A YouTube for artists
DeviantArt gets 1.5 billion page views a month, making it one of the most popular Web sites that many people have never even heard of.
Despite the name, only a fraction of the art on the site is what might be labeled deviant. In reality, the site boasts millions of user-uploaded works of art, everything from photography to 3D digital conceptual art to old-fashioned canvas-and-paint portraits.
Think of it as a YouTube for artists trying to show their own work. Pieces can be viewed, commented on, even added to a user's own gallery of favorites. The range of work defies characterization, but there is a heavy dose of cartooning and fantasy art as well as some adult content, which is blocked for unregistered users.
In some cases, artists have posted their digital leftovers in a "stock" pile that other artists can use as the genesis for their own work.
The site's goal, in a nutshell, is to democratize and inspire art.
British photographer and art student Lara Jade said it's the community of artists and diversity of artwork that drew her to the site back in 2004.
"Everyone can post their work, no matter what medium they work in," Jade said in an e-mail interview. "There's also the opportunity to get feedback and suggestions on your work from peers."
In a few cases, she said, she's worked in collaboration with other DeviantArt creators.
The downside, she said, is sometimes she finds that her work is being used by someone else without her permission and in ways she never intended. In the worst case, she said, she found her work used as the cover for a porn DVD. (She's suing over that one.)
Despite that, Jade continues to post on the site, particularly because of the feedback she gets from the large community of artists and art devotees.
"When I first started out, my work was very amateurish as I was just beginning to experiment with photography and Adobe Photoshop," she said. "Most of the helpful critiques I've received from other artists on DeviantArt have made me want to try new things and continue to improve the quality of my work," she said.
DeviantArt is itself at a crossroads.
Growing to millions of artists has meant that the company and its site has had to find ways to scale its community, a challenge to the way it has done business.
"We love the way that deviantART has grown organically; artists telling artists, art lovers telling art lovers, for 7 and a half years, he said. "We grow internally in a very organic manner as well. Much of our team comes directly to us from within our (now rather huge) community."
The site has largely relied on the honor system and self-policing to ensure that artwork is used in the way it was intended. Often, though, artists put high-resolution images of their work on the site, leaving plenty of opportunity for the unscrupulous.
The site doesn't go in to details on its finances, but it is a for-profit entity that generates significant revenue--"Meeeeelllllliiiiooooonnnnnnnns!," according to co-founder and CEO Angelo Sotira.
The site is owned largely by current and former staffers--there are close to 50 full-time employees, with much of its sales reinvested in growth and new developments.
Sotira said he had been hoping the site could keep its workforce to fewer than 65 employees.
"We've been hoping to keep it under 65, but I'm afraid we're in need of quite a few more of the best and brightest this year," he said. "We'll be growing to 80."
Last week, the 8-year-old site announced that it had received its 50 millionth artist-generated submission. In January, the site had 23 million unique visitors. It also launched a feature that allows non-artists to start their own art "collection" of others' works and share it with friends.
Conceptual artist Daniel LuVisi said he has gotten a lot of work through the site, including some freelance work for some pretty big companies.
Much of his art stems from the worlds of movies and computer games, two of his other passions. "My work is mostly inspired by those...because they're the reason I'm here in the first place," he said. "Art was brought out of me from comics, cartoons, films, and games. It's definitely a huge inspiration."
LuVisi likes the exposure he gets from posting on the site, but most values the tight-knit artist community feeling.
"I just pray it never turns into a popularity contest or the likes of MySpace or Facebook," he said.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina.
http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Deviantart
shell4art!
Also, the employees and Gallery Directors are friendly as well - so communication is good, if you know where to look. ^^
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/
unlike deviantart it is moderated, which keeps most of the low-
quality content out, but also means that users don't have full power
over their portfolios. sort of a different site but very cool
Didn't think I'd ever see the site on news.com but hey, good for them.
And what's this about "In some cases, artists have posted their digital leftovers in a "stock" pile that other artists can use as the genesis for their own work."??? I happen to have a stock account on dA. Neither I nor any of my friends who have stock accounts post our 'digital leftovers'. We go to a great deal of work, and often, expense to provide quality photographs taken specifically for artists to use for reference and photomanipulations. They are not left overs nor are they scraps. I take a great deal of pride in my stock work and I don't post anything I wouldn't use for art myself. Stock art is an art form within itself and a necessary art supply like paints and charcoal, it is not a crutch for some n00blet who is incapable of doing something on their own.
I really resent a lot of what was said in this article and how it was put. deviantArt goes to a great deal of pains to try to keep the myspace crowd away, so to compare it to YouTube is like sending an open invitation for all the internet kiddies to post their myspace shots everywhere.
Oh, and about the 'collections'... I wouldn't call it something for non-artists. It's for the dA members to be able to sort their favorite pieces from around the site into categories for convenience. Even us artist have favorite works by others and favorite artists. :|
Trying to corral deviantART in with the many user-generated, mindless upload tendencies of other sites is an insult to serious artists. This article was clearly written from the perspective of someone who has very little firsthand experience with the site and how it is run, and likely wrote it as an assignment.
With the new addition of CSS and gallery folders, each gallery takes on it's very own character and has a professional presentation style for those who desire serious work. And it isn't as though those people are few and far between--just about everyone I know on that site networks with other people within their community and beyond. It really is upsetting to hear YouTube for artists...
dA is meant to be a place for artists and I know a few that also use dA as a place for their portfolio's, in which case the 'scrap' section is better used to upload something not particularly part of the portfolio, but more the non-professional side.
Also, I agree with the opinions of cheapening dA by comparing it to YouTube as many artists on the site are quite serious about their work and don't post for the sake of posting. Hell, there are even dA movements saying that dA is NOT MySpace as some people have come to try and equivalent it to by the quality of (or lack of) what they post.
I suppose now we are going to see a lot more of those postings just by the title of this article, depending on how many read it. Sad day, cheapening the hard work of those serious about it.
www.conceptart.org
Probably though a bigger community is on Renderosity at http://www.renderosity.com.
http://archanN.deviantart.com
It's the Facebook problem all over again. Beware.
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by prince_mypc
August 4, 2008 7:10 AM PDT
- Meeeeelllllliiiiooooonnnnnnnns!... I should start clicking on more ads.. :) to make more money
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by CherishedOnlyOne
October 6, 2008 9:40 AM PDT
- Don't you find it odd that a company that makes that amount of money has no phone number listed in either the Hollywood CA area or under 323 anywhere? Guess it is my master's in finance that raises the red flag.
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(24 Comments)