Heart in Paradise

Zine
Title:	Heart in Paradise
Publisher:
Editor(s):	Mads, Notte, Silvermoon, Kroalias, Faith
Type:	Fanart, Fanfiction
Date(s):	2022-2023
Medium:	PDF, Print
Fandom:	Heaven Official's Blessing
Language:	English
External Links:	Twitter, Archived version carrd, Archived version
Zine Logo
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Heart in Paradise was a zine featuring the pairing HuaLian from Heaven Official's Blessing. The zine was cancelled prematurely due to controversy involving moderators accusing a contributor of tracing.

About

Heart in Paradise is a zine dedicated to the endless love and devotion of Hua Cheng and Xie Lian, and hopes to explore the intricacies and nuances of their relationship.

The zine was announced on August 14, 2022. Interest checks ran from August 15 to September 15, 2022. A reported 410 responses were received, with a majority of votes wanting a physical bundle with merch, as well as a physical side zine featuring NSFW content. Applications opened from September 20 to October 20, 2022, for page artists, writers, merch artists, spot artists, and cosplayers.

The project was declared to be cancelled on January 13, 2023, after being unable to sustain itself when multiple contributors withdrew following the controversy arising from the conflict between moderators and contributors. The account was declared inactive, and posts for key events in the project's schedule such as interest check results and application posts were subsequently deleted.

Reference and Tracing Controversy

On January 11, 2023, Oriollie, a contributor for the zine, posted on her Twitter account that she had been kicked out of a HuaLian zine on the basis of using references for her piece. In the thread contained screenshots of Oriollie's conversation on Discord with mods on the zine's server.

When Oriollie was discussing her pitch for the NSFW side of the zine, she mentioned she would be using a photo for reference, to which the mods had concerns about and emphasized that she could not not use a photo as a base for her piece unless she had commercial permission or used a variety of references to make a unique composition. Oriollie then asked the mods to clarify on their definition of a "unique composition" and how much her piece had to diverge from the base reference to count as "unique". She also asked if this called into question her piece for the SFW side of the zine, which also used references, a technique she also used for a piece in a FengQing zine. Oriollie stated that no one has a copyright to a pose or angle of a pose, justifying her use of references. The mods then asked Oriollie to show her aforementioned FengQing illustration and the reference used to make it.

The mods returned to Oriollie with observations that the examples she provided were heavily influenced by the original reference image, pointing out parts of the pieces that match line-for-line when overlaid on top of the references at multiple points. The mods also took issue with Oriollie's semi-realistic art style and her ability to draw body proportions very close to the reference. In conclusion, the mods judged these pieces as art theft and not something that could be published for their zine under the belief that artwork and reference should not match up direclty for any given section. The mods referred to the clause in their guidlines that all artists were required to create unique illustrations and threatened to remove Oriollie from the project if she did not meet this expectation.

Oriollie took the mods' words to mean they were accusing her of tracing, further supported by their statements that her pieces were "art theft". She pointed out that the mods were inconsistent with enforcing rules because her SFW piece had already been approved without issue even with the knowledge a reference was used. In her tell-all thread, Oriollie posted the sketches in comparison to the reference in her thread along with art studies to show how consistently she could draw with a semi-realistic art style on her own. Hurt by the mods' threats, Oriollie wrote a response to the team to fight the tracing accusations, admitting that even though she had done tracing in the far past due to inexperience, she certainly no longer did it now and had further proof of timelapses in her Patreon and Boosty that showed that she did not have a propensity for tracing.

The mods denied Oriollie's claims that they were accusing her of tracing, acknowledging that a good artist would be able to match parts of the reference to learn realistic anatomy and that tracing is a valuable tool to learn drawing basics as long as artists are credited properly and the final art was not shared. The mods did not budge from their judgment that Oriollie did not follow the zine's requirement for original art pieces and that her pieces were art studies that could not be published. Oriollie was promptly removed from the Discord server after this exchange. With these circumstances, Oriollie posted in her thread that the situation was hurtful and unfair especially when she already felt like an outcast in the fandom.

The thread was received positively by other artists within the fandom, many agreeing with Oriollie that her way of using references were perfectly fine. Another artist who was formerly on the zine's art mod also spoke up and said that they did not agree with the rest of the team's verdict at the time, implying that the rest of the moderators who were not in charge of art superseded their authority as an art mod to make these judgment calls and made the rogue decision to remove Oriollie from the project.

The thread was soon brought up in public to the zine's mod team. In an answer to a concerned fan on Retrospring, the mod team stated that a statement would be made regarding the situation and claimed that the artist was not kicked off the team for using references. Later in the day, the mod team released a statement on Google Docs.

The mods reiterated their earlier claim that they did not remove the artist for suspected tracing or plagiarizing and going on to claim these events occurred due to miscommunications on the mod team's part. The mods framed their concerns around Oriollie's history of submitting what they considered art studies of their references to zines. Noting that different projects have different levels of tolerance for this, the mods wished to ensure that all pieces could be covered by fair use and avoid any copyright issues, leading to their policy of only accepting art pieces that were distinct from the used references.

The mods also acknowledged their former art mod's claims, pointing out that the art mod had also agreed that the contributor's art piece looked too close for comfort when overlaid with the reference. The mods justified that they took action without the art mod's final say because they did not wish to bother the art mod further when they stepped down shortly after as art mod for health reasons but was still involved as graphics mod around this time. The mods admitted that they misunderstood Oriollie's responses to their discussions and assumed that she was uncomfortable with modifying her pieces for the zine. The mods concluded their statement with an apology to Oriollie with an offer to rejoin the project if she wished to do so.

The mods' statement was met with wide criticism, with many pointing out that the mod team's claim of wishing to avoid copyright issues ran counter to the artist's evidence showing the mods explicitly accusing the artist of tracing. Others pointed out that the majority of the mod team consisted of writers who likely had no experience in art and therefore would not know the difference between tracing and using references. Also floating around were suspicions that the tracing allegations were only an excuse for the mods to remove the artist for her old art of controversial ships.

Following these discussions, multiple contributors began to publicly announce that they were withdrawing their participation from the zine. In the project's final message, the mod announced the zine would be cancelled due to reports that several moderators and contributors received harassment and the negative response they received from their apology and the ensuing stress, as follows:

First of all, to everyone who has sent us legitimate feedback, especially our contributors — thank you. We recognize that we messed up phenomenally, and we can only try to rectify our mistakes and move forward; your advice has been invaluable in doing so.

This has been a learning experience for every member of the mod team and we are all determined to make sure we don't repeat the same mistakes in the future.

Unfortunately, we cannot in good conscience continue this project. Several members of our team, contributors included, have received DMs or anon messages harassing them over our mistake.

To be clear: our other contributors had nothing to do with the initial removal of this contributor. We again apologize for our words, for the hurt and confusion they caused. We never intended to make any contributor feel uncomfortable or insecure in their work.

Given the response to our apology and the stress caused to our team, the most responsible action we can take now is cancelling the project.

At this time, this account will not be monitored.

Contributors

The following names were taken from the project's contributor listing posted shortly after applications ended. This listing has been deleted shortly after the project was cancelled, so the listing may not be accurate.

Page Artists

• aerhyde
• aijou (aijousketches)
• cirqlr
• hagelwolke
• huaepiphany - Guest
• Hyuga (0._hyuga)
• Kyra (fishfud_art)
• Lisa Buijteweg (artofzolaida) - Guest, Cover Artist
• Martitart (DIANXIA)
• Naegis (gaynaegis)
• Nana (loiska.j)
• Nin (ninzephyr)
• Oriollie
• Palarien
• Pallice (palliceart)
• pitch.gold
• pokkibon
• Shan (ShanBlackRX_alt)
• shibiie
• StreamingOwl
• Tal (taliedraws)
• Tien (tienwashere)
• Tomomi (mrflowerbride)
• Torribo
• Tomowowo

Spot Artists

• Kri Shen (cretorivm)
• teleportwarning
• __bergo
• Socks (baneberry16)

Merch Artists

• harutobirbi
• birdcrumb
• Birdie (pichirobi)
• naie (naixaie)
• szynkaaa (SaltyHamRamen) - Artist
• deragmentise

Cosplay

• midnightcrawl
• sunlightspells
• mollyfrancosplay
• alsoknownaselle (luobinghole)

Writers

• IceEckos12
• Princeliest
• Deen (VampireFaun) - Guest
• Vesh (treefragmet)
• bazi (captaineldritch)
• corduroyserpent (strawhatpudding)
• Deb (debwriting)

Mods

• Mads (coldsobashouto) - Social Media, Art Mod
• Notte (nottesilhouette) - Communications
• Silvermoon - Organization
• Kroalias - Finance, Shipping
• Faith - Writing Mod

Former Moderators

• soraxd (sora2396) - Graphics, Art Mod
• Nico (midnightcrawls) - Shipping
• Kaashi (AkaashisDemon) - Writing Mod