A Newcomer's Concern

[Midgardsormr]

Do be aware that changing the dpi won't necessarily rescale the image. For instance, in Photoshop if you don't have "Resample image" checked, it will only modify the way the picture prints, not the number of pixels present. It's always a good idea to control your pixels yourself instead of indirectly through a print resolution setting.

and the really big boys won't steal it, they'll pay an artist to do one for them just different enough to get past the law...

Not necessarily. Consider the case of Saul Steinberg and the movie Moscow on the Hudson. I've attached an illustration that Steinberg made for The New Yorker and the poster for the movie. Columbia Pictures lost that lawsuit.

[Jaxilon]

I had and have the same concerns and questions you do. Personally, I figured my best work is yet to come and I thought that if I wanted to learn to do art in this digital world I would have to take some chances along the way. Yeah, I look at my settings/attachments here and see that folks are downloading my images. I can't figure out why they would download some of the little scribble experiments but whatever. In the long haul, I learn with every post of mine. The advice to not post at full resolution is probably the most certain protection. If they don't have all the pixels you do and/or don't have the full size image you have all the proof it is your work. I always sign my pieces but that is easily cropped. Also state your reserved rights or whatever along with the image.

I was watching a professional artist working on a piece and he said, "Anything I draw, I can draw again. Usually better than the first time." So, if you had to, you could recreate a map by hand and it would probably be better than your first version anyway.

It is the Internet and is filled with people lacking in moral fiber, someone somewhere is going to take your artwork and wallpaper their room or something. Are they going to make millions off of it? If they can do that with mine, I want them to contact me because for a small share I'd be happy to provide them with a heckofa lot more. Clearly they have a business savvy I lack.

I'm also 43 years old and figure I've only got so many decades left to do this. I can't afford to horde my art in the top of my closet any longer. If I get ripped off I'll be livid, but anything I create I can do better so in the end I figure they are only getting my leftovers. Time for me to step out of my comfort zone.

If you go sign up on diviantArt they have a setting to put their watermark on anything you post there. It's free but it wouldn't be the same as hosting it here and you might not get as many comments/critiques simply because some might not want to navigate away from this site.

[torstan]

I agree. It's better to have your work up and get comments than for it to be hidden away in case someone were to steal it and use it for their own nefarious means. There are cases where people have reposted guild work on other sites. But the people here are good at spotting it, and in all cases so far the person who has been reposting it has taken it down (and usually been very apologetic in the process).

[Sigurd]

Nobody can responsibly give you any words of confidence. If you share it it will be shared.

Many people will respect your wishes but it is highly likely that some will not.


The bright spot I can offer is sort of a left handed one:

A substantial element in the value of an image is confidence and appreciation of the artist. Should you have 100 pieces of art and nobody knows about you, your art collection is worth less in value and utility than if you'd given away 10 of those pieces and became famous. The remaining 90 are worth more than the previous 100.

That presupposes that you'll produce more than 3 pieces of work. But showing off your work is the best way to get feedback and inspiration. You will likely create more work if you share it.

It is of course everyone's right to determine what they do with their work and how they share it. I think many creative people mistakenly keep work rather than set it free. They lose the attention free work might give them. As they progress in their skills your earlier work becomes more valuable as a calling card than as an ultimate achievement. The work you release for free may not be paid for in dollars but it will be seen by more eyes and get you more responses and attention. Free work that resembles the buyers needs is the best way of establishing yourself.


Most people with very little are convinced to value it highly by people who have a lot to sell. Keeping your small contribution from the public eye also reduces your stature and enjoyment of your art. That in the end can be too big a price for you to pay.

Sigurd

[Midgardsormr]

Jax: You have to download an image to be able to view it; the web browser does that automatically as soon as it hits the page. The download stats don't say anything about how many people have actually saved your images to their hard drives, as that activity (barring some javascript or flash trickery) is invisible to the server.

As with everything, securing your work against theft is a matter of evaluating the risks and taking reasonable measures to guard yourself. Who wants it? What measures are they likely to take to get it? How much do you want to inconvenience yourself to protect it?

In the case of these maps, the major "threat" comes from people who gather large collections and can't be bothered to track where the images come from. Then they post them all on another site without attribution. Something as simple as putting a visible signature on the image, preferably with a link to your own website or deviantArt page, will protect the image. If you really think there's a risk that someone will try to pass your work off as their own, then the best solution is to keep that work under wraps. That sort of thing is quite rare, though; I am not aware that it has ever happened to someone here. It helps that this is still a relatively small community and fantasy mapmaking in general is a very specialized niche. There aren't many places where a map could be posted that one of us won't eventually see it, and if it's not in one of those places, then its exposure will be so low as to be immaterial.

So the big question to me is: How much do I stand to gain by posting here? Nothing is as beneficial to a piece of art as a good critique. I consider the risk of theft to be quite low and the advantages to be quite good.

If you're still concerned, though, consider posting just a segment of the map—enough so that we can see the style and technique so we can give you some feedback, but not so much as to compromise your ultimate use of the map should that segment get out of control.

[RobA]

If it was featured, then CG could post it on their homepage and other sites could possibly link to it (I think?).

Just a note on this. We only select featured maps from the finished maps forum, so if you only post in the WIP forums, no worry. I'd also suggest if you do post in the finished maps forum to include a comment stating "please do not consider this map as a featured map". We will certainly respect it.

-Rob A>

[Jaxilon]

Thanks for the clarification Mid, I had wondered if that was the case but wasn't sure. Now I know and it makes better sense.

Great comments on here so far folks, it helps me to relax that inner urge to over protect my creations as well.

What would it take for us to have our own CG watermark ala dA has? It seems we have had this conversation a few times and maybe we should look into the possibility of making one available for whomever wants to use it. (If this is going to hijack the thread maybe I should post this separately).

[Midgardsormr]

We just had that conversation a few weeks ago, and somebody posted several designs, but I can't for the life of me find the thread. I was going to put one on my solar system map.

[Ascension]

Look in that thread about the keychains, Red and tilt were putting up images there.

[Rythal]

nowadays I put my name in the bottom corner of my maps, and then descretely placing my insignia in the map so that it cannot be cropped out.