New Work In Progress, Scams and Seminar

New Work In Progress
I had to share my latest work in progress. Color pencil on Canson Mi Tientes. I normally complete the hair first, but I had to put it on hold as I ran out of some greys I needed.
Its the first of my new fairy tale series. This one is inspired by Disney's latest movie "Alice In Wonderland" with Johnny Depp, and Avril Lavigne's new song "Alice". Reference photo by the beautiful Aline Potter http://alinepotter-stock.deviantart.com/  I am hoping to get it finished up this week, so I can start on a new piece for the "Picture Yourself in Wonderland" contest  being put on by Walt Disney Studios. I don't know if I am going to have enough time or not, as the deadline is June 4th. Going to give it a try though, that is if  I can find the right reference photo, for what I am envisioning.
http://news.deviantart.com/article/117360/

Scams
It's pretty scary for all the artists out there in cyberworld at the moment, with all the scams, identity theft, and art theft going on on the internet. I think I receive at least 5 scams a month of people wanting to buy my artwork, but are not legit.
Purchase Scams,  Phishing Scams, Nigerian Art Scam and Gallerie Scams are just some of the type of scams that artists receive monthly. Now the latest type of scam is a student emailing to you tell you, that they are wanting to write a report on you and need some personal information - Phishing.

Here are some warnings and ways to protect yourself from becoming the next victim.

• Avoid emails inquiring about purchasing your artwork that have bad spelling, bad English and vague inquiries.
• Avoid ever giving out any personal information, such as Social Security number, place of birth, passwords, names of your children, mother's maiden name, pet's name and so on.
• Red warning lights should go off, if someone is offering to send you a money order, a cashier's or corporate check in an amount that is greater than the purchase price of your artwork.
• Never ship an artwork out, til the check clears, especially if the purchaser is located outside of your country.
• Insist that you only take payments through Paypal. No money orders or cashier checks. Put the Paypal logo up on your website, as it tends deter predators.
• Avoid Vanity Galleries and Vanity Publications that charge expensive fees. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanity_gallery and  http://www.artcalendar.com/article.asp?ID=145
•  Check galleries and businesses out through the Better Business Bureau or Chamber of Commerce to make sure they are legit.
• Avoid emails from Nigeria period.
• Avoid emails about art awards or art grants, unless you requested the information.
• If you are a victim of fraud, contact the  Internet Fraud Complaint Center http://www.ic3.gov/ or go to http://www.ftc.gov

Help spread the word about these type of scams and identity theft to help protect other artists.

Seminar
Ann Kullberg has a new seminar that I would really LOVE to attend "The Teacher in YOU Training" seminar. Time to start saving up! You can check out the details here if you are interested  http://annkullberg.com/teacherseminar.php