Little Things That Are Frustrating

I am a really generous person, especially when it comes to computer-y stuff.  I know that a lot of artists aren't really tech savvy.  All anyone ever has to do is ask.  There are people who will attest to that.  I will help you with coding, setting up a website, paypal buttons...you name it.  I will also help you make graphics.  In fact I will even offer to make them for you free of charge if I think you are having troubles.  I am happy to do it.  All I ask in return is you don't simply take stuff without asking permission.

But lets take a moment and look at where those graphics come from.  I get my graphics one of two ways.  Either I scan things in and make my own from the bottom up, the same way someone would design a bear or anything else or I draw them on rare occasion.  That means I spend time away from making bears to work on them.

The other way  I get them is to sort through thousands of images to find the thing I want, then purchase it from one of the several websites out there that offer copyright free/royalty free images intended for personal use.  (That means you don't make any money from that image, but the artist who created them gets paid for their work.)  I spend my time looking for them and then pay for them with my real, hard earned money.  While they usually aren't that expensive...$1.00-10.00 each on the average, it is still a business expense for me, and I went the legal route of purchasing them for my use.  If you would like to use the same image, then I reccomend you search for them and purchase them too.

I know that people think this is a small thing to just take images or graphics and use them for themselves.  But in fact it's kind of a big thing.  Tonight I discovered that someone had taken my mail contact graphic and used it for themselves.  Ironically they had a "content is copyrighted" notice on their blog. 

The result was I had to take 20 minutes away from the piece I am working on, and completely remake the graphic from the ground up to change the wording in order to make it theft proof, because I didn't save the base I made.  Again that might seem like a little thing for me to have to do, but it's frustrating and it puts me 20 minutes behind on my piece.  On top of that I felt compelled to spend time making this blog post.

Besides don't you want something unique all of your own that reflects your own style?  Again I would be happy to spend the time helping you, rather than being annoyed that I have to remake something that someone stole.  Please, just ask!

Edit:  To the person in question, thank you for changing it so fast.  I would still be willing to help you too, just ask.