Ask the Art Professor: When is it too early to start promoting your work on the Internet?

Welcome to “Ask the Art Professor“! Essentially an advice column for visual artists, this is your chance to ask me your questions about being an artist, the creative process, career advice, a technical question about a material, etc.  Anything from the smallest technical question to the large and philosophical is welcome. I’ll do my best to provide a thorough, comprehensive answer to your question. Submit your question by emailing me at clara(at)claralieu.com, or by posting here on this blog. All questions will be posted anonymously. Read an archive of past articles here.

Here’s today’s question:

“I know many people post their artwork on Facebook, RISD portfolios, or Tumblr, etc. and I’ve seen how some of their work has been plagiarized or reposted without permission. When is it “too early” to start promoting your work via the Internet, or does the overall publicity override any negative effects? Should I be flattered that people are using my images with/without permission since I am still an amateur artist? Or am I just being paranoid?”

The reality is that the Internet has become an indispensable tool for artists today, especially for ones who are at the beginning of their careers. The Internet is this vast resource that is so accessible that it’s hard to believe anyone wouldn’t want to use it to get their artwork out there. I hear young artists saying all the time that they won’t post their artwork online because they worry about people stealing their work. Yes, that can be a concern, but in my experience the benefits of having your artwork online significantly outweigh the negatives.  I’ve made connections with people all around the world, I’ve received wonderful comments on my work, and I’ve sold artwork. None of that would have happened if I had refused to post my artwork online.

Accept that once your artwork is posted online, there’s pretty much nothing that you can do about your work being reposted without permission. When I Google myself, I see tons of websites that have posted my work.   I myself have no problem with that as long as they’re giving me credit and using my name with the image. In essence, it’s just more free publicity for me. For me so far, being online has been a really good experience.

I think the best way to have some degree of control over this is to establish a strong online presence for yourself so that you are the one generating content that is associated with your name and work.  For example, I’ve made sure that I have a presence on all of the major social networks and portfolio websites so that when someone Googles me, the sites that pop up are the ones that I am control of. (Google me and you’ll see) This way, I can make sure that my work is always presented professionally when seen online. It is a tremendous amount of work to establish a comprehensive online presence, but it’s well worth the investment of your time and energy.

As for when to starting promoting your work online, my suggestion would be to start in college. I don’t recommend posting your work online when you’re in high school.  The work is too immature at that stage and could actually be detrimental to your online presence later because the work doesn’t look professional enough. During your college years, you’ll likely be applying for summer jobs, internships, etc.  and many employers will want the chance to be able to see a portfolio online right away. You never know when something could come up that will require this, so it’s best to be prepared in advance.   I was once looking to hire someone to teach a workshop, and one of the applicants, who was a recent college graduate had no online portfolio.  It was a pain because I wasn’t able to quickly and conveniently access their portfolio and information. Have an online portfolio ready to go at all times so that you are prepared for situations like this.

What’s been your experience having your artwork online?  Have you seen your work reposted without permission, what was your reaction to that experience?

Related articles:

“How do you know when your artwork is good enough to show to the world?”

“How do you get people to notice your artwork online?”