We all know what a deviant's most popular works are: All it takes is a single click of the mouse button and we can find out which of their pieces are the most commented upon, most viewed, most liked by the dA community. But while it's an accurate representation of their audience's taste, do they happen to reflect the artists' own?

We all have our pet deviations: the ones we labour on night after night, the one we pour heart and soul; blood, sweat and tears into; the ones we look at and say, "This is what I'm proudest of." It may be a simple portrait of a person we most admire, a technique we finally got right, or just simply a picture that gives us a personal sense of satisfaction.

Sometimes these pictures happen to reflect the collective taste of their viewers, friends and watchers; all too often however, these pieces become overshadowed by other, perhaps grander, works in these deviants' collections, and are left, forgotten, in dark corners of their galleries.

Collected here is the first volume of submissions from deviants who responded to the call for entries, showing us their top three personal favourites from their own galleries and explaining why they're so attached to them. Please read, view and enjoy this celebration of personal accomplishment:


~avkhatri123 writes:

My top 3 deviations are:



These are my top 3 because I really had an idea of what I wanted and I was able to achieve it. I do a lot of digital landscaping and most of the time I just start from scratch without a plan of any kind and I just start hacking away at the keyboard and just making things up as I go along . Stream of Light" is the one that I am most attached to even though I had only made it a few days ago. To turn the computer on in the morning and see how happy I was with how the render came out is the coolest feeling in the world .

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~BenoitAubry writes:

This picture was taken as soon as I got my camera replaced after a B & E at a friend's place where it was stored. I was so aching to go out and take pictures. I also was in the mindset to do stuff without using a dreaded flash and to prove to myself that I knew what I was doing in all aspects of photography: lighting, composition and especially, storytelling. I wanted to play with practical light sources (sources of light available onsite)

This one is important to me because for 10 years, Monday was my best friend and guardian. I never got her a dog license and never had to use a leash on her. She stuck around because she wanted to. This shot is my homage to that dear soul and I have it hanging in my kitchen along with a collar I made for her out of clothesline just in case I was confronted.

I'd been experimenting with time exposures and this shot was the last in a series I took in my bedroom. It was a 4 minute exposure where I played with a flashlight and turning lights on and off. Just before the end of the exposure, a lightning struck near centretown Vancouver. One of only 3 bolts to flash in the 2 years I was there (all in a span of 10 - 15 minutes). How lucky is that? But when I saw these results, I was floored. Everything I had come to learn about photography, emulsion and open shutters came in crystal clear.

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=DobbyKnits writes:

My selections reflect my love of making people laugh. It's just about my favorite thing to do in life.

This one, I'll humbly ask you to feature only because if anyone missed it as a DD...I now have enough confidence to suggest it. After scoring that DD...I decided that I can actually refer to myself as......a writer. That just gives me a heavy dose of ego boost every time I think about it.

This is one that people really seem to like a lot...once they've looked at it. I guess I should change the thumbnail image on it 'cause I realize it's rather offputting. Anyhow. I did labor long and hard over the sketch (you know my aversion to drawing and painting), and I think the final "piece" (i.e., the gif file) was well worth the work I put into it.

Lastly, I'd choose this one because I have fond memories of creating it. I was just getting to know you better at that point and when you'd seen the very "Scrap"-y sketch, it made you schnertz and then you told me about the dinner you'd had with your family during which some um...tidbits (SPELLED VERY CAREFULLY) had caused rampant hilarity.

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~EllaNutella has only one deviation to show, but as she explains:

I'm really, really proud of this. I created that at the size given and despite the wonky eyebrow, I am happy with it. It's the first of my more serious and more devoted art pieces. It was intended as a Revan (blue eyed), but black hair is a pain, so I went for a more surreal approach, and voila. I even like the teeth. I've never had anything so detailed. It is my baby.

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=faded-ink writes:

This was my first ever WTC entry and while it didn't place, I was extremely happy with how it turned out, and it's still one of my favorite pieces to date.

This was my first effort with the Apo 3D hack that actually turned out well. I couldn't believe that I'd created this piece when I saw the render, and was blown away when it placed 2nd in the WTC for that week. Without a doubt, I think it's my best piece.

I was trying a new technique with this one and fell in love with the stark contrasts and the touches of fuchsia in it. To this day, I can't tell you how I got the gradient to do that.

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*Jardel-Karabella writes:



I guess this officially makes ~Dontella my muse... since her character stars in 2/3s of them, and confirms I like other people's chars more than my own.

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*MimiManderly writes:

My favorite piece is my Interview With Snape. It's my only written piece so far, was written stream-of-consciousness over a couple weekends, and I guess I'm most proud of that.

I also like Still Live with Severus which I seem to remember only took one evening and practically flowed out of my pencil on it's own.

My third favorite would probably be Excitement - which again was done fairly quickly. I like it because I got Severus' face and hair exactly the way I imagine it.

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~PandaProtector writes:

This is certainly one of my favorites because of the amount of time I spent on it. It was made right after a trip to London, so it also connects to a personal experience. The Big Ben was exceptionally fun to create in pixels because of the amount of detail, and even more so when doing it all in Paint.

As the first photo manipulation I tried, this carries a special place in my heart. It is also my dream to see or even live in an underwater castle. The pictures were hard to find, but the manipulating was very enjoyable and I loved every minute of it.

Somehow some of the best pieces I create are gifts, and I was especially happy with the outcome of this picture. One of my new characters together with a friend's new character; both of them are strange mixtures of birds and other animals. The completely opposite personalities is what I love most, and it was a lot of fun to make.

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~Pegahoul writes:

Okay, I guess I'm most disappointed by the lack of response in this. It's the last of a three emotive paintings, which I crafted to get rid of some troublesome feeling inside myself (kinda like exorcism ritual). It was a dark year for me. Very personal, very time consuming, not to mention that I poured out that "evil feeling" in the painting so by the time I finish with it, I won't feel it again.

Took me a month to finish this (I'm crazy for minute details). Because it's a personal pic (made for myself and only myself) I wasn't expecting much from others. That's why I'm not too disappointed. Still, sometimes I hope people can see through it...

Just for additional info, the first of the emotive trilogy is this one: pretty successful in terms of emotion, and lead me to a commission offer.

and the second one is this. Much more successful, (got an award, a feature, and most views in other sites), though still undermined by some.

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=Skye-of-Cydonia writes:

LOLOL. I'd say the dev. that I'm currently most proud of is the first chapter to my new novel. Although DA isn't making it very easy to distribute - forcing me to have to shove it on my website as a .pdf. Nobody ever bothers to give anything a read, just because it's 10k words long. LAWL. Like, they know what they're getting into when I call it a chapter for a "novel", there's no need to complain about its length.



LOL.

Out of my other works...I'd say

is one of them. I put a lot of effort into painting it, for my 10k hits...but nobody seems to care. They're all more into my Death Note stuff to be bothered...

That's another one of those pieces ignored, because it's not of a "popular person/character." I mean, it was just a rough concept sketch...but still, it's hard for me to invent OCs.

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That's all for now. Please stay tuned for the second volume of Celebrating Personal Accomplishments. If you would like to share your personal favourites and your thoughts about them with the rest of the community, please write in - and be heard!