I find watermarks to be pretty useless to be honest. Sure it MAY discourage some theft, but if someone wants the image bad enough, they WILL find a way to nab it, remove the watermark and do what they want with it. Small watermarks I'm ok with, but huge wtfthings plastered over the entire image to make it hard to see and enjoy... that's just pointless and ruins the image.

I do like small signatures though, and try to sign much of my own work. I'd rather someone know who created the piece, so that they could go find the artist and support them, than to leave people in the dark wondering who created it.

Pretty much this.

Yeah, I agree with this. Small signatures are absolutely fine with me, obviously. I just hate when people hide their signature in their character's eyeball on an overlay layer or something. REALLY? hahhaa

My watermarks aren't there to discourage theft (when I bother to put them on) but rather as a means for people to find me if the work gets re-posted somewhere and people like what they see~ I guess that IS a bit conceited but...to each their own in that case, I suppose? xD

I like to sign or watermark something because I'm proud of it ^^

There are some pretty ugly or tacky stamps though :|

Again, signing and watermarking are totally different. Nothing wrong with signing a piece of your artwork in my opinion, unless you hide your fucking signature in the character's dog dick or something to insure that it wont be reposted. loooool.

I don't like BIG intrusive watermarks, but I hate even signing my work, really. I feel like the signature is distracting. BUT, I do use watermarks because I want people to be able to find the source of the image if it gets reposted and redistributed somehow. For example, on tumblr, I come across pictures all the time where there is no signature and no one knows where they came from. I would KILL to know where some of them came from so I can look at the artist's other work. There are people I wanted to find again after digging through old saved art too, and watermarks have helped me do that. For me it's just helpful, and I try to make the watermark match the pic, or at least keep it small and out of the way.
But... yeah. I do see how annoying they are, but assholes/lazy people sometimes make them necessary.
And still, I would rather see an artist's work with a watermark than have them leave the internet forever because people wont stop jacking their shit. Seen that happen too many times already.

A small signature could easily solve all of that though. I still hate watermarks and I think that's just oneofthosethings that make my eye twitch no matter what. I have quite an established list of ridiculous peeves, hahah.
My personal view on art (and I know it differs from some others' out there) is that we produce so that others will look at it and enjoy it. Sure, discouraging art theft is A-OK with me, but when something obnoxious distracts from the big picture, it sort of loses some sort of effect along the way in my book. When it comes down to it, there is always someone out there who can easily lift a watermark if they really want to be a true douche-bag. Hell... I have friends that have been completely impersonated multiple times just so the butthole jacking their shit didn't have to erase the signatures on everything. Art theft will never be prevented, no matter how many flashing lights are on an image and that's sad.

Yeah. Well, perfect example- just last night, someone I follow on tumblr was using the candyland pic I made for Isaac of Squeek and Cane as their user icon. I mean... it's like a 50x50 image, and it's not really doing any harm, but at the same time I never intended it for that purpose and you can't tell at all who made it. My tiny little watermark signature thing didn't help me a bit.
I don't think I'd say anything to the person unless Isaac wants me to try and have it removed, just because hell, they'll probably change it in a week anyway... but it's still this weird mixture of flattering and irritating, and idk it's just a strange feeling. I might comment just to let them know I noticed and just be like "Oh, didn't know you liked my art work! :D" just to see what happens...
I thought it was hilarious that it happened less than 5 hours after I commented on this journal though LOL

Use tineye.com or reverse image search on Google if you're really curious. I've had to do that before for the same reason because people on Tumblr are really fucking stupid and love not posting a source or removing it entirely. I've even seen people take someone's photo from Flickr or something, edit it, and then post it to Tumblr with no source. It's so douchey, but I highly doubt any of these people are artists or photographers and have no clue/don't care that they're being disrespectful because it's just some picture on the internet to them.

I've kind of had those thoughts about my own work, too - I wouldn't someone posting my work all over the internet with no source or anything to say, "Hey this person made this thing," but at the same time I've never been comfortable putting a watermark or URL or anything on the stuff I post to the internet. It's not meant to be part of the artwork, so I don't want it in the image at all. I can absolutely understand why someone would choose to add a small watermark or URL to their images and in the case of just having a source I think it's a great idea, but like others have pointed out, people will remove that shit if they're really inclined for whatever reason - watermarks and URLs absolutely do not stop people from stealing or reposting art with no source, they just make it slightly more difficult for someone to do so.

And to actually answer the question in this journal: I don't care if other people watermark or put website URLs on their stuff as long as it's not obscuring the actual image or something! Some people manage to incorporate that stuff in a way that actually does work with their artwork, and that's pretty commendable since too many people go the HUGE DEVIANTART WATERMARK MUST PROTECT MY SHIT route, and it's so ugly and ruins the artwork for me.

Good point, I always forget about tineye... honestly sometimes it's not a lot of help though. There was this artist who used to have a website that was something like skittlesandbeer.com or something like that and I have just never been able to find out what happened to them, even using that site. Maybe I need to find those pics and try again some time, it's been years.

PS. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENyf-p8vNhw

OH MY GOD LMAO!!! They stole me ;_;
...god damn I want a batty.

indifferent

I'll admit, I'm pretty indifferent. It doesn't ever bother me too much either way. I usually pick a shade just barely darker than the base color to write my signature in, or do a little loopy sig along the underside of an arm or something.

If someone's going to steal, they're going to steal. Someone else will notice, even if it's in their high school art class(I've called someone out once haha). And let's say someone DOES steal your art, makes Tshirts, and sells them: now you can take them to court and get money.

Depends on the watermark because yeah, if someone really wants it, they'll find a way to paint over it or what have you. But if it's like, your username or the URL to your gallery/website, then I don't see a problem with wanting people to know where it came from. I'm with you though, hug semi-transparent black and white scribbles all over the center of an image doesn't really make it flattering, and you shouldn't have even uploaded it because what's the point? Make pretty art + ruin with huge watermark = ???

Well, I only put a watermark on stuff that may or may not be used for monetary gain or something.

Even then it's pretty discreet.