How to Uncover Fake Illustrators

OBJECTIVE: How to avoiding an illustrator scam

This post is in response to the rather sad developments that I have observed over these past couple of months.

As a member of many author and illustrator groups for children’s books, I’m so very sad to see so many illustrator scams going on. These particular scams involve the use of clipart or pre-made illustrations. Just this past week, someone shared this in one of these groups:

To be clear, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with using clipart or pre-made illustrations for your children’s book. In fact, it’s an excellent way to save money during the illustration process of your book. However, it’s important to understand how they differ from custom-made illustrations.

Using pre-made images are absolutely okay to use, as long as the illustrator lets you know she’s using pre-made art.

Whether or not to use clipart should be your decision, not that of your illustrator! If you commission her to illustrate your book, you are expecting original work that has been created specifically for your book, and your book only.

For most self-published children’s authors, the illustration part of the book-creation process is the most complex and nerve-racking, because you’re putting your work – your vision – into someone else’s hands. More than likely, it’ll be a person you’ve never met, with whom you’ll only communicate via email or over the phone.

And that this is precisely what makes an author so very vulnerable to scams, when it comes to the selection of an illustrator.

How To Avoid An Illustrator Scam

I’ve had so many clients and students over the past couple of yeras, and none have ever been scammed by their illustrator! I truly believe that this is absolutely preventable, especially when you know what to look out for. And that’s why I’ve written this post. In this post, I will share with you:

• What to pay attention to
• 5 sure telltale signs that let you know your illustrator is using clipart for your book’s illustrations
• How to dig deeper if you suspect that your illustrator is trying to sell you pre-made art
• Methods you can use to vet your illustrator even before you hire him or her

To demonstrate how to go about identifying clipart, I have added sample illustrations to each scenario, which I have downloaded from Shutterstock. I have also included the original artists that created these illustrations.

PLEASE NOTE:

These are SAMPLE illustrations only! These original artists are NOT the culprits! They are simply the original illustrators that create the images and clipart that are purchased by the scamming artists and then resold as their own. 

Why You Should Care About Avoiding an Illustrator Scam

Now, you may ask yourself why it matters whether or not clipart (or pre-made art) is being used for your children’s book. Why should you care?

As I already stated, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with using clipart for children’s books, especially if it can save you some money during the book creation process. However, before agreeing to the use of pre-made art, be sure you’re aware of the following:

1. Your illustrator may be violating the governing image license agreements.

Reselling someone else’s art usually requires an Enhanced Image License, which is usually more expensive than a simple Standard Image License. So be sure to have your illustrator show you these licenses for EACH illustration.

2. Your illustrations won’t be unique to your book, as they are being resold by the original creator (the original copyright holder) as well as your illustrator, who purchased the rights to use them.

Now, there are certain telltale signs that can help you identify whether or not pre-made art has been used for your commissioned work. To help you develop an eye for it, I’ve described the most common ones below.

5 Telltale Signs That Pre-paid Clipart Has Been Used

1. Same or limited poses, and no unique angles.

With pre-made clipart it is very common to simply mirror the character and make some changes to the clothing, the face, and hair. The poses, however, remain pretty much the same. So, when looking at your individual illustrations, compare them with one another and pay special attention to each character, and how it changes from illustration to illustration.

2. Head always faces forward.

Pay special attention to the head. Pre-made clipart very rarely shows the sideview or profile of a head and usually has it facing forward.

3. Facial expressions don’t change, only the body.

Besides mostly facing forward (see 2. above), facial expressions remain the same, while only the body poses change. The facial expressions remain the same, whether your story requires a sad face or a happy face.

4. Possible Illustrator Scam: Only the props change.

Here, the facial expressions and most of the body remain the same. The only difference is in the added or changed props. As in 1. above, these images are often mirrored as well.

5. Possible Illustartor Scam: Only arms and legs change.

This one can be a bit harder to detect, especially if the hair color and props have changed. Here, too, the facial expressions remain mostly the same, while the positions of the arms and legs have been changed.

There are many more signs that give away that pre-made clipart has been used. Often, we can find a compilation of multiple characters as well. But again, most of these will be facing forward and will look rather stiff with similar facial expressions.

WHAT WE CAN DO TO PREVENT AN ILLUSTRATOR SCAM

Hiring an illustrator is one of the tasks most aspiring children’s book authors dread the most, mainly because they’ve never commissioned an artist before, and are therefore unsure what’s the norm, what’s right, and what is simply wrong. But there are a number of things we can do before hiring an illustrator that can prevent falling for such scams.

1. (Re) Consider Your Outsourcing Platform:

I encourage you to work with illustrators on platforms that give you more control throughout the entire process you’re working together with an illustrator. Most scams involving an illustrator occur on Fiverr. And while Fiverr is a great resource for smaller tasks we’re looking to outsource, your illustrations shouldn’t be one of them.

Here are a number of alternative outsourcing sites you can try:

• Freelancer.com
• Upwork.com
• Guru.com

Not only do these platforms showcase illustrators’ reviews from previous clients. They also showcase their portfolios and other statistics, such as whether or not the project was delivered on time and on budget.

You will also have complete control over the entire payment process, as you can set up payout milestones, which allow you to pay out the money based on certain milestones reached, as opposed to sending out the payment in one lump sum.

2. Vetting Your Illustrator:

I always encourage others to vet their illustrators before hiring one. This will take some additional time, but may prevent you from putting your trust, time, and money into the wrong artist.

In order to make the very most of this vetting process, I’ve included methods and strategies I share with my clients and students, and which I use myself as well.

• Go to Amazon and put the illustrator’s name into the search bar. What other books come up Take advantage of Amazon’s preview function and look inside the books. Pay special attention to the characters and look for telltale signs outlined earlier.
• Go to another outsourcing site and check out their profile there. Most illustrators are present on more than just one outsourcing site. Be sure to read the reviews and other information provided there and see if you can find any discrepancies.
• If it isn’t already showcased on the illustrators’ profile page, ask for their portfolio. Are the characters versatile enough? Again, pay special attention to see if there are any telltale signs of clipart being used.
• Many illustrators are actually showcasing their work on Instagram. So go and try finding them on Instagram and check out their profile and their illustrations over there.

Going through these extra steps will help you get a more holistic impression of the illustrator you’re about to hire for your beautiful children’s book.

3. Provide Your Illustrator With An Illustrator Brief:

Making use of an illustrator brief puts the control into your hands and greatly helps avoid an illustrator scam. Instead of having the illustrator determine what should be included in each scene, you will be the one outlining and describing each scene.

This, in turn, will prevent artists to choose illustrations and poses that are already pre-made, simply because chances of finding exactly those images you described in your illustrator brief are going to be very slim. An illustrator brief will essentially make it impossible for your illustrator to cheat.

To view such an Illustrator Briefing Template, feel free to download this one right here, that is from my book How To Self-Publish A Children’s Book.

And if you’re looking for even more guidance and protection when it comes to working with your illustrators, feel free to check out my Illustrator Survival Kit.

Hiring an illustrator can be daunting and even overwhelming at times. But if we’re doing our due diligence before hiring an artist, we can avoid illustrator scams and being taken advantage of. And instead of worrying, we can get excited about the progress our beautiful creation is making.

This stage of the book creation process has your book and all its characters come to life. And nothing could be more exciting!

Happy creating!

~ Eevi

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