Always Sign Your Art (never date it)

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.

⭐️ Scribble Kibble Digital Art Tip # 10 ⭐️

⭐️ MUSIC ⭐️
"Helice’s Theme" by Komiku
“Dramatic Dance” by RiMo

[PikaPetey]

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.

[YoManRuLz]

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.

[LordFoxxyFoxington]

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.

[johannhawk]

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.

[omp]

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.

[MrTrevock]

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.

[alittleofsomething]

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.

[atoxicperson]

Please do not shorten your signature to CP

[bashfulwolfo]

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!

[DrTurtleBee]

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.

[reissecupfilms]

Seeing an old date on art just makes it cooler to me

[TheCammerhammer]

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.

[eusociality]

i don't have to worry about ANYONE dating my art, it doesn't even pay for dinner

[alexdavis]

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”

[GldnClaw]

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.

[NickAndriadze]

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.

[Sehrena]

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.

[etheriousjackal]

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.

[AutumnCritters]

0:25 Took me a while to realize half of Instagram is reposts without permission that get more likes than the original, they'll say "dm for credit" when the watermark is right on the picture

[JacobTheCroc]

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