Can I Protect My Artwork, Illustrations and Ideas From Theft? Should I?

I am often asked about this BUT I don’t really worry about it.

Amanda asked, how to protect her artwork online since she would soon be publishing her portfolio. My answers may or may not surprise you but I’ve compiled my thoughts based on the examples of my illustration and animation friends and other artists that I know. There seems to be a shift from the way things used to be done.

If your artwork is teeny weeny, it won’t get pirated. 

We get asked this a lot and There are a lot of opinions on this and here is mine.
Back in the early days of the internet there came to be a site, it seems like it was called theipot.com but I can’t seem to find it anymore, maybe I am just stup. Anyway it was an early website for illustrators, it was new it was amazing and a lot of illustrators put their work out there. The images, however, to protect them from pirates, were all teeny and hard to see clearly. Every one was so afraid of losing some potential money. They, theipot, or whoever that dot com was, finally made it so you can click on an image and see it, quite recently I am told. Back then, every one was thinking, “If I make my image really small, no one will be able to steal it, they’ll be forced to BUY it and I’ll be stinking rich in no time”. We were all worried that with the internet, they would be stolen. The problem with a 3” image is that no one can see it, they may not want to steel it at least but they also won’t want to look at it.

ARE Illustrators “Risking it”, making their artwork big and visible?

Now what you see is a lot of illustrators and artists have images that are 14 inches and bigger. Very clear, close up, beautiful, in your face, pictures. You will also see some that just didn’t get the memo and they are still proudly posting these little teeny, insignificant  graphics of their work on their art websites. Saying, don’t steel me, or notice me, or look at me, or love me. That, to me is clearly an indication that they are on their way out. I don’t know of any artists or illustrators that I know personally that continue to show their stuff really small.

In fact, I do know one in particular who was very famous in New York who insisted on controlling his intellectual property by keeping his images small, and he is no longer illustrating.

Water Marks Can Protect Your Artwork from those Dirty Thieves. 

What about water marks, there are a lot who will have a small, or a big water mark, covering their work. They’re beginners, almost all of them, the big professional artists don’t do that. The big proud, “look you can’t steel this“ watermark is a sure sign to any art director that you are a beginner. You won’t see that with the top illustrators. Another short sided, short thinking idea is to disable the right click from enlarging it. All that is going to do is frustrate potential clients, and thieves true but… we don’t want to frustrate the legitimate clients. So you say, “yeah but someone might see my work and copy it, or my idea, and pay some other artist to do that, and therefor steel from me.” And you know what? You’re right, someone might, and someone might see someone else’s work, get an idea and pay you to do it. That is just the way it is. F.Y.I. If you disable the right click, all they have to do is a screen capture.

Get your work out there, get noticed, get liked, Get Hired, get published, get paid. 

When I am teaching, and want examples of other artist’s work, I will skip over any work that is small or hard to see. Therefor that artist will not get that exposure and really, in this world, you want exposure. When you’re trying to create a following, the last thing you want is anonymity. (I couldn’t spell that or pronounce it, and spell check wasn’t much help either) you need your work to spread around the globe as much as poss. (short for possible) Hopefully you are selling things from your website, and it is like a funnel, you need to put a lot of stuff into the top to get a little money out of the bottom. The more people you put in at the top, the more you make at the bottom. I have friends who have gotten amazing work from executives from movie companies and have purchased original artwork.

Give it away and proper

I mentioned this in an earlier blog – We asked an artist, who has a really nice painting style, to teach a course on folioacademy and she refused. Not because we couldn’t pay her enough, she said if she teaches people how to paint like her, they will take all her work. They will “steel” all her work opportunity. I think that is scarcity thinking on her part. This is someone who obviously doesn’t understand the enormity of the internet and the world, the sheer numbers online and numbers of clients. Plus, if her style is neat, I say she should want some copycats, get that style out there. If we don’t learn from her, we’ll learn from someone else, while she dwindles. (hopefully not)

If you look out there on websites like Pinterest, Youtube, Instagram, tumbler and blogger and a slew of others, you will see, that there are tons of artists just putting it out there. Music, art and more. So if you think holding back or hiding your work from everyone to save yourself from the few thieves, is the best thing to do, Just go to pinterest for example. Type in Illustration, and you’ll see scads of illustrations just out there for the looking and steeling and copying. So your stuff will be safe, and theirs will be out there, getting exposure, getting attention, notice, notoriety and love. So you slowly die while they grow and thrive.

MONEY FOLLOWS VALUE

You want money? Create value. Money follows value. How many companies put free stuff out there to get people hooked? Have you ever heard of Netflix? How hard is it to get a free month of Netflix? Too easy, and you can cancel any time. So people steel (figure of speech) for a month, then they throw their money at Netflix every month after that.

There are three types of people, those who can count, and those who can’t. LOL.

You will find three types of fans in this industry, there is the loyal fan. The ones that will buy anything you produce, they are waiting for your next book, app, print or what ever, so they can buy it. Bad news, there aren’t too many of those, but they’re out there. Then there’s a larger group that like your stuff and buy some of it. Be it prints, songs, graphic novels, what ever. Then there is the third kind, the ones that like your stuff and will NEVER buy it. They also happen to be the ones that will steel it. Let me rephrase that, the people that will steel your stuff, would NEVER buy your stuff even if they couldn’t steel it. So if they make a t shirt, or print something of yours, and hang it up, you might think, “Oh no, I lost some money!” But know this, if they didn’t steel it, they still wouldn’t have purchased it. But we aren’t going to worry about them, it is too bad that there are those but we are not going to let it get us down. ARE WE? That’s better.
So the worst thing that could happen, someone might make a little money off your stuff and you’ll get some free publicity. No big company will do it and you can’t afford to worry about a small timer, look at the bright side, maybe you will have fed him for a day.

Don’t bury your talent

Maybe we should do our artwork and then put it in a safe or a box and bury it, or burn it, that will keep the pirates from steeling it. By protecting your artwork, you will lose.
But what are you giving up by not putting it out there? Isn’t there like a scripture in the bible somewhere that says something like “let your light shine, don’t put it under a bushel”. If someone steels from you, sorry but, look at the bright side, they stole it because they LIKE it.
Let your light shine and enjoy the journey.
“The world is always ready to receive talent with open arms.” ~Oliver Wendell Holmes