This is so saddening... Honestly, reading this thread, I found it kind of suspicious that they managed to send you the PNG so quickly since they traced said art. Also before their DeviantArt accounts were closed I saw from the links that their journals were apologies but again, said apologies sounded suspicious in a way. Honestly, I would have forgiven them, but the fact that they BLOCKED all those people dashed that dream away- It's that hard to apologize for tracing AND give your clients a refund？ I hope you and your partner will get a rightful refund and I hope yall are doing well! :(
Edit: New accounts and business emails have been found. Please see Update #3 for the most recent info.
If you find any way to contact them that isn't listed, or have an updates, please share them here or feel free to DM me if you wish to remain anonymous.
The Artist Beware is now active. You can find it here.
Hello, all.
One never thinks that they will have to write one of these, but the world is a funny place.
Back in August of 2019, My partner Lainebrary and I purchased this set of adoptables for their ABs; $125 each. The transaction went incredibly smoothly, and Pepapen was very quick and professional to deliver files; even going so far as creating additional files for us when asked for separate .pngs for the fullbodies / portraits.
April 3rd, 2021; I was browsing Pinterest and I came across an art piece that feels oddly similar to my character, Blessing; and when I overlaid them, it became incredibly clear that this wasn’t just a reference, there was a direct trace.
I spent the next hour and a half, in tears, tearing through the internet with image searches to try to find which image came first; the adoptable, or this bust piece I found on Pinterest. Spoiler; it was the portrait I’d found, which pre-dates these two adoptables by two years. You can find it here, time-stamped December 26, 2017; two years before the adoptables were created. https://monappy.jp/picture_places/view/22490
I reached out to Pepapen immediately seeking recourse. You can find the emails here, where I describe my demands to fix the situation;
- A public post on your art and social media accounts admitting that you traced. With this, I would like to see you come clean on every piece that was traced or 'heavily referenced'. Track down the people who paid you for these works or adopts, and offer them a full refund or a redraw.
- Reach out to the artists whose works you've stolen.
- A full refund on these designs.
Within a day, all of my demands were met. I linked to their public posts on my own DeviantArt, and thought it was done. A clean resolution, and I was content to let sleeping dogs lie.
Public Post Links:
- https://www.deviantart.com/pepapen/status-update/22234667
- https://www.deviantart.com/posepedia/status-update/22234618
Until my partner reached out to a friend of theirs, who had gotten a commission from Pepapen, and advised them to double-check the work with Pepapen & Posepedia. That was when the commissioner found out that Pepa had blocked them, when they had no correspondence with the artist since the last commission. They, in turn, reached out to another friend; who was also blocked.
And thus the need for this PSA. I advise you, if you have bought an adoptable or commissioned work from this pair, to seek recourse. While I have not looked for evidence of more traces, I am highly suspicious of the ‘preventative blocking’ that seems to be taking place; also, when I had asked that Pepapen make a public announcement, what good does it do if they just block anyone from even seeing it?
From what I can tell, contacting Posepedia is the only way to get a response, if you’ve been blocked on the main account. Feel free to add any information in the comments and I’ll update this thread.
As of right now, both characters that were listed on TH have been set to hidden until we can find an artist who is willing to redesign them.
Evidence Compiling;
Updates
Edit 3 (October 21st, 2021):
It seems Pepapen and Posepedia are in the middle of re-branding and have resurfaced. Thank you to the anonymous user who DMd me with some more information!
Game Project: https://mushroomallow.itch.io/edda-cafe
Associated Twitter: https://twitter.com/mushroomallow_
Associated Itch.io; https://mushroomallow.itch.io/
New Business Email: [email protected]
Edit 2 (April 8th, 2021):
From a kind soul who wishes to remain anonymous, I have received several more places of contact, some that seem to be more active than others. I'll be updating the main thread post with these, as well.
Pepapen:
https://blackpepper.itch.io/ [Deactivated]
https://www.instagram.com/blackpepperwitch/?hl=en [Seems to be a Dead Account]
https://twitter.com/Mayorpumpkinxxx [Deactivated]
New Email: [email protected]
Invoice Email: [email protected]
Posepedia:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDgtcduN5xutQmfue_rI_sg [Seems to be a Dead Account]
https://www.patreon.com/posepedia/creators [Deactivated]
https://www.twitch.tv/posepedia [Seems to be a Dead Account]
Edit 1 (April 7th, 2021): It seems that both Pepapen and Posepedia are now blocking past commissioners. Their business email is [email protected]. Alternatively, their Twitter is morinoiratelier, and their Art Station is https://www.artstation.com/morinoir, though it seems like both accounts are pretty dead. Another account name has been found, as well; "lapinpen". [Old information, please see Update #3 for updated emails and business accounts]
VictoryVManga As you can see in my emails, I wanted to close this in a professional, tidy way that wouldn't have torn apart their careers. But when they blocked -every- customer they had to stop them from being able to reach out, and then deactivated, it became incredibly clear that there was more here than just the one incident.
Thank you for letting me know. I do have an adopt I bought from them on 2.1.2019.... I did message back on DA. I hope you and your partner are better, thank you so much for taking the time to put this together. Stay safe and stay amazing.
Adding this to the thread on behalf of Ventuna on Deviantart as they do not have a toyhouse account. I will provide screenshots of my exchange with Ventuna if anyone wants it.
In 2018, Ventuna purchased a Kingdom Hearts themed adoptable, purchasing an additional custom keyblade to go with the design. The result did not resemble the reference they gave in any way, and when Ventuna complained about the discrepancy they received no reply.
Ventuna sent this as reference: https://sta.sh/029cnscbdg6x
A month and a half later, Ventuna received this as the finished product: https://sta.sh/08uef8fub3f
You can also see a thread Ventuna made talking about this situation on Gaia Online Here
Lainebrary That's... that's awful, what the hell??? I'm willing to bet they found another keyblade and just copied the design or something... that reference was perfectly clear and easy to work from.
Ikayuro
Yes, even though I like them, I feel a bit cheated in the light of all this. Where you interested in them as well? qwq
So I'm working on filling out the claim on Paypal
Just need the right words as English isn't my main language
Wow, I hope you all can get your refund back it's not right they blocked and left without solving the matter. It leaves a bad example. That is awful, doesn't even come close to the reference given. If ventuna needs a code for TH I'll give you one if needed.
thank you for noting me on dA! this is a bummer for us fans of their work. RIP
here is my commission by them from January 2 (but ordered Nov 29 2020): https://toyhou.se/8213203.esme/gallery#30782119
when i ordered it, i had originally asked for a WIP of the commission, but pepapen said this, which surprised me: "There are 2 versions, with and without the magic effect. I do apologize for not giving you any wip, because when posepedia gave me the commission, it's already been lined and base colored I hope we did her justice in this commission, but if you notice something minor is missing/incorrect, let me know and I'll fix it asap." i kind of wonder if any of the base poses posepedia posted and were trying to sell were traced; i saw a lot in their gallery.
https://toyhou.se/4057216.reymond/gallery#16349032 is a headshot drawn by pepapen in Sep 1 2019. ikayuro's friend found me on https://www.deviantart.com/pepapen/art/Bust-Commission-Batch1-813225963
staria - That's a huge red flag. Any artist worth their salt would have been like, "Oh yeah, I still have the sketch layer on the .psd, here you go! Or... I don't know, would show you the sketch to make sure it was all good before completing it, because it's easier to fix mistakes before lining and colouring...? Ughhh.
Kattsura I offered them a code as well, but they aren't interested in joining right now which is why I went ahead and posted on their behalf. Thank you all the same though!!