Text that's included with artwork

[Keropi]

When you view someone's text that goes along with their artwork what do you enjoy reading about or what would you like to know about the art piece?

A lot of collectors may not have time to write information, but ideally I enjoy knowing any of the following:

1. What made the collector decide to acquire it:
I'm more curious if they haven't seen the anime or if they've seen it, didn't like it and yet still bought the piece.

2. When they bought it (it might be general statement with no date mentioned):
This probably doesn't interest many collectors, but this interests me. Knowing an upload date is fine, but the cel might have been acquired many years ago. Knowing the purchase date adds a little history to the piece even if nothing else is mentioned about the circumstances of your ownership.

If purchase dates are close to upload dates, then I think they're of little importance.

3. The circumstances on how they bought it. Maybe there's an interesting story to be told there.

4. Why the artwork is unique to them.

5. What is the significance to the scene in the anime?

[RoboFlonne]

Definitely the text tells a lot about the collector and the artwork.

I'm always intrigued by what makes the piece special to that person!

If the artwork is left blank it makes me think they don't like it enough to write something!

[miz ducky]

I haven't ever taken the time to write anything, but I enjoy reading other peoples comments on their galleries.

I haven't written anything because
1. I'm not as clever as some of you.
2. I just want to get everything posted and writing stuff just takes more time. I obviously don't update often so I just try to get it over with.

I like to read the funny comments that people come up with, but sometimes I'm looking for more info about the series or what is really going on in that shot. If I click to view the larger image of a cel/sketch, it is usually to learn more about the thing that I'm looking at.

Yes Most of my browsing is by the page, not by the individual image.

[aernath]

Every now and then, I get to throw some witty bon mot in there, but for the most part... shameless fangirling.

[SME]

I like to leave comments whenever I post my cels. I mainly talk about where I aquired the cel, what sticks out about it, the episode information and anything else that might pertain to purchasing that piece.

I like to keep track of my cels and list them in order. I actually started this a while ago and decided to change my website to match what I had in spreadsheet format. Then I decided to take it a step further and add the episode ID and title of the episodes.

Then one day I was watching a few episodes and found my cel in one of them. Then it hit me - make a screencap of my cel in action! I thought this would be a really neat idea and made it a pact to screencap every one of my cels. I've helped out several people with making screencaps for their cels, except quite a few of them were unappreciative and I decided to end my services (funny how the actions of a few ruin it for the many, tends to happen a lot in this hobby it seems). I remember when someone even said in the Rubberslug chat one time that what was the point of screencapping cels, that they were not going to 'follow the trend' a while ago, and noticed that the person has now screencapped their cels.

It was also interesting to see the progression in the type of series I collect as well. I noticed my gallery has grown a lot since 2007.

[cutiebunny]

I don't necessarily equate uploading a purchase soon after its purchase date as not liking the piece. I've uploaded some cels soon after I purchased them simply because I was so thrilled to have won that particular item. I've also taken my sweet time to upload items as well. I think it's hard to put a value on whether or not something is special to a collector simply by looking at how closely the purchase and upload dates are.

Which is where entry writing comes into place.

For me, the purpose of adding comments to a gallery is to have the viewer see the artwork in a similiar light. This is why I have consistently included the exact line the character says(Japanese version translated into English), a small description as to what is occuring in the scene and perhaps some background as to the storyline or relationship between characters in that particular scene and why I enjoy that scene. I've also purchased many backgrounds in the attempt to finding something suitable to match. Not having a background makes the cel seem less vibrant. I appreciate people who leave detailed comments in their gallery because it allows me to see the item less as another pretty piece of acetate, but something more symbolic of the emotions it conveys. This is especially helpful when I'm viewing artwork from a series that I'm not familiar with.

I still feel that screencaps are not required in order to have a nice gallery and do not translate into how much a collector enjoys their collection. Originally, I did not want these because I could not find a decent quality DVD to make captions from. Everything on the auction sites had been heavily compressed(50 episodes on 3 disks?!), so that, not only would the quality be severly compromised, but the possibility of making captions of certain segments where the action was much more fast-paced, would be next to impossible. However, upon finding someone who sold fully subbed seasons taken from remastered Toei originals, I actively sought to make screencaps. I've also made screencaps for many Sailormoon collectors as well, and all have appeared to have been very appreciative of the caption's high definition and accuracy.

[otakusin]

If the artwork is left blank it makes me think they don't like it enough to write something!

Hummm... well personally I absolutely love all my pieces or I would not display them. The comments are opted out because of time reasons, not that I do not love my cels.

I honestly just do not have the time to write detailed comments for them. Though I do think it would be different if I had just recently started collecting, only having a few comments to make here and there. I collected for several years privately, so the scanning, editing and uploading of each and every cel I have purchased from the past is alot of work itself. I still have several cels left to scan from the past, it's quite time consuming. Maybe when they are all up and all that's being uploaded are recent purchases I will slowly add comments. Anywho, lol

[jcaliff]

I typically include a description or joke in the img tag of each thumbnail, and then I write something about each cel that's posted next to each thumbnail. I have a basic table template set up that I use for my pages, so it's really just a matter of filling in the blanks. The only ones I haven't really written anything about are if I just really didn't have much to say, or if I don't really know much about them. Some of my cel descriptions are almost essays. When I first started, I used to include information about where and when I bought the cels, but as the volume has increased and so many came from various sellers on YJ, I got out of the habit.

[RoboFlonne]

If the artwork is left blank it makes me think they don't like it enough to write something!

Hummm... well personally I absolutely love all my pieces or I would not display them. The comments are opted out because of time reasons, not that I do not love my cels.

I honestly just do not have the time to write detailed comments for them. Though I do think it would be different if I had just recently started collecting, only having a few comments to make here and there. I collected for several years privately, so the scanning, editing and uploading of each and every cel I have purchased from the past is alot of work itself. I still have several cels left to scan from the past, it's quite time consuming. Maybe when they are all up and all that's being uploaded are recent purchases I will slowly add comments. Anywho, lol

I'm whipping myself into shape so that I can get some screencaps up and commented.

I agree that it takes soooo much time! I just don't have it in me to upload the picture alone.

[duotrouble]

When I'm viewing someone's gallery, I just like to know what's going on in the show at that time and why they chose it. I guess that's why that's what I write in my comments.

2. When they bought it (it might be general statement with no date mentioned):
This probably doesn't interest many collectors, but this interests me. Knowing an upload date is fine, but the cel might have been acquired many years ago. Knowing the purchase date adds a little history to the piece even if nothing else is mentioned about the circumstances of your ownership.

If purchase dates are close to upload dates, then I think they're of little importance.

The only time I mention when I purchased something is when I bought something a long time ago. I have added comments like "I forgot to add this to my gallery. I got it a while ago." or something to that effect. Then after a few months, I remove that comment. Also, I add in my news section when I'm updating a lot of items I've had for a while and not put a comment with each one by themselves. I still currently have multiple series that I've had for some time and have just never gotten around to adding to my gallery.