Please Don’t Ask Artists to Remove Their Signatures From Their Work

I’ve written my fair share of Am I The Asshole (AITA) posts that delves into how people can be, well, assholes (or not). Usually, it’s a story where you’re screaming at a spouse to run, don’t walk, away from their marriage. Sometimes, though, you come across a story that has nothing to do with family (sorry Olive Garden and Vin Diesel) and everything to do with how commissioning an artist doesn’t mean you get to utterly disrespect them. Sadly, it’s a conversation that comes up quite often, not just in Am I The Asshole, but in the art community in general.

Commission does not mean ownership

DO 👏 NOT 👏 DO 👏 THIS 👏 TO 👏 ARTISTS pic.twitter.com/oFu1Wb4HD7

— Indie Book Spotlight (@BookSpotlight) May 11, 2022

“Throwaway as I wish to remain anonymous from the artist (they are on reddit),” is the first clue that this person knows that we’re all gonna call them an asshole by the end of this. Sure enough, they go on to say that they commissioned an artist and love the work they got, there’s just one issue though. “They left their signature on it. To be fair, it is small, off to the corner, not very noticeable. I just feel that it is unprofessional, as I commissioned them the artwork does not belong to them anymore.”

Deep spiritual sigh.

Commission doesn’t mean the art belongs to you in a way that lets you take the artist’s name off of it. You can, like, hang it up in your house, but the art isn’t yours to the point that you get to ask the creator to take away credit. As someone who has commissioned several artists to do work for me, the art still belongs to them – I just get to show it off, essentially. They’re the ones who did the work so they still get to reference it, they still get to have it in their portfolio, and they certainly get to sign it. An artist’s signature is a way for them to be credited for their work, and it’s also a way for them to get more business as people get to see who did the work. You should be fine with this, as it’s a way for an artist you like to continue to get support.

Now, if you really want the signature gone, that generally is taken to mean that you’re looking to sell it yourself. I’ve actually done this with my book series. I have merchandise from artists that I sell to go along with my book (and, spoiler, print art STILL has their signature included because I WANT them to be credited for their work). This meant paying extra money for commercial rights, which is exactly what I did and continue to do with my books. The artist explains this, which is pretty generous of them since it’s revealed that the one who asked for the commission did NOT read their TOS (terms of service).

I asked if they will remove it for me and they seemed kinda annoyed and asked me if I read their TOS (admittedly, I skimmed), where it apparently states that they will not remove their signature. I told them what I said above, which is that I own the art now. They then told me I somehow don’t and then quoted me a HUGE markup price for “commercial rights” and they only remove their signature for that purpose.

Wait, so the artist’s policy is in their terms, and you decided to just… skim them? Instead of actually reading the part that addresses your situation?

The story ends in a way that folks are familiar with if they’ve ever seen a “bad customer” story from an artist. “I had essentially told the artist that if they don’t remove it then I will simply photoshop it out myself (considering that it’s mine, I can do what I please with it).” This is after offering five whole dollars to try and get the signature removed.

Again. You can NOT remove an artist’s signature from their work. Well, I suppose technically you can, but you’ll look like a really big asshole. You’ll also, in this case, get blacklisted from commissioning them, get blocked, and probably become the next “don’t take jobs from this person” story that goes around the art community.

(Image: Shin Megami Tensei/Atlus)

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