Director of Artist Relations
$Moonbeam13

Hello!

The purpose of Artist Relations is to strengthen the community spirit as well as network with fellow artists so that we may bring outside opportunities to you, and help you to hone your skills. The Gallery Directors are the first people you should go to regarding your galleries. They are the people you need to make gallery suggestions to, and ask questions about your specific genre, or seek knowledge from. They also act as your lifeline to the administration. They are here to support and listen, and I can tell you we've got incredibly talented, devoted and passionate people on this team, so get to know them!

I am currently looking for an Anime Gallery Director. The best person for this position is going to be community oriented, established in the community, have a keen interest and firm understanding of the Anime genre and have the time and desire to devote to bettering this growing community. People interested must be at least 18 years of age and should send a note to $Moonbeam13 detailing why they are the perfect candidate for this position. The note should outline what benefit they would be to deviantART as the Anime GD as well as what benefit it will serve for them. Please take time to send a complete and well thought out note and do not spam me with "I rox0r" type notes.

The Barenaked ladies contest has come to an end and is currently being judged by the band. We had close to 500 submissions, some of which were just mindblowing, nice work

A new category has been added to the Designs and Interfaces called "Theatre Design" which is:

Theatre, film and performance design including costumes, sets, lighting, props and make-up. All types of performance are acceptable including dance and cosplay.

Note: Only flat artworks should be submitted here. Finished costumes should be placed in the Artisan Crafts: Textiles Section. Finished props also belong in Artisan Crafts rather than Theatre Design. However scale models of set designs are acceptable.

Thank you to ~Joanne-Donn for contacting the gallery director and making a strong case for the necessity of this addition

I am getting several Help desk inquiries on the "top favorites" system from people wanting to know the details of the way it works. For those that understand the abuse the old system incurred it will be easy for you to understand why I will not release the complete details of the way it computes it's results however, what I will tell you is that the system is based on a 'snapshot' taken at a certain time that it uses to compute it's results and the reason it was showing 'unlikely' results has been resolved.




The Key System
As you can see at the very bottom there is now a Key System. The way this will work is simple. If you have a specific inquiry or suggestion for a specific department, begin your comment with the appropriate Key Code, that way we can search the page and compile them and address them. Neat, huh?



Artistic Nude Photography
^scottb
There have been some big things happening since I last contributed to this newsletter. One is that I am now back from overseas and settled back into normal everyday life. More importantly though is the appointment of my good friend and great artist ^tracie76 as a second Gallery Director of the Artistic Nude (AN) gallery here on dA! If you do not know her please go and say hello. Tracie has joined primarily to work on cleaning up miscats, policy violations and scraps that are located in the AN gallery. She will also carry out other admin duties. Tracie has actually been helping me behind the scenes from the day I started as a gallery director so it is great to have her officially on board.

Gallery Highlights:
Stand Completely Still
- Si -
Session 1. shot 3.


Comics and Cartoons
^y2jenn
Hi guys! Well, due to some technical difficulties the Comics and Cartoons category went temporarily missing from the dA category submit list. I know quite a few of you were curious as to why it went missing so I'll do my best to explain it here. Simply put, when the category description was edited the category itself decided it was time to take a leave of absense and with a very impressive raspberry in mine and ^delya's general direction it disappeared. Rest assured our awesome IT team brought it back and we know how to avoid it in the future.

Other than that things are running smoothly. Keep in mind that any work containing copyrighted material is not to be posted in any dA category if you do not have the permission to do so from the original copyright holder. Help us keep these galleries clean!

Don't forget to stop by ^delya's page and give her lots of cuddles... because she loves that. She told me so.

Gallery Highlights:
Comics and Cartoons Thumbnail Smorgasbord #2
Comics and Cartoons Thumbnail Smorgasbord #3
C&C Interview with Themrock


Designs & Interfaces
^depthskins
Now, how could I not mention the controversy Saturday's deviation created? Well I'd like to publicly apologize to anyone I might have offended. There's a detailed explanation on my journal behind the reason of my misinterpreted comment. Feel free to read it and voice your opinions. Let's not turn the AR Article into a debate for this because I know quite a few heads were turned.

I also want to say that the staff of dA or myself do no support the message in the deviation, as staff we'd like to remain impartial on the subject. The deviation was chosen based on design execution rather than the message. Being a sensitive topic, some people completely forget at that point that as GD I'm suppose to honour good design. In my opinion, that's a great design worthy of DD in which I can argue so I will not re-tract the DD or my opinions of it because of the controversy.

In addition, I really appreciate those that came to my page and noted me voicing their opinion, I have nothing but respect for that because it's
better than posting negative comments on the artist's page. Although I went through some of the comments on the deviation and it was almost impossible to find a comment about the design or it's execution.

Finally, coming off that, I'd like to remind everyone that I'm GD for Designs and Interface which means I'm powerless to feature artworks in any other category so make sure you suggest the artwork to the right GD. I don't always have the time to forward it to the right GD.

All in all, DI is going well. Thanks.


3-Dimensional Art
^smashmethod
Howdy guys & gals of the 3d gallery... It's been a while since the last update has been officially posted here in the AR newsletter. The big news of the moment is that the Seasons Of 3D Contest has been extended, so all of your entries are due before October 1st, instead of September 1st. This gives you an extra month to work on and refine your submissions. Once you have your piece done, please submit it to the Submit Art >> Deviation >> Community Projects>>
Contests >> Seasons of 3D section. We'll be expecting quality from you guys! Other than that, the gallery has been running smoothly, so keep on doing what you're doing, it's working fine.


Wallpaper
^zilla774
Those of you who either watch me or visit my page regularily will be aware that I may have had a *tiny* rant recently about an issue in the wallpaper gallery. For those that haven't seen it I'll give a short version here:

Gallery Concerns.

You CAN NOT post any wallpapers into dA which meet any of the following criteria:

Image uses poster art for a film or book or whatever that you have "borrowed"
Image was taken from a website* that you do not own the content of
Image uses photographs of your favourite filmstar that you did not take yourself
Image uses any promotional material that you yourself did not make
Image is composed of screenshots from your favourite film/tv show/cartoon/anime/game
Screenshots of the Final Fantasy Movie
Images or compositions featuring photographs of your favourite porn star or nude model**
Images or montages of your favourite band, which you didn't take yourself, or you have not gained express permission to use.
Any image where you need to include "this is a picture I found on google" in the description text.

_{* Unless this website gives you EXPRESS permission to post your work on sites such as dA. ** You WILL be asked to supply a model release form to prove you have permission and are the original photographer.}

Basically, unless the images of your favourite celebrity/tv show/cartoon/anime character are either taken by yourself, or you drew/painted/sketched or created the characters yourself, THEY WILL BE REPORTED AND REMOVED.

Every single submission is bound by not only the dA submission agreement, but also the following text which is included in the specific wallpaper submission guidelines:

"Further to this, any submission must be original work. It is not acceptable to include any images which are not your own, ie screenshots, scans, photographs, images or designs taken from copyrighted sources, unless it is stock imagery for which you have explicit permission to use. Please see the following FAQ for further information:"

FAQ #8: What does deviantART consider to be Art Theft?
FAQ #306: I credited the original owner on my deviation- why did it get deleted by the staff?


Please, please, please take the time to read and understand the submission guidelines.

On a light note, make sure you check out the latest feature being run in the gallery where we invite several members to give us their favourite top five wallpapers from dA. Check them out here:

Wallpaper Gallery :Selected and Dissected Pt.I
Wallpaper Gallery :Selected and Dissected Pt.II



Resources
^bleedsopretty
__Resources

We need some DD [staff picks] suggestions! We don't get very many suggestions. I know a lot of people browse the resource gallery. So whenever you come across something that catches your eye please let either ^thespook or myself ^bleedsopretty know. We would also love to hear any ideas or suggestions you have regarding the resources gallery categories. We are planning a huge restructure. First on the list is tutorials which will begin very soon. Next will be the texture gallery.

__DA Related

The category descriptions are going to be changed. Too many miscats are placed in the DA Related gallery. I will be setting some rules regarding a few categories to stop people from abusing it due to the current descriptions being so vague.

I also take DD suggestions for the DA Related gallery.






Thanks for reading this update. We look forward to reading your feedback and to answering your comments and suggestions in our next update.



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To direct your comments towards the right gallery director, optionally prefix your comments with the following acronyms:

PREFIX LEGEND

AR: for Artist Relations
PH: for Photography
AN: for Photography > Artistic Nudes
FP: for Photography > Fetish
SP: for Stock Photos
DA: for Digital Art
3D: for Digital Art -> 3 Dimensional Art
AA: for Digital Art > Anthro
DF: for Digital Art > Digital Fantasy
PM: for Digital Art -> Photomanipulation
PA: for Digital Art > Pixel Art
ANI: for Anime
AC: for Artisan Crafts
COM: for Comics and Cartooons
CON: for Contests
DI: for Designs & Interfaces
FL: for Flash
ICN: for Icons
POE: for Poetry
PRS: for Prose
ST: for Skins & Themes
TA: for Traditional Art
VP: for Visualization Presets
WP: for Wallpaper
RES: for Resources
FR: for Fractal Art