But don't cry for me. I'll get through it.
Meanwhile, I have gotten some requests, via my Yahoo Answers postings to see some samples of my artwork. This is certainly a fair request as I have spent three years spouting off my knowlege about art and art related stuff. Most of the other responders on YA will simply post a link to their sites, or to where they have some of their work displayed in online galleries.
But I have a problem with that. When I first came online, I signed up via AOL, using their offer of five screen names and a certain amount of bandwidth to post whatever I wanted on a web page. I, naturally, designed a tasteful online portfolio of text and images. Rather than using any of their ready made templates, I thought that, as an artist, I would design my site from scratch. There was a nice, easy to use application available so I managed to put up a site with a good introduction to my freelance business and added links to the various categories of my work, such as cartoons, commercial art, photos, fantasy art and writing. Lots of samples of my work with copyright information dutifully displayed on every page.
I thought it displayed rather well and I set out promoting the site at every opportunity. But there was a problem with that. Within a few weeks I began seeing some of my images being posted on other sites. Some, thankfully, gave me full credit for the images and even posted links back to my AOL site. But others did not and some were taking credit for themselves for the creation of these images. Not cool. PLUS I had to go through the work of contacting these thieves and their webhosts, informing them of the copyright violations. Believe me, it IS a lot of work to convince someone of what the law states and to make my case via letters and threats of legal action. I managed to get some of them taken down, but not all of them. But, these are only the few sites that I had found. Who knows how many others are still out there? Over the years, I still spot an occasional familiar image. Sometimes, I let it go. Other times I get more agressive at getting them removed.
Why? Because they are MY images and I reserve the right to say how and where they may be used. Just because they are posted online it does not mean any one can take them and use them. It's like, just because I may park my car on a public street, it doesn't mean someone can borrow it to take a spin any time they want to. It's MY car.
Besides, some of those images were in use by my clients. Via contract, they had license to use them in their ads, sites, or whatever. By having those images posted all over the web, it diluted the value of the images my clients paid for.
I finally closed the AOL site and went with another host. Now, I am more careful with my online portfolio. I don't publish the URL to just anyone. I give it to trusted potential clients and art directors with the expressed purpose of displaying samples. These are people who know copyright laws, or, at least, the value of intellectual property. And I respectfully ask them not to pass around the URL to anyone except those they can trust. Thankfully, in the five years I've had the site, I have not yet found any of those images "escaping" into the wild wild web.
I take a few other precautions. On the main gallery page, the images are rather small, thumbnail sized. It gives the viewer a rough idea of the subject and compositon. Each thumbnail image is a link to a larger sized image which contains a DETAILED portion of the full image. The detail shows the quality of the artwork, via brush stroke, color blending, stippling or what ever. Both the thumbnails and the detail images are clearly marked with the word SAMPLE across the page in transparent lettering. These precautions help assure that the images are not much commercial use to anyone who has the intent to borrow them. So far, the strategy works.
I will occasionaly post more examples of my work, inclucing photgraphic images. How often I do this will depend on the discretion shown by the viewers. If I see any unauthorized copies of my images anywhere but her, I will pull the images and pursue those who steal them.
Otherwise, enjoy.
luv,
vince
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