ok, so no one has been able to really sell any digital prints. I was at bitforms the other day, and I thought about something... what if I just, gave away, The Grudge, in tif LZW format, at full size, for people too do whatever the fuck they wanted with it, so long as no money was made without my permission? I don't see any reason not to. It'll never make me any money, and no one's ever gonna really be able to appreciate it as it is right now. I'm considering basically giving away my work for free.... what ya'll think? I'll be doing this from now on I believe...

I've just had everything in my store (yes, both things) deleted, so by the end of this weekend, I should have some freestuff going, and the first thing will be "The Grudge", at slide resolution, and then at full resolution at a later date. Basically, download it and print it and display it all you want, and if it makes ya some dough some how, that's cool too so long as you aren't actually selling the prints, and even then, how am I gonna stop ya? lol. anyways, it'll be on a very reliable server, and I'll not only post the links here but also in varous communities' free stuff sections for download. Also, if ya make a print of it or something, or use part of the file, lemme know and send me a picture of what ya did with it and tell me how it turned out. just remember though, that if someone actually scams me, that I have the original psd file with all 80+ layers intact at a full 550+meg file size, so something tells me I'd win an argument... anyways, I got drawing class to attend soon. Leme kow what ya'll think and lemme know if yer gonna take part in the downloading.

Slynky, get free with your art ... sounds good to me and gets your stuff out there no telling where that might go. Id make sure my contact was imbedded in the image somewhere. I would be interested in how many down loads you get; will you be able to tell?

What's the use of getting free ? Giving away stuff you make is really nuts, especially if it's completely new and/or original. Maaaan, honestly, for graphic design I charge $75 for an hour work and that's a minimum. If people think that's too much, than they should look somewhere else. In fact, for some people anything above $0 is too expensive. And ofcourse the rights stay with me (originals, sketches, psd files, everything except the file formats of the final versions that they need to have stuff printed or whatever). And not that anyone up till now ever wanted to buy the rights as well, but I'd charge a whole lot more. That's cause they make a living with it too. I mean, I love to do stuff for free, except work....which is...well, something I try to make a living with. Giving that away for free to leaves nothing else to earn something with ;) Maybe r'osity isn't the right place to sell it - nothing wrong with the site, but there's so much stuff and online is different from seeing framed high quality work in real life.

possibly, i dunno, i could always ask the lab technicians to do a check for me i suppose... I'll put my initials hidden somewhere in it, but i really don't care much in the end anyways. Anything done maliciously will hopefully result in bad fudging karma. ry

My response to a recent thread on the front page was along the theme that any digital art I really want to make permanent, I should post for free on the Internet, and encourage everyone to make digital copies. Of course this alone doesn't guarantee permanance, or that the work will not mutate or conjugate into something else, but it is the best chance I have at true immortality. That being said, there are issues with putting something in the public domain. You may be better off, Slynk, posting it under license, similar to the GNU or MIT software license. Then, those that download it will know exactly what their rights are, you can specify some of your reuse/revenue restrictions, (and you may limit your liability in case The Grudge ever causes harm). As for Rork's point, everyone does need to eat and buy a few toys. I'm still waiting for a way to charge everyone five cents everytime they download one of my images. [I don't think I'd get rich at that rate, but it seems about a fair price.] Don't sell yourself too cheaply. 'osity may not be the best place to sell prints. Art to other Artists can be a hard sell.

Art to other Artists can be a hard sell. I think Misha has hit it right on the head....how 'bout trying to get the Grunge into an art gallery....? I'm sure a big beautiful professionally done print would look awesome and at the right place it would sell.

The web is such a strange venue. so much exposure to possible 'customers', and one would think that: more exposure = more possible sales. but purchasing art is a strange world altogether. Even getting in a real 'physical' gallery does not gaurantee sales. Anymore, it's not even necessarily the art that sells, but the marketing. IMO, any 'successful' artist is that way because they've taken the time to market themselves appropriately. I think it's almost harder to do that on the web than in the real world - even given the massive exposure (or maybe BECAUSE of massive exposure). I'd be a bit wary offering anything up for free. It's a nice sentiment and all, but if you get into a collectors market (and that's where you'll make the $$$), it could work agianst you - at least in the instance of that particular image - and at most against you entire body of work. If you could work the free thing into some kind of marketing strategy, like the first 20 downloads are free, then you charge, or something like that, I dunno. -once the market is saturated with your 'free' images, it will be harder place a value later if you decide you actually want to make money. sorry, just my two cents. I started out selling my work (murals, designs, etc.) VERY cheap. word got around. and that's what people expected. A Difficult mould to break. Good luck =) and take care

hmmm... interesting.... well, maybe I'll put it on a server for a few days for a few select people of my choice to have a copy of it. Naivity and ignorance gets in the way most of the time. Anyways, there's an email function in rosity, and I actually used a real email address, so either send me a message, or send me an IM if you'd like a copy of the Grudge for your own personal whatever-ya-wanna-do. It'll still come with a license, but only a few people'll get it. If yer one of them, which the majority of the people in this forum are, I'll send you back a message with a url, and you'll have a da or two to get it. lol, sounds like one of them limited time offer deal thingies...