So DA friend or enemy?

[Martyr]

I've never actually signed up with dA but I have used it to check up on some of my favourite artists and to look for inspiration. I do have to admit I knew nothing of the "tracing" / art theft issues nor the pornography issues that you all have mentioned. I have noticed though that only popular artists get any comments and I have never seen any constructive criticism, only flaming and usually when no feedback is asked for to begin with.

To be honest I was hoping to make my début on dA last year and then again this year so as to gain a small fanbase which I could hopefully transplant onto an only webcomic / manga. But now I doubt if I even will; although this isn't down to the issues that I have been enlightened on. I guess that I just don't like to be around popular places and tend to go against the grain and opinions of society.

[dreamer676]

Maeve; I think I have seen the picture that you are referring to. That pic actually disgusted me. I wasn't even sure what to do. I literally sat there like

But yeah I'm the same as far as commissions go. I have an art shop at Ernya at the moment. It takes me a fair amount of time to fully colour etc something but it's still quite messy. I could blame it on the fact that I don't have a tablet, but instead I'm gonna blame it on the fact that my hand needs to get steadier. I'm like that too if I get sick of a picture then I just can't find the motivation to complete it. Chances are I'll sit there and hate myself for it too. I end up in a little conflict with myself XD.

I think I do have a style. My people all do have roughly the same look to them if that makes sense. Though I hate my style. It annoys me something rotten XD but yeah I do exactly the same

Martyr; To be honest with you I'm not like that either. Though dA is a good place to be if you meet the right people. Even if you make a gallery and just fave and watch people. There is nothing there that obliges you to submit anything. I think mostly what happens there is pure luck. I have never been flamed on dA but I don't doubt that there are people on there that do just that. There probably are constructive criticism groups on dA, now that they have introduced the groups feature. So if you wanted crit you could join those groups and receive some. While meeting other talented people.

But yeah totally up to you. Sometimes I wish that I had never joined, but I'm also grateful that its there

[Martyr]

I totally understand, and yes I'm grateful that dA exists because it helps find new people and check up on old favourites. I get what you mean about no obligation to post and such but to be honest I haven't joined at least one other site for the exact reason of not posting content. I suppose it's really silly and irrational but I only want to join when I will be able to produce work on a semi-regular basis.

Also I'm my own worst critic, as I imagine most of us are, no matter how many complements I get if that curve doesn't look right to me then I'm not happy. I wonder how many of us are perfectionists? I used to be really bad but with working under time constraints / slow progress I learnt to just accept it and give up after 5 - 10 minutes of rework.

With the style thing I've never actually developed one of my own yet, but have you tried looking at other genres and then reproducing the images? I mean I can draw practically one rose / flowers over and over again because I did so many times during my final art exams. Although with me I can easy reproduce artwork by observation but when it comes to using the same style in an original piece of artwork then it becomes impossible to do so. I really need to get past this copywriter stage.

[dreamer676]

Oh I see. That's fair enough. Though I think that that may never happen. Unless you have a very regular timetable. I hadn't submitted stuff for months but then I got back into putting stuff up and now I'm somewhat regular with posting stuff.

Your right, I'll get compliments but sit there and think. 'Liar!' I'm a bit like that but things have to go horrendously wrong before I get stroppy about it and want to give up. I'm o.k with time restraints because I used to be a very quick drawer but then as time went on I got slower. I'm still faster than some but not overly. If I get a 'complete this within two days' I panic, but if you let me have as much time as I can then it would probably get done faster.

Well, yes probably now that I think about it and my stuff probably does have a bit of everything that I have/had drawn from before. I just probably don't notice it or it's not heavily influenced enough to be apparent. I haven't actually tried to do that; drawing from art and then reproducing the style in an original piece. It will probably come with time and practise

[Kuro_Cat*2314]

I like DA, although it's not a fun as this site.....>->
Anyway, not all of us are stuck up, although it is true for most of the Deviant members. Anyway, I'm not quite sure how this all works since it's my first time on the site but I hope this is a resonable answer! XD

[dreamer676]

As long as your answer is relevant to the conversation/thread topic than that is a perfectly fine answer! Welcome to midorea!

That's good to know. I think I have only met a few people on dA that are stuck-up and I made a point of not talking to them again. Or not talking to them in the first place.

[Sanzoskitten]

Oh dA, my biggest problem is the art thievery and how it goes unchecked so very often.

Taking a month or more to take down an upload of anime screencap with proof given to the mods is INSANE.
Thats why professionals don't set foot on it, because it's run by children who don't take the time to actually pay attention to their own rules and governed laws.

And yet I'm still there too. XC

[Maeve]

I'm pretty sure it's part of the long list of bugs, but some artists have recently been reported for stealing their own art (for example, a picture they made of their OC, that's in their gallery ONLY). Made me laugh so hard XD

But yeah, the art thievery is pretty bad. The only thing that really seems to stop art thieves now is the amount of complaints they get from other members, and not the rules, which is slightly frightening. o.O

[Sanzoskitten]

It's far more awful than most people realize. I'm sure most people don't realize that ALL the stamps that are made with pictures directly from photos or screencaps or scans the uploader didn't draw/photograph themselves are actually a DMCA Copyright infringement.

YUP

75% of the stamps are illegal.

[dreamer676]

Sanzo and Mareve; I have never actually come across art theft on deviantart. I have come across it on photobucket. A user had basically clicked and saved every fanart they could find from Da then uploaded them to their photobucket and put the settings to public. That annoyed me. I ended up trying to get them taken down and all photobucket pretty much said was unless you own them you can do nothing. That was a bad day. I was like yes because I'm going to messege the sixty+ people that that person has stolen from. Even then they would have had to prove that the artwork belonged to them, and how were they supposed to do that? Grr sorry about the rant there D:

[Maeve]

I've never actually discovered an art thief on DA, mostly because I stick to the same group of artists I'm following and rarely just browse around to see what people are doing. Mostly heard of them through journals and all.

And yeah, Photobucket is pretty much an art thiefs' nest, considering anyone can update pretty much anything. I just find it sad (and annoying) that most sites have almost no copyright policies (for users I mean, the site themselves are normally well protected). Kinda make me doubt I want to upload any of my art.

[dreamer676]

With photobucket, once you upload something you are automatically claiming it to be your own work. At least that is what their policy says. So even those people that are just uploading screen caps and such are breaching copyright law. I can't remember what it said about actual users and copyright. Deviantart said that posting art is down to your own discretion and that the art is copyrighted to you. But they have no part in the legal side of things and have no involvement when it got that far. I think, don't quote me on that. It was a long time ago that I read through it.

I browse a fair amount. Usually through fanart though and it's rare that anyone has copied each other there. You know actually I lie. I have come across art theft on dA. Sorta. It's usually those that steal lines to colour having very obviously not having permission to do so. Otherwise I'm same as you. Have heard about it through journals and whatnot.

[Sanzoskitten]

I've probably reported about 35 people for art theft and over 900 pieces for it. You'd be surprised how much is on there and how long it takes them to take it down.
Every day at least one of the anti-theft groups I'm in reports that they've found another thief, if not two to three new ones.
It's really awful and the reporting system there is trash.

about 20% are Trolls trying to cause drama, another 30% are people thinking to treat the place like photobucket. Another 20% are edits that didn't have permission granted to them(this includes recolors and Demotivational posters), and the last 30% are tracers with no edits made to the original so are not allowed under the TOS.

Photobucket is supposed to be for your own photos(and pictures) and it can use any images uploaded as a way to make money, making it a copyright infringement. (Any picture you find on there can be printed onto mugs and t-shirts.)

You really want to upload copyright infringing material than you need your own private server.

[dreamer676]

I didn't actually realise there are such groups on dA, but never mind you learn something new everyday.

I have met a few trolls now and again, they are just ridiculously annoying. And as you said cause drama. It's really not necessary. I read about one girl that stole art and no matter how much users griped and complained at her she would not take the pictures down. Now all she does is when the complaints get too much is create another account.
I have seen the edits though. Most of the one's I've seen are from photo shoots of celebrities. They kind of annoy me. I mean that I appreciate that a lot of time and effort goes into them and that I couldn't do it myself, but I don't find it to be particularly artistic. But that's just me. It's seems sort of like a pointless process to get in trouble for.
Tracers. ah I have fought on both side of this argument. I think that tracing or 'eyeballing' as it's otherwise called is fine to an extent. I think it's o.k if you are just drawing for fun and therefore not too concerned about improving etc. I mean that it can help you get so far but if all you do is eyeball, you are sort of shooting yourself in the foot. Either way I don't think that tracing should be put up on dA. I think it's fine as a private learning process but not something that should be shown publicly. I say this fully aware that I used to trace. A lot. It isn't a smart way to learn to improve and it garners you no respect. (not that that was what I was looking for when I used to do it)

I'd forgotten about that side of it. Yes. The last I heard was that they were trying to introduce a way to make photobucket more artist friendly in terms of art theft and the like. Though it seems like they have done f/a.

[Sanzoskitten]

I just wish they would get more mods on dA to help out. There are plenty of users that I would love to see in certain positions of power. Ones that don't require payment, who don't mind just doing it to do it.
But they only HIRE people, which it's great that they want to pay people for their time like that, but I think they should choose at least 20 people to help out with certain policies to be enforced.
=__=;; I really hate those photo edits because it's actually infringing on at least 2+ people, usually more.
Take a photo from a magazine, if someone were to edit it they would need permissions from the model, the photographer, and the magazine it appeared in. All three own part ownership of the photo used. dA provides a form to even send out to them, and I'm sure many people would be perfectly happy to sign and garner a bit more notoriety.

Some photo Edits can be impressive and the amount of time and effort put into them can rival many drawings. Some of them can very artistic. Like Mirror Mask. http://www.neilgaiman.co.uk/index.php?pgId=58 Much of the movie was photo Edits, and Dave McKean is impressive with his stuff: http://www.mckean-art.co.uk/ Whom I find very artistic.
But 98% of the "photo-edit" art on dA is not and is just a corruption of the use of the desktop category(which isn't supposed to be just a picture of YOUR current desktop, it's supposed to be a screenshot of what you're working on or occasionally for screencapping a desktop you made(still drawn or photographed by yourself).