It’s been asked of me before and so I thought to ask it myself… How did you find your way to dA? It’s pretty cool to see that some of the people I talked with about this got here from being brought to the site by deviants that are still on the site after joining many years ago. A lot of people made their way here searching for wallpaper. Interesting stories from our extended devious family are to be had with this one little question. For fun, I’ve selected a few along with some artwork pieces to share here with you. Feel free to post your own in comments here or add to my journal where these stories are posted.






=Angel-Bella-Donna says…

umm - I got bullied onto DA by my cousins and sister.

When I joind DA I knew nothing about Digital painting... 2/3 months later I bought my self a Wacom board (which was near impossible to do in this country) and 2 yrs later I am still here and running my own GFX & illustration studio. AND I LEARNED SOOO MUCH HERE

DA's also special for me coz about a year ago I went thru a very tough time and quite a few people from DA were there for me and that pulled me thru... ya ya ya... *sniff sniff* and all that sopppy sh!P.


Dis place be good - and I be staying.

works from her gallery






=Katmomma says…

I was at first, hesitant to join DeviantART because I was afraid of art theft....but then I found ways to cover my ass. DeviantART has done so much for me-- I haven't learned so many new things so quickly before.
The Artist Relations Team has had the biggest impact on me. I have been able to communicate with people with simalar interests and really feel at home within the art I love. I am so glad I joined DeviantART. I don't think I will ever leave. I love it so much I wish I could give back to it as much as I can-- maybe through being a Gallery Director one day, or just plain helping new members figure their way around. Thanks for all of your help, Roxy. You and the rest of DeviantART Staff do so much for us every day!

My friend, *Kizamaji told me about DeviantART. She helped me set my account up and introduced me to her online friends-- it was turly something I never did before, but now I can't imagine how far I would have come in art without it! Now I really like helping others realize the awesome possibilities of DeviantART!!

works from her gallery






=inspiredimperfection says….

I was going through a bad self-destructive phase, and i was desperate for something to pull me out. everything i was doing at the time to "help me get through it" was just making it worse and getting adictive, so one day i just cut myself off from everyone and everything both online and offline. a few isolated days later i had a "to-do list" written out for a "fresh start"; one of the top items was "find the right online place to go". i needed a group of positive, productive people i could relate to where i would be kept away from my "unwanted tendencies", so i went to google and typed "art community".
DA was simply the first on the list. i had know idea how lucky i was since being here I've started to write too, so obviously this place, with all its wonderful members, now has a sentimental value to me, and thats a huge understatement.

/end melo-dramatic but entirely true story

Works from her gallery






*dugonline says…

My story isn't too impressive, but I will share anyways. I don't think this will be making any magazine or newspaper headlines though

As I near my 5 year anniversary (yay!) I can think back on a lot of things. Or course being my DA anniversary, I think about DA a little and about the things I could have done more of and the things I am proud of.

It all started when I was looking for a wallpaper for my desktop. Of course some sweet ones were found here. The site intrigued me and I started to poke around. It was free to join and so I signed up. At that time in my life, I was just a kid really. Sure I was 27 but I was still holding on to the bar life. You may know how it goes. Bars 3-5 nights a week. Hungover a lot at work. Too much money spent on losing brain cells rather than gaining items or even a savings account. My interests in taking photos myself were just in using them for websites or to do some photo manip. I didn't consider myself a photographer, but I shared when I shot and never what I manipulated. Mostly cause I manipulated photos for other people to have. Like so many others I disappeared from DA for a while. But I came back. I made a lot of good friends here, some who I even met in real life. I have also lost a lot of those friends to busy lives and conflicting schedules. So needless to say, DA was a good community to me, but I wasn't so good to the community. I would post something I thought as grand and would be upset after months of waking up expecting it to get a DD. I didn't look around other galleries as much as I looked at my own. This would become a good thing in the end.

I used to draw a lot and do all sorts of artsy things. Those hobbies lost out to the bars and parties. But somewhere along those lines it switched. I started to not just look at pretty pictures, I started to study photos, good and bad and learn. This was only about 2 years ago and I have since taken my interests in photography further. I am now looking forward to having enough scratch to get a nice camera and move away from my point and shoot. But starting the way I did has made me a better community member. I started to be supportive of people here and offer up advice where I could. I started to get a lot of attention and many people would ask how I managed a particular piece with a meek little point and shoot.

By the time I stopped looking for "my DD" I started picking out deviations in other galleries I was sure would receive the honor. I got good at it. And then mine came and it wasn't expected nor was I looking to see it. To me, it was a reward for seeing the true nature of DA and not just the personal reasons for being here.

Now DA is more important to me than ever and I attempt to take my hobby and make it a little more than that. I am here to learn, share, and grow even more!

Thanks for your time and interest. I hope you enjoyed my little DA story.

works from his gallery






=thedaemonspawn says…

I knew about DA for awhile before I created my first lame account here. When I first saw DA and all the totally mouth watering works from astounding artists, I didn't want to join even though I deep down I really wanted to because I never in a million years thought I could create anything anywhere near on the par as the artists I was mesmerized by. Finally I did join, but didn't feel comfortable in my first skin here. I left, then came back after a tragedy in my personal life left me needing an escape route and a place where I would be understood to let my emotions out. And I've been here ever since.

works from her gallery






*omnieus says…

I knew someone special on DA and wanted to join but art just was not one of my strong suits(cant draw/paint/colour/make stuff..etc..etc) I am a programmer and a musician.

Cover disc from a PC mag had Cinema 4d and I started playing with it, have since gotten myself newer version and I am having soo much fun...

She brought me to DA, and it means a lot to me that I now get to "splash around in her DA lake where she performs the most exquisite water ballets"

DA is a great place and the community members I have met have welcomed me, the Noob, with open arms

(Crap was that just a DA love story???? bugger I am gettin soft

works from his gallery






~SiberianClover says….

I was amazed at how many people I already knew were on dA when I joined and how many I have gotten to join. It is nice to express our artistic sides to people who understand them, and enjoy them.

That's why I'm here. Although I am not an artist above all else, my photography is a major part of who I am and what I love to do. It is a way for me to express my passions and creativity and I needed somebody to express them to.

My friends would always be like 'ooo, that's pretty' or 'neat' or something, but they had no idea. They weren't there to critique, and most of the time, they didn't really care at all about my photography. My sister had been on dA for a while (ChaosFay) for her drawings, and I would visit her site often and noticed how popular this place was and that it also had photography.

I love the community of dA, the opportunities it offers, the free gallery to show off my work, and the people.

It's nice to seperate parts of us to express with others who have those same parts. I don't have to fit my photography into peoples' lives who don't really care for it anymore, now I can find somebody who truly feels happy to see it.

Works from her gallery






=star-rose-three says…

Hmmm I was friends with this guy in college and he was obsessed with this website because of `nebu. He was very much into the Macabre & Horror and I was into graphic design. I didn't like his style of design when he was designing advertisement. He was telling that he was getting praises from people on this site. So I came to check it out and I found out that not everyone on this site is an idiot. The rest is history. This site also got me addicted to photography!

works from her gallery






=mom-the-bomb says…

Well, my first visit was after meeting ~merekd on a scrapbooking site. I was spending all my free time there and buying and sometimes but not usually using scrapping supplies i bought from there. I clicked on a link from his userpage on the scrapping site, and found dA. I looked a couple of times, but you had to be a member to comment. A member of deviantART? I don't know; sounded freaky....Curiousity got the better of me, I signed on......Didn't really do much for the first year or so, but now I'm so addicted I plan my day around my dA time, aside from working and the occasional photo shoot. ok, i'm boring....i will go die in :shame: now.

Works from her gallery






Thank you to the deviants who shared their stories. I couldn’t include everyone here but it seems that the people who read about you guys enjoyed the insight. Love and hugs to all!

Roxy