Director of Artist Relations


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!


Due to real life constraints, `halfliquid has left the Artist Relations team. ^Aeires will be manning Pixel Art until I bring on a new gallery director.

Many people have sent me 'resumes' of sorts to show their interest in becoming a volunteer on the Artist Relations team and this is fine, however, a note stating you want to be a Gallery Director doesn't really say much to me. Be informative if you're going to go this route. Tell me why my team needs you and tell me why you need my team and maybe something will come of it.

While there are openings for Gallery Directors that need to be filled that haven't been, I want to explain why that is. I am currently working on writing a more comprehensive training program for volunteers on my team in order to ensure we are cohesive and working toward the same goals. This project has been nudged to the side for a couple of things I had to redirect for but should be completed shortly, at which time I will feel more comfortable filling the gaps.

When I read Kuschelirmel's Journal I became very concerned that there is a feeling that myself or my team is unapproachable. This is a serious misnomer that must be addressed and corrected. The Artist Relations team is here to help YOU and to do that, you need to feel comfortable suggesting things to us. Talk to your gallery directors. Check out their journals, they generally link to places you can talk to them on dAmn, or you can note them, joke with them, make suggestions, discuss the weather, whatever. The same holds true for me, we are all here to work together so please, take advantage of that

This all brings me to thought that perhaps the community doesn't have a firm understanding of what Gallery Directors do so in order to address that, this is the Volunteer Position Description for the Gallery Director


Accountability

Reports directly to the Director of Artist Relations


Scope of Responsibilities

The Gallery Director supervises, moderates and aids in the planning and development of the gallery they are assigned to by forming a relationship with the artistic community and acting as a communication bridge between the artists and the administration. The Gallery Director is also responsible for helping motivate and encourage artists through activities such as events, news features, contests and daily deviations.


Specific Duties

Management of gallery including but not limited to handling wrongfully categorized images, organization and in limited cases, policy violations.

Organization and execution of contests, news features and other motivational events for the community with direct assistance from the Director of Artist Relations.

Maintaining a healthy balance between volunteer duties and personal artistic contributions to deviantART. As well as communicating immediately should the need for ‘personal’ time be needed, so the Director of Artist Relations can accommodate.

Recommending new and appropriate features for the website.

Attending team meetings in order to stay connectd to the team. If one cannot attend due to time zones or other commitments, a log of each meeting will be available, however it is the responsibility of the gallery director to ensure that they keep up with the information detailed in the logs.

Reporting about gallery happenings on a regular basis in the Artist Relations newsletters.


Requirements

Strong interpersonal skills
Knowledge of specific artistic medium
Strong ties to community
Organizational skills
Sense of humour


^pinguino has been acting as a liason between dA and various companies to build specialized experiences to entertain users and highlight dA's strengths. She does this in a volunteer capacity and has been hidden behind the Gallery Director symbol but doesn't do the Gallery Director stuff because she's doing this so I've renamed her volunteer position as “Industry Ninja”



Please check out the following articles if you haven't:
Clarifying 3D Stock
Terms of Service Misinterpretation

Check out the deviantree project a very green project!

Also take a look at this World Through Your Window project

IMPORTANT - If you have an complaint about a gallery director, disagree with their daily deviation choices, the way they handle the gallery, or some other thing you feel you can't discuss with them one on one, then I am your next step. Feel free to send a note or email me at moonbeam13@deviantart.com In the case of daily deviations, if you choose to belittle the artwork on the actual deviation page instead of following the procedure of contacting the gallery director or myself, you may find yourself banned as this is a violation of deviantART etiquette policies. Consider that a warning. Thank you.

Miss an edition of the newsletter? Check out my journal

Looking for contests? Find a list of all AR sponsored contests in the module in my journal




The Key System
As you can see at the very bottom there is 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.

Artisan Crafts

Artisan Crafts mixes it up with a month of pure JEWELRY Daily Deviations! Some slots for the month are still open, so if you know of a SMASHING jewelry artist, be sure to pass them my way!

Criteria for Daily Deviations and how to suggest them: [link]

Also, a project for the deviants: The International Culture Gift Exchange! Could be crafts related, but is open to ALL deviants! [link]



Cartoons & Comics

Hi guys! I've got oodles of goodies to prattle on about this week! First things first though. For all those who missed it in the last update I am now taking DD suggestions for Anthro artwork. But, in addition to me covering that gallery, ^guruubii has also stepped up to the plate. This means that she and I will be rotating days in the posting of our Anthro DDs. ^guruubii is odd... well, we know she's odd. What I mean is she'll be posting her Anthro DDs on odd days and I will be posting mine on even days. So if you've been hanging onto a link of an Anthro piece you'd like to see DDed please send it our way! Guru and I have very different tastes so the Anthro category will be covered with plenty of variety. This is just temporary though! So keep an eye on the AR news!

Comics and Cartoons is still running smoothly. On a whole, I've been so tickled by the enthusiasm displayed from day to day. There are so many different levels of skill and talent, of mediums and subjects. It's honestly a joy to scoot through the gallery each day. That said, I have noticed that quite a few of you are upset about your work getting removed. The majority of the time it's sprite comics. To that, I point you to this FAQ: FAQ #157: Can I use things created by other people in my submissions? And I want to remind you that if you have work removed please don't resubmit it. You put yourself in a very dangerous position when you do this. So please, if you have work removed and wish to speak to someone about it contact the help desk.

I'm also getting heaps and heaps of DD suggestions everyday. Which is REALLY nice! In every 10 notes I get 4 or 5 anthro suggestions, 2 or 3 comics/cartoons suggestions and the rest are always suggestions to deviations in galleries I don't cover. So pleeeeeaaase pay close attention to which gallery director you're making your suggestions to! There's a list of all of us here: FAQ #18: Who selects the Daily Deviation and how is it chosen? And my more-or-less DD Guidelines are here.

Contests and Projects:
Okay, on to the goodies! There are two big projects I'd love to plug here. In celebration of the nearing release of Frank Miller's 300, *spaghetti016 is tossing a fantastic contest! You can read all about it here. The deadline is March 15th, 2007. I will be pitching in for prizes and I'm looking VERY FORWARD to seeing the entries! So if you're a Frank Miller fan get in on that! *ultema is putting together a huge character project open to the entire community. If you recall, creating original characters in a pre-set world and time was REALLY big not too painfully long ago. (Example: Cilessia Prime) So *ultema is looking for your feedback in her journal and poll. I will be making more updates on this project as it moves along!

Okay, I think I've babbled on long enough sooooo in closing, I wish your days be filled with happy browsing and cheese cake. Mmmph, I'm hungry.

CUSTOMIZATION


Icons

There have been some big changes in the Icons gallery this weekend. The categories have been restructured to remove old, obsolete ones and flesh out the high-traffic ones. The aim was to enhance browseability and give room for each genre to flourish without being overwhelmed by large, noisy neighbors.

To that end, much like Gaul under Caesar, Emoticons has been divided into three parts:

• Static -- small, single frame emoticons
• Animated -- small emoticons composed of a multiple frames
• Packs & Large format -- collections of emoticons and giant individual emotes like those used on instant messenger services.

Avatars too has felt the touch of the Caesarian blade. It is now comprised of the following sections:

• deviantART -- avatars that comply with deviantART requirements, 50x50 in dimension, 15KB in size


• Messenger -- avatars for use in instant messenger
  services ranging in dimension up to a maximum of 100x100 pixels
• Miscellaneous -- avatars for use on miscellaneous
  forums ranging in dimension up to 200x200 pixels.

I've moved about a month's worth of deviations to their proper galleries (sorry about the resultant flurry of notes), but the cache is still refreshing so the main Emoticons and Avatars categories are returning old results. It will soon sort itself out, never fear.

The gallery descriptions have been updated to reflect the changes in categorization, as have the descriptions of unmodified galleries Dock Icons, OS Icons, and Cursors simply because they were desperately out of date. My special thanks to =ipholio whose assistance in this matter has been invaluable.

Oh, and:


There may as yet be more changes to come as we see how this system works in practice. I've had some great discussions in my journal on how we can continue to improve on the categorization to make it more intuitive, more supportive of the different genres, and easier to maintain.

The response from the community has been positive, forward-thinking and helpful beyond the telling of it. Many thanks to everyone who has posted their support and suggestions. This is very much a community effort, which is why I am so optimistic it will greatly improve the overall dynamics and content of the Icons gallery.

In other emoticon news, see this article to learn about how a Firefox extension that distributes emoticons globally for personal use will soon attribute all the emoticons in its database to their original creators and use works by permission only.

In other Icon news, keep your eyes peeled for an exciting collaborative contest between the Wallpaper and Icons galleries. zilla774 and I are working out the details now, so look out for the forthcoming announcement.

Wallpaper

Suggesting Wallpaper DDs

Recently there has been a downturn in the amount of Daily Deviations suggested from the Wallpaper Gallery so I thought this newsletter I'd just remind people how to go about it and what my (rough) criteria are!

How To Suggest A Wallpaper DD:

Simply send mt a link to the deviation in a note, making sure that you write a short paragraph why the piece should be a Daily Deviation. Remember that I'm much more likely to feature pieces if there is a good reason!

What Are My Criteria?

I work to a rough set of rules for my DD selections.

1. The Artist should be an "unknown" artist, by this I mean that I prefer to feature people who would benefit from the exposure, not popular artists whose work is already widely known.

2. The work must not have hundreds of favs. ie it would be better to feature works which deserve the exposure of a DD, rather than a piece which has already received a lot of praise.

3. The artist must not have more than 2 DDs already. I will also not DD artists more than once in the wallpaper gallery, unless the piece is of particular merit.

4. Photomanipulation pieces, MUST specify where their stock has come from.
Failure to do so will result in me passing over the suggestion.

5. The artists description must be more than just '...' (this is a personal pet hate)

That's about it! Easy really, so if you see something you love and you think it deserves being a DD, then just note me!

Also...

Coming soon: NEW GALLERY CATAGORIES!!! More about this next issue



z.


DIGITAL ART\

Pixel

For the time being, I will be handling the pixel galleries. For the few weeks that I have been browsing them, I have seen some great pixel works in the galleries, and some problems that need to be addressed.

To begin with, there seems to be some confusion as to what an actual pixel image is. I think a general misconception of what is happening in the gallery is that all images created with MS Paint are pixel artworks. This is not necessarily the case. Programs such as MS Paint can indeed do pixel artwork, but they can also do basic drawings. The difference between drawings and pixel works are the techniques involved. Taking a look at the gallery descriptions, we get the following:

A form a digital art created entirely from a pixel by pixel basis from the ground up using the most simplest of tools (most commonly the pencil tool
and the like). Every pixel is placed in a specific place with a purpose of enhancing the image and to complete the artist’s original intent.
*paragraph one

In a nutshell, pixel works are created from scratch pixel by pixel at incredible zoom levels, often at 1600x magnification. This allows the placement of the pixels exactly where the artist needs them. General broad brush strokes at regular view is how drawings are made, pixels are more specific than that. Because each pixel is specifically placed, blurring, smudging, and similar tools of blending/coloring are not used in pixel artwork. These rules can be found in the second paragraph:

Works submitted here should have absolutely no digitally enhanced features such as: blurring, anti-aliasing, dodging, burning, rendering, etc. (Again, works here are formed pixel by pixel being lovingly placed where they are meant to be placed!) So even if your work has even a small bit of something that was not done in a pixel by pixel fashion then it does not belong in the pixel art galleries.

If your art isn't created using these basic guidelines, it's most undoubtedly a drawing instead of a pixel image. Because pixel images take such a high degree of work, images usually aren't created in just an hour or two. Some of the larger pixel images take weeks, if not months because of all the zooming in and out, and the strategic placing of all the patterns and colors. Drawings, on the other hand, take considerably less time to complete because of all the shortcut techniques allowed.

The second misconception noticed is the difference between isometric and non-isometric. Isometric is when the image is set at a specific angle, often considered to be 30 degrees. Non-isometric is when the image is viewed straight on, or has no specific angle in which it is based on. Below are some examples of each.

Isometric:



Non-isometric:



Hopefully this helps explain the medium. I have been going through the galleries trying to straighten out some of these problems. If you have any questions or need help, please send me a note. Also, please send me a note if you would like to suggest a pixel image for a daily deviation. My goal is to throw some attention towards the gallery, it has a great history of incredible art and deserves it's due credit.

Pixel Tutorials:

Pixel Portraits-R- and Isometric For Beginners. Both are good examples of working at magnified levels to create specific images. I also recommend doing a word search using your favorite search engine for pixel tutorials. There are some great sources of information available on how to create this type of art.


Vexel

The vexel gallery is live, if you haven't seen it yet, it will appear as soon as the system cache updates. This was created at the request of a large group of people. Vexel artwork has increased in popularity so we gave it a home of its own.

It should be noted that the gallery layout for this new section is different than the Vector layout. This was deliberate for two reasons. The first reason was that vexels are different enough from vectors that I didn't want it to be just a second-hand clone. Two galleries of almost similar styles would only add to the confusion when posting art.

The other reason was to try and get it in line with the other digital galleries in basic layout. With the exception of very specific mediums, such as fractals, 3D, and pixels, the bulk of the main digital galleries all follow a main layout structure to make it easier on both the artist and the gallery directors to classify their work. By following closely to the basic layout, there should be enough classification for all types of vexel works to be posted without the constant need of further additions to the sub-galleries.

If you are unsure of what a vexel image is, please read the gallery descriptions, then ask if still unsure. There is nothing as disheartening as working hard on creating a new gallery only to see it trampled with inappropriate art.

On a similar note, when the research was conducted for creating this section, not a tremendous amount was found because vexels are so new to the artistic world. When this was presented back in January, it was stated that any modifications to the gallery descriptions could be made if needed. That still applies. Making the gallery is the hard part, modifying gallery descriptions is a lot easier. This medium will evolve, I'm open minded to keep up with it.


3D

As I am going to be taking on the pixel gallery duties, ^nighty will be handling the 3D galleries. She is very excited to be helping this area and has already displayed some incredible 3D art for daily deviations. Please send all daily deviation suggestions to her, I am not taking 3D as she handles this area. Neither of these areas will be ignored as long as we are in the directors chair.

In a like manner, please do not send me photomanipulation or vector daily deviation suggestions. These should be sent to ^kuschelirmel and ^Einion, it's their specific galleries, and they work hard to maintain them. For all the other main digital galleries, either Nighty or myself can feature them. Feel like there's a gallery not getting exposure, let us know.


Contests

I am currently not running any contests, but I am supporting the TERRASPACE OFFICIAL CONTEST CHALLENGE. If you wish to try and create a terraspace entry, check out the rules and visit the group. The deadline is April 30th, plenty of time to give it a go.

Photomanipulation

Notes & Apologies
A few days ago, it occurred to me that every third note I get starts by apologizing to me for disturbing/taking up my time/etc. I wrote a journal about it, asking why people apologize for something like that. The replies I got made it clear that apparently, gd's are intimidating – they cannot be talked to easily because they are so busy and probably get tons of notes and will in all likelihood not care about getting notes from "normal deviants" anyway. So much for the rumours.

The fact of the matter is, we get the position because we love our respective galleries and want to see them pushed and pimped wherever possible (if you look at $Moonbeam13's section *points upward* you will see the description of what we do). We also get it because we know the genre from experience. But we are still few in relation to the user base and to the new deviations that are submitted daily. Therefore, in order to have a chance at representing the whole gallery and not just the part of it we can cover through our watch list and browsing (which is rather time-consuming and can not always be done extensively) we do actually need your help.

So please, don't hesitate to send me notes - I will read them all and reply to the ones that need a reply (i.e. questions, suggestions, ideas etc, but not DD suggestions, because suggestions should be quick for both sides: suggest 10 or 20 a day without bothering about if I have the time to formulate a reply or not, just do it ) and I do not differentiate between people sending me DD suggestions based on if I know them or if they are "popular" or what symbol shows in front of their names. I DD a deviation because I liked the piece suggested and because it keeps with my DD guidelines. The most important one being that I want to see the sources listed! - but I digress, you can read everything about my DD guidelines to the right of my journal page

Crediting your sources, copyright
Speaking about listing your stock sources: If you are using stock photos, you are required to list your sources no matter if the stocker's terms of service say you must or not. Quoting from FAQ #65: Can I use stock images?

Stock images are images that are posted somewhere with the express intent that it may be used by other artists in their own artwork. Use of these images in this fashion are subject to the artist's license, which may or may not require the payment of fees.

The use of stock imagery at deviantART is permissible if and only if you can provide a link to the source of the stock image along with some kind of proof that you have satisfied the terms of the stock image license.

Failure to obey all of the required Terms and Conditions or License requirements attached to the stock may result in the removal of your submission

Please be aware that not all websites are considered legitimate stock imagery resources. Only the legal owner of the imagery has the ability to offer the work as a stock resource- if the 'stock' website includes images taken from print or film, or includes photographs featuring celebrities or supermodels then you may rest assured that it is not a valid resources site. Likewise "Render" websites are not valid stock sources as they offer copyrighted materials which have been cut apart and which are offered by people without the legal right to do so.

Also be aware that the lack of obvious copyright information does not imply that the imagery is free for use.

That means you are responsible for the content you upload to dA. You are the one who needs to make sure the pictures you are using are actually stock images that you are allowed to use for your art and you are the one responsible for obeying the stocker's rules set forth in either the stocker's journal or artist's comment (if they're from dA) or in the
license agreement you had to tick off when first downloading stock from a stock site (such as sxc.hu or morguefile.com etc.).

So once again, please credit your sources and please consider even crediting yourself to make a statement! Also see: FAQ #157: Can I use things created by other people in my submissions? for more info.

On to the fun part
If you haven't heard of them yet, you should go and check out *Express--Yourself. Formely a club for stock, it has now found new admins (namely =chasing-butterflies and *LongStock) who have put it to a new purpose. I quote from their current journal:

"We are different from other clubs here on dA in that we don't have members - you do not need to note us asking to join. Everyone is welcome to submit an entry to our monthly art contests.

Each contest will have four divisions: beginner, intermediate, advanced and stock. Participants will be able to select which division they wish to enter. Each participant will be allowed to enter only once per account. (If you have an art account and a stock account you may submit one art entry and one stock entry from your respective accounts.)"

Sounds like a great way to get your creative juices flowing! Pay *Express--Yourself a visit today

Another thing I wanted to direct you to is the Dead Silence Contest (though it being a hot topic you might've seen that already).

Also, there's a new manips best of online:
Best of Photomanipulation – February

aaand a new best of digital art:
Best of Digital Art -February

For current contests, you can visit my journal - in the sidemenu there's a list. If you know about more contests that are open to manipulators, please send me a note, I'll add it

Last but not least, I'm trying to build a photomanipulation faq using my old journals. More info on that can be found in this journal entry. So far it's just an idea that will take time to implement. Any suggestions as to how to make this a useful thing are welcome. Please note: I'm not going to build a list of tutorials in there or a list of clubs, instead I want to give links to places where new and old members alike can look for these things.

okay, this was a long one, my apologies for that. If you've actually read this far, here's some cookies for you:

Vector Art

Some of you may have noticed there's been a slight change to the gallery's name. So it's now Digital Art > Vector. This is in hopes that it will be clearer that the gallery is for vector artwork, not 'vector art' which can be thought of as anything that vector programs can be used for.

Miscategorised artwork and moved deviations
I hate to go on about this - actually I should say that I hate to have to go on about this - but there's a continuing problem with miscats despite the recent update of the gallery's description, spelling out in detail what's okay and what's not. This is actually pretty obvious if you keep in mind that it's a medium-specific gallery but to spell it out:
no photographic elements of any kind;
no raster textures;
if you're using Photoshop or something similar no pixel-based brushes of any kind and no filters.

It's a shame I have to spend most of the time I put aside for browsing, looking for nice work to promote, having to police the gallery of submissions with any or all of the things listed above. If you want to submit something to the Vector gallery (ditto with any gallery really) and you think it might be a little outside the boundaries, what you should not do is submit it hoping it fits the gallery's guidelines Read the gallery's description through first, so you're making an informed decision. If, after reading it, you're still a little unsure about whether something fits then contact the Gallery Director and ask for clarification, that's one of the things we're here for

Better to be sure before you submit, rather than risk getting upset - yeah, it happens! - when something is relocated for being in the wrong gallery. BTW, for those of you that don't know, relocated artwork is moved to Scraps, just to hold it temporarily until you've decided on a better place for it; all moved deviations retain favs and comments so no need to worry about losing anything.

Just to be clear, nobody is saying that there is anything wrong with work that is partly vector and partly raster elements, photos etc. It's simply that the Vector gallery is a medium-specific gallery; it's to show off what the medium itself can do, not for everything the software is capable of. There's plenty of scope provided by the numerous other galleries on dA for your art that features a mixture of techniques.

Please spread the word about this with any of your friends who might not have read this and are interested in vectors. And if you have a question about anything that was moved please feel free to Note me, or contact the Help Desk.

Vexel gallery
...is now open Be sure to check it out and use it if your work fits that gallery's description. We hope that having this will provide some of those that use Photoshop and PSP a place that better fits the kind of work they do. See the section in this newsletter by ^Aeires for more info.

Mixed Bags
Last month marked the first anniversary of my monthly selections from the gallery to help highlight some of the best and most creative that the Vector gallery has to offer. Here are some of my personal favourites from this month's selection:




If you missed any of the previous ones at the time they're still there for you to peruse:

February
March
April
May
June
July - vehicles
August - animals
September - people
October
November
December
January
February

And don't forget to +

Thanks again to the many fans of vector art here on dA who have helped bring some of these artists and their work to my attention, you've been a great help

Flash

Hey all!

Thing are going to be changing in the the Flash gallery. As some of you know there's no set date for the gallery reshuffle but if you've read the Digital Art update by ^Aeires then you know that the Digital Art gallery is having a bit of a change around too. And while that's going on we shall have to wait a bit. The important thing to know is that are we definately in the que and we have one of those little tickets with a number on. Our number will come soon.

In the meantime, there's a rather large competition coming up within this month, hopefully within the week. Keep an eye out for a Flash competition news article or just keep an eye on my journal, I'll be leaving it up for a decent amount of time before making a new one so people can see it.

Speaking of journals; over the past few weeks i've been holding a weekly feature called "Weekend Woundup" (read roundup) in which I go through and pick out what I think to be the best Flash deviations (for whatever reason) submitted over that weekend. So It would be really cool if more people submitted their artwork on over the weekend in a chance to be featured in my journal on Tuesday. There's no criteria for the journal, I'm just looking for good quality work.

And speaking of featured; if you have a competition running or a set of feature journals/articles to do with Flash animation please note me with links to them as I will happily mention them in my journals and these newsletter too.

Expect some news articles from me over the next week or so and send me some DD suggestions as I've changed my DD criteria.




Manga/Anime

Hello muffins!
I hope things are well for you. As always, if you have any problems, suggestions, or questions about the Manga/anime gallery, please send a note to ^aeterne or ^guruubii and we will do our darn tootin' est to help you out, or find out where you can get help.

So the Monthly newsletter was posted! Go check it out! Also the popcorn contest theme has been posted! Go check out the article.

We have been steadily cleaning out the miscats (mis categorized deviations) from the report desk. Mostly though our time has been spend on those oh so fun, and jazzy little Manga/Anime Super Mini Repeating Contests! you love them! Yes! you do! why? Because it means that every 2 weeks we give a 3 month sub to the winner out of our pocket moneys! ya we love you that much! Another thing we have been bustin' our chibi's off on is the new categories that will be placed in Manga/anime. OH yes, those categories you've begged for are finally coming! you love it too. I don't know what it will look exactly like right now, so I will not say much. Just that we are excited, we worked hard on those, and we hope you will enjoy them. We
also rewrote all the gallery descriptions. If you see anything you think is bad about them let us know okay? we don't bite really, unless we have forgotten to eat, and even then, it would take me a while to get to your house (and ^aeterne needs to book an extended vacation to get places ). You have time to pack a bag lunch and get on the bus at least.

Another thing i just wanted to mention is, i have heard frequently, that people think the manga/anime category was created to segregate the style from the rest of DA, and I want to tell you that you are 100% wrong! The category was brought to the front of the parade because it was h00ge! It needed its own postal code. Right now Manga/ anime is so much more organized, and its so easy to be a gallery director for it when its all under one area like that. It makes being more interactive with you, which makes it more fun. So make sure when you post your work you put the right postal code (zip code to some) on it. Anime is most definitely art in the eyes of DA, and though some people like to argue that, they are wrong wrong wrong, and let them be wrong, because it doesn't change the truth

Well muffins, that is all. I hope this brought some sunshine into your day

Stampie Pimpage:



Photography

I'm doing a series of articles featuring popular photos and the photographers behind them, giving some insight into the creative process behind them. Learning from the success of others is a great way to grow your own artistic talents. Check these articles out, and see what makes these winning photos tick!

How Did They Do That?! Photo Episode 1
How Did They Do That?! Photo Episode 2
How Did They Do That?! Photo Episode 3
How Did They Do That?! Photo Episode 4


Artistic Nude Photography
&
You may submit your Nude deviations into the gallery that best describes it, but you must always remember to place the Mature Content flag on the image at all times!

You should read the gallery descriptions carefully when submitting a deviation and choose the category that you believe best describes the deviation. When submitting a deviation, click on the category you think describes your deviation then click on "view description" to check it. Please remember to start off with the correct parent category such as Photography, Digital Art, Traditional Art or whatever the applicable artistic medium is. A lot of deviations are moved by dA admins due to selecting the wrong parent category - often for example digital photo manipulations are placed incorrectly in the Photography gallery when they should have been put in Digital Art.

Recently we have updated the gallery description for Photography to clarify where photographic deviations containing nudity should be submitted. The updated description for photography when submitting a deviation now includes....

Artistic Photographs Containing Nudity: Nude and partial nude photographs are acceptable in all of the Art Photography: People & Portraits: galleries but remember that the Mature Content box MUST be used. Please take care to read the gallery descriptions and choose the most appropriate subcategory. The majority of photographs containing nudity tend to belong in either the Artistic Nude, the Fetish Portraits or the Glamour Portraits subcategories.... but often there can be other categories that better describe a photograph under the other Art Photography: People & Portraits: galleries. Note that general nude snapshots and low resolution photographs can be submitted only to scraps. All nude images are subject to the rules of the Nudity Policy. Failure to adhere to these rules may result in your deviations being removed or suspended pending the receipt of appropriate model release forms.

Helpful Links

FAQ #23: What are deviantART's policies on nudity?
FAQ #302: Why did I receive some sort of administrative action when someone else did not?
FAQ #565: You prohibit the submission of 'pornographic material'; what do you consider this to be?
FAQ #305: Is posting 'Adult' oriented artwork alright if I censor it first?

Animals, Plants & Nature

Hey folks, I need to tell you from a really interesting contest. Check it out!

frag-ile
-adjective
- easily broken, shattered, or damaged; delicate; brittle; frail.
- vulnerably delicate, as in appearance.
- lacking in substance or force; flimsy.
- lacking physical or emotional strength.
_{(source: dictionary.reference.com)}


What to do?
What does the word Fragile mean to you?
Does it remind you of something? Someone? Or anything else?
The challenge is to take a picture of it.


Rules:
- Deadline of the contest: May 1st, 2007
- Photography only
- Your entry must be a new deviation, which means you can't enter with an old photo
- Only one entry per deviant
- Submissions must be sent through note to `isabelucha (notelink)


Judging:
The following deviants will judge your entries



Prizes:
Winner gets:
- 1 year subscription to dA OR 1 year Premium Prints account
- 1 large mug of their choice from dA Prints

2nd and 3rd place get (each one):
- 9 month subscription to dA
- anything from dA shop up to $10

Two runner-ups get (each one):
- 6 month subscription to dA


Extra prizes might be added during the contest. Also, all the winners and honourable mentions will be featured in the journals of `isabelucha and =leaf-lover.


RESOURCES


Stock Art

Many thanks to `Doubtful-Della for providing some happening’s around Stock Town (well we are more like a Tribe but you get my hip point)

Speaking of content. If you know of something that needs to be posted in the next AR Newsletter please note me... I could use the help of community to be your mouthpiece (I hope that came out sounding right)



.. Contest

Create Your Own Stock Story Contest First place gets at least seven months of DA paid for, and we even have a GRAND PRIZE sketch of the winning stock photo from `athenatt

The Seven Deadly Sins. Who does not want to provide stock for Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Pride, Sloth, and Wrath. I know I do

Ultimate Fairy Contest Is about... well... you know. . Creatures with wings and such... sounds magical and fun.

When one door closes another opens and when it does you might want to express your self in =InsaneSandy contest New Horizons New Hope

"Danger Will Robertson" I want to scream and so will you if you enter in to Daydreaming Robot. Who does not like robots ? unless they have pinchers.

.. News

Every week there is a --> Stock Up <-- article... which is on Vol. 27: Horses

A Week In Stock is another awesome weekly news article

And ahoy ye pirates... drink a cup of ale and take a look at Stock Spotlight #3 and put your eyepatch on.

And I tripped on A look back on February's good stock when a real life friend of mine *justamom had one of her pictures featured.

.. Chat Rooms

We've got two great stock chats #stocktalk and #fishnetstockers. Go hang out... and talk Stock talk...

.. Of Interest

=Manip-Equips has some awesome tutorials and other stuff

*stock-artists is a good place to find new stock artists

.... So there you go... a heap big dish of stock art fun where we bravely go where no artist has gone before...

be sure to note me with future happenings .. i will be glad to include them

oh .. one last mention

go tell sandi ^oibyrd how much I appreciate her .. we are great team-mates and i so appreciate her .. she makes me laugh and feel good and is a true community citizen

--------------------------------------------------------------






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