John Roberson]

Omg thank you! I just discovered this video today and at first I thought it was just a clickbait title having followed both artists for some time. But then I started watching. Dunn seemed so adamant in his accusations and the people in the comments seemed to mostly agree wholeheartedly. But I just couldn’t see it. It’s been on my mind all day.

Everything he was pointing out was stuff that I’ve seen or heard repeated over and over at various points in my art education. And Jake’s layouts, while perhaps a bit derivative in a broader sense, seemed different enough from Dunn’s...at least from a layout and design standpoint. I watched it 3 or 4 different times and kept pausing it at certain points trying to understand. Every time Dunn would point something out it just felt to me like he was claiming ownership of the art fundamentals themselves rather than outlining clear examples of outright plagiarism.

And sooo many people seem to be supporting his accusations without question. Beyond just empathizing with how Jake must be feeling, the implications of how Dunn handled this and the arguments being presented leaves me feeling very unsettled. By what it means for art education and for the overall art community. And it’s part of a larger unease I feel about our current cultural climate and how we address conflict on a fundamental level. But seeing that at least some people were feeling the same gives me some solace.

[Julia]

@Coreyartus don't appologize! I am the one who owe you an appology if I made you (or anyone else) uneasy!

You did make reference to the imperfection of your statistics in your first post due to the random and small sample of the profiles you looked at. You did a great job and you are maybe right! There might be a trend... but we don't know for sure. I am quite sensitive to generalisation and I thought, if someone young comes and read that thread, s/he may have a misrepresentation of the inclusive spirit on the forum!

Let me tell you a personal anecdote : I was born and educated in the French countryside. In France, American movies used to be dubbed and titles translated from English to French (for exemple, Die Hard became "Piège de cristal" litterally "the crystal trap" in reference of the glass building where most of the movie is shot). Once a famous and trendy Parisian journalist explained on TV that movies were not played in English and subtitled (as opposed to dubbing) because the French people in the countryside don't understand English. I was a teenager and I was learning English at school like anyone else of my age in France. And yes, my understanding was not perfect. And yes, in the countryside we don't have an easy access to culture (to museums, or even sometimes to movie theaters). But this journalist had sarcasm in his voice and made me feel dumb. It may seem silly but it hurt me. Since then, I have always been careful to treat people equally and I am mindful of generalisation. My motto is Socrate's famous quote : I know that I know nothing!

I hope you (and others) didn't feel attacked, that was not the purpose of my post.

I read here and there that people feel stressed. I am sorry to read this and I am glad we have a safe place to discuss the topic and release the anxiaty. I too empathise with Jake, whose level of stress must be up to the roof.

[Joey Wall]

If nobody gets sued, it will work out
good for both parties i think.

No such thing as bad publicity, ill buy both books now but had no plans too

[Shyam Sailus]

@Lee-White Hi Guys, a friend of Mr Jake Parker from India named Kesh Posted a Video titled "My Thoughts on the 'Inktober' Controversy" in his youtube channel check this out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdCffP8BBg8

[Geoffrey Gordon]

@Shyam-Sailus Just finish watching his thoughts..... I really like Kesh, someone I have found really approachable. He has a really balanced explanation that is fair and accurate. I love how he explains the mob and individual opinion contrast and why we need all the facts.

Personally I am behind Jake parker all the way, yes I am picking aside. To quote from Smallville Lex Luthor says "A person isn't who they are during the last conversation you had with them - they're who they've been throughout your whole relationship." - by Rainer Maria Rilke. Yes I love this show. Jake cannot be suddenly evil when his character has been kind and giving all along.

Its funny though... the more famous you become the more people tend to despise you too," its kind of a tear someone else down to make yourself feel better about your own mediocre life" syndrome. Why cant people just be happy for others. I believe we all blossom at the right time for us in our lives sometimes its sooner sometimes it's later.

On a side note, I have bought a few of his classes ...He currently is running a drawing camp 14 modules covering foundations, design, and creation. I got it at a steal of $55. https://www.keshart.in/drawing-camp1 I share it because his courses are really cheap but packed with good value for those who have not purchased art lessons.

Svslearn is great but I have found spreading my education between Udemy , Skillshare, 21 draw, Keshart, Mitch Leeuwe and a few other places help broaden your understanding when you see art taught from different viewpoints.

That's my rant on the situation, figured its probably safest here.

Ps @Jake-Parker I hope you are doing okay and this works out soon for you. You have my support.

[Joanne Roberts]

@Lee-White When all the dust settles and the time is appropriate, maybe a similar topic could be featured on Three-Point perspective on how to handle negative feedback on social media, professional courtesy, or online rights, and of course what to do when you think your copyright is being infringed upon (or vice versa). Thanks for taking my suggestion into consideration. By the way, thanks for taking care of this tough thread with such grace and level-headedness for your friend and colleague at a time when he needs it most. You are leading by example and it is much appreciated.

[Lee White]

@Joanne-Roberts Thanks! It's a tricky area for sure! I think that would make a great podcast. Maybe VERY far in the future! : )