Howdy, I’m VulpineVulpine (formerly Vulpana). Artist, writer, cosplayer. Manga Scanlation Projects: Trigun Manga Overhaul, Kekkai Sensen Beat 3 Peat Junk drawer blog with infrequent posts. Not quite Tumblr famous since 2012.
This is a lovely example of how you can cover up a hole with embroidery!
One suggestion to make this mend last longer is to fix the hole first, for example by sewing on a small patch on the back or by darning it, and then adding the embroidery on top.
This is a method I started using when NFTs were on the rise - thieves would have to put actual work into getting rid of the mark - and one that I am now grateful for with the arrival of AI. Why? Because anyone who tries to train an AI on my work will end up with random, disruptive color blobs.
I can't say for sure it'll stop theft entirely, but it WILL make your images annoying for databases to incorporate, and add an extra layer of inconvenience for thieves. So as far as I'm concerned, that's a win/win.
I'll be showing the steps in CSP, but it should all be pretty easy to replicate in Photoshop.
Now: let's use the above image as our new signature file. I set mine to be 2500 x 1000 pixels when I'm just starting out.
Note that your text should not have a lot of anti-aliasing, so using a paint brush to start isn't going to work well with this method. Just use the standard G-Pen if you're doing this by hand, or, just use the text tool and whichever font you prefer.
Once that's done, take your magic wand tool, and select all the black. Here are the magic wand settings I'm using to make the selections:
All selected?
Good.
Now, find a brush with a scattering/tone scraping effect. I use one like this.
You can theoretically use any colors you want for this next part, but I'd recommend pastels as they tend to blend better.
Either way, let's add some color to the text.
Once that's finished,
You're going to want to go to Layer Property, and Border Effect
You'll be given an option of choosing color and thickness. Choose black, and go for at least a 5 in thickness. Adjust per your own preferences.
Now create a layer beneath your sig layer, and merge the sig down onto the blank layer.
This effectively 'locks in' the border effect, which is exactly what we want.
Hooray, you've finished your watermark!
Now let's place that bad boy into your finished piece.
You'll get the best mileage out of a mark if you can place it over a spot that isn't black of white, since you'll get better blending options that way. My preference is for Overlay.
From here, I'll adjust the opacity to around 20-25, depending on the image.
If you don't have a spot to use overlay, however, there's a couple other options. For white, there's Linear Burn, which imho doesn't look as good, but it still works in a pinch.
And for lots of black, you have Linear Light
Either way, you're in business!
As a note, I know it's a bummer for some people to "ruin" their work with watermarks, which is part of the reason I developed this mark in particular. Its disruption is about as minimal as I can make it while still being effective.
There's other methods, too, of course! But this is the one I use, and the one I can speak on. Hope it helps some of you!
This post pissed off an AI weeb who, with their multiple accounts, decided to whine about how copyrights for smalltime artists are tyranny or something.
That gives me a fair indication that I'm doing something right. ;V
Let me also restate that no anti-theft measure is foolproof. There are going to be ways around watermarks, always. A properly determined individual can always figure out methods of removing it.
However: add enough layers of frustration, and most will not see the point in bothering. Removing a speckled watermark from multiple images takes the kind of time and effort AI bros are, rather famously, unwilling to put in. If they have to do it for a whole gallery, most won't go through the trouble.
i know you're all working very hard and focusing on trigun at the moment, and i am very thankful for the work you've put in for this passion peoject. but i also wanna say i would suck every one of you absolutely silly if you decided to take a crack at kekkai sensen considering there's barely anything online
Hey anon! Thank you for your kind words and generous offer!
But we simply must decline this intimate offer of exchanged, consensual services, as we are a not-for-profit team and we only desire to work on Nightow’s creations out of love for his craft.
However, we can inform you can we are indeed having talks of working hand in hand with a Kekkai Sensen scanlation team. This can include sharing experience, tools and even having members of one or the other team help the other out.
As it stands right now, our team member Vulpana has already been doing editing and proofreading work for Kekkai Sensen releases.
On top of that, the latest release of Beat 3 Peat, by the scanlation team Morzo Guazza, includes editing work done by me (D, project lead), and proofreading work done by Vulpana.
It was a no-brainer to get involved with the Kakkai Sensen manga and we hope to take part in getting a full, coherent release of the entire manga and share more of Nightow’s work.
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