Scots artist reported to Trading Standards and accused of scamming over super-realistic drawings

dailyrecord.co.uk:

An incredible Scots artist was probed by Trading Standards because people thought his super-realistic drawings were too good to be true.

Back in 2019, John Fisher, 40, had two watchdog inspectors turn up at his home after people claimed his artwork was a scam.The officers grilled John over the legitimacy of his photo-realistic pencil drawings, which he does on commission.

The investigation came after an anonymous source reported the artist to Trading Standards.The complainer claimed that John, from Ayr, was "scamming" people by using an app to produce his work, rather than painstakingly producing each piece by hand.However, John was able to show the inspectors examples of his work in his attic studio and quickly convinced them that his drawings were authentic, with the investigation then being quashed.Speaking after the incident in 2019, John said: "They said they had a complaint about my artwork and said they'd been told it's not pencil and that I was using an app and trying to scam people."I invited them inside and showed them sketches and even rubbed some bits out to show them it was real pencil.

I asked if there was anything else I could show them but they said it was pretty black and white it was pencil drawings."Although the probe was quickly dealt with, John was worried that the malicious report could have had negative implications for his business and cost him work.John said: "It's always a bit of an annoyance that someone would go to that length without doing a bit of homework first.