Advice on Artist Signatures

Geminii23

So I have been wondering lately if I need to come up with some super fancy sig for my work. I see some people have some nice and elaborate sigs on their work. Mine is pretty plain. Most of my illustrations and airbrush painting from the bygone era of my childhood don't have signatures at all.

Does anyone think it necessary or does anyone find some people's signatures/watermarks distracting to the piece?

Thanks.

Dim Reaper

There are two reasons that I don't use a signature on my images -

1) I don't do this for money (fortunately or I'd starve!) so if someone does "steal" an image then it's not like I'm losing sales.

2) Unless you stick your signature right in the middle of the image where it would completely spoil the picture, then it is fairly easy for someone to remove it either by cropping the image, or using a clone brush.

If you are thinking of selling any of your work, then I'd say either make sure it is small when you put it online, or definitely watermark it.

That said, it might be fun to create a signature that could be put in your image, and it definitely makes your work easily recognisable. In fact, you've now got me thinking of what I might use as a signature.

Szark

This is another aspect I found interesting of artists and newcomers to this.

When I started I was so proud of my creations I wanted to protect them, so I thought, by making a signature and slapping it on everything but in reality see Dim Preaper's reasons above and now I am still proud of my work but don't bother with a sig at all. :)

Ippotamus

I sign most of my work.
But it is in the least attractive corner, small, simple and very faint.
It isn't really about protecting my pictures as much as it is about signing a letter or postcard I have written.