Archive for the ‘Art Resources’ Category

No matter what type of artist you are the issue of copyright will come up eventually. It doesn’t matter if you are using image editing programs or just painting it is important o understand these issues and how they apply to you.

Copyright protects original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression. Copyright gives you exclusive rights to an image allowing you to sell it reproduce it and make derivatives of it.

You own the copyright the moment you create anything in tangible form. The copyright lasts for your life plus 70 years. You cannot copyright an idea but as soon as the idea is executed into a work of art that copyright is owned by you. It is the way you execute an idea that holds copyright and not the idea itself. You do not need to register for copyright it automatically exists. But in the case of copyright infringement than registration makes it less tricky. You can register for copyright here:
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl115.html

If you sell a work of art you still own the copyright. Unless the agreement is to sell the copyright with the work. A good way to make sure that this is clear is to include paperwork with your art sold that states that you retain copyright. That includes commissioned works. Owning the art is not the same as owning copyright. You can create prints and derivatives of the original.

A copyright symbol is not needed but it does make the copyright clear for those who are not familiar with copyright law.

In the case of derivatives; if you are using another artist’s work as a derivative you may do so and claim copyright provided that you could hold the two images next to each other and clearly see that they are different. Your end result must be completely different than theirs.

You may not use photos taken by another person as reference for a work of art that you are creating unless the photographer has stated that their image can be used in its entirety. However information within the photograph can be used as knowledge received and then used in your own work. For example: texture in tree bark or the shape of butterfly wings etc… Just be sure hat you are using the information as reference and not copying the image. In that case then your work is a derivative of the photo and not a copy of the photo.

You cannot create works based on copyrighted characters such as cartoons or superheroes. Those are owned copyrights.

Copyright law covers collage. The easiest way to stay out of copyright issues is to use elements created by you or purchase elements created for this purpose. If you were to purchase collage sheets from Michael’s you do not own the copyright to the sheets but you do own the copyright of what you created using the collage sheets.

In general if you can see it can become part of your art.

You are within your rights to make use of public building in works of art. This includes schools, churches, office buildings and such.

You can photograph private property provided that you are standing on public property. Privately owned venues such as movie theaters and concert halls are still public.

You can also include in your work public figures, people at the park, and cars in the street- provided that these are in public areas. If someone from a privately owned public venue asks you to stop taking pictures they can do so but they cannot ask you for what images you have already attained.

But publishing or selling is not the same. If you have a human figure in your work then you must get a model release to commercially publish this work and claim copyright. Newspapers are not required to do so but it is a needed step for artists to take as a lawsuit is possible with out a release. With that in mind it is a good idea to obtain a release when including private property in your work also. That also goes for painting/ drawing people. You may do so but if the work is intended to be sold then obtain a release from the person to avoid a possible lawsuit.

There is no international copyright that will protect you.

I have been building a Web application for artists. My idea is to create a social community that will share Flickr photos of an artistic collaboration. All artists will be search-able on a Google map. We will stumble from image to image as we follow the updates of other artists and create bookmarks  that we vote up or down of the images we feel are worth sharing. We will discuss the progress on a blog, share the updates through an RSS feed, and display the results in the form of videos that we upload and share with other artists that are looking for events to attend in their own town.

I have narrowed the name down to one of these possibilities: MyRssFlogger, DiggerArtFull, ArtQuesteo, or MappleUponArto.

Just kidding!

Welcome to my Mashup nightmare.

There have been some ridiculous concepts in the past several years. But if you have the stamina to wade through the crap, there are some great sites also.

There are well over 100 video sharing sites, three times as many book marking sites, and social communities in numbers to high to count. Although many of the social community sites have large groups of artist coming together; the sites that are specifically art focused are much lower in number. But there are some great art related sites that have great staying power:

MillionMasterpiece

This sites boasts to be the largest artistic collaboration in the world,. No doubt it is. The idea is to allow each artist a square that they create themselves and piece it together to form one work of art. They will not finish until they have reached 1 million. They have made a large dent.
http://www.millionmasterpiece.com

Red Bubble

Another great site for artists that is community bases. You can create a profile and share your images and discuss them with other artists. They also have an option to sell work.
http://www.redbubble.com

MyArtSpace

This is a really great site that allows you to create a profile and share your images and videos with other artists. They give interviews and sponsor competitions.
http://www.myartspace.com

Deviant Art

Can’t leave out the largest artist community in the worlds. Sign up is free and you will be provided with your own URL to display works, create a profile, and share thoughts. You can also sell your prints.
http://deviantart.com

ZeWall

This is a really fun site. it allows you to paint online and place your art in as virtual cut.
http://www.zewall.com

That is a great start.  I’ll add to this list a little at a time- there are many others!