Am I the only one who hates when people watermark their entire portfolio piece?

I was browsing the showcase section last night and saw this amazing digital painting, but the artist plastered a huge watermark right across the main subject's face. Like, I get you want to protect your work, but if I can't even see the detail in the eyes or the brushwork, what's the point of showing it off? There was this one piece with a dragon that had the watermark cutting through the wing texture and I couldn't tell if it was painted or just a filter. Isn't the whole point of a showcase to actually show the art? I tried zooming in and it just got more blurry. Has anyone else had to squint through someone's branding just to appreciate the skill?

2 comments

2 Comments

adams.vera1mo ago

Couldn't tell if it was painted or just a filter" - oh man, that hits hard. I once spent a solid ten minutes staring at what I thought was a killer oil painting of a stormy sea, only to realize the watermark was so thick and placed right over the wave crests that I was basically looking at a blurry mess of letters. Eventually I gave up and moved on to the next post. It's like they're so scared of someone stealing their work that they forget we're supposed to actually see it. I've seen a few that put a tiny logo in the corner and that's totally fine, but full face coverage watermarks make me wonder if they think their brand name is the actual art.

abby_robinson581mo ago

Oof that's basically the same logic as those stores that glue price tags right over the product label.