<p>I recently (very foolishly, in hindsight) posted a shot of a graphite drawing I had just finished to my Facebook for my friends to see. I did watermark it beforehand, but after I thought about it, someone could easily edit out the watermark if they were skilled with Photoshop, so I took the photo down.</p>
<p>I'm extremely paranoid that someone could try to steal it and submit it in their portfolio and then that would bring suspicion upon my portfolio and possibly get my application revoked or something! The odds are unlikely, but still possible. The photo was taken with my iPhone so it was not anything I'd use for the real portfolio but it was still a good quality image.</p>
<p>Is there anything I can do? I'm more upset about the possibility of my application being looked upon as suspicious, than someone else benefitting off of my work. If I call the school I am interested in and let them know beforehand about this dilemma, would it do any good? I'm freaking out here! :( Any help appreciated. Thank you for your time.</p>
<p>Woah there, calm down. It’s just fine. Chances are of that happening are very slim. </p>
<p>Even if that did occur, you have the original. If your college ever asked, you could supply them with that. I don’t know if colleges do this, but I do know that AP puts pictures of portfolio through a database for plagiarism. And even if someone used your stuff for college, if they were too lazy to make their own portfolio, they’ll have a hard time making it in school. </p>
<p>The idea of putting my work online freaked me out too, but then I realized that eventually, if you wanted people to see your work and you wanted to be a professional, you would have too. Putting your work up is your choice, but my mantra is that there is no point of having artwork if no one knows about it. But at this time, it is a good idea to be protective of your work. Some websites like Flickr allow you to put creative licenses on your work, and whenever you are uncomfortable putting something, up, you always have the privilege to take it off. </p>
<p>All in all, you’re fine. And don’t bother your school about it. They won’t be all that concerned about it.</p>
<p>I agree with Bowman. The chances of this happening are slim. Don’t get too worried about these issues.</p>
<p>My oldest daughter is a professional painter. Images of her art are everywhere on the internet—her website, blog, flickr, gallery websites. It cannot be avoided if you want to be successful. I occasionally do a Google search to see who has been using her artwork. They have been a few who have used an image or two without asking her, but they attributed her to the work and didn’t appear to make money off of it.</p>
<p>My youngest daughter (the “woodwind” player) is also a cartoonist and has put up a number of her cartoons on Facebook. One of her friends from middle school took one of my daughter’s cartoons off Facebook after the girl moved to another state, and incorporated it into her own cartoon. Although she does not draw in my daughter’s style (and could not pull off stealing it outright) my daughter has been keeping an eye out on Facebook for any further swipes.</p>
<p>I agree with the previous two replies. The chances of your work getting stolen is incredibly slim.</p>
<p>And, watermarks aren’t a good way of getting around that. They ruin the piece. </p>
<p>Next time you post your work online, don’t post print-quality images. Keep the images dimensions low and the resolution medium-high. This helps the image load faster when people want to look at it and it also ensures that they cannot download the highest quality image of the piece.
Then again, you could always wait and post your finished portfolio work later on after college application deadlines have passed.
Just post your other personal work or work-in-progress shots.</p>
<p>And, like bowman said, calm down. Your school doesn’t need to know about that.</p>
<p>Any good portfolio reviewer will be able to see technique and style consistency in your portfolio anyhow.</p>
It’s just fine. Chances are of that happening are very slim. </p>