5 ms·

Loses out in both style and cost when compared to InstaPainting (where this is definitely derived from) but good effort, hope this improves livelihoods of India

Loses out in both style and cost when compared to InstaPainting (where this is definitely derived from) but good effort, hope this improves livelihoods of Indian artists. What percentage of the share actually goes to them?

OrganicQuote 7y ago
The pricing is decided by the artist, and every style is owned by an individual artist. We add percentage of commission on the base artist pricing.
- mthoms 7y ago
  I love this, good job. I'm curious, does the purchase transfer the copyright to the buyer? Or does it remain with the artist?
  - OrganicQuote 7y ago
    Thank you! According to current copyright laws the buyer does not hold copyright to the artwork.
    - gliop 7y ago
      What does current law have to do with it? Works for hire are generally copyrighted by the hirer, and copyrights can be transferred by contract.
      - kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
        The painting is also a derivative work.
      - lb1lf 7y ago
        Just to add a bit of (useful) pedantry - what happens to copyright depends on the jurisdiction. In some (Norway, for instance) you can not fully transfer all rights, even if you want to. (This _is_ pedantry, as you can pretty much transfer any commercial rights - just about the only thing you can not transfer is the right to be named the creator of the work.
        dragonwriter 7y ago
        It's kind of true that you can't transfer all rights in the US, where while you can nominally transfer all rights, any such transfer can be reclaimed 35 or 40 years, with the required notice of he reclamation provided after 25 or 30 years.
        ascar 7y ago
        IIRC/IANAL, in Germany you are allowed to transfer commercial use and declare any different name as the creator. But you can't transfer the copyright itself, so you will always stay in control.
- anigbrowl 7y ago
  That's a good approach. I think it would be worth including that information on the FAQ page - transparency builds trust and such issues are more important in a global marketplace. As an amateur painter myself it's nice to see this equitable approach which also leaves room for each artist to maintain an individual style. Well done!
throwawayforrrr 7y ago
Instapainting's YC founder, chrischen https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=chrischen https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=chrischen, has posted tons of anti-US comments and pro-dictatorship-China comments. That's one good reason not to use the service.
- dang 7y ago
  If you abuse HN like this we will ban your main account as well, so please don't. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
mkagenius 7y ago
I remember an old shark tank episode where kids would paint for you. Here it is: https://umano.com/ https://umano.com/
chrischen 7y ago
Founder of Instapainting here! We were actually far from the first in this space as well (there were incumbents at the top of the Google search ranks from the mid to early 2000s). As for Instapainting, when ordering and requesting an artist directly, our fee is 26%, unless the artist quotes lower than our base pricing in which case our fee is the difference. We have artists from India too! http://instapainting.com/gallery/made-in-india http://instapainting.com/gallery/made-in-india https://www.instapainting.com/artists/sunny https://www.instapainting.com/artists/sunny https://www.instapainting.com/artists/lavdeep https://www.instapainting.com/artists/lavdeep We put you in direct contact with the artist and you can view your artwork through our website and collaborate directly
- tencentflow 7y ago
  Chris Chen, can you explain your posting history of anti-US and pro-China stance?
- cdubzzz 7y ago
  This is a Show HN. I’m sure the poster would greatly appreciate feedback from someone with experience like yours, not an advertisement for your own service.
  - chrischen 7y ago
    Of course! If they are reading this feel free to email me anytime (email in profile) for feedback or advice. It looks like this is an MVP setup on shopify and is exactly how it should be started to test the waters. There's no reason not to start simply because Instapainting, etsy, or countless other sites exist already, but it does mean the grind is going to be long and hard (I've just been slowly iterating since 2014 and unbeknownst to me there were dozens of incumbents even back then) and unlikely to be VC-backed in this space. I've seen many come and go as most upstarts in this space find the revenue and profits unimpressive—this is honestly the biggest reason why most fail. Getting press is generally hard because the idea isn't technically new, and people don't like to write about it as-is as it's too commercial. SEO should be the main focus, as any such sites that don't rank on Google will quickly find ad-driven user acquisition costs to drive down the already thin margins too much. I would also be prepared and iterate and implement a more robust tech based platform off this initial traction as quickly as possible. I honestly don't think there's much room in the space in the future for plain middlemen in this space between Instapainting and Etsy being available that enable direct artist participation. We look like we just forward orders over to artists but artists are basically running the show now on Instapainting, and we just try to surface the best performing ones.

OrganicQuote 7y ago

The pricing is decided by the artist, and every style is owned by an individual artist. We add percentage of commission on the base artist pricing.

mthoms 7y ago
I love this, good job. I'm curious, does the purchase transfer the copyright to the buyer? Or does it remain with the artist?
- OrganicQuote 7y ago
  Thank you! According to current copyright laws the buyer does not hold copyright to the artwork.
  - gliop 7y ago
    What does current law have to do with it? Works for hire are generally copyrighted by the hirer, and copyrights can be transferred by contract.
    - kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
      The painting is also a derivative work.
    - lb1lf 7y ago
      Just to add a bit of (useful) pedantry - what happens to copyright depends on the jurisdiction. In some (Norway, for instance) you can not fully transfer all rights, even if you want to. (This _is_ pedantry, as you can pretty much transfer any commercial rights - just about the only thing you can not transfer is the right to be named the creator of the work.
      - dragonwriter 7y ago
        It's kind of true that you can't transfer all rights in the US, where while you can nominally transfer all rights, any such transfer can be reclaimed 35 or 40 years, with the required notice of he reclamation provided after 25 or 30 years.
      - ascar 7y ago
        IIRC/IANAL, in Germany you are allowed to transfer commercial use and declare any different name as the creator. But you can't transfer the copyright itself, so you will always stay in control.
anigbrowl 7y ago
That's a good approach. I think it would be worth including that information on the FAQ page - transparency builds trust and such issues are more important in a global marketplace. As an amateur painter myself it's nice to see this equitable approach which also leaves room for each artist to maintain an individual style. Well done!

throwawayforrrr 7y ago

Instapainting's YC founder, chrischen https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=chrischen https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=chrischen, has posted tons of anti-US comments and pro-dictatorship-China comments. That's one good reason not to use the service.

dang 7y ago
If you abuse HN like this we will ban your main account as well, so please don't. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

mkagenius 7y ago

I remember an old shark tank episode where kids would paint for you. Here it is: https://umano.com/ https://umano.com/

chrischen 7y ago

Founder of Instapainting here! We were actually far from the first in this space as well (there were incumbents at the top of the Google search ranks from the mid to early 2000s). As for Instapainting, when ordering and requesting an artist directly, our fee is 26%, unless the artist quotes lower than our base pricing in which case our fee is the difference. We have artists from India too! http://instapainting.com/gallery/made-in-india http://instapainting.com/gallery/made-in-india https://www.instapainting.com/artists/sunny https://www.instapainting.com/artists/sunny https://www.instapainting.com/artists/lavdeep https://www.instapainting.com/artists/lavdeep We put you in direct contact with the artist and you can view your artwork through our website and collaborate directly

tencentflow 7y ago
Chris Chen, can you explain your posting history of anti-US and pro-China stance?
cdubzzz 7y ago
This is a Show HN. I’m sure the poster would greatly appreciate feedback from someone with experience like yours, not an advertisement for your own service.
- chrischen 7y ago
  Of course! If they are reading this feel free to email me anytime (email in profile) for feedback or advice. It looks like this is an MVP setup on shopify and is exactly how it should be started to test the waters. There's no reason not to start simply because Instapainting, etsy, or countless other sites exist already, but it does mean the grind is going to be long and hard (I've just been slowly iterating since 2014 and unbeknownst to me there were dozens of incumbents even back then) and unlikely to be VC-backed in this space. I've seen many come and go as most upstarts in this space find the revenue and profits unimpressive—this is honestly the biggest reason why most fail. Getting press is generally hard because the idea isn't technically new, and people don't like to write about it as-is as it's too commercial. SEO should be the main focus, as any such sites that don't rank on Google will quickly find ad-driven user acquisition costs to drive down the already thin margins too much. I would also be prepared and iterate and implement a more robust tech based platform off this initial traction as quickly as possible. I honestly don't think there's much room in the space in the future for plain middlemen in this space between Instapainting and Etsy being available that enable direct artist participation. We look like we just forward orders over to artists but artists are basically running the show now on Instapainting, and we just try to surface the best performing ones.