Hi guys, and welcome to the first Artist Relations newsletter for the Fan Art Gallery! It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks! So what's been happening? Read on...


The divine and high-heeled $lolly has recently made a post concerning the future of DeviantArt, I suggest you all check it out!

Community Development Update


That'd be me. If you're curious you can read up on me on my own page, but here's the basics: I'm from Brissie, I'm 26, female, used to work for Walt Disney Animation Australia and I'm darn happy to be here as your Gallery Director.


Seems like an obvious question, but you'd be amazed how many fan art images are put into the wrong category here at DA. As a rule of thumb, if you're creating art of a character who is copyrighted to someone else, that's fan art. Doesn't matter whether it's painted, drawn or photo-manniped; if it's a copyrighted character it's DEFINITELY Fan Art.

That includes pictures of Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow, guys.


This leads me on to 'Miscats', or Mis-categorisations. A Miscat occurs when an image is uploaded to the wrong gallery. Image classification may not seem important but you'll find if your image is in the correct category, more people will see it and you'll get more of those sweet, juicy faves and comments. Match the right image with the right audience!

So if there's any Fan Art in your own gallery that isn't classified under Fan Art, it'd be awesome if you could shift it over yourself and save the AR team the trouble! If you'vw got the time and inclination to help out even more, try this: run a search on DA for your favourite fan character. Under the thumbnails on the search results page you'll see the name of the gallery each picture is filed in. If you see any pictures filed under the wrong gallery, click on that image, click the 'Report Policy Violation' link, and from the drop-down list select 'Misplacement'.

By something as simple as filing that report you'll be helping tidy up the messy galleries of DA and contributing something very real to the community, and I'll bloody well love ya for it.



When I took up this post I had no idea how much fun I'd have with Daily Deviations. It truly is a pleasure to give them, and to check back later to see the much-deserved rush of attention the chosen image receives. And I'm receiving some simply amazing suggestions! Please keep them coming!

Guidelines for DD suggestions can be found on my previous News update: Fan Art: The Year Ahead.

One request, guys: Please include a THUMBNAIL in your DD suggestion note. It makes it so much easier for me to go back and check who recommended which piece at a glance. The more time you can free up for me, the more I can do for this community. Which leads me to...

Official Contests

There's a big contest brewing for the Fan Art gallery, but I'm still getting my cr*p together, so please forgive me - it's going to be another week or so before I can post a definite update on The Big One!

In the meantime, I'm running mini-competitions of a sort in the form of week-long Daily Deviation themes. Commemorating special events in fandom, a themed week simply means that for each day of a given week, the DDs will all be chosen from the same fandom.

DD CHALLENGE: Potter Week: Keep your eyes peeled for Potter Week, which starts on the 16th and finishes on the 22nd, celebrating the release of the seventh and final Harry Potter book on July 21st. The rush of suggestions I've received for this has been absolutely incredible and I'm spoiled for choice: for every Potter DD chosen in the coming week, an equally deserving one had to miss out.

DD CHALLENGE: Simpsons Week This starts on July 23rd and ends on the 29th. Celebrating the release of the first-ever feature-length Simpsons film on the 27th, I'm opening suggestions.... NNNNNNOW! If you know of a fantastic Simpsons artwork that deserves DD, send me a note titled "Simpsons DD" and share the goodness.

Deviants' Contests

Fan Art Vault Contest: *Self-InFiction is running a contest centered around his original characters. There's some fantastic prizes on offer from the artist himself.

Darkwing Duck: Beach Party: Run by the Darkwing Duck Fan Club over at ~darkwingsdomain. Darkwing Duck characters + beach party = contest = prizes? Head over there and find out!

Mighty Ducks: New Battle Gear: More Ducks? I swear I didn't do this on purpose; I just seem to attract a lot of ducks. The aim of this contest is to design new battle armour for those plucky fowls, and the prizes include subscriptions and original art from a talented duck artist. Get quackin'!

Ultimate Fandom Contest 2: Gotta love a good sequel. According to =ArtisticAunJuli, "Books will be chosen, characters listed, and people have the opportunity to draw 2 pieces to support their favorite book characters! The most drawings from one category will be declared the Ultimate Book Champion, and the most drawings of a character will be declared Ultimate Book Character Champion-- Its up to YOU to support your fandom! Right now the number of books and characters from each book are undetermined."

The Bladewind Challenge: Last but certainly not least is this contest running in our sister gallery, Anthro, headed up by the lovely ^cooley. The rules are simple: draw Bladewind! Prizes include subscriptions and DevWear.

If you've got a Contest you'd like to see featured here, Note me with 'Contest' in the header and I'll make sure it gets into the next newsletter.

Final Words

Keep up the fantastic work.

More AR updates!
Photomanipulation
Ring Master
Anthro
Comics and Cartoons
Community Projects
Icons
Skins and Themes
Wallpapers
Digital Art
3D Art
Pixel Art
Text Art
Vector Art
Fan Art
Flash
Manga/Anime
Photography
Photography - Animals, Plants and Nature
Artistic Nude
Resources
Stock Images
Traditional Art #1
Tradition Art #2

Got a question about the Fan Art gallery, Miscats, Daily Deviations or the best way to contact me about any of the aforementioned? Check out Fan Art: The Year Ahead.