Curation could seem like one of the easiest thing to do especially when it comes to curating artworks (drawings, paintings and digital arts). I must commend major curators on the chain for their tremendous work when it comes to evaluating and curating Artworks.
Just recently, my attention was brought to a user on Steem who posted a few of my works amongst other works created by artists off Steem and Hive. I reached out to the user and initially, he still claimed the works were his even after I mentioned clearly that they were my artworks and were on my blog. Honestly, it hurts so badly watching someone take credit for another person's work that were made in sweat and turmoil.
Hive is currently gaining massive recognition worldwide and with the current state of global economy, more users including plagarists and art thieves would be flooding Hive anytime soon. Not very many Hive users are familiar with artworks and their originality, so I feel it is important to educate and inform everyone on the chain on on some key points to note before curating or voting an artwork.
I'll be keeping them short and simple.
1. Is The User New??
This is quite an important question when curating artworks. It's a good thing to support new users when they come on board and seem very promising, but we should be mindful. Here's why. I and several other users have stumble on a new users who create mindblowing works. Some of these users even got lucky enough to get pretty good votes from whales and unfortunately after some days or weeks, we find out they're either plagarists or art thieves who stole works from the internet and find Hive to be the perfect place to dump their stolen works. There is a solution to this though. I don't believe curation is a one time thing. The chain is a small world and you'll definitely come across that user again at some point. So why not get to know this new person whom you love their works so much and want to curate. Check out their blog, view the works they've shared so far and if possible, check out their introductory post. This way you'll also be able to evaluate if the artist is real or fake.
2. Is there A Signature?? Does It Match The Username??
There was a time when signing on artworks wasn't really a thing. One could just create a piece and sell off to a buyer. We're in a different era with increase in global theft cases and internet scamming. Hence, its always advisable to sign and mark whatever we create before sharing on the internet. This way, the work can be linked to the owner and theft on such works would be discouraged. Most artists know this currently and would sign on their works before sharing on the internet. But when I come across an artwork with no signature or trademark linking the artwork to the user, that's a red flag and this is why.
Like the user who stole my works on steem, Plagarists and art thieves tend to crop out the signature of the artist hence making the artwork neutral with no true link to anyone.
Plagarist's post
My work
3. Finally, Are there steps Of Creation??
There's no doubt that showing the steps in the creation of an artwork makes the post look lively and interesting to read. They make the reader understand how the artist moved from nothing to something. They also make it easy for the curators to evaluate if the work was created by the user to some level because not many artist share their steps on the internet. It would be best to curate an artwork with steps of three or more than than I would for a post with a single picture of the artwork.
Hive is young and growing faster than we imagined it would and its future is so shiny bright. On that note, fraudsters, scammers and plagarist would be attracter to it and would find all means possible to exploit it.
Hence, all hands should be on deck to protect what we fought so much. If you stumbled upon a post or user and you feel something isn't right, feel free to talk about it with them in their posts and investigate. You're not attacking them. You're only making the artists better or sending away a thief from our home. Stay alert and stay safe.
Hive On!!!!