Another day, another comment tag on an Instagram post that used my wing image without permission.
I sighed, made a quick Instagram Story about it asking to get Bret’s attention and went to bed. It already had over 1 million likes by the time I discovered it and I found out quickly a fan had made the edit so he was probably unaware.
I assumed it was probably from PicsArt Stickers, where so much of my IP is distributed illegally by users who don’t care or don’t know better on a site that seems to almost encourage theft.

But this young gender fluid, blue check mark celebrity actually responded to my DMs and - shocker - was completely apologetic and supportive!

He asked what he could do to help, was both humble and more supportive than I EVER would have expected someone of his stature to be to me, an independent non-celebrity artist making fairy wings.
I mean seriously, look at just 2 screenshots of his messages to me below.
This kind of integrity and compassion from anyone considered rich & famous is rare, folks. It just is, at least in my experience, having had enough IP incidents with some of them.

As a follower pointed out, it is a little sad that this kind response is so shocking to us, because why isn’t this kind of decency the standard? I’ve come to expect very little of people because so very many times I ask for credit or removal but I am lashed out at & made out to somehow be the bad guy, I get called ‘rude’ just for asking for my rights and art to be respected. Honestly, I’ve mostly given up even trying anymore unless it’s something really big because the worst of them have left me so drained.

Having someone like this in my corner though, a stranger who could just as easily ignored me like most do, stand up for me and support me in this way has given me some hope.
In this case, I’m actually seeing this as a blessing in disguise. I discovered a rare gem of a genuine person who somehow remains humble even after wealth and fame has carried him up to star stature.
Maybe it’s because he’s not a cis white male but rather an immigrant who was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth and had to work hard to get where he is. Either way, I’m now glad to know him and am a new fan.
Bretman (da baddest) Rock is a genuine bad-ass

I had been planning to create digital overlay files of my Clarion fairy wings for a while now, for various reasons - some of those reasons are unhappy ones, but I am glad I finally did it!

Photo used is ©kharchenkoirina - stock.adobe.com

This is the first time I’ve made digital overlay wings that are light up! And frankly it’s been a while since we made real ones too but that’s another story - we’re working out how to make them with my new attachments.

There are 3 other color variations of these in the pack.

Now you may be thinking, gee these look familiar! If you are, I bet I know why - an artist on Renderosity had made 3D mesh wings she’s selling there, and I’m about 99.9999% sure she referenced my own light up Clarion wing photo to make hers since these are not based off any particular butterfly design.

Below is the comparison.

My wings on the left, the Renderosity wings by Fabiana on the right. Image posted in fair use, to comment on a newsworthy situation.

Yes there are some differences, a few veins were removed from the upper panel but the ones that are there are so specifically shaped and curved as mine - and the fact that she made the lights look as though they are fiber optic, like how my real life ones are made, is telling.

I did try to contact her, and never got a response. I wanted to ask more changes to differentiate hers from mine since I had already planned on making my own, and this kinda cuts into my profitability.

I even filed a DMCA with Renderosity, however they denied my takedown notice and made the judgement in her favor.
I guess not surprisingly, as she is a top seller and no doubt they make a nice profit from her content.
Didn’t think the platform was supposed to make a judgement on what constitutes as infringement but they did.
The only other thing I can do, is go ahead and make mine anyway.

And they’re available here: https://fancy-fairy-wings-things.myshopify.com/collections/digital-file-products/products/clarion-light-up-fairy-wings-transparency-stock-png-files

Oh but that’s not all! I’ve also made overlay files for the painted versions!
https://fancy-fairy-wings-things.myshopify.com/collections/digital-file-products/products/clarion-painted-fairy-wings-transparency-stock-png-files

Photo used is from ©kharchenkoirina - stock.adobe.com

Do these look familiar too?
If you’re thinking they look like Winx wings, I’ve thought the same thing. I created mine in real life in 2011, well before Winx came out with their Dreamix line and Stella appeared with some very similar looking wings.

If you look closely, rather than remove veins as the Renderosity wings, they’ve added more, but I can see some of the same veins in mine in their design.

Perhaps this one can be filed under the ‘inspired by’ category too, and since they’re in Italy I’m just going to keep putting my own design out there and if people have love for Winx, they can now turn themselves into one of their fairies with my overlays.
I haven’t even gone into the infringement hell that was my life the last couple weeks, as Twitter went absolutely nuts with what someone started calling the ‘fairy challenge’, posting pics of people side-by-side next to pics of wings usually with the caption ‘Did it work?’ - and yup you guessed it, the majority of wings they uploaded have been mine, and most often without credit as some of the Tweets and posts gained upward of 500K likes.
I think Stephen Colbert started this whole thing! Or at least that’s the first person I saw who did it.

Of course when I made my own to tweet, it got a fraction of that. Such is life!

I may consider bringing back the real life Clarion wings too. What do you think?