As a budding botanical artist I agonized over my artistic signature, ie. How to sign my name. Spending hours researching a plant, drawing and painting its portrait it now came down to the final aspect of signing my artwork. So I did some homework. After doing web searches, reading what I could find,speaking with other artists and practicing writing my name a hundred times I finally determined my artist signature.
Here is what I discovered:
1. Make it LEGIBLE. A scrawled signature that is legible to you will not be so to others. Think of Picasso or Leonardo d’Vinci. A legible signature allows viewers to identify you as the artist. It allows viewers to identify who did the work now and in the future.
2. Make it UNIQUE. You want your artist signature to not only be unique to you but also unique to your art. Do not use the same signature you sign a check or legal document to avoid someone illegally using your signature. (Thank you Sarah Roche).
3. Make it REPRODUCIBLE. This is the part I had the most difficulty with as my handwriting is terrible. A reproducible signature becomes a way to identify yourself, it adds cohesiveness to an exhibit. Practice, practice, practice. I have wrecked artwork by trying to erase and then re-write my name!
4. Make it UNOBTRUSIVE. Most artists sign their work in the medium they used for the artwork. But, in botanical art most artists sign their work in pencil, (2H), lower right corner above where it will be matted. Line up the right and bottom edges of your artwork image to help you locate this area. You want your art to stand out and draw in the eye, not your name.
5. Make it SOMETHING YOU LIKE. None of these suggestions are written in stone. Often artists sign the front of a small artwork with just their initials and then add a full signature on the back of the work with other information, plant name, year completed, medium used. Sometimes it can be fun to sign along a root making it “hidden.” Other times it looks better signing a work in the left hand corner.
Remember to ask that your name be omitted when you have your artwork scanned. This will make it easier to send the scan when you want to enter an exhibit. It also allows you to sign your limited edition prints individually!
