How to submit an image

When on any page on DeviantART scroll to the top of the page where it says Logout (your username) | Subscribed / Not Subscribed. Next to your username there is a downward pointing arrow, click it to make a drop down menu to appear.

Click Submit Deviation (the top option).

Enter a title in the Deviation Title and your comments in the Artists Comments. This is a great place to put your copyright information, list any sources, resources or links you might need to link. See below for how to make links etc, and what kind of copyright disclaimer would be most effective.

Click Add a File… (the button under the big white space next to the Which File? Title.

Select the image from your computer gallery.

Then enter some keywords in the Keywords space. These should be accurate, but not misleading.

(HINT: Do not be tempted to put popular keywords to get more views - its irritating to most seasoned DAers.)

Select mature content and your licensing options depending on what you have submitted.

Mature content on Deviant ART includes nudity, swearing and strong violent imagery.

How to submit text

When on any page on DeviantART scroll to the top of the page where it says Logout (your username) | Subscribed / Not Subscribed. Next to your username there is a downward pointing arrow, click it to make a drop down menu to appear.

Click Submit Deviation (the top option).

Enter a title in the Deviation Title and your comments in the Artists Comments. This is a great place to put your copyright information, list any sources, resources or links you might need to link. See below for how to make links etc, and what kind of copyright disclaimer would be most effective.

Click Add Text… (the button under the big white space next to the Which File? Title.

Paste or type the words in directly, then hit OK.

Then enter some keywords in the Keywords space. These should be accurate, but not misleading.

(HINT: Do not be tempted to put popular keywords to get more views - its irritating to most seasoned DAers.)

Select mature content and your licensing options depending on what you have submitted. Most literature will mean you change the ‘Use a Creative Commons License’ selection to Yes, and leave the others on no.

Mature content on Deviant ART includes, swearing and strong violent imagery.

How to personalise your page

Using the drop down menu I told you about in the first section click Edit Settings & Profile, These pages will help you personalise your front page. (General, User page Display and Identity). To make things even more personal, you might want to submit some images to your front page.

Choose a category for your piece, if you get confused about where your piece goes, select a gallery (and the sub galleries until it doesn’t offer you any more sub galleries) and then click Gallery Info. This gives you a small description or explanation of what the gallery is for. Very useful.

Pick your favourite deviation and on the User page Display page find it in the ‘Featured Deviation’ drop down menu (they’ll be organised by title!). This will show it at the top of your page on the left.

Upload a photo of yourself if you like, but instead of putting it under photography submit it to the category deviantART Related and then subcategory deviantID. In the User page Display page you can select the image you want as your Deviant ID in the DevID drop down menu. This will show up on your user page above your profile information fields and below your journal entry.

Another way to personalise your page is to fill in your journal, journals can be useful to store notes, feature other artists work, or give visitors an idea of who you are, and what your work is about, so use it wisely.

To submit a journal entry go to the drop down menu and select Update Journal. Simple. (HINT: Scroll way down and hit send when your done.)

How to favourite or collect something

If you want to favourite a deviation your looking at, its easy, just look at the menu on the left of the deviation body (the image or the top of the text area) and then select the star with the plus - which when rolled over makes the words ‘Add to Favourites’ appear.

Your favourites show up on your front page so people can see what sort of things you like!

To collect something, you can use this menu to click ‘Collect’ (under Add to Favourites) or click the image and drag it upwards. A drop down bar for Collections will appear, if you don’t have any categories set up you can click the plus sign to do so… (HINT: if it keeps fading away before you can click the plus, scroll to the top of your browsers page and click the drop down Collect menu button, this should fix it long enough for you to be able to click).

Basic coding that may come in handy

To make someone’s avatar show
:iconus*ername:

To make someone’s name show with an automatic link to their gallery
:devuser*name:

To add an FAQ auto link (the number changes depending on the FAQ. The FAQ code is listed on the top right hand corner of all FAQs.
:fa*q88:

To add a thumbnail of a deviation you like use the thumb code, found in the artist comments box on the right.
:thumb9*9593656:

((HINT: They have *'s in them. Remove those!))

If the codes appear as you typed them, then you may have made a tiny spelling error, added a space, or be attempting to use a feature that only subscribed people can use. For more information on subscriptions - read on.

How to organise your friends list and why this is helpful

At the very top of your DeviantART screen you will see the drop down tabs ‘Friends’ and ‘Collect’. Click ‘Friends’.

At the bottom of the small list (scroll box) click the button ‘Add/Remove’ (or click here.

On the right hand side you will notice the tool ‘Create a Deviant group’. This allows you to group your friends, and don’t worry they won’t know what group they’re in.

Groups such as ‘Stock Artists’ or ‘Collaborators’ can be useful for remembering names of people you work with, but you decide.

Create the groups (check spelling and capitalisation before you move anyone into the groups because you cannot edit the names later).

Then where it says ‘Add a Deviant’ you put in the deviants name and using the drop down menu select their group. You can do this even if they are already in your watch list, it wont duplicate them, it’ll simply move them. Handy.

The Today Page

A link to the Today page can be found at the top of your DeviantART page. Here you can find loads of useful DeviantART information… such as…

Which deviants journals have had the most replies today (interesting drama)
Deviations posted in the past couple of seconds (brand new, red hot)
This months deviousness award (an award given to an exceptional member of the community in recognition of their spirit)
Links to the days most popular forum threads, polls, deviants and the days DDs (daily deviations)
and Some of the newer collections.

The News Page

Again, the link to this section is at the top of the page.

The news section is used for a wide range of things, deviantARTs latest updates, editorials, tributes, features, challenges, contests… all sorts! So explore it. If you like something, press the green button with the number and the heart in so the author of the article knows you do.

DeviantART will automatically create a list of news articles you’ve done this for on your front page, so it’s a great way to spread the word.

The Browse Page and The Popular Page

On the DeviantART home page you can browse through the latest posted deviations by selecting Newest (top right corner tab). If you want to look at a specific category then you use the menu on the left to narrow down your viewing. You can also use the search button.

When trying to find something specific these tools can help you, for example, narrowing your viewing down to the stock images gallery (under resources) and then using search to find results with ‘hairbrush’ in will give you stock images of hairbrushes. You can always switch to the ‘ Popular’ tab to find the ones with the most favourites - which can be the most useful stock images but also the most well used.

Daily Deviations Explained

A Daily Deviations (or a ‘DD’ ) is a huge honour on DeviantART. The staff pick a small number of deviations each day to spotlight so that the rest of DeviantART can see it. They only pick what they deem to be exceptional pieces. The DD’s are mostly picked by the gallery moderators of the gallery in which the deviations are placed.

If you don’t think a DD deserved the recognition it got do not harass the creator, they did not suggest themselves for this honour. You can send a note to $Moonbeam13 but Dds are rarely revoked.

Who are the staff and how to get help on DA

You can view the full staff list here including mini profiles on each staff members and what they do. But if you need help the help desk consists of $hexentanz, $ewm and $y2jenn.

What the symbols by names mean

~ Member
* Subscriber
= Official Beta Tester
` Former Administrators or Senior Member
° Alumni
! Banned Members
@ Shoutbox/dAmn Team
© Policy Enforcement Team
% deviantART Prints Team
+ General Administrators
¢ Creative Team
^ Gallery Moderators
$ Core Administrators
£ Officially run deviantART accounts

your avatar goes here

Talk to people - genuinely make friends with people, there are loads of really interesting people out there, and they just love to talk!
Favouriting things, people will drop by to reciprocate or say thanks.
Running competitions and projects for the community you love.
Suggesting Daily Deviations to your Gallery Directors.
Giving thoughtful comments and critique.
Featuring other artists work so they get more exposure can gain you friends and respect as a community member.
Original, good, artwork.
Fan art of a show, a book, or something you like. (share your interests!)

At the end of the day, be yourself, and hope that people respond, but try to interact with lots of people. You can’t fake page views, if they are important to you, you will need to get genuinely involved in the artwork of those around you. But remember, page views don’t mark your success as an artist or a member.

The *clubdirectory group itself helps you find groups or you can try this nifty script which sorts through them for you!

Get up to 120 Deviations per page when browsing (non members can only view up to 24 at a time)
Browse with No Ads
Browse Way Back all the way to 2000
Customize 20 slots on your front page
Download art to your Mobile Phone with deviantMOBILE
Make journals with Polls, Forum, Shoutbox, and even CSS (make it pretty, shiny and unique!)

Copyright © YEAR USERNAME

. All rights reserved. All the materials contained in my deviantART gallery may NOT be used, reproduced, copied, edited, published, transmitted, borrowed, duplicated, printed, downloaded, or uploaded in any way without my express written permission.

This is, I have found, the best disclaimer of copyright for general use. If you need something more specific ask your legal representative for ideas for the wording.

DeviantART provides a ready made watermark if you need it, when posting your deviation just select ‘Add watermark to the full view image’ (This option will come up after you’ve uploaded the file itself).

However adding your own watermark means you have more control over your artwork. If you have Photoshop the easiest way to add a watermark is to type your name and copyright on a new layer, then change the opacity of the layer to around 10%.

Another handy tip for personalising your art work to look professional is borders. it’s a simple thing, but a space around the edge of your photos etc can make it look more finished.

Faving / Commenting Etiquette

This may be a little bewildering at first so I decided to add a brief section on it… When you favourite something on deviantART it is very common (unless the artist is away or very busy) to receive a message on your front page saying ‘Thank you for the fave’. The same kind of message is received if you watch someone.

To become friendly quickly and start to make new friends always try to reply to favourites and watches in this way, even if its only with a standard Thank you. Reply to comments personally and thoughtfully if you have the time!

Giving critique

Read this amazing article by ^lovetodeviate about critiquing or ~bringbackart’s guide to good comments here.

If your not up for reading all of that, here’s some top tips.

Always be polite, remember behind the username there is a real person with real feelings just like you.
Always remember to tell the deviant that it is just your opinion. You are not some kind of God, you are just trying to help.
Be constructive not destructive. Making someone feel bad isn’t going to improve their art, if you find something wrong, tell them how to improve it. Give them the opportunity to grow, don’t rip them down.

Getting critique

Read this guide to responding to comments.

But again, just in case, here’s some ideas…

Politeness is a two way thing. Critique takes time and effort, even if you don’t agree with someone’s comments thank them for them and try to understand why they feel that way.
Remember that art is communication between teller and listener and if the people seeing your work are misinterpreting it then listening to their comments could help you communicate better through your artwork.
If someone is offensive to you DON’T REPLY. Hit ‘flag as spam’ and leave the admins to deal with it.

How to run a contest for other members

Posting a journal and a news article are the main ways to advertise a contest. Contacting your friends and asking them to spread the word in their journals is also useful.

Things to consider when planning a contest.
The subject. What is the challenge. For example ‘Take a photograph of a dog’
The prizes. What is the incentive for people to join. Common prizes are DA subscriptions, which you can buy as a gift for people, or things from the DA shop - prints etc. Sometimes people offer drawings or personalised art work as prizes, that’s up to you, just don’t forget to mention it. A challenge without a prize is called a prompt or a challenge instead of a contest or a competition.
The mediums - will you be accepting entries from all galleries - for example prose, photography, fan art, fonts… or will it be for just one area, like photo manipulations.
The judges. Try to get other people involved in the judging process, not only does this make sure that you don’t get accused of being unfair, it also has other advantages too! It means that the entries have a better chance of getting comments from a judge, less work for you and the judges are likely to mention the contest in their journals. Nice.
The deadline. Don’t forget to tell people when the contest closes. Even if you only get 1 entry, close on that date. Its only fair. (HINT: If your putting a prize up for your contest work out when you have money in your bank account and put the deadline around that time to make sure you can afford the prize!)
The winners. Make a fuss, be shameless, promote them in news articles, journals, praise them, they deserve it. The feel good factor of winning a contest, no matter how small, is usually greater than the prize. Besides, winners are a great source of promotion for your next competition.
Keep it simple, keep it fun, and keep it fair.

Links

The Deviant Art Rules
The Deviant Art Chat Room Rules
FAQs
Random Deviant
Random Deviation




Copyright Kathryn Jeanes 2008. With thanks to all artists linked to in this resource.

If you found this resource helpful please favourite the original deviation which you can find here.