Illustrators – beware the Donald Livingston SCAM

(sorry this is cut and pasted from elsewhere but I wrote it and wanted to make sure the rest of you saw it)

Illustrators — please beware of someone calling themselves “Donald Livingston” (donaldliving77@gmail.com) who will want to hire you for some sort of illustration project and will insist on sending you a check ASAP. “Donald” has also used other names and email addresses and is targeting artists and illustrators.

The whole thing started out normally enough – I got a query email from a stranger asking if I was available to do some illustration work. The illustrations were not exactly what I am known for (young kids performing pandemic related social distancing, vaccination, etc.), but I’ve gotten weird requests before and the offer was generous so I replied that I was willing and able. After exchanging a few emails about due dates and sending him a copy of my contract, Mr. Livingston told me he would send me a deposit. He did not send back the signed contract but I did not notice this at the time.

In my case, the check arrived on a Friday via priority mail and was for twice the agreed upon “half up front” amount. Mr Livingston urged me to deposit the check immediately, and, after I had done so, he texted to say that because of unavoidable circumstances, etc., etc., the project has been partially cancelled and I needed to send back half the money. He urged me to use a cash app I had never heard of called “Zelle” to wire the money back right away, etc., etc. and said he needs the money RIGHT NOW. I’m guessing his urgency is based on the fact that the “cashiers” check he sent me won’t clear deposit once the bank opens again on Monday. In his first email, he claimed to be hearing impaired (I guess to plant in my mind the idea that I shouldn’t be expecting an actual voice call with Mr. Livingston). I didn’t fall for it but feel a little foolish at having wasted as much time on these shenanigans. Please don’t waste your time with this scam.

I’ve reported this to the USPS and the FBI – I doubt they will be able to do anything about it – but want to do what I can to protect others.

Underwater Scene

Spooky

A drawing for a project that hasn’t been released yet. Not a literal depiction of the scene from the story it is supposed to illustrate but all the important things are there.

art update

It has been a while since I bothered to update this page so here are a few works from the recent past to entertain you:

This is a color image for Goodman Game’s “Crypt of the Devil Lich” adventure. Vampires and conquistadores.

This was drawn for the Goodman “Sailors on the Starless Sea” reprint but was ultimately rejected by the powers that be because it didn’t show enough of the castle. I still thought it was a successful drawing.

I do a lot of borders and margin illustrations – I don’t remember what project I created this border for but I think it was cool looking.

At some point Goodman needed some stickers with demons on them – I don’t remember for what – so I sent in my take on Dave Sutherland’s succubus from the AD&D Monster Manual. The woman is Sheila Mullen from Playboy, May 1977.

Another recent drawing – this is a group of player characters encountering a frog-man and his pet catoblepas in a swamp. I’m predicting that only the guy in the lower right hand corner is likely to survive the encounter.

New Riders Video

Every once in a blue moon I make a you tube thing… this is #3. These are “work in progress” shots I took with my phone of a painting I am working on for The Hobonomicon #3… as of this writing, the painting is still a work in progress. Not great film making by any stretch of the imagination but some might be interested in seeing how I work on the painting. I keep promising myself that I will eventually make those time lapse videos of myself working on the painting for social media.

I don’t really feel like I have very good plans ahead of time when I work on a painting like this – usually I start off with just two or three colors and then keep adding, trying to figure out what works. Sometimes I need to stop working on it for a while and let it sit.

Someone asked me about the music – a few years ago my computer lost its mind and I had to use a data rescue program to save what I could. It apparently saved everything – including the various music files from video games, which have been saved to my hard drive as mpegs. So now when I search for “music” on my computer, in addition to all the normal music files (i.e.: actual songs from iTunes and the like), I also get all kinds of files of incidental music from video games.

Djinn

recent work

Boschian Road Race

This is an (incomplete) painting for the Hobonomicon I was working on last year. I never finished it (and eventually submitted this painting instead) but I finally got around to scanning this one. Mixed media on watercolor paper.

Line Work

Been away from the blog for a little while but still try to remember to update social media once or twice a week. The above is a recent drawing for an upcoming book by Mattia Giardini called “A Death in Bern,” a murder mystery RPG. The players have just discovered the body of a murder victim in a shadowed alley of the city.

For those who are interested in social media – on instagram I am sbpoag and on facebook I am Stefan Poag. A person who is more clever than I am could create little links that would take you direct to my facebook and instagram accounts so you could subscribe without having to search for me but I think quests and searching are good for you so I am not going to do that.