Creator Spotlight with Independent Artists Casper and Sadie Revenant
This week we’d like to introduce Casper and Sadie Revenant at RevenantFX in Canada. They specialize in “all things undead, from zombie gnomes to masks, makeup, and soon apparel.” Follow them on Instagram @revenantfx and also check out their Etsy shop to see more of their creativities.
What was the inspiration behind becoming a creator? What do you enjoy most about the creative process?
We’ve both kinda always been creating things in one way or another. Our favourite part of the process is probably the conceptualizing. We love coming up with new ideas and then bringing them to life so they exist in the world!
Can you take us through your creative process? How long does it take? Does everything you produce make money?
Our creative process is never ending; we are always trying to think of new things to make, and new ways to make them. Once we come up with an idea that we both love, we’ll figure out how to create it / bring it to life. Then once we have created the thing, we’ll share it with the world in hopes that someone else loves it like we do! Everything usually takes a different amount of time, every time! Lol Most things we produce usually end up making some amount of money. 😁
What do you think is the biggest misconception about your line of work?
The biggest misconception about our line of work is that gnoming is easy! Gnoming ain’t easy! 🤣 Really though, probably the biggest misconception is that artists just work on creating and making their art all the time. There are a lot of other not-art-related activities that go into making/selling your artwork (business, marketing, shipping, etc.) We spend as much or more of our time, energy and creativity on these things as we do on the actual making of the art!
When did you first become aware of copyright, and why?
We’ve always been aware of it in some capacity as creators ourselves.
Have you experienced copyright infringement and, if so, how has it affected you personally and financially?
We have been dealing with copyright infringement since spring 2021. Since then, online scammers have been stealing our images, listings and designs, and using them in bait-and-switch scams across various social media platforms and marketplace websites. Our story was featured on CBC news and we have written/posted a detailed article about all of this, which can be found on our website. This has wasted close to a year of our lives and probably done incalculable damage to our reputation and to our gnomes!
What do you do when you encounter someone stealing something you’ve invested your intellect, time and money into?
When we encounter someone stealing our work, we contact Qti.ai! They are a company that helps artists by finding and reporting scammers, their fake listings, and their knock-off trash. They work hard to take down the scam listings.
What is the best piece of advice that you would give other creators in your field about copyright and how to protect themselves?
Hang in there! It’s hard to say what the best advice would be to give about copyright and protecting yourself at the moment, as technology seems to be changing the landscape everyday. We’d say, just try to get your name and work out there as much as you can, so that if your work starts getting knocked off, folks will recognize the scams and let you know about them. Once you know about them, you can try to deal with them. (See Qti.ai!😉)
What is your biggest copyright-related challenge?
Our biggest copyright-related challenge has been having our pictures, posts, listings and designs stolen by online scammers, and used to trick people into buying cheap garbage knock-offs of our work. Not fun!
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