Why You Should ALWAYS Sign & Date Your Work | Context Matters | Tell Your Story | Own Your Art

If you have produced any art piece, a page in your art journal, a quick sketch you did while you were waiting for your car to get fixed. It doesn’t matter. Sign it and date it.

Here what this topic is NOT about: signing and dating your art so someone can discover it when you pass on. That is NOT the point I’m trying to make. That is a reason to sign and date your art, but it’s not the point of this video.

Why:

Reason 1: As time goes by, the likelihood increases that you may not remember when you did this piece. I have pieces I’ve forgotten to sign and date. I can still put my name on it, but the date might escape me. This is information you may want to have going forward.

Reason 2: It serves as a way to catalogue your work to show when you started the process, and you can see the progress you’ve made in your art journey. I have sketchbooks from when I first started taking drawing classes as an adult in 2017. I have paintings I did back in 2012 and 2013 when I first got into taking painting classes at one of those painting and wine classes. In those classes the art teacher would always say: sign and date your work. The teacher never said why.

Reason 3: Own your work. Have the self-confidence to put your name on your piece and date it so that you can mark the point on your journey when you made the piece.?

My story:?

Part of what is so beautiful about art is that it’s usually got a story behind it. For instance, with no context of date on this piece I might forget what was going on in my life when I sketched this piece. But the date on it quickly helps me reorient in time when I did this piece. I can remember back to the day, what the weather was like outside, where I was sitting when I did this sketch (girl with balloon) and how I was feeling and what else was happening in my life. Art is expression of feelings too, so signing and dating your art can take you back in time to remember why you created a piece, the story behind it and how you felt at that time.

For instance, this sketch here: It was winter. I’d been laid off of my job for a few months. My company used the unemployment system to “pay me” during the slow time. That’s lousy. I felt alone that day. It was winter and cold outside. I felt cold on the inside. I didn’t like being laid off from work. It was insulting.That made me feel angry—I’m a good employee, why was I laid off? The girl in the sketch is me trying to find my way and trying to figure out how I connect into my life. The balloon represents hope that I have that can be easily pierced and break at any point. I remember where I was sitting in the library. I can remember that this was pre-covid-a time where you could go to the library and linger for hours and sit around on a comfy couch and look out the window and sketch. The library took away any comfy furniture after covid 19. Yes, they’re open and they have places to sit, but that couch is gone. The place I found solace is gone. And that’s ok. I have the memory of that day, sitting on that couch and sketching. Even though the exact place may never replicate itself, I know what I liked about that day and I can try and recreate the scenario somewhere else: a quiet place to sketch, a comfy environment. And I can remember how I was feeling and can (hopefully) avoid that lousy feeling in the future.

Reason 4: Do you share your work online with other people? Signing and dating the piece you produced and snapped a photo of will show others that this is a piece you created. Put your name and date on the piece as a way for others to know that YOU created this piece and that you didn’t steal it from someone else. Take credit for your work if you created it. It feels weird to sign your name to something you didn’t create-it feels like a lie because putting your name on something you didn’t create would be a lie. Don’t give someone else the power to take away something you did. Put your name and date on it to prove it’s yours.

Reason 5: Putting the date on your piece art gives you context. And there are a couple of points I want to make here:

A. You can go back in time and flip through your art pieces, finished and unfinished, and see the progress you’ve made as an artist. Putting a date on the piece will let you see as the years go by how much you’ve improved as an artist. Or it could be a reminder that you haven’t touched art in a while and maybe you’re looking through an old sketchbook because what you really want is to be inspired by something cool you created a while ago. If you date your work you can see how much time has gone by since you made your last creation.?

B. Don’t tell yourself you’ll do it later on unfinished pieces because you’ll forget. If I am only half way finished on a piece, I don’t typically sign and date it until I’m done with it. However, I’m rethinking this process. Here’s why: I’ve gone back to look in my sketchbooks for examples of pieces I’ve done to show in the video as an example of what I’m talking about. I’ve found several unfinished pieces that I thought I’d get around to finishing and I never did. So now I have a piece that i can’t remember when I started creating it. I have no context for what was going on at that point in my life and what may have contributed to me not finishing the piece. Yes, I can reuse the piece, but I like to look at my art or art journal pieces as a catalogue of my life-what was going on at that time, what headspace was I in when I created this piece and what was the story behind the piece. I lose all of those things if I don’t date my work.

Ways you can sign your art:

Find someplace clever within the art piece to go back in and sign and date your art within the piece of work.?

or

Put a watermark on your digital piece, or sign your digital piece with a digital pen/pencil.

Story:

Isn’t it fun to go back and look at vacation photos? Or look back on videos of yourself and your family? The nostalgia makes it fun. But the camera with the year and date matter. Because this event in time that happened to you is a part of your story. Your memoir. Your history.

When you look back you are remembering back to a point in your life, and you are able to pull the family photos out and remember context of what was going on for your or coming up for you at that point in your life. It’s so important.

Giving Credit to Other People:

One other thing I wanted to cover here is using other people’s work. If you take someone else’s work and copy it and then share it online, try to give credit to the original source or say where you took it from. In taking credit for your own work, you should also give credit to others if you remember where you an image from. If you’re not going to post it online or sell it and it’s just for you then that’s fine, you don’t need to give any credit because no one will ever know, but protect yourself if you take someone else’s work and give credit where it’s due. But if you copy an image, give credit to the source if you can.?

Hope you have a great day!

YouTube Video URL: https://youtu.be/uynpdCbHhqU

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