Always Sign Your Art (never date it)
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- Опубліковано 5 тра 2024
- Reasons to always sign your art and never put a date on the front. Tips on how to sign to prevent art theft and ways to use watermarks on digital art.
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Please do not shorten your signature to CP
LMAO
i love CP ('s art)
in 1:00: '-'
😭😭
in china, "CP" is slang for a relationship because its the letters at the start of the two words that make a relationship..... lol
putting dates on art to post is something I aggree with. However, put dates on your sketchbooks or art you just use for studying forms. It helps keep track of your progress of an artist.
Yes I try to always date my sketchbook so I can see my progression
This>>
This is the exact reason why I put dates in the first place
heavy agree
On my digital art I usually have a hidden layer with the date
i don't have to worry about ANYONE dating my art, it doesn't even pay for dinner
I thought the same, that's why I clicked the video
😂nice pun dude
Same, my art would put out, but nobody wants it. I write the month and year clearly on the back of every canvas that goes to live in the cellar for the rest of time until my heirs throw them out.
Now that I reflect on it, that's extremely sad.
dad, come back home
Fr
I disagree with the date thing, especially as a customer. When I want to commission an artist, I find it very useful to see the date of their art, so I can tell whether they’re just inconsistent, or their pieces are simply showing a natural evolution of their style, and what I could expect before I even make first contact with the artist.
they should definitely have sections with their progress year by year if they have a portfolio & if you're talking about social media, well usually they post in chronological order so if you see something inconsistent with no explanation be wary (if old art is reposted it's usually stated somewhere).
And for me, on physical canvas, I sign on the back in pencil and varnish over it, with the month and year of completion and the title of the piece (if it has one). If anybody ever wants to know, it's all there.
Most likely, nobody ever will.
@@BronzeDragon133I put the title and date on the back as well. Signature on the front. I also add the date on my sketchbook pieces.
It's also quite endearing to me to have a date on the art, it makes it a time relic.
@@crow7421Yeah, I like seeing it on some older buildings, it makes something feel important and special
Personally I think it's really cool when I see an image online that's dated like, 2004. It's amazing that it hasn't been completely buried after so long.
Actually real!! I’m in a fandom that really peaked in the early 2010s so I love seeing how old the fanart is lol
@@Aubslikeslosersguessing its homestuck just a wild guess
Samee
@@jestrelyeah don’t know why but I’m getting that vibe as well!
@@Aubslikeslosers Gamzee Makara
Also, artists, please, please, make sure your signature is comprehensible, so many times ive wanted to follow an artist after coming across some amazing art but wasnt able to do so because I couldnt even read or make out the signature.
This happens to me a ton too, often on Pinterest, since it's chock full of reuploads that don't link the source.
Can totally agree, I find or come across some really amazing art on the internet and want to find the source of who made it and where can I find them to see more of their art, but their signature is to hard to read or find.
(One of the other problems I have is when I come across an art piece I like and want to see art like that that is made by someone and is consistent in the style but only find out that it was made by Ai. Just to be let down and turn away from said art piece.)
there’s a reason many artists do this, and it’s simple. It makes it hard as hell to reproduce or claim it as yours, if you’re not the og artist. It’s an anti theft measure to have an odd/complicated/illegible signature that looks unique, as it makes it very hard for a forger to replicate.
In face many artists hide MULTIPLE signatures throughout the artwork itself, to make it even harder to replicate.
This started in traditional media. They don’t put the signature there for you to be able to read it. The original function of the signature in art was a security validation and anti forge measure. It still carries over to a lot of digital media today, because an artist can put something that’s not their name as a signature, that only they truly know what it is.
Having a legible signature that’s easy to copy would defeat the purpose, and even in the digital world, this actually still works just as intended, and is STILL a vital concern.
In fact, AI cannot copy signatures of this type successfully. Say someone’s selling ai art made from someone else’s art, and pretending that they are the og artist.
That super unreadable unique as hell signature is all the artist needs to go “actually, this is NOT mine, it’s 100% ai made fraud.”, because ai is only good at trying to copy simple signatures.
@@CrownePrince
Isn’t that one of the first point they make in the video?
@@RaspBerryPies It is. And Crowne Prince notes that to avoid the top reply's problem there should also be a legible subtitle along with the "hell signature."
The point of the theheartofthefart's comment is to add information about why people have illegible signatures in the first place.
i also love when artists **hide** their signatures in the middle of their illustrations while keeping it legible. Bonus points for hiding it in a cluttered background and the signature survives being JPEGd.
My trick (that I use bc I'm paranoid of my crap being stolen for whatever reason lmao) is that I hide my initials/name clearly but neatly in something like the shine dots of a character's eye, the stripes on fur, shading, highlights on hair.. anywhere that likely won't get cropped out and isn't easy to spot so that if hypothetically I ever had to prove *I* drew something I can pull a "HAH! did you notice to smudge THIS?"
the way i like to do it is by having my signature be part of the drawing (if it's able to)! like using it as text for the design on someone's shirt or a book or something; though if it gets too stylized i might also throw in just an overlay text somewhere else :p
I don’t know about you guys.. but I LOVE seeing dates on digital art. Or any art really.
I’m like, “Oh. My. god, 2016?? Man.. I remember when people used to draw like that!! Or, “Wow, they have improved so much since then! Love to see it!”
Time is wonderful. It also flies by pretty fast. Seeing things from the past is nostalgic, and having a date to prove when it’s from is kind of astounding :D
Ikr!
Like when I see dates like 2015 I go like "Damnnn I was in 2nd grade back then"
@@X3RNEA5 ayee, exactly!
I like putting dates on _other_ people's art. I have been banned from three art museums so far and have no intention of stopping. My sharpie is a menace, and my paintbrush is an implement of destruction.
I do my part to prevent art theft by taking a watermark stamp with me to every museum and gallery.
I really hope you don't apply your sharpie directly onto other people's art but like, on the wall or next to it.
𝗙𝗿
I don't get the upvotes. Why is this seen as a good thing?
@@kioku618 the joke
whats the point of drawing a hot anime girl if I can't date it 😭
holy shit this needs a pin
@@octovore_shobonI agree
🏅😂
I bet you are a boy younger than 18
my man!!!... wait what🤣
4:45 Having your initials be CP can't be super helpful to the practice of selling art either. I saw that mark and cringed a little because my mind rests comfortably at the exit point of the gutter.
EXACTLY
i thought it was because of a phone, and was about to type something about it and then it took me a while to uhm
Considering the first result for this acronym on Google was ‘Cerebral Palsy’ I find myself thoroughly confused
Its worse then having your initials as KKK.
No kidding. Throw in a middle initial or something.
The date one is so silly because the most famous and beloved art is also often the most ancient. I want to leave a stamp of myself on the world and to me that means that every part of my life is precious. A date puts that segment of your life into perspective. 2022 doesn't sound exciting today, but it will be in forty years.
The "2022 doesn't sound exciting today, but it will be in forty years" is actually incredibly inspirational. That was such an insightful and introspective quote, it made me smile and feel really kind of good. Thank you for that.
I get your advice from a purely business point of view, but as a viewer I personally love dates on art, because I love digital art history - the fads and eras art goes through, the styles, the techniques. To me, old is great. Pulling some digital art and then seeing that it was drawn in 1988 is crazy. It's like... wow, was this drawn on an Amiga? That's awesome.
I also like it for the history of the artist specifically. I'll sometimes scroll back through people's pixiv accounts to see how they've improved or their style has changed over time. It's like you're getting to know a little bit about them and their life.
@@Kidneyjoe42 I put date exactly for this reason, tho I improve rarely..
REAL
I saw a painting in a museum once where the artist scrawled today’s date somewhere on the work every time they worked on it, each date getting incorporated into the composition in a slightly different way. It was a cool concept and very well executed. It added a whole dimension of history and story to the piece
Same, I enjoy looking years back and seeing how much I improved
I am genuinely astonished at hearing the dating argument ''because it devalues art by showing how old it is.'' If anything, I give LEAGUES more respect to older art; I guess that's because I'm much of a conservationist/old-fashioned person myself, but I personally value something from decades ago way moreso than something recent. Age to me only increases the value of a piece, instead of detracting from it, to see a piece of art and go ''Oh, this cool artwork? And it was made that long ago too? Damn, it aged like wine.''
Still a very insightful video, I will keep the notice of signing artworks.
100%
I agree with you. I think it's amazing to be able to look back and see an artist's older work
Much like how Death Note is from 2006 and it was waay ahead of its time in terms of animation
If it's more than 10 years ago and still relevant, it can be seen as ahead of its time, or of higher relative quality. Trying to sell something that's 3 years old is mainly gonna be seen as selling off old junk nobody else bought.
yeah. by the way, thats also age bias! lol
My dad and his side of the family have been amazing artists, they made such beautiful paintings and drawings. My dad was the one who told me I should always put dates on my art. I used to do it all the time, but stopped as I stopped caring about my art for years.
I believe dates should be included, not only does it help with viewers, but it also helps with yourself. So many times I've gone back to my older art (I'm not really a digital artist, I mainly use sketchbooks) and lament over the fact that I don't remember how old the drawings were, and it's harder to make comparisons between my art now and my art then without dates.
As a viewer, seeing dates on art immediately makes me check out their newer art in a heartbeat. It helps me see the progress they've made and how they did it. Seeing other artist's improvements is extremely inspirational!
Seeing an old date on art just makes it cooler to me
I believe you *must* date your art for 2 reasons:
1. If they like the piece and see the date they go "If this was that good back then, I wonder how they're doing now?" (and vice versa if it's bad. They'll still want to see how much you improved)
2. I don't care how good your memory or folder system is, if it is lost (or unorganized), you will have at least *Some* way of collating it again.
I mean tbf dating is really only detrimental if the artist makes money mainly by their commissions and the like
@@raridino600 idk if that'd even be detrimental for commissions. maybe selling the original artwork? but i buy old art all the time, as long as I like it, so I don't see the issue here either, if somebody won't buy your art simply because it's old, but otherwise they like it, it's mostly an excuse. There's no reason to not buy old art if you like the art
E vive versa 😍
I started dating my art because it helps *me* keep track, everything else always gets lost with time but when it's right on the art I don't have to worry about the information getting lost. I couldn't care less if it devalues my art, I get like 0-3 likes on my Tumblr on the regular anyway lmao.
The second reason is why i put dates in my artworks,
My memory didn't work properly and i lost all the years worth of progress and original files, the only works i have is from images that i shared around, with no way of knowing when it was drawn so that i can compare improvement
I find it weird people won't see art with old dates and go "Damn. If they were this good back then, how much will they have improved since then?". Then again, this line of thought would also cause the client to want to see something more recent before making a decision.
Yeah, a lot of the best artists i know improved dramatically over 10+ years. But the whole AI debacle and other fields facing legit job concerns are going through a blender.
Consider the common even ideal love story.
Might be a personal vent here. (FEEL free to SKIP), just me venting out if anyone wants.
- The ideal stuff people want to afford, the baseline of a relationship. Might often be 1-50k diamond ring, 170k (2008) -> 400-800k same size house, taken hostage 4/4 boardwalks MONOPOLY style.
- A person, age 18-20, who likely has no degree, has earning potentials likely of 7000-15000$ a year, likely takes home 4000$->10,000$ a year after tax.
- The average mortgage rate of 2% -> 7% means just the lowball estimate of 7% a year on 400k is a 28k payment/rent. Not to own, but break even on interest.
- A very fair amount of people in 2024 are almost childishly 'autistimo' this year. Even though identical twins have sometimes shown "genetic factors" can sometimes be more akin to "Flour that grows next to a pizza oven is more likely to become pizza, than flour grown next to a tortilla factory". A lot of people just put themselve first. And the dating joke of. "I don't get why it's so unreasonable. Girls just want a guy who's 6 feet tall, makes 6 figures, has a 6 pack. And men just want someone under 666 lbs with no tattoos, stds or mental issues. I don't get why men are so entitled and unrealistic. Women deserve better. If money's all you bring to a relationship, why should we bother? You're the cause of all our problems." -> Men leaves to go hang with homies. -> "NO WAIT! YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO LEAVE, YOU'RE THE SOURCE OF ALL MY PROBLEMS" shenangians.
It might be over venting, but i think nobody is arguing.
- Probably everyone wants to be 'loved' by another person, even if they say it or not. Though the concept of 'love' can easily be warped by people. Some people define 'love' as almost akin to being fawned over. The "Omg, your STUFF'S THE BEST EVER! they're so cute!" "You're gonna be rich and famous!" "everyone wants you!" antics.
- Others might just want to hear "Thanks for all you do, i really appreciate it, thanks for coming back and always being here. :3, i'm so glad i have you" antics.
- Meanwhile, a probably legitimately concern amount of people might just define "love" as legit stalkery. Like apparently the furry fandom furcon had a problem with "love" expressed from 27 somethings being expressed as 'stalker issues' at the cons. Or 'True love.. is making sure they can never run away from ME.. their "TRUE LOVE" TM.'
While i get the ai concerns. (If you were looking at so many economic issues. And then something said. "Hey! I can deliver you a experience that's free, artificial, free of any potential harm, stalking, bad blood, be put away when wanted. Be anything you want, From the best scenes ever to most wildest fantasies to a feeling of high interactivity 'artificial or not'. Than it's almost easy to see why it'd have such real job concerns and replacement concerns. Why would someone 'keep you', if a artificial version of yourself with no real 200-2000$/month needs, (financial or otherwise), who could be 'anything' they wanted, even if a surreal copy (6 fingers, shallowness, parrotness) etc?
What's a musician without a audience, writing the dates and numbers playing alone to a empty audience of "The people who ruined their life?", or the bluesky/mastodon paradox. Where a self selection bias of people who needed money, went to a place of people who needed money. While everyone needed money, and then couldn't pay bills without money, while everyone needed money?
Can anyone plug in the math for how those 'real and idealistic 18-22 year old', fresh out of high schools/colleges in a best case scenarios. Can buy a 1-50k ring, 400k-800k house, and spend 200$ a day (70,000$ post tax a year), before they even have a degree? I'm not grilling just tired. But i feel like some of the ultra vitrolic hate has left people hormonal messes. The math doesn't add up, people have already said so or tried to explain they're trying to do the '5-20 yr setup' part of life. People have bills now, but 90% of people who didn't grow up in the fandom are just going. "lol, endless crap" OR "Why would i want THAT type of Human relationship? One that just uses me for money, verbally demonizes me, attempts to attack/smear others. I don't even want to give them a paypal or sketchy russian boosty address. I just want to never attach and be safe" antics.
Idk, but then even if the stuff is fun there's like this hormonal missing. Like even if you're seeing everything you wanted, not hate but just "i love yous" or "thanks, i always appreciated having you! Thanks for all the sacrifices you all made to help support us, :3", you see the real life person going. "You WERE THE CAUSE OF ALL MY PROBLEMS, I DON'T NEED YOU" followed by "STOP LEAVING!"s, and just feeling broken. And the first thing that comes to mind to people was DATING STAMPS!!!!!!, Not people who tried or were/there for years who left being DEMONIZED OVER AND OVER AND OVER!!!!!. Idk. overvent. But idek.
Understand what you're saying but I think it's interesting either way for an art to have a date because it can attract ither people into what past artwork they did.
Same, to a point. I'm someone who does traditional works primarily, and I've seen a few people who posted a lot of really stylized traditional art in the past, but moved to digital art in the present.
I can't speak to what value they'd have as older pieces, but I can say that the older works had a lot more character and texture that I appreciated. Age doesn't always equate to less value to different people, but circumstances are always a factor.
I think most people do, which leads people to think they are buying the "worse" of the artist's products.
How old is this? 9 days? Outdated
what is this a FOSSIL?
Thanks for the advice about art gallery customers not wanting to buy old art pieces. It's a relief to have finally binned all of my original Leonardos.
Yeah i heard a record scratch when that was said….
I like putting dates on my art. I don't really care that it might devalue my artwork in any way, my art is constantly improving one way or another. And I honestly never heard of that being a problem. Just recently I showed a new client my 2023 art and they were happy to accept me. I don't think people notice that at all. To be fair I hide the signature well enough that it doesn't obstruct the image.
I've been in the art world since the young internet, I've never heard of dates devaluing art myself... but maybe they've had one prudish bully and decided that was the Hail Mary to never dating art again, and telling everyone else to not do so as well. I see plenty portfolios with dates, and all I think about the dates is "wow, they've come a long way and are very active and passionate about art." I never once looked at a date and really cared much else of it, especially never how they described "what are you, a lizard?" Which I'm unsure what they are meaning there? That you're too old and not some fresh from the womb artist who just started cranking out good art? I really am unsure, the argument is vague there...
this!
Also having it hang in an artgallery is something, which doesn't happen. Rich people trade art to prevent paying taxes. They won't buy artwork from an internetuser/random person. You have to have rich friends, who promote your art to get it into a gallery.
@@inquisitorinluzifera3406 I think that the older the art the more it sells for. Like, why would it be devaluing anything? Why?
I've always dated my drawings because in the future I'll review it and see how much I've evolved and in how long, and it's also been 3 years since I've been doing a drawing for day every single day (Help)
I did the same.
I was taught I was required to put a date on my work no matter what, when I found out it was a lie I was a bit upset I was taught wrong, however what I like about it is just looking at how long it's been or whatever, and also I understand why people dont do it at all, its just I still do it because it feels too weird to me now •-•
Librarians and historians are going mad from this title lol
Exactly! Prince seems to be too biased by whatever experience they had with an art comission or something. Many have already explained in the comments that dating your art doesn't damage your business that badly. If a client dismisses someone's art for being old, that's them being unfairly judgemental, not the artist's fault
As someone who doesn't do digital art, but physical art, I wish more peeps did add a date. It helps reference art to a specific time.
0:55 I don't think signing your stuff with CP is very uh good
THATS WHAT IM SAYING LMAOOO
SO WRONG SIGNING WITH CP 💀
Cod Points
Central processor
just goes to show how black and white some people think when they think an acronym can't possibly have other uses. that it must exclusively be what they think it is and not something else.
I suffer from amnesia and it was near impossible to track my art journey, I had no concept of when I made something besides knowing that I drew it. In 2022, I started dating all of my traditional art and I can now see and appreciate my improvements.
Have you been able to vaguely figure out when your older art was made?
I like putting dates on my art, they're nice indicators of my progress and since I don't do comms atm so value isn't really something I'm concerned about. The tips on signature techniques were helpful though! Very useful to know.
And I think it's good to put dates on my art because I have a portfolio, most of the arts are pretty recent and it's for people to see that I'm doing this kind stuff since that date xD
Although, If you want to keep doing that in a portfolio, you should put recent drawings that are not than 2-3 years old or even less if you draw a lot, things change so fast in a few years
@@Carmiineh Yeah, my art changes all the time lmao, my art one year ago looks completely different to now, it's insane
while I was watching this video for the first time, RIGHT AT 2:37, my headphones gave me a warning about low battery and made it impossible to hear the audio for a few seconds, but the timing made me believe that you deliberately added it in as a joke to illustrate the point about how annoying putting a huge watermark on top of art can be for viewers. probably the most uproarious coincidence I've ever experienced
That is rather amusing. Reminds me of when a comedy sketch about the importance of comedic timing had the punchline interrupted by a midroll ad. I figured the algorithm had become sentient and developed its own sense of humour.
4:02 I think it depends on the person, on the contrary, I love hunting down vintage MLP art from october to december of 2010. there is something that is special about it i just cant put my hoof on
God that makes me feel so old hearing someone calling something from 2010 ‘vintage MLP’
I understand the insecurity of a date on art but to me, I love when people do that as it can lead me to some vintage rabbit hole from the artist. It's so good and interesting
honestly i don't understand what this video is trying to say about dates at all. what does an art gallery have to do with it? we're talking about digital artwork here, not a canvas you would sell to a gallery. it's very easy to keep a version of digital art that doesn't have a date on it, if selling to art galleries is your aim... although i also don't know why the age of the art matters to a gallery either... is van gogh worthless now? his pieces are practically ancient compared to a drawing from 2021. regardless that's not really what most digital artists are doing, that advice only seems useful to a small minority of online digital artists tbh.
i promise, a commissioner doesn't care that they can look at their commission and tell that they bought it in 2021. they already know. unless you're painting a gallery piece, nobody cares about this as much as this video implies by saying you should NEVER date your work
You need a comma before "but" (this is a universal rule) and another one before "to me" (since this is a parenthetical that you decided to end on a comma, it needs a starting comma as well): "I understand the insecurity of a date on art, but, to me, I love when people..." Well, I should also point out that it doesn't actually make sense to say "to me" if your point already includes yourself as the subject. One can't say that, to oneself, one thinks something. One simply says "one thinks something." This has been your free grammar lesson from an internet stranger. Please do better.
@@TheGrammarPolice7 This will actually help me with english, thank you.
personally, i like it when people date their art, cus i am always super amazed when i see a god-tier drawing dated 2009
I like seeing dates because you can compare the art they make now with older pieces that they made years ago. It can show progression, especially if they have a lot of room for improvement.
Personally I like seeing dates on peoples art. To me I like to see how the artist has improved over the years and having the dates there is convenient for that.
I like dates on art because 1) I often lose track of what was made when (especially digitally, I've lost a lot of files in freak SSD accidents), and 2) if I see an old piece somewhere that I like and it has a date, it makes me want to go see how the artist has improved up until their most current post (I'm usually blown away)
I've also seen it go the other way where I find an older piece that I like, but as time went on the artist's style went in a less appealing direction.
I personally put both a sign and a date, just to know when I drew it.
I never heard anyone put a date for any other reason😅😅😅😅😅
Same. I put a signature and date so I know what phase I was in when I drew this (phases like "anime drawing" phase where I drew anime only) and what day, month, and year I finished it. It's a good way to track your improvements throughout the years.
i haven't watched the video yet, but what on earth does she think people are signing their art for if not this?
I’ve got a date, a copyright notice, and a nice link to my deviantART
I personally always love finding dates on other people's artwork.
god i hate to admit that when i do see old art pieces online, i do have this resistance to share it right away, but at the same time i LOVE putting dates on my art. purely cause i like to stare at my old art, quickly see the date, and track my progress. the business side of art can be devious it hurts
For traditional art. Date the back! Signatures with dates do truly devalue the piece even with traditional vs digital media people want your latest and presumed greatest
Maybe that's true if you have become way more skilled in the last years and still trying to sell outdated art. I had a mini vernissage last year with originals and prints from 2020 up to 2023. Most of the prints were being sold like crazy, but especially the ones that were my "finest" of the bunch, and those artworks were from 2021, 2022 etc. Some prints that I myself thought were kinda "meh" were selling out too, which surprised me. So people were just buying based on what they liked, not at all about which year it was from.
If I have another vernissage in the future I'm gonna weed out the art that I think is outdated, but some of my finest works are still fire years later so maybe those art pieces are gonna be sold then too. My personal "masterpieces" I think are gonna look 10/10 no matter how many years go by.
This dating the back of paper art got me thinking - as a computer science student I know it's possible but it's just out of my knowledge reach atm - that maybe there could be a program to inject an encrypted date and signature into your digital art after it's done. A little chunk of information that isn't part of the metadata of the file so that when an art thief or a hosting service/website goes as far as cropping off the metadata of your digital work, there could be still a way to trace it back to you....
_EDIT: don't mind this reply , just a little thought fart from a comp sci student who's a wanna be artist for hobby_
Devalue? What, are you selling it?
@@thefanboy3285 iirc, theres a way to change the metadata in the art to make it unreadable by AI
" Signatures with dates do truly devalue the piece even with traditional vs digital media people want your latest and presumed greatest"
Ok, but if you intended to sell the piece, why would you wait years and allow it to become devalued before doing so?
If you want to use it to advertise for commissions for new art, why does the value of your old examples matter? Obviously any new art will be given the current date.
The Internet is that one place, where the word 'sharing' typically does not mean _caring._
Sharing is caring, so stop caring
I hate when artists don't sign their stuff. I ALWAYS sign my stuff, even when it's a WIP that I don't touch for over a year. Such a great video!
im crying it took me like 3 mins to figure out that you meant dating your art time-wise😭😭😭🙏
OML-
As an art enjoyer, I like it when artists sign their art because sometimes I like to download pictures to my phone/computer to look at and usually save it with the artist's name as the title. So if I forget to title it but the artist signed it, I can look them up very easily :3
I'm all pro-date, I totally get your arguments but since I don't sell prints or anything, there isn't much reason for me to not do it, and I could still remove the date easily if I decided to sell it in any way :D
I love the aesthetic of my initials and a date which is always incorperated into the piece, usually resting on the shoulder or another convenient half background, half character place (in case of portraits). But I have also started putting a QR code with my 2 social media tags onto my art, the QR code leads to a carrd and the info on the carrd gets updated more easily :]
Yeah, most of my pieces are physical fiber art, and so I like dating them because I know they'll be around for a good long time. We have ornaments that my mother made as a child, and ones I made as a child, and it's nice to be able to easily look at the back and be amazed how long it's been. Of course, this is a completely different use of art from selling, so there's different rules.
I love seeing dates on work. It helps put into perspective on how much that artist has grown, and it's neat to see their older work, and knowing how long ago it's from. I'm fairly sure Jim Lee dates some of his work as well. Then again, he has that leeway from a business perspective because of how popular he is.
As someone who rarely posts my art, I’m a bit disappointed you didn’t mention recreational artists. Especially when using absolute phrases like “Never date your art”
For AI art, it's actually most important that you use the same signature in the same offset from the corner for Every. Piece. You Make. You'll notice that when an artist name is used as part of the prompt, sometimes you'll see a mangled corner or even a signature there. That's because the AI looks for similarities between all your pieces to identify a "style" (it's more complex than that but close enough). If you are consistent with your signature size, design, and placement, the AI will identify that AS PART OF YOUR STYLE and try to include it in every piece it generates, giving you far more legal and social leverage when calling out the generated art.
For this reason, I recommend signing twice, once in a standard location and once in a difficult to remove location. The non-name things like dates if you include them and similar information can also only be placed in the corner part.
This is a fantastic point. I work with AI models often (ethically). Recurring constants in training data significantly skew output. Having the same signature in the same place of every piece will absolutely show up in outputs trained on that art. It’s so strong that even negative prompts like “-signature” and “-text” don’t do much to remove it from the AI generated images. (For now.)
Bit of a double edged sword if your goal is to have your signature show up when your name is used in a prompt. A model that has guided training can have your watermark/signature very easily tagged as a watermark/signature meaning it can be ignored entirely, or included as a watermark so that a negative prompt for watermark will generate an image without it easily
@@CorrosiveCitrus That isn't how generative models work. The model is trained on all the images in it's training set before the user prompts it. If you ask for a specific artist with a distinct watermark and tell it to generate images without a watermark, it isn't going to retrain against that artist's work to determine what their watermark looks like, and if it did there probably wouldn't be enough data for a good result anyway. It's going to use whatever it's learned from the broader dataset and apply it.
@@74oshua ngl this seems like it would fail against people drawing over the signature for like 10% of the sample, then telling the ai model to go "okay, make the generated images look like (watermarked image) - (watermarked image - image with removed watermark)"
Because my art is only for me, I like to add the date. It’s meaningful to me (bc I’m sentimental to a fault honestly) to see the exact day I made this piece and because I can feel the emotions I had at the time of drawing it when I look at my own art, it also lets me put a date to that feeling.
If I were to sell art, I’d likely keep the date on the art in my personal files but have it on a layer I can easily turn off to save a separate version for prints/posting/etc. Best of both worlds imo.
I like two types of signatures, a fancy look at me type, and the type that is fully integrated into the design and so is literally part of the piece. Some of the latter are done so well that you don't even know they are there without knowing what to look for
Man I love cp (crowne prince)
I, too, like to immediately ruin every joke I ever make by explaining it in brackets afterwards. (I don't really. I'm being sarcastic.)
@@omp199 see i don't really wanna be put on a list by accident (i don't wanna be put on a list by accident)
Same (but not crowne prince)
@@wn4426if you really meant that, you aren't going to get put on a list.
you are one person among many, CIA, government, or whatever likely 99.9% chance do not care about you.
toyhouse artists and comission sellers are the behemoths of anti-theft technology. not only toyhouse actively encourages watermarking, having all these fancy tools for it, but artists are getting better at incorporating it. theres this one artist whose watermark is so pretty and subtle, but readable enough, that i look foward to see that it's there.
which artist?
Sounds really cool, point them out dude
what's toyhouse
@@LieseFury It's a site where it is mainly used for storing your characters and works
@@yoisakikanade_ It's louixie 😅😅 shes a warriors cat fanartist so lets say her art is at high risk of stealage
Dates on the art itself is useful if you predominately post to social media, since it's common practice to repost old stuff occasionally. It doesn't need to be as apparent as the signature itself either, so you can hide the date a little around the sig; a tiny '24 below your name is just as much information as a large '2024' below your sig. This allows you to still record the date in the image itself while reducing its impact on the art. Plus you can also just remove the date as needed if you decide to sell a piece.
im a fan!
This has convinced me to start putting my website down on my usual signature. I'm never gonna stop dating my art though. I think letting people know how old a piece is would invite more curiosity to see what my newer (or even older) work is like and being seen matters more to me than making a sale.
As a consumer of art, these are the things that are important to me:
It doesn't obscure the art; I don't like a watermark overlayed on top as it makes it hard to see and appreciate the art,
The colour doesn't clash - I prefer either monochrome (black/grey/white) or a colour taken from the art,
I can actually read it. What's the point otherwise? I remember seeing wonderful art and hoping to find and maybe commission the artist, only to peer for ages at some squiggles that I knew were a signature, but couldn't for the life of me make out anything identifying from it. That might be the most frustrating one.
I regret not putting dates on my traditional art.
My artistic journey means a lot to me and having those exact dates as to when I started/finished a piece of traditional art (sketches or full pieces of any sort) would've been important.
There are many convenient ways of keeping track of how old a file is on your computer, but unless the date is written directly on the page somewhere, all you've got is your memory, and maybe the date of the picture you first took of it, if you even did that when it was first finished.
I'm still getting used to signing my digital work and I still won't sign my traditional work unless I'm particularly proud of it and want to share it on the internet. But I will be putting dates on my traditional art as much as I can.
Great video but please never ever use that CP signature at 0:59 😭
stop being weird
Why not? Some people have that as their initials. Just because you associate it with something sinister doesn’t mean they should change it. Get your mind out of the gutter.
I totally understand that but the connotation is still there regardless. You can see other people also noticed it. But considering the other amazing options he added why use it when you have to admit it’s at least questionable
@@recycledideas4261If it was an artist that worked in exclusively in traditional media and had no concept of the digital realm - sure.
But if you're a "cute" furry artist that does the bulk of your business online, those initials are going to raise eyebrows.
Other commenters have brought it up. Context is important. I'm going to give Prince the benefit of the doubt here, but it's a weird pick.
@@FineTuxedo Yes, it's false advertising. I think that's what you meant.
100% this for signing art.
I don't do art, but I do handle a lot of it.
I commission a lot, and often scour cool art styles to find people to commission.
The amount of times I've had to change my mind on artist choice purely because I couldn't work out who the image belonged to is crazy.
For context, easily a potential hundereds worth in commissions that could have gone towards those artists, had I been able to work out who they are. (Not accounting for artists who don't take commissions, or variations in pricing ofc)
People like me exist, I myself personally know a bunch of people who do the same thing I do to try and find artists. Sometimes we get lucky and find the OP of the image right away, but other times we need to rely on the watermark/signature to work out who drew it. Especially in the social circles I travel where commissioners tend to share a lot of their pieces with eachother and have a few too many pieces to reliably name the artist of each and every one.
If I'm unable to look up the name on that signature (I.e. it's too small, too stylistic to read, or just two letters) then it's a no-go. We look for another artist.
Hidden/diegetic signatures/watermarks are great, it's harder for art thieves to spot and erase it. But it also does give us more work to find the artist. But typically we're already looking a lot at the piece to see if it's the right art style for us to want to commission, and it has the added benefit of making the whole piece feel more natural (in the case of diegetic at least). Some of us (myself included) typically would be willing to spend the extra bit checking to find a hidden watermark if the style is particularly appealing, but it does add extra challenge.
Ultimately, as someone who is always keeping an eye out for an artist to pay, it's important taht I can see who drew what, as I rarely see these images in the context of the artist's own socials.
I add the date exactly for the reason you stated. As someone who's new to digital art and is trying to improve with every new artwork, it motivates me when I see my old artworks and see how far I've come since I've started.
Also makes it less embarrassing when people find my artworks from a few years back because the date provides a reasonable explanation as to my it looks so different for whoever finds it.
lmao, read the thumbnail before i read the title and was a bit confused as to why we were being told not to get in romantic relationships with our art
Same
Sadly, it’s too late to stop me now 0:00
I also like it lower the resolution a bit for my public art. So watermark and low quality but not low enough to ruin looking at it. Just so maybe it will discourage reposters since it's not the best quality or to prove me or my client have the originals
Oh yeah, I do the same. I think I might've moved that tip to a future lesson about avoiding theft, and dealing with it when it does happen.
.jpgs would be good for that, right? I think the quality degrades each time it's downloaded or reuploaded
@@reclusiveChiroptera png quality degrades too since most sites by default convert any uploaded image into jpg but yeah, that's how you get "moldy" and yellowed images, its because theyve been reposted and screenshotted thousands or with some images potentially millions of times
also lowering the quality makes people not able to print it and claim its theirs
AI art models don't have databases. They train it on art, but once training is over they delete it. The file they end up with isn't nearly as large and there's no way to extract them from it. They're only big enough to keep track of the stuff art has in common.
I think the main reason to sign it is that often times people will share it without bothering to source it, and it makes it easy for people who sign it to find you and follow you wherever you normally post it. Though with tools like saucenao, this isn't as big an issue as it used to be.
I always date my sketchbook drawings because it’s motivating to see how much you’ve improved even comparing from months ago.
I do personally like the aesthetic of putting dates on my art, honestly because I like the look of seeing old art and seeing "2014" or "2012" and my art is going to eventually age. But you do bring up a good point, so forgoing the date might be a good idea on any "big" pieces that are more likely to go into a portfolio and keeping the date on personal art or "smaller" pieces? So that I can kinda keep doing both and all, even if those categories are pretty subjective
Your art style has a creator base that is statistically more likely to do bad things to animals and children... Please stop furry art:( Even if your brain is somehow normal everywhere, you're providing material to a huge base out there:( Please join me to stop all furry anything. We're just giving the radical alt right merit when they call the lefts the P word.
Thanks for the nice tips! As a touring musician that only draws cute foxes in my sketchbook/diary, I only write the year and the city where I was. I don’t have a smartphone so I use my foxbooks to remember the moments leading to the drawing. I will definitely insert a signature and delete the date once I decide to post them anywhere online ❤❤
Writing the city is actually really fun. I like that.
I like foxes. I wish I could see some pages of your diary
One point is that AIs don't contain copies of what they are trained on.
Stable Diffusion, for instance has a "model" that contains fewer bits than the number of pictures it was trained on. And you can't store a picture in less than a bit.
It can reproduce a few pictures that are over represented in its training data. It's seen the Mona Lisa many thousands or millions of times since its source is the internet. So like a human, it has familiarity with things it has seen a lot of times, it can reproduce the Mona Lisa or Doge. But it can't reproduce an image that only exists in its training data once.
Yes, it's true that if the TRAINING data is cracked open, then your signature will have meaning there.
Yeah, I was talking about the training data. I oversimplified it for the purposes of this video, because I want to focus on signatures and not a big AI and data disgorgement legal case info dump.
Personally, I don't care about my art being taken, shared with no credit, stolen or used for AI, because these days if you post your art online publicly, all things above are a given. You can't truly own and control something digital.
However this video randomly gave me the realization, and I feel like I've known but for some reason ignored this, is that signatures are most useful and appreciated by fellow artists and art enjoyers who wish to find who made say, that beautiful drawing of a knight with paint splatters on their armor.
Plus this video gave lots of nice tips on how to design both an attractive and efficient signature
I politely disagree on the "the date devaluates the art". I find it infinitely cool to see a date on a piece, for historical reasons. I'll keep on writing the date on my pieces. I really like To know when they were made. That adds a little something to them.
Whenever I read a date on something, it brings me back to that year, thinking " Oh, what was I doing at that time when that artist painted this masterpiece ? So cool !! " or even "How was the world like at that time ?".
This! 😂 even though the date is on the website, sometimes I have pieces of art drawn and go wow this was over decade?
I love this.
I disagree with it, but impolitely. It's a ridiculous take and should be challenged more openly as such.
"Date devalues the art"... whatever will they think of next?
@@Hekateras It reminds me of the concept of ‘time value of money’ in accounting. It’s basically a theory of infinite exponential inflation and I hate it. It’s quite literally why we can’t have nice things.
Also put little watermarks in the characters with a low opacity! Some people can use as their profile picture or something else, you can prove the art is yours by pointing out the micro assignature that it's on the characters eyes or bodies.
I usually put my username in a black or white color with 4% opacity, it's pretty small and barely people will see it.
I do the same but with my signature. My signature doesn't look like my username watermark at all however all my pieces have that signature that are on 20% opacity hidden within the art piece. So I can always point out its my art piece cuz it has that signature lol.
these are awesome! someone with a more detailed art style can put these "easteregg" signatures smackdab in the middle of the focal point, as an eye shine, while others with a simpler cartoon style such as myself could maybe use cell shading for that. doing a negative space signature with the shading (although that would be easy to edit out... anti-theft signatures are always "and alsos" and not "instead ofs", so youd still have a propper sig and watermark)
@@portobeIIai was thinking is using an signature logo and making it part of the character’s designs (clothing, t-shirt, iconography, other miscellaneous areas, maybe the eye render if its really detailed).
Signatures are a preference, just like dating. They aren't necessary, the art will speak for itself. Because once it's out there, it's not under our control. I think it's important to come to peace with that.
I like putting dates on my work, but I’ll keep the devaluing thing in mind for when I open commissions!
Signature is fine. Dates I don’t really fuss with since if you upload it to social media it’ll show the date anyways.
Personally, I like putting dates on my art, because I have really strange time-keeping issues, and I like to redraw my older drawings every year, so I usually put dates on them only showing the month and the year abbreviated, so that I can remember the exact day, and not let the time-frame fade away from me.
Putting dates on pieces of art is essential for being able to put the artwork in its historical context: to know what was happening in the world when it was made, to know what might have inspired it, and so on. I've seen discussions about whether certain images were eerie premonitions of the destruction of the twin towers, for example. If you can't date the images, you can't even have such discussions.
Very thought-provoking! Thank you for sharing your experience!
Crowne: "Don't date your art."
Me: "But real people scare me."
I remember commissioning an artist, and they had honestly one of the best ways to watermark artwork I've seen, that fits both theft and viewability.
They utilised both methods.
They first put a fairly visible watermark containing their handle is the corners of the piece, then they took the watermarks all over the piece part that is annoying, and instead of made it super visible, they put pastes over the character and made them around 10% visible, to the point where if you looked from afar, or didn't look super closely you wouldn't even see them, they aren't the easiest to read, but if you're looking to backtrack an artist or prove they are there and usable, it would be more than enough evidence, whilst being near impossible to steal.
Putting on dates I would say mostly depends on the purpose you use the art, if you're using it for advertising/commercial, if your style has not changed, which you shouldn't be putting art that isn't what you offer in the first place, you should not, as it can give a bad impression to a buyer.
But if you are using it for progress pictures, or study, anything relating to your evolution, then you probably should date it, for that fact, if you wish to put it forward later, you can always remove the date, unless it's traditional, which you'd need to spend a bit more time to make it work, but it's far from impossible, unless you inked it, and in that case, I feel bad for you.
that "CP" abbreviation is wild 💀💀💀
I started putting full dates on my work primarily for myself. It's just always nice to come back and see what you've done in the past.
Although this definitely makes the work automatically obsolete, I agree there.
I like putting dates on my art! At least the year because 1. I like how it looks and it just goes with my signature. 2. I like seeing how my art progresses through the years. And 3. When others do it I like seeing how their art progresses and improves through the years.
I misunderstand the title, I thought this video was on the harming effects of asking your art out on a dinner date.
For real, I was about to write a 6000 words essay on why it is perfectly acceptable
I like putting the year on my personal and studio art because it's the only way I can make sense chronologically of my body of work. I've been drawing and painting for almost half my life, and having that reminder about the place and time that I made something however many years ago makes me happy. Putting the full date on skeches/studies is also helpful for tracking progress.
If I wanted people to track back to my social media or something I'd put a watermark on it.
This is the best current art signature video.
I didn't used to date my art,. but in 2018, I had an eschemic stroke, and teporarily lost the ability to draw. I still forced myself to draw, and I dated the work to track progress over time. Only recently have I stopped tracking it.
I save my art in folders by year it's made. Although, after so many years it's starting to feel awkward as a sorting system. I'm not sure what would be better though. 🤔
Sorting methods would probably be a useful tip for a future video.
Generally, as a person who commissions a lot of art, I like to sort by character -> Design (As alts) -> Piece Type (Headshot, Half, Full, etc)
You could generally sort by Year -> Piece Type.
There is also Year -> Month if you wish to micro-manage it.
You could also, if you have a lot of styles, sort by Year -> Style, or combine all 3 and use Year -> Style -> Piece type (If you draw a lot of art and are draw a wide variety.)
Generally, my questions would be what do you use it for? How much do you have? For example, I don't sort art of characters who has less than like 50 pieces, as it is not very important, as you will find the specific piece by skimming through the files.
Also, another thing isn't just folders, but how you name files, you could name something Fullbody_Character_April, and it works, but if you want to retrieve that piece later, it will be much harder, especially if there are more than 10, especially with variants.
Any other things I'd supply regarding naming is that you can name it by what the piece is about, "Character exploring a mysterious forest", will be much easier to find in a lot of files with such names, for variants, I just like to add brackets, for example, "Character exploring a mysterious forest (DSZ)" if I need to downsize it for image uploading, for sites like ToyHouse.
Generally, I would just say see what fits you best, it depends on your needs, you can go more detailed with sorting, or you can leave it be, it depends on what your needs are, and how detailed you want to go with sorting for futureproof sake.
I have the same issue. I have it managed so that any art older than the previous year is put into "Cold storage" (an external drive that is almost always hooked up to my PC anyway) and I just have the current year and previous year on my SSD for quick and easy access.
I'd say just break it down a little more. Break the years up into months. Maybe you could also separate it out by type? I dunno, I'd have to look at it to figure out more.
same!, i actually mostly do this because else it takes wayyyyyyyyy too long for the files to load and sort themselves in the right order (by date instead of alphabetically)
Ahh yeah a video about sorting artworks would be greatly helpful!
*Comedically timed explosion of all my digital artwork bursting out the single folder they've been carelessly crammed into for years*
I've been putting a date on most of my art and I think I will stop doing it now. Your arguments for it are sound! Thanks for the video!
Super informative and kept my attention. I will be doing this the next time I post art online!
Both sides of the date argument really are valid. It _does_ make are feel aged. But I guess it depends on the audience itself if being aged in terms of art piece is a good, bad, or neutral thing for them.
In fanart in particular at least, I think it’s really cool to see artworks that are really old. I’ve even seen other fans loving and sharing fanart particularly because it’s old and comes from a certain time, almost like a fandom classic. Like “oh I remember this one!” It allows people to look back and not only put the art in context of all the things the artist themself has done, but also think of the art in context of the time and the environment in which the art was created, what has happened during and since that time, especially if the artwork is meant to be shared in certain communities or targeted towards a certain demographic. Like, “oh I remember _when_ and _why_ this art was created,” like maybe there was an event, maybe there was a celebration, maybe it was a response to something, maybe it reflects the way the community is back then, how it changed over time, how it still remains the same, how people of the past and the present may still share the same thoughts and ideas, etc. And I think all of that is just as important.
Of course the date on the art itself is not the only way to find this out (at least in digital art). You can check history of interactions, or the date it was posted, or ask the artist, whatever. But putting the date on the art itself does make that process much more easier, and seeing the date immediately makes it faster for the audience to associate it with the time it was created (which, again, does make it feel aged).
Personally, I think displaying old art is cool in general. But that’s not always the case with other people, you cannot really control the preference of your audience. You can’t force them to care about the old things you created, even if they’re old. But some of us still do. Some of us thinks it’s cool. So in the end, it really depends what you yourself, as an artist, would like to do. ❤
i like putting dates on my art because it helps me see how much i’ve progressed
Thanks for the reminder! Been slacking on incorporating my signature
I find obvious signatures to be pretty cringe. I do sign my art, but I do so as more of an easteregg that is built into the art that you have to hunt for and find. Like it's woven into a spiderweb in the corner or it's part of a crack in the wall, etc. Plus, my signature is not very obvious and difficult to read unless you know what you're looking for.
I do this mainly because I don't believe I "own" the art. I drew it and put a lot of work into it. But once I put it online, I'm essentially letting the wind take it. To me, art is not about clout. It's about expression. If someone wants to take what I make and repost it, it means they found some form of value in it that they wanted to share with others - and that's really my ultimate goal.
...plus it's kinda fun to be the quiet awkward guy in the corner thinking to themselves "hehe, they don't know that I drew that 👀"
You too???
i like dating my art as well as seeing them on other artists' work, because I can see the improvement. i do understand and agree that its not necessary to do when you're doing it for prints
“hey art, I’m breaking up with you.”
“NOOOO-“
back in the days of renaissance art, european artists would sometimes "sign" their works by literally incorporating themselves into the work, usually as a background character. while this may not work so well nowadays, it would be interesting to see if one could pull it off anyhow
I have always put dates on all my physical art. There's always digital metadata, but on physical art - while I could use my historical thinking skills to deduce that this was PROBABLY made in 2017 when I was first starting out, or 2021 when art first turned into a coping mechanism for me - I like having that little confirmation from past me that states "This was where we were in June 4 years ago!"
I usually update my watermark on the yearly to indicate the year that it was made in - it takes extra time but it's a quick visual indicator for myself as to when I made the artwork.
The one thing I'll say is from a recruiting perspective, having a date on your artwork can help employers/team recruiters see your improvement rate and track general trends on where your work is heading and places you've improved since initially starting out. From a producer's perspective, seeing that progress helps me not only see a potential team member's strengths, but anything they might need to work on/I should avoid assigning to them should I bring them aboard on a film or project. You notice patterns of things that have and haven't changed.
Every recruiter is different of course, but especially if you're hiring students in-training or bringing them onto a team, having that timeline can be very helpful when allocating resources in team projects.
This is actually conceptually baffling to me, because I literally do not gaf what year something was drawn.
No normal person does. This fad of acting like something slightly older is automatically cringe is very weird, and I hope people grow out of it.
@@Hekateras yeah, I don’t get it either. It’s really stupid. Anyway, this video is 2 weeks old anyway, so it’s outdated advice anyway. 🤣
I think dates are important on any product. Imagine you find some artworks of an artist in an art database. Some of these artworks look "good" and some look "not so good".
Theoretically, since artists (usually) improve their style and quality over time, you could assume that the "good" artwork is new and the "not so good" artwork is old.
The date makes it explicit. So, if you see a bad quality artwork and see that the date is new, then you know the artist has just bad quality (at the moment),
but if you see a bad quality artwork and see that the date is 10+ years old, then you might consider searching for the artist and see if they have newer artworks which have a better quality/style/etc.
Additionally, a lot of people like me are nostalgic and so some artworks from the era of the beginning of the internet are very valuable.
I think we can put date in whenever we are drawing for learning, not for profitting nor showcasing.
I mean, it is worthy to track your progress of art though time, so i think putting date in also helps the viewer experience the adventure of an artist.
Beside that, i don’t have anything to argue…
I have been writing dates on my drawings since I began drawing, there is something heart warming to see the progress and how much I improved over the years. Moreover, it can be a info of when your OC is first drawn, it can be their birthdays
the thing that convinced me to finally start signing my art was treating it like a logo, like a sign of pride or quality, like how an apple or adidas or nintendo logo sort of adds onto the product
(altho that also makes it easily edited out but for now i am okay with that as i largely just want people to be able to know my username if it gets shared around carelessly without credit)
its a bit better on art that has backgrounds where im forced to put an overlayed transparent version on the drawing lol
i also put a full overlayed watermark on any of my adoptables, it honestly looks kinda nice in my opinion, i always turn the opacity down veeeeeeerry low though so you can still properly see the actual design
I am glad you said to put dates in like the file name or some other place, because that's important data to track.
I'm not an artist but my SO is, and I know she puts a year on her art. I know from my perspective as someone who's known her for years I like seeing the year because it timestamps that time in our lives, so for pieces she does for me I love being able to revisit the exact moment and think about what may have been happening in my life at that time.
For her commissioned art I feel the year stamp adds a level of progression to it, makes it easy to see an image and look at how far she's come and changed as an artist from something she made a while ago.