How to Certify Your Art as Human-Made: A Step-by-Step Guide

Getting your art certified as human-made is simpler than you might think — but it requires one thing most artists don't do by default: documenting your creative process.

This guide walks you through the complete process: what to prepare, what evidence works best, how expert review works, and how to build documentation habits that make future certifications effortless.

What You Need Before You Start

Certification is about proving your creative process, not just your final work. Before you submit, you need process evidence. Here's what works:

Tier 1: Strongest Evidence

Design files with layer history

PSD, AI, Sketch, XCF, and Affinity files (.afdesign, .afphoto, .afpub) that preserve your complete layer structure. These are the gold standard — layer history shows the actual decisions made during creation: what was painted over, what was adjusted, what was removed.

How to ensure this is preserved: Never flatten your file until delivery. Keep the layered version as your archive. Timelapse or screen recordings

Video that shows your work being created in real time — whether a screen capture of your digital workflow or a camera timelapse of a physical work.

Free tools: OBS Studio (screen recording), built-in screen recording on macOS and Windows, physical camera pointing at your workspace. RAW photo files

Original, unprocessed camera files with complete EXIF data. RAW files include camera model, lens, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, GPS location, and timestamp. These are practically impossible to generate with AI.

Tier 2: Good Supporting Evidence

Progress screenshots

A series of screenshots at distinct stages of your work. Three screenshots showing early sketch, mid-development, and near-final is significantly stronger than one "finished" screenshot.

Behind-the-scenes footage

Short video showing you at work — at a drawing tablet, in front of a canvas, at a camera setup. Doesn't need to be long; 2-3 minutes that clearly shows you creating the work.

Reference materials

Sketches, mood boards, reference photos you gathered, thumbnail studies. These demonstrate the research and planning phase that precedes AI-free creation.

What Doesn't Count

A screenshot of the finished work only
Verbal description of your process without supporting files
Social media posts showing the final work (useful as context, not as primary evidence)

Step-by-Step: Submitting for Certification

Step 1: Create Your Account

Go to ivemadethis.com/register and create a free account. Fill in your name and bio — a complete profile helps reviewers understand your background and claimed expertise.

Step 2: Start a New Submission

From your dashboard, click "Submit New Work." You'll walk through a four-step wizard:

Artwork — Upload your main file (image, video, or audio)
Evidence — Upload up to 10 process evidence files
Details — Title, description, category, and tags
Review — Confirm and submit

Step 3: Upload Your Evidence

This is the most important step. Aim for 3-5 evidence files minimum. More is better, but quality matters more than quantity.

Accepted file types include: images (JPG, PNG, WebP, TIFF), video (MP4, MOV), audio (MP3, WAV), and design files (PSD, AI, Sketch, XCF, AFDESIGN, AFPHOTO, AFPUB, INDD, PDF).

Tips for your evidence upload:

Name your files descriptively: "progress_sketch_01.jpg" is better than "IMG_4321.jpg"
Include a brief note in your submission description explaining each piece of evidence
If you have a timelapse, prioritize it — it's the most compelling evidence type

Step 4: Write a Good Description

In the submission description, describe your creative process briefly:

What tools and software did you use?
How long did the work take?
What does each evidence file show?

Reviewers are trying to construct a coherent picture of how your work was made. Help them by connecting the dots between your evidence files and the finished work.

Step 5: Submit and Wait

After submission, your work enters the review queue. Reviewers will examine your evidence and either certify the work, request additional evidence, or reject the submission with a reason.

If they request more evidence, you'll receive a notification and can upload additional files. This is normal — it doesn't mean your submission is failing, it means reviewers want to be thorough.

What Reviewers Look For

Understanding the reviewer's perspective helps you submit stronger evidence.

Reviewers are asking one central question: Does this evidence make it credible that a human created this work?

They look for:

Authentic non-linear iteration. Human creative process is messy. Work gets painted over, elements get moved and repositioned, earlier decisions get revised. Reviewers are suspicious of evidence that shows a perfectly linear progression from blank canvas to finished work — that's not how humans typically create. Consistency between evidence and final work. Does the style in the early sketches match the style of the finished work? Are the layers in the PSD file consistent with what you'd expect given the final output? Process signatures specific to the claimed medium. A digital painting should have brush strokes visible in early layers. A photograph should have EXIF data. A drawing should have pencil underdrawing or reference marks. Plausible timeline. Does the amount of evidence match the claimed creation time? A work described as taking 30 hours should have more evidence than a work described as taking 2 hours.

Building a Documentation Habit

The hardest part of certification is not the submission — it's having evidence to submit. Most artists don't document their process by default.

Here's how to build the habit:

Start every project with recording on. Before you open your blank canvas or take out your sketchbook, start your screen recorder or position your camera. The recording can run in the background and you'll forget it's there. Save work-in-progress copies at major milestones. Every time you finish a significant phase — rough sketch complete, color blocking done, detail work started — save a copy. Use a naming convention like "ProjectName_v01.psd", "ProjectName_v02.psd", etc. Keep your RAW files forever. Never delete original RAW files. Storage is cheap; lost provenance is irreversible. Screenshot before merging. If you merge layers or flatten groups, take a screenshot first. One extra step that preserves significant evidence. One timelapse per project. Even a 10-minute accelerated recording of part of your workflow adds substantial credibility to a submission.

Once you've built the documentation habit, future certifications become effortless. You already have the evidence — it's just a matter of selecting which files to submit.

After Certification

Once certified, your work appears in the I'VE MADE THIS gallery with a verified badge. You receive a unique certificate ID that you can:

Share with clients as proof of human origin
Embed in portfolio pages with a link to ivemadethis.com/verify
Include in your professional bio as evidence of verified human creation

Your reputation score increases with each certification, building a cumulative record of verified human creativity over time.

Start Now

The best time to start documenting your process was at the beginning of your last project. The second best time is right now.

For your next project — regardless of medium or discipline — enable screen recording, set up your timelapse, keep your RAW files, and save work-in-progress copies. Then submit for certification when the work is complete.

It's free. The documentation habit takes minutes to build. And the resulting certificate is proof that no badge can replicate.

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