Director of Artist Relations


Hello!

The purpose of Artist Relations is to strengthen the community spirit as well as network with fellow artists so that we may bring outside opportunities to you, and help you to hone your skills. The Gallery Directors are the first people you should go to regarding your galleries. They are the people you need to make gallery suggestions to, and ask questions about your specific genre, or seek knowledge from. They also act as your lifeline to the administration. They are here to support and listen, and I can tell you we've got incredibly talented, devoted and passionate people on this team, so get to know them!


We begin with sad news as we bid farewell to Aeires and adrift who leave the Artist Relations Team for their own reasons.  We thank them for everything they've done and wish them well with their future projects.

  MANY people have sent me 'resumes' along with their desire to be Gallery Directors and I appreciate your wanting to be part of our team but yelling at me when I haven't responded to your resume after a couple of days isn't going to go over well.  I'm not prepared to bring new people on yet, I'm still developing a policy and procedures manual that's taking time to get perfect and as such I'm setting these notes aside until I am ready.  I don't have the time right now to respond back to hundreds of inquiries, so please be patient with me.

Some of you will notice some category changes and these will be the first of several as we start to move in a more cohesive and comprehensive direction with the way we handle galleries.  The following categories have been affected:

- Cell Phone Art has been shut down and cell phone themes have been moved to the 'skins and themes' category.  If you had something in cell phone themes that hasn't been moved yet, please help me out and move it yourself because it's a manual process for me and it will take some time

- Signature banners has been shut down because 99% of the artwork in the gallery was a copyright violation.  

- Community Marketplace has been locked for submissions but is still available to browse.  We are not actively using these galleries right now for anything but examples and as such it's become a breeding ground for violations as well.


I appreciate that not everyone will be happy about this and you may feel free to NOTE me to discuss your feelings if you wish.  Please don't flame this article to get your point across, it doesn't work.

  As promised in the last newsletter, here is the position description for Director of Artist Relations (that would be me )


Accountability


Reports directly to the CEO


Scope of Responsibilities


The Director of Artist Relations is primarily responsible for supervising and managing the Artist Relations Team of volunteer gallery directors.  Driving the teams' focus to support the needs of the artists; educationally, inspirationally and creatively is their purpose.



Specific Duties

- Managing volunteer group of gallery directors.  Monitoring their activity and ensuring all artistic communities are supported.  

- Organization and execution of contests, news features and other motivational events for the community including seeking corporate sponsorship.

- Reporting viable news to the community via the Artist Relations Newsletter.

- Recommending new and appropriate features/fixes for the website/company

- Creating new categories or restructuring galleries as needed.

- Responding to outside requests for artwork found on deviantART and acting as a liason between the artist and interested party.

- Finding opportunities for artists to be showcased in the media.

- Holding regular meetings to keep the team focused and connected.

- Attending weekly managers meetings

- Reporting about department happenings in interdepartmental updates.

- Special projects as assigned by the CEO

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Some may have noticed the new toy in Literature.  Go to browse literature and hover over the thumbnails.. Our new game is to see how many we can get scrolling at the same time!  lolly got to 6


Like to draw hearts? This club wants you HEART-Club

Want me to promote your club? Send me a note telling me what your club does, why I should promote it and any other pertinent information you may have.  I realize the flood this is going to cause but lets get some community love going folks, there's some great clubs out there!

IMPORTANT AND FUN LINKS YOU SHOULD GO TO!

Help deviantART save Gilmore Girls!
Become part of the Watchlist-A-Gogo and while you're at it sport a stamp
Oibyrd's Resource File a manipulators dream come true
Updates from the Community Development Team


Community Driven Contests and Projects I've heard about

Project: It's Personal
New Club PhotoPurist is giving away a Hasselblad.. that's what I said.. Hasselblad



For something new.. some thumbs of favorites I've added recently:



:thumb51889282:




Miss an edition of the newsletter? Check out my journal

  Looking for contests? Find a list of all AR sponsored contests in the module in my journal




The Key System
As you can see at the very bottom there is a Key System. The way this will work is simple. If you have a specific inquiry or suggestion for a specific department, begin your comment with the appropriate Key Code, that way we can search the page and compile them and address them.

Cartoons & Comics

Hello, hello!  Comics and Cartoons is trotting happily along like always so with this update I just want to touch up on a few things I've rattled on about in the past.  First things first though!  On the subject of categories, it'd be wise to check out kuschelirmel's journal about mixed media within digital artwork.  There's a great bit of information in there so if this is your area please read it!  And if your work can be categorized as comics/cartoons then please put it there.  It makes browsing so much easier!  And we have our own gallery so take advantage of it!I can't stress these things enough... please, please be sure you're contacting the proper gallery director when suggesting a DD.  There's a list of us in each of our journals and in FAQ #18: Who selects Daily Deviations and how are they chosen? It helps us out and ensures that your DD suggestion is getting the attention it deserves from the right folks!
When reporting a deviation for copyright violation please categorize the report as "copyright infringement".  Doing this will make sure that the report is going to the CEA, our copyright and etiquette team.  When you do this make sure you provide some proof of the theft.  Not just "this is stolen" in the comments box.  "Misplacement" violations go to us so keep those comin'!

Contests and Projects:
msynowicz's Frank Miller themed contest was a huge success.  All the entries were so much fun to look at.  You can find the bunch here! And here's the winners.  

Mature Content

ultema now has a dA page for the character creation project I spoke about in the last AR newsletter.  If you're interested in creating an original character within a pre-set world please stop by schattenjager-guild and check it out!  Lots of information and plently of interesting tid-bits to let your brain chew on.

The one thing about dA that never ceases to amaze me is how incredible the response is when a fellow deviant is in need.  It's refreshing to see deviants coming together, friend and stranger, to lend a helping hand.
With that, saintpepsi is offering cheapy commissions in hopes of raising enough money to make it out to a very important event for his Yosakoi group in Japan this year.  He's got a great style and any help or happy thoughts sent his way will be very appreciated!

I'm in the process of writing up rules and figuring out prizes for Comics and Cartoons's next big contest! I'm very, VERY excited about this one.  It's going to be an absolute blast.  But, so I don't ruin the surprise, I won't get into too much detail just yet.  We're still a few months away from August anyway.  *winkhint*

Okay, last bit before I bring this to a close.  I would like to do a monthly article to be a add-on of sorts to my "Smorgasbord"s.  This article would feature deviations chosen by you, freakishly popular or virtually unknown, as "Comics and Cartoons favorites" from any point of dA's lifetime.  So, if you'd like to get in on that send me a note with a link to your favorite comics/cartoons deviation.  Once I get enough of them I'll publish the article.  You're more than welcome to do this more than once!  But your favorites will only be featured once at a time.  Make sure the note is titled "C/C favorite" so I know it's not a DD suggestion!

Keep smilin'! And keep those DD suggestions comin'... or else!  I knooooow wheeeere you liiiive.

CUSTOMIZATION


Icons

Categories

I'm delighted to report that the new Icons galleries are chugging along nicely. We're still getting a fair few miscategorizations, but all in all, the transition has been smoother than I expected.

A couple of clarifications for people who might be unsure where their work goes:

1. Avatars - deviantART is only for avatars that fit the dA requirements, ie, 50x50 pixels. If you wish to submit a large version of your dA avatars to show the full grandeur of the image, please submit to Avatars - Miscellaneous.

The only avatars larger than 50x50 allowable in the Avatars - deviantART section are doubles or group avatars which will be used by multiple deviants.

2. Emoticons with a larger canvas (over 100x100) should be submitted to Emoticons - Packs & Large Format, even if the individual emote people are the standard 15x15 size.  The idea is to ensure no one piece visually overwhelms its brethren just by its sheer dimension.

DDs

I don't get as many suggestions as I'd like, although for some reason this week has been nice and busy suggestion-wise. Please do not hesitate to note me with any suggestions you might have.

The deviant cannot have received a DD within the past 6 months, and I prefer to feature artist who have never received one.  Also, I'm partial to pieces that have a relatively small number of faves and comments. If a deviation already got tons of attention, I'd rather spread the love around to something that hasn't yet.

It's also important to me that all the Icons sections are represented in the Daily Deviations, so I love getting suggestions for galleries like Avatars, OS Icons, Dock Icons and IconPackager which are filled with deviations that get a lot of use but very little appreciation.

Contests

parliamentFunk is holding a Silver Screen Emote Contest. Entries will be judged both in an Advanced category and a Novice category, so don't be afraid to take the plunge even if you don't have much experience making emotes. Just fire up a tutorial and give it your best shot.

avatar-inc, a wonderful club dedicated to providing free avatars for deviants to use here, has a regularly updated page linking to all current avatar contests. There are three contests active even as I type: Avatar Contest Listing.

Some great offical deviantART Icon contests will be coming up shortly, including an OS/Dock Icon/IP collaboration with the Wallpaper gallery I mentioned last newsletter, and an emoticon contest from the fevered imagination of zacthetoad, so keep your eyes peeled.

Over and out, y'all. Stay in touch.

Skins & Themes

Hey, its been awhile! Nothing much has been happeneing over at S&T until now... we've got 2 brand new categories for you to submit to(!): 8Start and Foobar2000. Also, we've removed a bunch of old, redundant categories that contained 0 deviations, so the gallery is a lot sleeker!  I've noticed some neat applications also being submitted in the gallery, such as the aforementioned 8Start Launcher and RunMe. There are lots more flying around, and I wonder whether there should be a separate space for them. Please post your opinions below. Also, is anyone craving for a contest? I've got something up my sleeve that I'm going to launch soon, so sharpen your pencils, get out your pen tool and get ready to skin!


Wallpaper

Lot's to cover this issue, I've been a busy boy, I'm recapping some news articles if you missed them and also announcing something cooool, so brace yourselves...

Gallery Additions

There have been some additions and changes to the Wallpaper Gallery, all at the request of you the users of the gallery! You asked for 'em, you got
'em!

I have added the following categories by request:

Architecture
Miscellaneous
Objects
People

Please note that the Miscellaneous section is NOT to be used as a catch all section, please try to find a more relevant section to post into before using this section.

There has also been a amendment to the title only of the following:

Automotive has been renamed VEHICLES

This does not affect the category, it is mearly designed to open it up to more types of vehicles, ie bikes, cars, boats, planes etc.

There have also been lots of requests for a Surreal/Psychedelic category, so expect that in the next round of updates  

dA makes Top Three at WallpaperReview.com

wallpaperreview.com has listed deviantART in the top three best places to get wallpapers from!

Here is an extract of what they say about us:

"...There are many categories to choose from and for each category you can choose between the newest or the most popular wallpapers. Some unique categories at Deviant ART are Fractals and Political -truly difficult to find these elsewhere!"

They also give us the following plus and minus:

PLUS - Large Selection and Unique Categories

MINUS - Doesn't show available resolutions when browsing thumbnails

This raises an interesting point that currently dA does not offer a system for browsing by resolution. I believe that we should implement this and make our wallpaper gallery even better and easier to use. Watch this space...

All in all not bad going really! Just a shame we are not number one, but hey, I believe with a little work we can be there soon! So keep submitting great walls!

My Fave Wallpaper :Vol 1

For something a little more fun, check out this article in which 10 of your favourite admins tell us what their most loved wallpaper is. Volume 2 to follow soon so watch out for it!

and now the cool stuff  

The Icon and Wallpaper Galleries present:

The Custom Customization Customising Contest!

The Icons Gallery and the Wallpaper Gallery have joined forces to bring you a great new contest utilizing the best of both worlds!

The contest is open to both Iconist and Wallpaper Artists and strongly encourages collaboration from both parts. So team up and prepare to ship out the most awesome of Icon & Wallpaper sets and win prizes!

The idea is to make custom desktop packs which offer themed icons and wallpapers. These can be either:

Icons matching an existing Wallpaper

Wallpaper that matches an exisiting Icon set

Icons AND matching wallpaper

These can be achieved either as a collaboration, or individually. Note: You must get the relevant permissions to use any walls/icons you didn't create yourself.

Extra points can be scored by the following:

Anyone who makes both the wallpaper and its matching icons will score highly.

Anyone who collaborates with another artist or artists on original work will also score highly.

Iconsets must be for Mac/Windows/Linux desktops; a pack with a variety of sizes is highly recommended

Wallpapers must be at least 1024x768; a pack with larger and widescreen variants is highly recommended

Get your thinking caps on 'cos the start date and prizes are gonna be announced really soon!

That's all until next time!



z.

Digital Art

With the new and improved DAnews there are also some very interesting and informative digital art releated newsacrticles popping up. Here's a small list  of articles you shouldn't miss:

1) Illustration Weekly 11 by gorjuss :
A Weekly Round up and FEATURE of some of the best deviations found in the
digital ILLUSTRATION galleries!

2) The Third Dimension by third-dimension :
A weekly feature wich features beautiful pieces from the 3d galleries.

3) Best of... weekly photomanip features #2 by FrozenStarART and Lareth
A new photomanipulation feature around where a group of photomanip artists showcase their favourites from the manip galleries.

4) depthCORE XXIX - A Series Of Untitled Dreams by ekud :
Check out what Depthcore has come up with for their newest release !

5) Mixed Media Artists by kuschelirmel :
This series of interviews will shed some light on some of the Mixed Media
artists dA has to offer. This issue features saiaii who loves to combine painting, fractals, renders, vectors and photomanipulation in her work.

6) Unburied Treasures 52 by Aeires
A little bit of everything from the digital galleries, and all of them top quality art with ten or less favorites.

So this was it from me this week, if you have any digital art related news articles going on that need some more exposure, please drop me a note


Photomanipulation

New Gallery Created: Digital Art > Mixed Media!

That's right, and I will be in charge, so you better listen up now  

Why do we need that gallery anyway?

To give all those sweet DIGITAL mixed media pieces a home so they no longer have to reside in the miscellaneous gallery. I emphasize DIGITAL because this will not be a place to put your traditional pieces that you dragged through Photoshop - and neither is the already existing gallery in the traditional section meant to hold these. If your piece is part digital and part traditional, you need to decide which of the two parts is dominant and then place it accordingly. The traditional mixed media gallery will hopefully have its description revised soon, to avoid confusing.

We will concentrate on the DIGITAL MIXED MEDIA gallery here (cos frankly, I don't know much about traditional art forms)...

Gallery Description

This gallery is a home to those deviations that consist of two (or more) DIGITAL art forms (namely Paintings/Drawings/Airbrushing, Photomanipulation, 3-Dimensional, Fractals and Vectors/Vexels – from here on referred to as basic art forms). The basic art forms should be clearly distinguishable in the piece. This makes the gallery ideal for matte paintings (use of photomanipulation and painting) or terraspace art (use of 3D rendered landscapes combined with painting and/or photomanipulation to “extend” them into a space scene).

Only images consisting of two or more of the above mentioned basic art forms are to be posted here. If your image consists only or mainly of one of those art forms, it should be posted in the respective gallery. That also holds true for drawing/doodling/sketching onto a photo – be advised that this is not a photomanipulation either and should be put in either Digital Art > Miscellaneous or one of the painting categories (the latter only if you used the picture as reference or as a background image).  If you have used filters or plug-ins to alter your digital creations, they should be submitted to Digital Art > Miscellanous.

For example if you have started with a photomanipulation and decided along the way to add vector elements, both need to be prominent features of your art for the image to be posted in Mixed Media – adding two tiny vector flowers for instance doesn’t make it a mixed media piece, but rather it should still be a photomanipulation.

Please note that just like anywhere else on deviantArt, the use of copyrighted material is prohibited. If you use third party material you must have written permission from the owner of the original piece (be it a render, a photo, a painting or whatever) to do so or it must be clear from stating the source that the image is considered stock. In the case of stock, be sure to include the proper credit and adhere to any rules the stock source may have defined. Also see FAQ #157: Can I use things created by other people in my submissions?. Please be advised that there are websites out there that pretend to be offering free stock when in fact they have no legal claim on the material!