Attention Illustrators: Spammers & Scammers

We've all heard the old Nigerian money laundering scam about a bazillion kazillion times. It's as if the spammers believe that if you juuust manage to send someone the same e-mail for the two-hundredth time then they HAVE to believe you! Less well-known, but even more clever, is a scam being perpetuated on perfectly nice artists out there. Bruce Andrew McKay (BAM) has the skinny on his blog bigcatheads. He writes:

Here's how it works. It's a variation on the ol' Nigerian email scam. You will receive an email from out of country. The writer will be very complimentary of your work and will request prices for a multiple piece purchase. In my case it was for 4 paintings totaling $7000. They will often present themselves as successful business people who are looking to buy artwork for their new home.

He goes on to give, in detail, how the scammer sent him an International check for an amount higher than the one they spoke about. Then the weirdness began. It actually makes for fascinating reading, especially since McKay's no dummy and the scammer undoubtedly was. People who've been contacted by this guy have sometimes been featured on the Drawn blog, so bear all this in mind if your book or art has appeared there recently.

Many thanks to Drawn for the link. Also check out McKay's paintings which are, I have to admit, rather charming.

B is for Bookie. That's Good Enough for Me.

Now just wait a second here. Hold your horses. Damn the cannons and, uh, swab the distaff... or something. Don't nobody tell me nuthin' no more. There's a bloody blog of up-and-coming children's book illustrators called Picture-Bookies Showcase and somehow they've flown completely under my radar? This shall not stand! Note how nicely they present their images alongside such themes as By Appointment Only or Mischief. The sheer variety suggests that no matter where you look, you'll find someone who fits your style. I'm focusing my eyes on one Karen Lee, at the moment. Cool stuff.

Free Photoshop

Would I lie to you? I mean about this. I figure that a fair amount of you out there may have a need for this particular computer program. So howzabout checking out this announcement that Adobe Systems is releasing a free, ad-supported version of Photoshop online in six months?

"We recognize there is a customer there--we recognize they are not going to pay us, necessarily, directly. But we could use ad revenue as a model. Google has demonstrated that it works pretty well for certain types of applications," Chizen said.

Me hubby informs me that they've already tried something like this in the past and that it didn't work out particularly well. Still, for those of you holding out for a basic Photoshop package, this might be just the thing you need.

Thanks to Drawn for the link.