How do you feel about adding a watermark to credit your own illustrations (original and/or fanart) that you post on the web?
I don’t like the idea of adding watermarks onto my artwork. It’s a distracting visual element that doesn’t belong in an image. But many artists don’t have much of a choice and do so to in order to make sure that everyone knows who it belongs to. It’s also a way to discourage theft but it’s doesn’t really help all that much.
It’s actually pointless because if someone really wants to take it then they will. People with photo editing skills can easily crop or erase the watermark by cloning it out of the image. It doesn’t matter how small, large or even where the watermark is position. They will always find a way to remove it as long as they have the skills and patience to do it.
Either way, it’s an artist preference and people need to respect whatever they decide to do. If the artist wants to watermark their art than respect it and don’t remove it. Or if they don’t want to add a watermark than respect them by making sure that they are credited, especially if you decide to post their art on your blog.
Personally, I think I will start adding watermarks to my artwork from this point on. Maybe something very small? Not that big or too obstructive, just a small one at the bottom which indicates who I am, my blog or my website. Hopefully, it’ll be a decent watermark. A mark that the thieves will feel too lazy to go the extra mile to remove, because it isn’t distracting or that noticeable. It may be a useless thing to do but I guess it never hurts to try and hope that people will respect it.
That’s all an artist can do. Just hope that people will respect them, their watermark and their artwork.
 DamnBlackHeart · Sun Dec 30, 2012 @ 09:19pm · 0 Comments |
