Part I of this article is here.

In this section (Part II) of the article, I want to address the challenge of keeping "balance" in many factors when selecting works to feature for Daily Deviations.

First, and even though I would hope it would go without saying, in works to be featured for a DD, I am looking for excellence. Excellence comes in many forms, including technical mastery, conceptual originality, emotional impact, and overall aesthetic. What constitutes "excellence" in any area of course is subjective, but as the person making the choices, I'm looking for these qualities from my own perspective. A work can be outstanding in one of these areas and weaker in another, which is one aspect of balance to consider. Truly mind blowing art usually shines in several or all of these areas.

For anyone interested and/or unaware, I keep a collection in my 's of "Daily Deviations I Have Featured." Every time I give a DD, I add that deviation to the collection, in order. I think it's nice to be able to show people what kind of art I feel is outstanding and DD-worthy, and to give an ongoing feature of sorts to these deviations.

But the collection also serves another purpose for me, and this is to show me "as a whole" what my own choices in Daily Deviations lean toward. I want to feature a strong cross-section of nude art, so if I see my collection page looking "too" anything, I try to seek out and feature some deviations that have a contrasting quality. If I notice that I have been featuring a predominance of black-and-white/monochromatic nudes, I'll seek out some pieces with full and vibrant colors. If I have recently featured a number of studio figure nudes, I'll look for some deviations that are set in a natural or industrial location, or have a less posed and more spontaneous or emotive quality.

I don't want my DD selections overall to be homogeneous. This means that I might refrain from featuring a particular deviation at a particular time if I've recently featured a number of other works with similar qualities. The piece might be deserving, eligible, and a great Daily Deviantion - but for another day.

Touching briefly upon another point of interest to the AN community, I also feel very strongly about featuring as many high quality male nudes as I can. There are comparatively fewer of them submitted, fewer artists submitting them, and thus it's harder to find as many eligible and high quality male nudes to feature as female nudes. It's not likely that there will ever be a way to feature a one-to-one ratio of great male nudes to great female nudes, and I don't want to feature a less than outstanding deviation just because of the gender of the model, either. But when I look at my overall collection of DD features, something else that I check for is whether I'm accomplishing my goal of featuring a solid proportion of excellent male nudes.

Another balance that is far less obvious is trying to balance DD's given on the basis of community suggestion, with my own choices for features. Being a GM isn't just about featuring "things I like," but trying to feature excellent art that represents a wide range of styles of Artistic Nude works. Community suggestions of course can both turn me on to artists new to me that I really love, and also point me to art I might not have found or featured on my own, that might not even be to my personal tastes, but is no less deserving.

Along with this though, I'll add the note that no matter how much I (and other GM's) appreciate deviants who consistently recommend fine works, we also can't feature works recommended by the same person over and over again. That begins to look like another form of favoritism - even if it really just means that that deviant is taking more time to seek out and suggest a lot of really fine art works. If you're a deviant who suggests a lot, this is by no means a request to stop doing so! It just means that a GM receiving many suggestions from you has to be all the more selective about which of your suggestions to choose to feature.

So with all of this said, in Part III, I'll take a walk through a typical selection process when I am deciding what to feature for a Daily Deviation.
Stay Tuned for Part III!
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A recap of my Daily Deviation Suggestion Guidelines for Artistic Nudes:

**The deviation does not have to be submitted to the AN gallery, but still must meet the criteria of the Photography -> People & Portraits -> Artistic Nude gallery.
**I prefer to feature deviants who have not received a large number of DD features already, but this is a preference not an absolute.
**The deviant may not have received a DD in the last 90 days. How to check any deviant's past DD's
**Please send a note with "DD Suggestion" in the subject line.
**Please include the thumbnail, not just the link to the deviation, in your note.
FAQ #511: How do I post thumbnails of my art on the Chat Network or Forums?
**Please include a short description of why you feel the piece should be a DD. If you would not like to be named as the suggester, or have your description used if the piece is featured, please let me know that with your suggestion!
**Please send your suggestion to only one Gallery Moderator.
**I will not respond to every suggestion note, although I keep every suggestion note that I receive.

Suggesting DD's for Dummies
FAQ #61: What is a Daily Deviation?
FAQ #18: Who selects the Daily Deviation and how is it chosen?
FAQ #873: What do I do when I disapprove of a Daily Deviation feature?