The majority of Tumblr users are really lovely and respectful towards artists, and it’s wonderful to have a digital platform where art is, generally, so highly valued and appreciated.
However, there are a few problems that artists face day-to-day from Tumblr users that I’m going to address! I don’t feel (I don’t think anyone should feel) that artists are entitled to *special* treatment – we’re not! But we do deserve respect and consideration for both ourselves and the work that we do. Addressing and being aware of these issues will hopefully lead to a happier Tumblr experience for everyone! 🙂
Please don’t:
- Appropriate an artist’s original work for your fandom. Why? It’s rude, disrespectful and can be really upsetting for an artist. No one wants the context of their work to be either erased or appropriated into something else! It’s just disappointing for an artist to work really hard on something, giving their work its own context, background, so on, only to have it completely misappropriated. Getting attention for work because it has been subsumed by a fandom and not on its own merits can be incredibly disheartening.
Instead you can … Check back to the source of the image! Keep your personal fandom attributions to personal work to yourself! This post explains more about what is problematic about the culture of misattributing original artwork to fandom work.
- Ask an artist for a request when they do not explicitly specify that they are taking requests. Why? Art takes time, time is money. Artists hardly get time to work on work that makes them money, much less work they want to do for themselves, much less free work they want to do for other people.
There’s also a culture where art is devalued and I feel that assuming an artist would take a request contributes to this culture. Even if you are asking in the nicest way possible, even if you think ‘well, they can just say no!’, even if you think they’d love to do your request because it’s ‘what you draw anyway!’ why is it that people are so comfortable with asking for free art, but not uncomfortable with the fact that you’d hardly ask for anything else for free in this life?
Instead you can … start from the highest common denominator (instead of the lowest!) and enquire about commissions! If you’d really like an artist’s work, ask them how you can obtain said work. Make it clear that you really value artwork and that you’d be willing to give something in exchange for it.
- Try to circumvent paying for art with other means. Why? If an artist is taking commissions, they probably have a damned good reason for requesting payment in return for their goods/services. Don’t ask if they’d accept an art trade from you instead – that’s really arrogant! Don’t ask if they’d do you a request. If you don’t have the money, you don’t have the money, you don’t get the art.
Instead you can … well, there’s really not much you can do – just don’t do that!
- Ask artists if they would like to participate in your contest/charity/convention/comic book/other miscellaneous project while not offering any kind of recompense or perks. Why? It’s kind of the same as asking for a request, except artists feel about ten times shittier when they have to turn you down. If an artist is actively looking for projects to participate in, they’ll let you know, I assure you. But most artists – however much they would like to – do not have the time to devote big chunks of their time to projects where they’re not offered much in the way of recompense other than ‘exposure’! I find it kind of uncomfortable when artists receive requests asking that they ‘donate’ their art to some ‘cause’. It’s a bit like the equivalent of people standing on the street asking for monetary donations to the cause, except on Tumblr it’s a bit more invasive.
Instead you can … if you really want an artist to participate in a project, offer it to them like a job!
- Remove artist comments from work when you reblog it Why?Removing artist comments erases the artist from their work, and contributes to a culture where art exists separate from its creator. Many artists write a caption along with their work that provides context, and without that, their art can be meaningless and open to the wrong kinds of interpretations. Food for thought on this topic! Instead you can … leave the artist comments alone! If captions on pictures bother you so much, there’s an array of themes that hide the caption when viewing on your own blog. If you want to be really awesome, when you see art reblogged on your dash, follow it back to the source. You will be surprised how many pieces make the rounds on Tumblr devoid of their original caption.
- Repost/edit artwork to your blog without sourcing or crediting. Why? The same issues as removing artist captions, though this is probably more serious! It’s really awful when unsourced, uncredited art makes the rounds on Tumblr because the artist is seeing NONE of that exposure. Again, it contributes to creator invisibility which is really problematic. You may not think it is, but the attitude that artists are so easily disposable and divorced from their work leads to really ugly attitudes in people. A reminder that we MADE our work! With our hands! And our time and effort! We are allowed to think and feel and do whatever we want about our work, so yes, we are allowed to be upset when people tamper with it because WE own it. By this same token, we deserve appreciation and recognition.
Instead you can … reblog artwork from the original artist! If you DO want to post someone’s art to your blog because you don’t think they have a Tumblr but think their work deserves to be shared, ask the artist first. Source the work back to them AND provide a caption and link. If you see uncredited work going around your dash, you can be a superstar and source it back (and maybe let the artist know!)
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