
What does watermarking your artwork say about your relationship with your audience?
You don’t trust them. I used to tag my pieces with semi-opaque copyright symbols, my name, URL, & other such nonsense. Then I realized I wasn’t showing my best work; I was showing a version of work that was obstructed with distractions. The eye couldn’t move around the piece naturally. Simply put, it looked horrible.
If I find somebody to be using my art in unacceptable ways, I can pursue that as needed, but why should one (potential) bad apple spoil the bunch? Tagged in a corner discreetly is my URL. If somebody regurgitates my work on Tumblr or a similar site, it only promotes me. Sure, it would be great if that person paid me $5 to reuse that image, but that will never become the norm. Visual artists must find new ways to share, build, & create. Fighting syndication of your creations makes you look like a lunatic. If it’s good, it will be reposted somewhere. It’s time to embrace change & figure out where you fit in.
Going forward, all photography, illustration, & layouts that I share here will available for use with Creative Commons licenses. Sharing projects I worked on for clients will be tricky & mostly saved for my portfolio at ItsNotArt.com, but I will try to share any elements that I can – textures, custom typefaces, or maybe even color pallets.
Join me for this experiment. Use my stuff. Share your stuff. If you’re already using CC, drop a link in the comments.
In regards to previous posts on this blog, if you have interest in using bits in your own project, just send me a note or comment & I’ll let you know what’s available to play with.