# Using DeviantArt (Artists artworks for Videos/Soundcloud)



## Christopher Rocky (Jun 11, 2020)

I see on youtube/soundcloud a lot composers using images created by artists, but have added their own title/heading overlay like an album cover.

I'm curious to hear your experiences if you have personally done this 
for eg.
how do you go about contacting the artist so you can use the image? Is it common practice?
is it fair use if you credit the artist and link to their page? (which seems to be common on instagram) 

Apart from this, i'm interested to know an artist you would recommend for fantasy style artwork.


----------



## Mornats (Jun 12, 2020)

I always use my own photography for my SoundCloud tracks so speaking from a photographer's point or view you should ask for permission first. I'd be pissed off if someone just used a photo without permission, even if they credited and linked to me. So it's always best to ask. If asked, I'd probably say yes but I'm kinda composer-friendly lol.

You may find that some artists may want a good cinematic track to use on a video, for example a time lapse of their work in progress or a portfolio. Maybe approach them with a trade in mind.


----------



## MartinH. (Jun 12, 2020)

ChristopherRock said:


> Apart from this, i'm interested to know an artist you would recommend for fantasy style artwork.



What kind of budget, style, size, and scene do you have in mind?


----------



## Consona (Jun 13, 2020)

People do various bullshit things as "common practice".
Definitely contact the artist first.


----------



## Rasoul Morteza (Jun 13, 2020)

I hired Andrzej Kuziola to make my own production label cover, I highly recommend him: https://www.kuziola.com/

He is very good and charges a reasonable rate. If you do hire him, let him know that I referred him. I had no luck getting replies from some artists on DeviantArt, many of them are inactive hobbyists.


----------



## Wunderhorn (Jun 13, 2020)

Unless you get images off a free stock site such as Freepik etc. you absolutely have to contact the artist and get their permission and/or agree on a license fee. If artists don't respond (happens a lot on DeviantArt) you'll have to seek alternatives.


----------



## Michel Simons (Jun 13, 2020)

It looks like some use Creative Commons licenses. So as long as you adhere to the restricted use of those licenses (giving attribution, possibly not using it for a commercial project) you don't necessarily need to get the explicit permission by the artist.


----------



## Christopher Rocky (Jun 14, 2020)

MartinH. said:


> What kind of budget, style, size, and scene do you have in mind?



fantasy/sci fi, landscape/city etc...
two scenarios i'd be looking at are:
to use on youtube along with one of my tracks, not an official album etc... just to accompany the music, so its free to listen to and not a product on youtube. this is the case in contacting the artists and hopefully credit them the image and link to their websites, a kind of mild 'colab'

The other would be an album cover image, i'm not entirely sure on price as i've been quoted by top tier artist around 1000usd for an image. I've payed 70 usd on fivver before, but i'd imagine around the 250-500usd would be considered average price?



Rasoul Morteza said:


> I hired Andrzej Kuziola to make my own production label cover, I highly recommend him: https://www.kuziola.com/
> 
> He is very good and charges a reasonable rate. If you do hire him, let him know that I referred him. I had no luck getting replies from some artists on DeviantArt, many of them are inactive hobbyists.


WOW what an interesting artist, thank you for the link!


Just to clarify, I do not intend to use images without license or without asking an artist first,
I just wonder how other people have done it as it seems some people just attribute the artist and that's it, like on youtube, and on instagram there are a million pages where people just share art of others and credit the artist. i cant imagine these pages msging every single artist to see if they could use it on their page, but then again i have no idea lol

@Mornats thank you for reply, thats an awesome idea to trade songs and images to collaborate.

Also I have never msged anyone on deviant, but i did find someone on deviant art, found their instagram and msged that way, we worked something out and i got to use some video footage in one of my clips, it was a great experience, but in terms of still images i have never done anything. so i appreciate all your input


----------



## Michel Simons (Jun 14, 2020)

ChristopherRock said:


> The other would be an album cover image, i'm not entirely sure on price as i've been quoted by top tier artist around 1000usd for an image. I've payed 70 usd on fivver before, but i'd imagine around the 250-500usd would be considered average price?



I believe my musical partner and I paid 250 euro for album artwork, so that sounds about right.


----------



## TomislavEP (Jun 14, 2020)

Most of the time, I design my own graphic elements, including artwork. I usually start from one of my nature photographs then manipulate it using various techniques. I often look at photography and graphic design as a yet another creative aspect that follows composition and production itself. In fact, although music is my main occupation, I was somewhat formally trained in graphic design, amongst other things.

Personally, when I need a graphical motif that is out of my own scope, I visit Unsplash.com. You can find some fantastic work there. Furthermore, the Unsplash licence states that you may use all the material found on-site for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. It isn't even mandatory to credit the contributor, but I always do so by writing their name and the link to their Unsplash profile.

You can find more on this here:





__





License | Unsplash


All photos published on Unsplash can be used for free. You can use them for commercial and noncommercial purposes. You do not need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer or Unsplash, although it is appreciated when possible.




unsplash.com


----------



## Christopher Rocky (Jun 14, 2020)

TomislavEP said:


> Most of the time, I design my own graphic elements, including artwork. I usually start from one of my nature photographs then manipulate it using various techniques. I often look at photography and graphic design as a yet another creative aspect that follows composition and production itself. In fact, although music is my main occupation, I was somewhat formally trained in graphic design, amongst other things.
> 
> Personally, when I need a graphical motif that is out of my own scope, I visit Unsplash.com. You can find some fantastic work there. Furthermore, the Unsplash licence states that you may use all the material found on-site for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. It isn't even mandatory to credit the contributor, but I always do so by writing their name and the link to their Unsplash profile.
> 
> ...


I love that idea and wish i was skilled enough to do what i want with graphics, you must be very talented!
I did make my website and logo design, but i started with paying someone first to give me the base shape and design, then i edited everything. i'm learning but i'm no where near talented enough to make my album cover what i want it to be. unsplash is perfect for me because i can take a shape or image and then edit the crap out of it, thank you!


----------



## MartinH. (Jun 14, 2020)

Consona said:


> People do various bullshit things as "common practice".
> Definitely contact the artist first.







Rasoul Morteza said:


> I hired Andrzej Kuziola to make my own production label cover, I highly recommend him: https://www.kuziola.com/


He's good. If he charges less than 1000$ for those artworks in his portfolio (with the exception of one that looks like it was done in 1 or 2 hours imho) he's selling under value I'd say.
Edit: Just saw the "Cover artworks for sale" section... yikes! In my opinion that's like if composers would voluntarily sell fully polished original orchestral tracks with exclusive rights of use and no royalties whatsoever for ~400$ a piece, while also taking on the full risk of writing it first and then hoping someone buys it. And I hope we all know this isn't sustainable...



ChristopherRock said:


> The other would be an album cover image, i'm not entirely sure on price as i've been quoted by top tier artist around 1000usd for an image. I've payed 70 usd on fivver before, but i'd imagine around the 250-500usd would be considered average price?



70$ is definitely hobbyist tier, because there's no way anyone makes a living off that. 250$ is suuuper low for a cover artwork. Maybe people in low-income countries can make it work, maybe. I couldn't live off such jobs and I don't think a single one of the artists that I know would sell a detailed cover artwork commission that low. I'd lose money on it through the opportunity cost. 1000$ is what I'd call _roughly_ the average for a cover artwork done by a professional fulltime illustrator from a first-world country. You can definitely pay a lot more if you're trying to get the _actual _top tier.


Also worth noting that paintings are very much affected by "diminishing returns of time invested". Paying a pro for 2 hours at 100$/hour is likely still a better deal than paying a beginner for 10 hours at 20$/hour. It'll be a rougher "speedpainting" style artwork, but composition and colors will likely be so much better than what you can get in the works-on-fiverr tier of artists.





TomislavEP said:


> Personally, when I need a graphical motif that is out of my own scope, I visit Unsplash.com.



There are a couple of these sites. I'm slightly worried if all the images offered there are actually put there by their original creators. I know there's a ton of shady/stolen stuff being _sold_ on assetstores like cgtrader or turbosquid. Definitely worth double-checking imho.


----------



## TomislavEP (Jun 14, 2020)

ChristopherRock said:


> unsplash is perfect for me because i can take a shape or image and then edit the crap out of it, thank you!



You're very welcome! Most definitely, if you have a good starting picture and/or design, you can quite easily make it your own with some rather basic editing techniques. Even the simplest photo manipulation programs like Microsoft Photos can do the trick. It is all about creativity and adding your personal touch.



> There are a couple of these sites. I'm slightly worried if all the images offered there are actually put there by their original creators. I know there's a ton of shady/stolen stuff being _sold_ on assetstores like cgtrader or turbosquid. Definitely worth double-checking imho.



With every large repository, such as Unsplash.com, there is always a possibility of malpractice so it's better to be careful and try to contact the submitter when in doubt. On the other hand, such sites are probably safer than just picking some images randomly from the Internet - something I've seen many people do.

BTW, I wouldn't dream trying to belittle the work of dedicated artwork designers in any way, but personally I would never invest more than 100$ into custom artwork. When I calculate the grand total of my instruments, gear, software, professional mastering and publishing costs, etc. anything above that is just too expensive for me, making ends meet only with music. Also, I prefer to do as much as I can on my own - not trying to sound arrogant. Plus, I firmly believe in the "don't judge the book by its covers" principle.


----------



## MartinH. (Jun 14, 2020)

TomislavEP said:


> BTW, I wouldn't dream trying to belittle the work of dedicated artwork designers in any way, but personally I would never invest more than 100$ into custom artwork. When I calculate the grand total of my instruments, gear, software, professional mastering and publishing costs, etc. anything above that is just too expensive for me, making ends meet only with music. Also, I prefer to do as much as I can on my own - not trying to sound arrogant. Plus, I firmly believe in the "don't judge the book by its covers" principle.



Yeah, that makes sense of course. Just like how for many usecases it makes no sense for someone to hire a professional composer and pay for something original when all they really need is some royalty free generic background music etc. for e.g. a youtube video that is only gonna get a couple of views anyway. 

I also like to do as much as I can myself, it's part of the reason why I started composing in the first place. So I totally understand why you'd rather do your own artwork!


----------



## TomislavEP (Jun 15, 2020)

MartinH. said:


> Yeah, that makes sense of course. Just like how for many usecases it makes no sense for someone to hire a professional composer and pay for something original when all they really need is some royalty free generic background music etc. for e.g. a youtube video that is only gonna get a couple of views anyway.



For me, trying to create your own artwork is yet another layer of creativity and the possibility to add a personal visual representation of the musical work itself. Many artists I respect and follow have often designed their own graphic materials.

However, it is certainly true that custom artwork can be very important and impactful, and can mean a world of difference in some cases, similar to the professional mastering done by a particular engineer. Unfortunately, like the latter, hiring an accomplished designer is quite a luxury for some (myself included). For YouTube stars and all the creators of popular content out there that don't have financial issues, it is yet another no-brainer investment in their success.


----------



## Luftrum (Jun 15, 2020)

I often use work by graphic artists to represent covers to my releases, in particular I use Artstation for this. I always ask the artists behind for permission first (could never dream of doing it without asking) and ask bout their fee for license too. This can range from $50 - $150 for a non-exclusive permission and sometimes the artists behind grants me permission to use it for free. 

I always give full credit to the artists on both the product page and on a YouTube vid if I create such. I find it's easier to obtain permission if it's an older work that is posted as a personal project and not licensed to other projects (movies, games etc.).

Here are some recent art, and some of my personal favorites, which I have licensed.


----------

