If you've ever done some good fan art, you know people love to treat it like screenshots. They think they can report it, edit it, and even recolor it. Even some of you in the original art area have been a victim to people messing your your artwork without permission.

We've all heard it several times "Watermark your stuff. Watermark your stuff" yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah. But there are more ways to avoid art theft. Here's some I've found useful.

1. Watermark your work

You've heard it before, and I'm gonna pound it into your skull even more. GIVE YOUR ARTWORK A WATERMARK. Give it your user name and make it something people can see. Come on guys. I know it's not something we enjoy, sticking something all over the works we slaved over, but it's important. Also, you may get more people willing to help when your work is stolen if you do this. I know I sure feel worse for somebody who at least attempted to protect their work than somebody who complains about it but refuses to do anything. Plus, if it does get stolen, it's proof you made it. Without this, people could just as easily think you're the art thief in the situation.

Now, some of us are not the high tech folks. We don't have fancy programs to make semi-visible marks, so we pass them by to avoid something big and ugly on our work, praying that nobody decides to swipe it. Well, guess what? You don't need money or great tech skills to add a watermark to your artwork.

If tech talent is the issue, there's a great program called Picture Shark. I used to use it. It's totally free and easy to use. If you have decent comp skills but the issue is just cash, there's the GIMP, which is not only good for watermarks but can do lots of image editing things. I use it all the time nowadays. Freeware is awesome, no?

Picture Shark: [link]

The GIMP: [link]

Now, don't just put the watermark on a big one colored spot. A thief can easily grab MS paint and get rid of that. Find a spot with good assortment of color if you can. It makes it harder to edit out, and most people who have to steal art to be popular don't have the talent to photoshop it that way anyways.

2. Screenshot imitators: ADD YOUR NAME.

A trend in animation fan art, especially anime, is to make images as similar looking to actual screenshots as possible. Sometimes the artist will even make a TV station logo and add that. This is cool and can be really fun for your fellow fandom members (wish fulfillment anyone?) BUT it also means you have to work even harder to protect your work.

The truth is, most art theft is not the kind we all hear about, where a internet goer takes a work and pretend they drew it. In many cases, it's simply somebody who thinks art is to be treated like TV screenshots, messed with and posted to their heart's content. The thing is, in the case of screenshot imitators, they make thing your work really IS a screenshot.

Now, I know the screenshot imitator and the watermark are sworn enemies. Nothing makes a drawing lose it's wish fulfilling realism quite like a big semi-transparent user name stuck in the middle. But you guys need to protect your work, even more than the rest of us probably. So, here's a simple idea. Make a border around your image. Nothing much. Just a simple border. Put "created by [your user name]" or something like that on that border. Ta-da. It's clear you drew it now. It's not as great as the watermark, and doesn't do much for the people who want to pretend they drew it, but it'll stop a lot of other people.

3. Make it clear they need to ask.

Like said before, many art thieves don't realize what they're doing is not okay. They go on Google image search or treat deviantART like a search engine and take our art for cool web graphics. So, what to do? Simple: MAKE IT CLEAR YOUR ART IS NOT TO BE TAKEN WITHOUT ASKING. It's easy. Just put "do not use without permission" or something like that on your work. Between this and your name being in a watermark/border, you're gonna stop the vast majority of art thefts easy. Recently, we had some AMVers go nuts in my fandom and take artwork from many artists of all ranges of talent in the fandom, yet despite being relatively well known in that fandom, my art wasn't touched. There's a good chance my "do not use without permission" marks kept my artwork out of the mess.

4. PNG plz.

Despite the fact that Firefox is 10 times better at least a large amount of people still use Internet Explorer. If you've ever tried to save an PNG posted here on DA using IE, you know it doesn't work. While this can be got around, lots of people don't know how, so it doesn't hurt to post your artwork as a PNG when you can.

5. Boost Awareness.

Make it clear to your watchers that they should report when people have taken your work to you. If there's an art theft list with your fandom/ art style included, keep an eye on it. If you're a fan artist, especially in a smaller fandom, get your artwork out there so fandom members recognize it when they see it. I don't recall ever finding my own artwork stolen. I instead had my friends who knew about art theft find it and alert me. I've also recognized artwork of others in my fandom and reported it to them. No matter how many of the steps above you take, there will still be art thefts. The best way to stop the ones that slip through is to keep an eye out and ask others to. Call it a neighborhood watch if you would.

6. Don't allow downloads
Disable downloads on your work unless you want people to download it. Otherwise the PNG method loses all helpfulness. Also, the idea of "download" often is related to the idea of "you may take and use this."

I hope you have found this info helpful. Now protect your work, dangit!