Artist drew a portrait of my adopted son and won't remove it from social media?

[giddyuproo]

Hello,

No idea if I am being unreasonable here... I paid an artist to do a portrait drawing of my son (who is adopted and for safety reasons cannot have any public photos, etc.) the artist posted the finished artwork with the photo reference she used.

I asked if she would please remove it and she says no and that she has every right to post it and needs to for her portfolio...

I don't really know what to do here. Is this true? Can she just use them? :/

Thanks

Kelsea, I work in Brighton, a lot of my friends are artists in one media or another. You are right, it is a very tough field to work in with little chance of making a living. So ethics, values and respecting your customers’ wishes and needs are paramount. This artist deserves to fail.

Not unreasonable in the slightest to ask for the removal. I’d go along with the other posters who advise going straight for the big guns. As a vulnerable child is involved I’m sure your local authority could advise on the best way to proceed.

From an artist’s perspective...Don’t give her a hard time. Artists work incredibly hard for often very little return. She absolutely has every right to add the picture she has done to a portfolio. People often underestimate just exactly what it takes to make a living as an artist, and it’s an incredibly frustrating thing to have to deal with. Some of these replies are incredibly disheartening.

This is a safeguarding risk of a vulnerable child whose circumstances mean that their picture can’t be posted publically. It’s not a mum being precious about her little darling. The artists career is utterly irrelevant in this case

From an artist’s perspective...Don’t give her a hard time.

The safety of a child trumps an artist's portfolio. Period.

This artist is being selfish and totally unreasonable morally. But legally? I don't know.

I'm really frustrated on your behalf, OP. It's terrible that she didn't remove it when you asked.

Could you send her a formal letter, OP? Send it recorded delivery. Something with a lot of big legal words that mentions taking her to court - thinking that may provoke her into taking it down?

The artist is behaving appallingly. I can only assume they are new to this sort of work, and inexperienced.

Regardless of the legalities it's hugely unprofessional to share any identifying work online without the express permission of the client. Whilst being able to use a commissioned piece to promote your work can be valuable (and a lot of people are only too happy for their commission to be shared) ultimately the client has paid for the work and does not owe the artist extra exposure or anything else of the sort!

Hope FB take it down for you OP.

I'm really shocked that someone would put likes before the safety of a child.

I don't understand it at all.

Definitely get a legal letter written to her and contact SS. If they contact her then maybe she will think twice. And the police if need be plus FB to take them down if he is a vulnerable child.

Seems like business is more important to her than a kids safety.

My husband is a professional artist, it is incredibly hard to make a living and a social media presence is very important. However this artist is behaving terribly. There is no need at all.

This artist sounds unimaginative and unoriginal if she can't see a way of promoting herself beyond posting a picture of the photo and the painting and saying look what I copied.

If the photo was taken by you this will be really easily sorted as copyright of the photo is yours and you could have a claim to the copyright of her "copy" less easy if the artist took the photo but you have had good advice on this thread. If the artist doesn't help you out with this review her accordingly.

My DH takes pictures of children and has to legally ask for consent from the parent for them to be used publicly. It’s non-negotiable. If he didn’t get them to sign a consent form and parent complained, he’d be completely ruined. Infact he once had a parent that changed their mind and withdrew their consent after images had been posted and he had to spend time making sure there was no trace of the child on any of his SM/website. This artist’s behaviour is shocking. I think what I’d do is:

1. contact Facebook
2. contact social services
3. see a solicitor and get a legal letter sent to her
4. leave a terrible review anywhere you can to stop other children being at risk

This is awful. I wouldn't use the services of someone who put her business interests before a child's safety and I don't imagine many other people would either.
There's all the legal stuff to consider but the fact remains she's torpeoed her business with this callous behaviour.

Is this what society is becoming. Likes and shares on SM are more important than values and ethics. This is yet another example of how dismayed I am with what the human race is becoming.

From an artist’s perspective...Don’t give her a hard time.

She was paid for the work. That's her reward. If the artist had asked the OP to paint her son so she could use the work for her portfolio then it would be different.

I am a professional artist. It is a tough way to make a living and a strong social media presence to promote your work and generate interest and income is crucial, especially if you’re perhaps just starting out and trying to build a portfolio. I get why she’s disappointed but this really isn’t the way to go about things.

As a professional, I need to be aware of copyright issues and my GDPR obligations part of which I outlined upthread but in all honesty, most of us don’t need laws to tell us how to behave decently. If we do mess up either through inexperience or ignorance of the law and it’s pointed out to us, we should apologise and put it right.

Perhaps she also doesn’t quite really understand why this is so important to you; if you’re lucky enough not to have suffered in this way then you maybe don’t quite ‘get’ it. Not an excuse though.

I would email her once more and tell her to take down all of the images by a specified date and making it clear you will pursue the matter with the authorities if she doesn’t comply. And then, if necessary, do it. At the same time, contact the social media platforms she has posted on to request the images are removed.

Good luck!

My response would be to go after her business and publicise how unethical she is, how she put your child at risk and refused to take it down despite this being clearly explained. Is there a way you can do this without it being too identifying? Maybe through an acquaintance?

Assuming your child is a minor -

Did you sign a model release form - that will give details?

Either way, ask to see the artists GDPR statement (this should be available from artists website) and will set out who to go to if there is an issue like this. I suspect artist doesn't have one so you have her banged to rights especially if she does portraits

All images /videos online of people's faces used for business use have very strict guidelines under GDPR - so you basically own your image.

If she doesn't comply with your formal request for take down then it's pretty serious for her

Ask for her child protection statement too as a trading business working with minors

If neither exist you can draft a solicitors letter

I would also ask for her business insurance details so that all costs can be reimbursed

This is really serious for her and sorry you are going thru this - exactly why these checks and balances were introduced

Very good point made by Teaandcrisps about her public liability insurance.

OP can you get your social worker to get involved and speak with her directly? I suspect legally she's not doing anything wrong, but ethically thus is awful and she should be ashamed of herself. I understand her need to show her work, but essentially she is saying her needs are more important than the safety of your son, which is inexcusable.
If there's no change, then name and shame her on social media, if she thinks SM is so important, let's see how she feels about negative press on there for her.

I would set about ruining her business and reputation.

So she expects that just because she's completed a job that then gives her the right to post that work on Facebook?
Thank fuck she doesn't remove piles for a living.

Do you have a local PCSO? Some schools have one that comes in for informal chats, might be worth getting them to have a quiet word about safeguarding.

I would set about ruining her business and reputation.

God there are some nasty people on here.

No need for such revenge. Just do what you need to do to get the picture off the internet. Try all official routes first, facebook, gdpr, safeguarding etc, as suggested by pp. If they fail to work quickly enough, only then would it be reasonable to start leaving reviews etc to twist her arm.
Incidentally leaving reviews could potentially increase child's risk as it would could end up providing further details about the child, such as the identity of their parent (who would be leaving the review), and also draw lot more attention to the posts.

Thanks so much everyone for all the advice. Yes, actually writing a review in my name could definitely cause more problems if the photo is then not removed anyway, due to there then being a link with a name :/

Thanks again everyone, really helpful advice.

@Likethewind321 I posted something similar and just want to clarify that I don't mean it in a vengeful way as such but rather to put pressure on this woman to do the decent thing. Having said that, child protection is far more important to me than sympathising with someone who is wilfully ignoring the issue in order to promote herself.

We don't know what sort of background this adopted child came from and what risk this could then pose to them but it's certainly extremely serious. Anyone who does something like this artist has done, deliberately (ie she has refused to remove it from her social media) does not deserve to be successful anyway imo. Nothing nasty about that particularly, I just think if you're unethical then you shouldn't be rewarded for it. I'm not suggesting putting a dog turd through her letterbox or something, but rather wondering if she would want to see her shoddy behaviour about this become public knowledge!

All images /videos online of people's faces used for business use have very strict guidelines under GDPR

I’m pretty sure this isn’t true (though, obviously, check with a lawyer with plenty of experience in this area). GDPR can apply to photos and videos because the sophistication of biometric analysis means a photo can be turned into a unique identifier. But the same is not true of drawings and paintings. So while GDPR can apply to the photo, it doesn’t apply to all images and will not apply to the artists portrait of the child.

GDPR can apply to photos and videos because the sophistication of biometric analysis means a photo can be turned into a unique identifier. But the same is not true of drawings and paintings. So while GDPR can apply to the photo, it doesn’t apply to all images and will not apply to the artists portrait of the child.

This is a drawing based on a photograph, not an abstract painting. So the child can be easily identified. So yes, this is a breach of the GDPR.