Back on here after a rather long haitus

[Gil]

I think Atnas' point is: why completely ruin the artwork with a watermark? What's the point of showing it off if it's ruined like that? Also, why do you care if people post it on other websites?

I personally never got the whole "credit" thing. I know of at least one guy that uses some of my art in his portfolio to increase his chances of getting a job. This is preposterous and funny to me, but I'm not going to start watermarking all my art, just so idiots like him can't claim it's his. And yes, I've seen my artwork turn up all over the place. At one point, an RPG base I made became more famous than I ever will be, I never got credit for that. I made a set of smilies once that's still being used across the internet. When I made them, they were only to be used on one site.

Point is, it doesn't hurt my revenue, so what? I agree with Atnas' grandfather. I do some portrait work, and I've developed a small insignia instead of a signature, that I can subtly work into my work. The insignia is like my seal of approval that I put pride into the piece, instead of a "loud" signature that feels very pretentious indeed (not connected to you btw, a watermark is of course protection, not egotistical).

[LarkoftheRiver]

@StarRaven
I'll continue working on him a bit more. I still see some mess I can clean up on him. Specifically the legs look weird to me. Bleh.

@Gil
I see your points, but I'm hardly a big artist. I barely have 100 followers on deviantart, my big pieces maybe get 5 favorites on average. When someone takes my work and posts it on one of those huge background sites, going so far as to remove my signature off of it, it hurts me. I want more views, more feedback from people. Even a simple favorite or "this looks good!" means a lot to me, even if it provides no input on how to get better. It tells me "wow, people actually like my work. Maybe this hobby of mine will mean something in the future!" While I am pleased that someone thought my work good enough to put out there, it had over 5,000 views on the third party site. I've never had that. I'd rather that traffic be sent to my accounts, not to some third party. Of course, its one thing to put it up and say "look at this cool thing! The artist is here (link)!" I have no problem with that.

I would really love to remove them, but I still fear that someone will take it, especially since I've gotten a world better than I was when it happened at first.
An insignia might be interesting to add instead though. idk. I can't design logos to save my life.

(edit) this is a general question of sorts
what do you guys to if you get a commission for a character with very little color contrast in their design? Do you bump up the palette's contrast a bit?