i thought i’d make an faq filled with every excuse in the book about reposting, for those who still don’t understand why it’s bad…or for people who don’t know what to say in retaliation to these! so here we go.
first of all, an artist doesn’t even NEED to explain themselves. in the same way with someone who says “dude, make sure that soda is diet” or “please don’t tickle me”. they don’t want you to do it. you don’t need to test them by ignoring them. the reason doesn’t matter: it’s the person’s wish with THEIR things. if you had any respect for others, you’d just take it at that.
BUT for some people, they don’t want to respect others at face value, and want their reason. (which, i might add, is rude.) so let’s get into that:
but i’m giving you exposure! isn’t that good?
no.
you’re not giving artists exposure. for people like myself, freelance artists, you’re hurting us. about a year ago, i sent my portfolio off to an indie game. in it, i had a piece of work that had been reposted (that i didn’t even know about). i was told much later that they “looked into it” and saw that my work was posted by someone else, which means now they have no idea who the artist was, and THEREFORE can’t be sure my work was legit. i lost a potential job to a repost.
doesn’t matter if you say “i didn’t draw this”. sometimes, they don’t even look. they just look to see if it’s on any site other than your own. and that’s terrifying for artists. so don’t endanger our livelihood for instagram likes.
besides, you’re not even giving exposure if you didn’t credit, cropped out the signature, or somehow made the resolution so low to where you can’t even see the signature. which brings me to…
but i credited you!
some people still don’t want it reposted even with credit. the last answer should show you one of the many reasons why.
you’re dictating what i can/cannot put on my page! this is MY page!
and it’s MY art you posted. you can’t take something i did and do whatever you want with it. imagine if you took someones drawing, photocopied it, and spread it all around the town without their permission. they’d have every right to be angry, right?
but you posted it online, which means anyone can do anything with it. so if you don’t want it reposted, don’t post it online!
i have to post my art onto my websites to build a fanbase, something crucial to an artist. it shouldn’t be on ME to not post it in the first place, it should be on YOU to not repost it. you’re just echoing victim-blaming arguments.
you’re basically saying “if you don’t want to be bullied, don’t exist.” which is a terrible thing to teach people, rather than “be nice and respectful towards others.” yes, i know our world isn’t perfect. but that’s no excuse to contribute to vile things.
well i would be honored if someone reposted my art. and my friend doesn’t mind reposts, so why should you?
good for you! good for them! but did you know there’s more people in the world other than just you and your friend? we have wishes and feelings too, so you don’t get to project your own emotions onto what WE should be feeling as well. i love peaches. some people don’t like them. that doesn’t mean that now they have to eat peaches because i don’t mind them.
what an artist creates automatically belongs to society, though.
go steal the mona lisa and tell me how that works out.
everyone can VIEW it, yes. artists want others to view their work! we just don’t want you to do stuff with it we asked you not to do.
WELL THEN SPEAKING OF THAT, since i can’t put your work on redbubble and sell it for myself, why do you have an umbrella of the starry night?? huh?? you STOLE van gogh’s work! (yes people have legit said this to me)
putting my work on items and selling it is totally illegal. van gogh’s work is owned by companies now, who have authorization to print it on things. and i’m just ONE freelance artist who is, you know, still alive and not giving permission to do that. you can’t compare a dead artist from the 1800s to a digital artist in 2017. apples to oranges, my dude.
well i SAID “credit to the artist” so i DID give you credit!
because saying “the artist” really tells people who i am and lets them visit my websites! thank you so much!
but all sarcasm aside, that doesn’t do anything other than show you were too lazy to find the artist. same thing with “source: the internet” and “who drew this xD” or misspelling my url on purpose or putting the credit under a cut. OR cropping the image to cut off my signature! you didn’t give me credit.
it wasn’t on the website i wanted it on! you should have more social media.
i’ll have the social media i want to have. not up to me to make more accounts on more things just so you won’t disrespect me.
but i don’t remember where i got it. besides, i reposted SOOO much work and saved it all a long time ago. how can i find it now?
reverse google image search is so great.
also, if you didn’t know the artist, that’s a HUGE reason not to repost it in the first place!! you didn’t even know if it was okay since you never got to see their position on that!!
take down your video with stolen fan art. take down your entire fan art twitter account. i don’t care “how hard it was to save those images” or “how many views you have now”. you got all that attention from someone else’s hard work. searching for art will never be as hard as making it. if it were that easy, you’d be drawing all the art yourself.
but i asked the artist and they didn’t say anything! i assumed it was okay.
yeah, i feel you. it’s the same thing as when you ask your mom if you can borrow some money, she doesn’t answer, so you just steal it from her purse. no answer means the answer you want to hear, right?
wrong. don’t take “unresponsive” as a yes. that’s disgusting.
well i honestly don’t care. artists are just selfish. i’ll repost their art if i want to, just to show them how much i hate their stance on reposting. and (insert another really edgy statement here from someone who only says things to get a rise out of people since their life is empty)
one day you’re gonna come across an artist who has no chill and wants to sue, and can actually do it, since some people put their work under HEAVY copyright. and i’m gonna kick back in my chair with a nice capri sun and watch it all happen, since you have that kind of attitude towards people.
yes, this whole thing seems a bit. well. “salty”, as some would put it. and i have every right to be irritated over this. all these questions are asking “WHY should i respect their wishes? give me a reason” or “but here is my excuse rather than just taking it down”. time after time, artists are villainized just for telling people not to repost.
like i said, the artist not wanting you to repost it SHOULD be reason enough! we’re so tired of having to fight people just to have respect for our art. we have to deal with tracing constantly, so can you please take reposting off our plates? i know bad things will always happen, but that’s no reason to make it worse by contributing.
artists are generously putting our art out there for free. if you want to keep seeing our art for free (btw we don’t HAVE to, all the big artists could just up and leave and go to patreon), maybe show us some respect? because we get pretty dejected when we see strangers getting attention from something we did, and it makes us want to remove everything we show you guys. you say “don’t post it then!” but would be mad if all fan art disappeared.
if you want to keep the art, respect the artist making it. there’s a real person behind that drawing.
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(Source)
Lloyd Ninjago casually reminding us that they/them singular pronouns are grammatically correct and just easier than saying ‘he or she’ 😎✨
felt like i should put this out there:
IF YOU SHIP ADULTS WITH MINORS, THIS BLOG IS NOT FOR YOU
IF YOU SHIP INCEST, THIS BLOG IS NOT FOR YOU
IF YOU SHIP ANYTHING ILLEGAL, THIS BLOG IS NOT FOR YOU
IF YOU THINK THAT ANY OF THAT IS OKAY, LEAVE MY BLOG. IT'S NOT FOR YOU.
I applaud those of you who draw Toby Fox characters correctly, I truly do...
However....
I do this instead :)
*distant screeches and squeaks of happiness that people like me*
Hi I'm Anne dm me if u want just don't be creepy or I'll block u
I'll probably just post art and my ocs please don't kill me I am
Child
hey! as an artist do you ever feel discouraged by the like/reblog ratio here? ive been postin art here for some time and ive found for every 20 likes i get maybe 1 reblog and while i dont wanna come over as greedy it like kinda discourages me :( i would rlly like to stay on tumblr bc it feels much more anonymous than insta/twitter but i also crave Validation ykno. ty in advance!
Okay, but I fear you won’t like my answer...
My reply is - no, I don’t, because tumblr actually makes it super easy to ignore the reblog/like ratio. The two are lumped together into a category called ‘notes’ so unless you are looking for it, you won’t know what your reblog/like ratio is, and it’s super easy to view it as a lump sum of people who saw your art and smiled.
Here’s the thing; liking vs reblogging is not personal. And it isn’t something to try to change the tide over. I’ve seen my fair share of posts on here AND twitter, with most of them CONDEMNING liking - going so far as to call it useless. But I disagree. Strongly.
My opinion on the matter is this - if people wanted to reblog the post, they would reblog it. If they don’t, the cards weren’t right. The stars didn’t align. It isn’t a matter of quality - it’s a matter of the right content being there at the right time for the right audience. Because let’s face is - PLENTY of stuff gets reblogged.... when the circumstances are right.
But the circumstances HAVE to be right. EXACTLY right. There has to be a CHAIN of the exact right circumstances. That’s how sharing ANYTHING works.
Let me put it this way - say we have a hypothetical follower called J.
J is scrolling his dashboard and comes across a post he likes, say, of a frog picture. He likes the post and has to make a decision - to reblog or not reblog the frog?
Say he likes the frog enough to reblog. It’s a natural thing - he wants to show it to his followers. He may not think of it consciously, but he’s following an instinct to share information with people.
But what happens after? Well, it’s not RANDOM. The thing is, J’s followers are NOT the followers of the blog he reblogged it from. They’re a degree of separation from the OP, and are therefore that much less likely to share interests that align with the OP’s content.
SO what happens is this:
Some people on J’s follower list see the frog and like it.
Of the ones that like it, a percentage are just liking out of habit and politeness.
A few are liking it to find it later and show it to their irl friends.
A few are liking it because they DON’T want to reblog it, because it doesn’t align with what they want to show to THEIR followers (who are, let’s be honest, even MORE removed from the OP’s frog-centric content).
And who’s to blame?
ABSOLUTELY NO ONE. Because you cannot force people to reblog stuff any more than you can force people to show their friend their phone when they see a funny meme.
This is ridiculous, right? We cannot presume that people are not reblogging because they’re out to be malicious on purpose. Most likely they just aren’t motivated enough to share it in their own social circles for their own reasons - and that’s FINE.
Look, I get it. People not sharing your stuff gets you less notes. I get how that is disappointing. But if you put ALL of your motivation into internet clout, then you have to put effort into making your art VISIBLE. That’s the only way to get more reblogs.
For example, if you’re prioritizing visibility:
Get more social media accounts. Make sure the usernames are the same, or at least recognizable, across all social media.
Organize your art tumblr and twitter. Make a pinned post that shows off your best work. TAG! Learn common tags used for artwork similar to yours.
Interact with other artists! Comment on posts! Reblog others’ artwork!
NETWORK!!! That is the only way to guarantee that the flowchart of reblogs gets more than once branch.
Twitter circumvents this issue by shoving likes in your face as often as Retweets and that’s certainly one way to give your reblog-tree a boost, but it’s not foolproof. Tumblr has tags you can follow - and that DOES give you more of a possibility of getting reblogs of the content because if people are in a tag, they are LOOKING for stuff. On purpose. They already like what they see.
I feel your pain, I really do, because it took me literal YEARS to find an audience that consistently likes and reblogged my stuff. And your audience deserves to find you - but your followers aren’t your agent. It’s not their job to advertise on your behalf.
They’ll reblog when they want to - and that’s a good thing. It’s more genuine that way.
I’ll never understand why anthropomorphic animal cartoons like Robin Hood and Zootopia will go to the trouble of creating character designs that are meant to be understood as “attractive” or even “sexy” to the human audience but explicitly avoid showing interspecies romances between anthropomorphic animals. Why is THAT weird but, like, trying to make rabbits recognizably sexy-coded to humans isn’t?
hi I'm cringe and I do shitty art sometimes I'll probs respond to dms just don't ask weird shit fandoms are my passion; making ocs is my obsession
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