Congratulations to the two people who actually unwatched me on dA, and to the several people who didn't fall for it. Didn't come up with anything creative this time, despite I could have abused the lack of uploads and just said I was injured, and so forth. That part is simply related to moving and work. Not leaving dA over here, and thankfully most people know me better than that.

Yes, I'm still allowed and frankly usually am with people on dA not respecting policy. The Fur Affinity part of the last Journal wasn't actually a joke. Of the few things I ever have reported there (underage related) they tend not to be that slow. I've seen art theft reports stagnate for literally years on dA, which can be very irritating.

As per usual, happy April Fool's.

I've had it. Dealing with this stupid website and its complete disregard for respect, or rules or anything even remotely decent. In the last day I've dealt with several users who either posted nothing but furry porn, or kiddie porn, or just porn or stolen work or really anything against policy. And thank you again, dA staff for doing absolutely NOTHING about it! I spend this long being here, being loyal to the dA brand and expressing adamant frustration that dA isn't at all loyal to itself and especially me, the user.

I'd hate to say it, but at least on Fur Affinity they actually respond to what defines as policy violation and also in a timely fashion. I also note, that on my own website "The Northern Pacific" [link] which I have had for many a year now, at least I can control what I like and what I wish to present. And like on dA, it shows the latest, and thankfully with a lot less text (for those who can't stand reading). I'd get you to go there to check out my art since dA has become such an incredible disappointment in the last few years that frankly, I don't believe anything of mine should stay here any longer.

As journals on dA are technically journals by their definition, sometimes I believe it is okay to be personal or self indulgent, just so long as it is not offensive or excruciatingly stupid. Fur Affinity has been more prone to specific announcements as of late due to it being my primary business/commission vector. It also earns the odd distinction of being the short form of just about everything. Here on dA, people seem more likely to actually read things, including the journals posted, so figured a fair bit of time was needed to write something at least half decent.

Some of you know this, some do not but I have been away from my beloved Vancouver for a few years now. At the vicious prompting of the government and encouragement from a certain local Vancouver video game mainstay (EA Sports) I have returned back to my homeland. One of the results of being away for the last two and a half years was the resulting huge commission stream along with a bizarrely high flood of updates. Believe the update total was between a dozen to two dozen completed image updates per month. We artists probably know that if you're doing full images, with shading, backgrounds and not making it look sloppy that such an amount is considered extremely unrealistically high to fit into a normal day for the average person. Because of a proper job offer that requires not slacking for 8 1/2 hours each day and somehow being monetarily awarded for such, ultimately that means the commission capacity is axed entirely and the upload rate in turn will be greatly diminished. (A Vancouver lifestyle can neither afford the excess time for the limited pay that the commissions were offering.)

In the good news, those who were absolutely sick of the furry artwork, the obsessive amounts of sexual innuendo, a dip in quality, obnoxiously high posting volumes or the pushy advertising, then rejoice as those are definitely cutting back. On the other hand, if you're watching in expectation of any of the previously mentioned, then sorry to say but maybe you should just up and unwatch me now. Furry artwork was part of the business model and not something that generally defines me as an artist (or something I want to define me as an artist either.) Truthfully, my only truly devoted furry is Buns, followed by the Sonic character Charge the Raccoon, and possibly Swadeaqua since people basically address her as a "Pokemon furry" due to the mountainous chest cleavage. I am still grateful for the opportunity and the experience. It was different to do a bunch of freelance work, but I am looking forward to some time away from it. Still, thank you to those who commissioned me, and of course my apologies to those who wanted to but now can't.

As what to take away from this experience of over 100 commissions from dozens of commissioners over the span of two years or so? If you are a person who can draw, taking commissions isn't such a bad idea. It creates good artistic discipline and inadvertently develops time management skills and social skills along with the artistic skills of consistent deliverable quality. I could go over the negatives and the positives forever though, of which has been expressed in every other journal. For me, I'm glad that I can sometimes get some professional art work that I feel proud of and also enjoy. Granted, I also think that art is better relegated to being a hobby. The pay is very poor, the content is not usually what I'd love to do, and it's just hard to make it anywhere really as such a person. Realistically, most of us are not cut out for pure art either due to skill level or interests which is one of the things to always keep in mind.

For now, I will chalk up the transitional phase of moving to Poland and that long experience, to moving back to Vancouver as an interesting one. A lot of it was bad, some of it was very good, and other parts strange, unique or just part of the process of developing. As it goes, it is a lot of trying new things, and for a little while at least, everyone should give it a try.

As it has been noted in my journals throughout my entire stay on dA, the vast majority tend to lean towards observations, anecdotes and other such thoughts and opinions on the art world of deviantArt and at large. A few are playful, or deceptive but most are under the same tree of ideas. To outright complain is my style in person, the verbalization of frustration or annoyance. dA Journals tend to be less so, less personal. With the title listed as above, maybe the fear implied is that suddenly all of my journals will become torrential spiels of distressed whining. That is not the resolution. My resolution for the new year of 2013 has been spurred over the reality after a reflection through my gallery, and it is something all of you who draw should do as well.

Not everyone who draws aims for particularly anything, but usually a year's worth of content is enough to put across what the personality of your gallery is. If you draw for fun, the updates might be few, they might not be so stellar. If a person draws to improve, then their work might have made drastic changes from the start of the year on towards the end. When reading the artist's comments, one can tell if the gallery is of a person who plays, works, competes, is a receiver or a giver who likes to please others. Some of us will look back on a full year of work and be proud of ourselves, where others see a need for improvement, while still others resent their progress or lack thereof. Unless you purely draw and post work simply because you're bored and do not care, almost everyone sets aside some sort of goal, whether defined or vague.

Common goals for artists is the need to improve or the need to post more, or particularly more of one sort of thing. Most art posters are not going to have a resolution to either give more, sell more, ask for more art or something outside of those lines. We may ask for ourselves to become more professional, to work harder and sometimes work less if the load becomes a mental or physical burden of some kind. There are a few people who will look at what they have done and simply smile and be happy and not have a goal of anything or frankly have ever had. Again, most fall into the first camp of wanting to improve on something. A tour through a year's worth of work can then make it pretty obvious what that something is.

I hate my gallery on Fur Affinity. If anyone has ever seen it, you'd know exactly why. It's the collection of loveless commissions consisting of work that is less about love than it is about lust. It neither makes me proud, or happy or showcases my better work. Work that wins kudos there is often the work I despise, or spent little time on. A resolution would be to just not be on that website, but unfortunately that is an asinine option for a business model. On deviantArt in the last year I've posted about 125 or so images, about 25 are gifts/requests, a few extra are assignments or awards for contests. Only 35 or so images are of my own doing, or in other words, work that didn't have someone else influencing its content or direction in some way or another that was not wholly my own. Summary: Ouch. As an artist my default goal is always to improve. Doing commissions does not help much (though I do my best to try otherwise). Doing gifts/requests does not help that either. Less than a third of the art produced in a year was from my mind for the needs of which there were none. Anything else that was mine was tragically rushed in order to accommodate other commitments.

There will be those out there who have a similar New Years resolution as mine, outside of improving, which is to do something for yourself. Wanted to know how to get requests from me? You draw a picture of my characters, or write with direct reference to them, and possibly sometimes express a strange overbearing interest in my work in general, you are slotted for a request when you ask (and I may randomly gift you if you don't). There you all go. Now you know. And you know what, that system is flawed. So about 25 gifts/requests for about 35 I've received (most from one individual evidently) the answer in the future will be 'no' almost always without exception, unless it's something like a Daily Deviation. Requests help me develop the least. Commissions that are from my 'full color' price list (which makes me melancholy since it's a style I've done to death. I want to paint more). Gifts are third. Take the time to focus on myself, my development, my art. This should be the same resolution for anyone else who finds that they answer to others more often than not, and that the reward is slower development, discontent and a gallery of work that saddens more than it elicits joy. Not to say that requests/gifts/commissions don't force development, but if you want to say practice drawing feet, and everyone makes you do hands and shadow puppets, it is difficult to progress at that point.

With any resolution, the idea is to work towards the betterment of self. Betterment is meant to enlighten, make you feel fulfilled in life. Look at your gallery, and identify what it says to you. Are you pleased with what you've been doing so far? If not, what is it that needs to change? And if you aim to change, will this ultimately put you closer to your goal, which should be your core happiness first and foremost. This should be applied to any resolution, whether art, socially, mentally, physically that it is happiness. It's the technique of balance I hope to accomplish myself in the year of 2013, to strike a balance between personal development, my purest of artistic pleasures and the commitments I still must make to others. I hope that you will all aim to be better, happier individuals, comfortable with yourselves and your work no matter what you do.

Something recently was brought to my attention in regards to the concept of weak artists taking the livings of the strong ones; think roaches. A sort of mentality as I ended classing as distinctly Western in the end. This fear of removing the value of ones skills and worth by others promoting either a similar or cruder product for a fraction of the cost. It's predominantly a mentality of countries where fear of the immigrants or the export of their country's jobs where this rises. It can also lead to the desperation where artists are underselling one another just to get by.

The artist in question is actually quite good. Enviably so, that most of us rarely have one of these people of higher quality in their watchlist since they seem to be few and far between. (Though you might be watching them as they also have 20,000 watchers, so their capacity to soak commissions is high). Bit of a long spiel as it was, their general concern was that inexperienced artists should not be allowed to participate in commissions because their rates exclusively undermine the earnings of the experienced, full-time, self employed artists. Most of us on dA know where we stand in contrast to other artists once we've had enough exposure to this website. The simple question put forth is really, are the juniors really taking from the mouths of their superiors?

My general stance is that inexperienced artists should really be allowed to participate and charge based on prestige, their time and their quality. If it takes two companies an hour to produce soda, and one uses cheap ingredients, and the other uses ingredients of better quality, you should pay more for the better product despite how long it took them to make it. This same applies to art. If you had $20 to buy from a fantastic artist who will give you a great sketch versus someone who takes 3 hours to produce a stick figure, you're probably going to want the good piece. Some people do like quantity, but for some things quality is always better. Not to say that most people can't save, which can be a concerning factor in the choice of one product or another. People see, people buy if they can afford it that instant. Commissions are luxury items by default. It is also the case, where you won't want to pay a higher fee for someone to produce an authentic Pokemon picture than the person who can produce a Pokemon picture who ironically can't draw a lick of realism. The demands on the individual skill capacity and quality are much different. It's the same for asking say, a chef to produce you a souffle when his mastery is making enchiladas. One, it's an insult, and two, you spend money where the product is better, even if an enchilada is not as extravagant as the souffle, it's better to have it from the individual who is specialized. As a consumer, I am obliged to choose based on a person's skills, not how much per hour every artist should charge. Not every artist is really worth X amount an hour, just as not all our accounting skills would be worth the same.

Another thing to note, is when doing digital commissions online, one is competing with an international market. I, as a Canadian can expect anywhere between 8.25 and 11.25 an hour for my work, minimum. But as I currently live in Poland, I can reasonably command an hourly wage of something like 3.20 cad an hour and that being considered normal here. There are better artists in Russia who can charge next to nil because for them, a surviving wage is not nearly as high as it would be in some Western countries, where the initial fears I portrayed apply. Of course an artist of good quality who wants to work full time as an artist should command a living wage in their area. That is a definite requirement if you wish to do that as your job. But again, when competing internationally, one has to expect that (like most of the USA market hates to own up to), that it is easier and cheaper to ship said services overseas.

For junior artists overall dragging the cost of commissions down, refer to the second paragraph. A Pokemon artist will never be able to steal the work of a portrait artist. If you have two portrait artists of the same skill level and are in the same city, then yes, some people are low to start. A lot of businesses do that with their products. For a lot of juniors they use the "I'm cheap, everyone hire me!" method. Most companies have multitudes of practices starting up, including: Great customer service. Great quality work. Capacity to personalize their services/products. Speed in which services/products are delivered. Low cost. Taking commissions as a business, you have to be able to do one of those five things, and hopefully the more the better. The reality is, when it comes to great quality work, people do honestly expect to pay more since most high-end anything is always expected to hold a premium due to its nature. If you're at the top of skill, quality, service and prestige, this is not an issue. If you're average, subpar, then yes, there is this time of in-fighting with people low-balling one another to get clients. That is how it goes with business. It's a business model. It's the exact same reason you will find all the coffee shops on the same corner advertising aggressively with different things. Those who succeed in the end do what is proper of a good business model. It's cut-throat, competitive and most importantly it weeds out the bad. It's necessary.

One of the reasons why a full time artist especially hates even the idea of rather non-existent competition is the fact that the art they sell is their daily bread. The term 'starving artist' has existed for several hundred years now ever since art was available as formal education. You get the artists who cut it, and the ones who don't, which is reflected in this above model. And these weaker artists create the majority of the base as they are less skilled and too proud to consider looking for other forms of employment, so they simply starve. Like all people who decide to 'go it alone' and be their own business, it isn't easy. Paycheques are not consistent. The hours are often long, and unrewarding, and sadly most new businesses fail within five years. For the artists good enough to survive, they earned it, and they probably did so not because your anime point commissions undersold them, because they worked hard, they networked, and they provided a product that most of us couldn't manage consistently.

Part of what I could guess spurs such thoughts is of a few things. First of all, a popular artist who is constantly being asked "How can I offer commissions? How much do I charge?" and likely some bit of paranoia. If you're very good at what you do, people will want you, and often price is not the biggest issue. But it also comes down to things such as marketing, exposure and word-of-mouth. Commissions are a small business. In some countries you need to register, and you must always pay taxes on these earnings. But, like all business models, you need to work hard at it before you ever see results, and that does mean competition and reasonable expectations, not always high wages. Still, if you're good at all that, the cockroaches probably aren't coming to steal the crumbs away.

It has been over three years since I last wrote about the parasites of deviantArt. Three years to reflect on the annoying, the irksome, and even now extending this to the furries of Fur Affinity. If you have read the previous one, then expect for some deja vu. If you haven't then here is load of new insight. Let's start with the basics.

On dA there are requesters and requestees. A requester is a person that anyone with decent drawing skills has experienced. And if you so happen to be of the poorer skilled variety, then likely been in this actual position. A requester, to sum the original journal is a "whiny, self indulgent child", in essence. 'I cannot create said thing for myself, and I have no money to pay for said thing, so I will plead and cry until said thing is handed to me,' ie. spoiled brat. There are offshoots of this, people who humbly believe that their love and support of said artist will in turn earn them the gratitude of a piece of work. More plausible with less popular artists, where the actual popular ones are only in it to be popular or basically are way too busy doing what people love them to do to spare any additional time. That, and humoring one requests results in a person being swarmed.

A requestee is the artist that fills the requests of the requester. Of these, there are the ones who do it for everybody, the ones who do them for nobody, the ones who do them for the selected few, and the ones who do them for money only. As it goes, the more popular an artist is, the less and less likely the word 'free' comes in use, as well as the actual capacity to humor a request. They're too busy, they're too popular to need to bother in some cases, or they simply want to prevent being swarmed. Generally as it goes, if the person makes it aware they do commissions at all, they probably won't do requests for next to anybody. This is universal with artists on both dA and FA. This does not make them evil for saying 'no', however, because it is to note that denying services and solicitors is a protected right in many places.

To outline the requester is first done by acknowledging the behavior of said individuals. First is the one mentioned, which is basically the spoiled brat. This is a person who will randomly coast around until they find some unwitting victim to do their request. Hardly challenging to identify, their behavior ranges from blatant demands to the downright threatening. On deviantArt, these can be identified by people asking for things completely not related to your work. Say, they wanted ponies, where you draw surrealist environments, and so happened to one day feature a horse. Other way to identify them is simply viewing their Activity on their userpage. Guaranteed, their comments on most of the images will be, "I love your artz! I want Naruto pics from you!" when this same line will be used in succession 20 times in a single hour. Apparently in this day in age a barely crafted compliment is enough to deserve a request in their minds. Refuse said inquiry, and the brat will thrash, scream and switch gears, accusing the requestee of being selective, mean, cruel and ironically, untalented.

Those of the more mature requesting variety can at times go about their requests as the child does, with a sort of shooting fish-in-a-barrel approach. Both will sift through people, asking for requests. The one difference with the latter of this group is that they ask. They do not demand, scream or cry, but will politely ask for a request. If the answer is 'yes', then they proceed to engage delicately in conversation and ask for really anything, as long as it follows a basic guideline. Time is of no object, and they are grateful to have an artist at their disposal to create for them. On the other hand if one refuses them, then be prepared for a guilt trip. The shear meekness of existence they execute, coupled with apologies for wasting ones time is often pathetic, and ultimately makes the people who rejected them look bad. Where the child can be upright blatant, this is the sneaky evil that those more mature can wield.

If you're the type of individual who actual does fulfill requests from other individuals, here is what one can expect. From a friend, or devoted watcher, or even from those of the mature requesting variety there is gratitude. They will sincerely compliment, show their appreciation and give usually worthy praise towards the artist's efforts. In the case of friends and possibly devoted watchers, then their graciousness may extend to credit to you in their journals, or a bit of artwork in return. With these individuals who are most loyal, then actually being a requestee is not so bad. In the case of dealing with the child-like requesters, the policy ought to be, 'do nothing for thou shalt get nothing'. They give no care about the artist, their work, or their efforts. The best that can be hoped for is a 'thank you', though smiley faces, emoticons and empty compliments are the most that can be expected. They are children, parasites, they use and do not understand the concept of appreciation.

The question then, as a requester is how does one get an artist to become your personal requestee? It's not all that simple due to the many personalities that exist in the art world. I have noted that it is not always rewarding to do request for literally everyone. Requestees supply themselves to people based on their preferences. There are ones that do contests, and give a request as a reward. Some do what are known as favors and gifts. Often a reward system setup for those they think deserve their art or their respect. Another group that also is common are traders, people who do a request on the guise that they will get something in return. The last one in this cluster are ones who simply do them when they feel like it, and refuse all requests when they don't. The one thing with these four is that unlike the other requestees, their ability to fill requests is completely on their own whim, without consistency. The trick for getting anything from them is either appealing to their fancies, their schedules or somehow managing to be incredibly talented at groveling. This is also the group that can be the most rude, as their ability to humor a requester is entirely based on their mood. Appeasing them on a foul or busy day may be enough for a hopeful requester to lose a chance on receiving an image they desire.

I am probably an incredible hypocrite when it comes to taking requests. While I can proudly say I've never asked for anything, I can't quite say that I have either proudly rejected everything or accepted everything. My personal classification goes under favoritism. If you appease me, I will appease you, as it stands. If you're a friend, a loyal commenter and Watcher and express a deep understanding of my interests and characters, actually demonstrate this knowledge, then if the time allows for it, then requests are plausible. This is not a system far from those of other hardworking individuals. When a person who has a lot of watchers has to decide if they should even give requests at all, then such systems are worked out to guarantee those that in a sense they like get to use that artist's time. At the same time, people who are as similarly strict will be fast to shoot-down anyone not within this fold of requirements. A harsh, extremely particular nature. Such artists are experienced, they know what a parasite is and anyone smart enough would never want one.

For those who are requestees, who fill the needs of many people, often those they don't know, you are of the sweetest of mindsets. Maybe a little naive, but at least positive in some demeanor. Taking requests should never be an end all answer. They help an artist explore new ideas, help overcome artblock and keep up a steady pace of practicing. They also can lead to some friendships. The one thing to note though is human nature caters to users. You use, you get ahead in life. Letting yourself be trampled on is the fastest way to become lonely and demoralized. It's all a matter of striking that crucial balance. For those who do make large amount of requests; learn to actually show some appreciation! Never does anyone need a picture a week, or heaven forbid it, a picture a day. Artists are human. It's okay to ask of those you are well accustomed with, but to abuse random people at a whim is playing on the kindness of strangers for your own benefit. Parasite was the word-of-the-day today, and if you're one of these people, then the term is more than befitting.

Probably most of those who watch me had seen an announcement for a 'Mewthree Design Contest' at #The-Mew3-Townside. The simple idea of the contest was to submit a Mewthree with hints on what would help it fair better in the case where about 90 different designs were submitted. It's a circumstance designed to be commentated on essentially. Figured I'd give this journal an overview now that it has been a few weeks since the finale.

One of the interesting things about running a competition is seeing who participates and why. Some did it for prestige. "I am a Fakemon/Mewthree artist. I should be able to design a new Mewthree without a problem." Most did it for the money. Some mostly for fun. All contests that have monetary gains attached to them can earn said cluster of individuals. Can see that in talent competitions, sports, to anything involved in the art world. There is a big difference between art and sports, however. Art is subjective, which is what makes it art; whereas, sports use specific rules and guidelines to accompany a very solid scoring system. Most points means the victor. The idea of competing in something where essentially the rules can change at a whim depending on who is the judge also means those participating can have skewed views of what win or lose means.

I will make this known very quickly. I hate popularity contests. To add to that, I especially despise the people who whine when their popular favorites don't win. This goes for anything, from movie actors, to novelists. Stephanie Meyer is a terrible author. Her books are bad and while they may be bestsellers that does not mean they're good. It's a done-to-death formula that sucks in weak-willed individuals who can't make beautiful and more engaging real lives of their own. What can be said of those who are praised constantly that their work is great? Maybe it is, but maybe they are also followed around by said individuals who claim Twilight is great fiction. Did this occur? Most definitely so.

People watch people for whatever reason they like, though on dA it's usually for the capacity to either create fan art or essentially regurgitate the same content and same style ad nauseum for years on end. The more original you are, the less likely you are to be noticed on dA. (Part of the reason why my watcher count has gone up so much in the last year is purely because of the sexy furry commissions, no other reason which is rather disappointing.) In the case of a design contest, being popular is probably more of a detriment than not since simply put, said people are not prone to being criticized. This was highly evident when one of the most praised of the entrants removed their work following the contest. There is also the case that it's unlikely most people are attracted to those whose galleries are essentially random and unpredictable. Placidity kills originality.

Outside of people believing the ones who deserve to win are the ones who earn the most respect/attention, there are multitudes of other different personalities. Insecurity ran high among certain individuals, shown by certain comments and comparisons. Same reflection went to the actual descriptions themselves. In such a situation where one is judged on creativity, people do this naturally. "Well, mine is better because of this..." or "At least MY style is different!" (when no one is being judged on style in this case). Depending on ego, or perceived value of effort versus reward, a whole slew of attitudes come out. All of them though are completely normal in a creative contest. Some people are polite, others downright nasty. Again, supporters are a show of that as well. "You should win because..."

After a while some of this can be truly seen as typical, that even in a creative scenario where skill is removed one can still produce the same attitudes and behaviors any normal contest would. Not every artist, and not everyone who supports the artist can simply stand back and note the thought put into it without scrutinizing the neighboring piece. It is in our nature to compare as people. It is truly sad though to observe people still being intimidated by people with stronger drawing skills or styles, or by the weight of the positive comments they received on their image. Like with every art contest that does remove say skill or technique from the equation, it is a matter of yourself, your own sphere of influence and how you bring that forth to the rest of the world. It is art that is judged without a discernment for how an artist does things, or who they are but what they produce in the end that is more valuable. Standing out and being different should always be its own reward; too bad society has yet to figure this out most of the time.

It's not always easy to write journals. This goes back to a basic premise, of when we had pen and paper journals as the only ways to detail our thoughts of the day. There are people who are diligent note-takers, those who want to be and fail, and those who simply do not care. In the modern era the act of creating journals has become a lot easier, mostly since the manner in which we articulate our lives is more forward, narcissistic and brief. Blogger, Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr are all different medias to project ones daily opinions and thoughts. On dA we have actual Journals, and depending on who you are and what you use outside of deviantArt dictates the approach and frequency.

I am going to admit that the one to two month intervals between journals is because I am one of those who attempts and fails at creating a journal, constantly. To make a journal of the classical thoughtful variety takes thought, observation and research. These are the type of journals that are lengthy and informative, something challenging to imitate unless you're adept at essay format (and I am pretty convinced that once a person leaves the educational forum that they no longer want to make another essay ever again.) Now to do the journal that the masses most commonly associate to is different. It's not really then the obstacle of what one can write about, it's the matter of sitting down and doing it.

Those that did traditional journals did it so they could meticulously note their lives. This was an invention before ready-made film and camcorders, since there was simply no other way to document the lives of themselves, their families and the special events they engaged in. Most of these were not published, and kept privately up until the owner lost possession of it (whether through misplacement or death). The modern phenomena of blogs and Facebooking warps this careful personal studying into one that most people really wish people would stop analyzing so obsessively.

It's well documented now that those who actively tally their lives online do it out of shear narcissism. These are not people who, if they could have, kept private journals. Their exploits must be seen and heard by all, and everyone must indulge in their actions. It's not worth writing about unless other people can partake in it. This isn't a concept of legacy, privacy, intimate moments. The stuff that goes up is selectively censored, designed to be praised. None of these individuals aim to make an actual journal, nor do they aim to make the articulate ones that defines some of the most informative magazine journals in the world. Of course, doing the latter is much more challenging than either of the former since it removes itself entirely from daily life and into something more. In that alone makes writing such journals difficult at times, especially within narrow themes.

It might be kind of obvious by now that I have very little respect for most deviantArt Journals that look like overstated Twitter feeds with pretty graphics. There are those on dA who do share in crafted journals, where most do not. As no one I watch makes such journals, I do not watch any since they tend to be drivel. On the other hand, since this type of journal has come up in multiple variations, it also can be interpreted as drivel. Generally, my journals revolve around the deviantArt community and art in general, and unlike the standard dA "journal" they are much harder to come up with. I am not sure how much people appreciate self-indulgent projections as much as something that as some forethought. In any case, I am always open to suggestions in case anyone has them. Admittedly, such writing is hard. There is a certain ease that comes with repeatedly spewing the contents of ones day online.

We all create things in one form or another. Whether we do it for ourselves, or do it for others (school, work) we have all been put into a position where we have a project and have eventually finished it. In art, not everyone finishes their art. It is common amongst artists to not complete work, or leave a piece with the quality that would be considered incomplete. Given even that, a modern artist rarely extends the work of an image over a period of months, or years. This may vary a bit when it comes to other other common art form available, that of the literary form. Though unlike art, a piece of writing that is incomplete fails to deliver its message, and its becomes one of the more vital differences. A single picture creates its thousands words, but to make a clear picture, one must write at least that much.

On dA we have the opportunity to experience both mediums of expression. Granted, outside of poetry it is often hard to gauge the tremendous scope that writing entails. With art most people know what defines true effort, the traditional paintings or most scopes of animation, along with some comics. One must sit down and with absolute diligence and persistence get from the starting point and to the end, forcing across the will to not abandon their work. We can't all do this. The concept may no longer be appealing, the quality of the work has improved over time, making the start of the project seem inferior. We judge ourselves, produce self-doubt and thus the a project that spans a long amount of time suddenly becomes scorned. Get a person to work on a comic, and two years later, their art and writing style has improved and they are no longer finding their initial motivating idea to be all that motivating. The only resolve is to either continuously redo the work forever, push through to the end just to get it over with quicker, or abandon it.

Of course, what happens to us when we finish a project, whether small or large? Given all the work it takes, why bother starting one in the first place? It completely depends on the person. Adulation can be one of those emotions that makes finishing a project worth it. A tinge of relief for getting it out of the way. Possibly a bit of shame since it didn't meet expectations, but it just needs to be done and over with anyway. Some people are motivated by their results, a sort of completionist's high, equating to a mental finishing line; others, maybe money, to appease someone else, the concept of practice and progress. Within more character orientated formats, the quirk is that sometimes the person being appeased is neither real, and sometimes a person at all. And then once the project is done, the emotions are gone, then comes the question of, "What happens next?"

Found myself in that strange place today. Devote 12 years of my life to essentially a creative offspring that finally left the nest and now I don't know what to do. As both a writer and an artist, the writing side is what caters to completion of everything. There is always something, to be followed by something else, because motivation says so. At the same time, as a person with an online presence, representing a small interest group, and with concepts and characters that are familiar to others, it is not the same as saying, "Okay, it's over. Time to move on." Suddenly it goes from 12 years of a project to 12 years devoted so solely to the individual in the project that the project is a spouse. So what does one do in this scenario? I honestly do not know. In the case of creating a project resting completely on the emotional attachment to a character, then if killing them off doesn't help, what do you do next? (One of the key ways to show when writers in bad television series no longer like the project or don't intend to continue it, everything dies in it.)

I have expressed an opinion of character projects, something of an even more emotionally tasking bit of involvement than just art or writing. Unlike a project where one is creating a detailed layout of the sewer system in Manhattan, a project revolving around a character has a filthy habit of worming its way into a person's mind. To pry ones self away people either slowly retire their character, or change it to fit a new purpose. Not everyone owns characters along the lines of the Hardy Boys where their adventures can stretch for eternity. And are also not Stan Lee who will have a character that everyone loves and essentially will never let Spider-Man go. The most beautiful story, art, and in essence a character is one that finishes. It can be preserved forever, but honestly, George Lucas... Han shot first! I don't care how many edits you make. The first one was the right one. People become attached, and then don't go through the emotional stages following their project, letting it be what its intentions were initially, a sign that the transition out of the project was never complete, possibly never even wanted. The mega project never has a following, because it never had an end.

While this journal is a bit of a garbled mess, it would be interesting to gather the opinions of others, how they deal with retiring their projects that involve art, writing and characters, as well as what to do afterwards. For those who can guess why this was written, there was a warning set up for it some time ago.

One of the themes that I wanted to touch on this year was the concept of how people loathe their work and themselves during different parts of their development cycles. On deviantArt we have multitudes of different artists all at different stages of their artistic development. There are those who are starting out, the hobbyists, the students, freelancers and the professionals all from various walks of life. And guaranteed that amongst these groups with the exception of the fledglings, there is likely not a single person who has looked at some of their older work, and hated it. Another given, that outside of the professionals, there are many out there that do look up to another artist for inspiration, guidance, or piteous jealously.

With the exception of those starting out, almost every other group of artist will have work that they look at and wonder what they were thinking at the time. It may be something ridiculous, a piece of fanart possibly or something that shows their own personal sense of ineptitude at one thing or another. On deviantArt, it is very obvious when a person crosses the line from mild, disgruntled annoyance to their old work, to outright hatred of it. Gone in a moment is the last 4 years of their gallery, done in a purge to mentally cleanse them. Where they might consider it a cleansing of, it's the destruction of history, progression and in a way denying that as an artist that they grew over time. All artists develop over time. Where you might not see the progress of the masters from their wee drawing years, everyone started somewhere with the incapacity to shade, no perspective and proportions that would denote the world is full of munchkins.

It does take a while to get to the point where the old work is a scar. This comes over time, as one drifts in and out of interests and cannot stand the fatal flaws of their younger, more ignorant self. Not everyone will do this though. There are the rarer people who acknowledge their progress with humility, and then there are those who have not gotten to the stage where they can yet see the change of style that comes after years of practice. Those who are in that field are the people who either are not particularly self-critical, who draw mostly for fun and personal expression, and then those who have yet to know what it feels like to be better than what you were before. There are of course a lot of artists like this on deviantArt as there is a large teenage user base. The individuals are starting out, proud with their capacity to at least depict something. Now where you have the skilled artist lamenting about their old work, the fresh artist has their own pressing problem; which is how to be like the professional artist who no longer needs to look up to anyone.

Even professionals have other professional artists they admire, but not nearly to the level that an inexperienced artist does. Everyone else who is late teens and up, and has been drawing for several years will probably be better in terms of experience and skill than the newly minted young artist (newly minted referring to the ones that just got their first sketchpad and are not a prodigy). Almost everything they draw will be what they think is their best, and something to be proud of, while at the same time looking beyond to the art world around them and how 'everyone' else seems to ooze talent. At this point in early development, they are more in love with their work, and the work of other artists. Almost that anyone who is of greater experience becoming miserable in turn due to their own progress. It makes the fledgling artist seem bright-eyed, but painfully naive to others around.

I am not a professional artist, I freelance which puts me at a level where there are those who are way better than me that I admire, and a lot of artists I don't, as well as seeing older work as an unfortunate step towards higher quality (though I do acknowledge my old work, I am not too terribly proud of it). Gone are the days of looking to nearly anyone else as better, it becomes a case where the bitterness sets in, and then the strangely placed remarks of, "I wish I could do that," now occur more regularly. We always strive for something, where I am now beating myself over the delayed progression and older art, and the younger artists are the ones now telling me they wish they could do what I do. Because of this, it is easy to make observations on that being an artist is basically a stage where one is always hating themselves, for either not being skilled, or eventually not being skilled enough at the time. There is no real way to comfort the latter, and telling the former that eventually they will become better is a climb up the ladder that they yet cannot see. The statement, "Practice makes perfect," and, "Just give it time," is the advice that developing artists give themselves, a mooted comfort at best. Sadly, it's about all I can say, and yet I know that I can never prepare a person for eventually hating what they use to draw.

We are all always in a state of transition, always developing, always being critical. Being critical is what makes us improve as artists, but it is also what can produce an almost never-ending cycle of resentment. As an artist, it is likely the individual will always resent their work in one way or another. There are some positive truths in this. 1.) You will always get better. As long as you aim to draw and stay observant, you will improve. 2.) Be yourself, not someone else. If your goal is to become Picasso, you never will be because you are not Picasso, but you yourself can make something that is wholly unique if you focus on your improvement without the desire to be like, or better than someone else. 3.) When you do become better, or even the best, this is no guarantee this will make you happy when it comes to how you see yourself over time. Art is like memories, not all are good ones but they make you who you are. If you like yourself as a person as you get older, then give thanks to your old art, not shun it. It helped you along the way.

This is something I normally do not do on deviantArt, of which I reserve for Fur Affinity. Generally, the Journals on dA are reserved for anecdotes on the artistic community, mostly that of deviantArt. My apologies that this time around any extent of observation or sinister wit are lacking. For those wanting an actual Journal, the plan will likely be something along the lines of completing one of the to-dos from my "12 Days of Tiny Journals" within the next two weeks. Of the extent of experimentation, it is mostly to see really what sort of commission culture really is on dA by being outright blunt... Would anyone on dA be willing to commission me here? The majority of the commissions I do are for people from Fur Affinity, or individuals who have simultaneous deviantArt and Fur Affinity accounts. Given the nature of Fur Affinity this means that on deviantArt, there are a lot of images I can't/won't post, and a lot of the ones that are tend to be provocative or somewhat distasteful (I have received complaints ranging from "Why do I edit some?" to "Why I don't post everything I draw" to "I wish people would ask you (me) for nicer things). I would like to show more variety than just furries and smut and would be delighted to offer my skills to those in a community I believe have a greater appreciation of artistic skill over just money shots.

For anyone interested (or remotely curious) you can view my commission guide below (all the links are safe). And my apologies once again for not creating a productive journal:
_____________________________________________________________________

Line Work: Fully inked image
You will get a fully inked picture of a character of your choice, of any complexity.
$10 for base cost
+$3 per additional character
+$4 for background (varies)
Ex.1 [link] (General Pokemon. Option available to do illustrator lines as such.)     
Ex.2 [link] (General furry.)
Ex.3 [link] (Various. Eight characters.)

Full Color: Line work in full color with shading
You will get a character of your choice, drawn, colored and shaded in an American/Anime style. This includes a basic background/scene.
$20 for base cost
+$4 per additional character
+$7 for complex background (varies)
Ex.1 [link] (General Macro/Micro. Two characters with complex background)  
Ex.2 [link] (General furry. 4 characters with cheap background)   
Ex.3 [link] (Pokemon comic. +$5 per each panel.)

Realism/Airbrushing: High-end work with semi-photo realistic qualities
You will get a character of your choice rendered in high detail with Photoshop's airbrush
$45 for base cost
-$15 for speed paint
+$15 per additional character
+$15 for complex background
Ex.1 [link] (General furry. Speed paint.)      
Ex.2 [link] (General monster.)    
Ex.3  [link] (General human. Cheap background.)

3D Models: Scenery, object or character models, textured and rigged for motion. You will get a 3D model of your choice made in Maya. Also you will get the texture files, the Model file, 4 isometric renderings and an image of the model in a position of your choosing. *Select customers only
$100-300 for base cost, varies on complexity
+$50 for character with expressions (6 max)
Ex.1 [link] (Scenery model. $100.)    
Ex.2 [link] (Monster character. $200)    
Ex.3 [link] (Pokemon character. $150. -$100 if model mod.)


Expect a time frame of 1 week for line work to 3 months for complex 3D models. Creation does not begin until initial payment is received. A basic sketch will be provided for all stages. Payments can be made out in checks, money transfers, or Paypal Payments. All funds are in USD.
Requests can range in nature from child friendly material to adult, and can be of a variety of topics; furry, human, Pokemon, sci-fi, fantasy and so on. Special requests can be made directly at vaporeon249@hotmail.com or through Notes. VLK reserves the right to reject requests.
All requests are subject to fair use, and will displayed in VLK's domains unless specified otherwise. Owners of the art received have permission to use the art at their discretion

For all who fell for my prank journal "Doing Free Art Requests" [link] , jokes on you. You've been pranked. For those who missed it or were wary, what this joke was, and then what eventually turned into an unexpected social experiment was that I had art block, and was advertising for "free requests" as a way to help me get over it. Some of the things I did mention were truths, including the more longer yarns I wove to people who were a bit questioning. On the other hand, I am still taking commissions to deal with my various financial needs, and the only art block I have is that I don't have as much time I'd like to, to devote to my own work. That is all there.

Now this journal became a very unwitting, yet shocking experiment. I ran it side-by-side on both deviantArt and Fur Affinity. I had set aside rules, put forth a mannerism of humility, and a need for help with my block. The numbers were telling.
Way more people, especially complete strangers applied on Fur Affinity. Only 1 person on Fur Affinity knew immediately it was a prank (and kudos to him for knowing because of my change in mannerism). 5 people on dA got that it was a prank. One girl especially really played along with me on it because she knew me that well. A few people I managed to convince out of their doubt. The rest of this came down to a matter of manners and personality, and the reality being that most people do "Free Requests" for those they care about and won't take them for a ride. Here, I am true to my promises of always offering requests, as I always have, to those who show they care about me, my work, and don't abuse my kindness. A lot of people abused my kindness, and definitely are not friends or puts into question about those friendships. I offer commissions, and still offer commissions as an act of financial trust. With it, a person becomes my client, someone who has a vested financial interest in me, and in turn, that said active interest I validate with timely and efficient work, of great quality.

Those of you who want to know why you are (you will be contacted individually) or are not getting your requests, here are the examples of those who get them.
Of the roughly 75 people that applied, only 1 person, that was it, actually expressed immediately his sympathies for my apparent art block, and didn't even care about the free art! Over 75 people were more focused on the idea of free art, then being actively invested in the idea of the struggling artist. If I was any other artist who was doing free art giveaways and expressed a reason why, I would want people to know they cared more about me than what they get out of it. No one showed that at the onset. So to that one, single person, he will get his request, in my speed paint style. Thank you for being a human being with empathy. I am aware that there were others who did show some concern, but generally few mentioned about helping or solving the art block at all.
This was even more startling. Only 3 people, of 75, said "Please". Seriously. Just 3 people actually used that word. Two of you (one qualifies for the last category), will get your requests in a sketch format. Thank you for using your manners. Obviously in this day and age, people have forgotten common courtesy.
There were actually people who, in their asking for their requests did not look at my gallery, knew what I drew, and some even had the audacity to chew me out when I asked a question. Most didn't even read the Journal, just the title. Then there were some, who when they communicated to me, knew exactly what was in my gallery, what I was like, and what I wanted to see. These were people who understood the need for challenge, or to give me things that would absolutely make me smile. And to the several people who showed their love, you will all get some colored work.

Of my experiments, none have disappointed me more than this one. Apparently as it goes, if people see things on sale, or for free, whether it be an item in a store, or a person's time, they will jump on it. A person who is offering their valuable free time is either a person who wants to give their friends little things to treasure, or is genuinely out to make the world happy (and after this experiment, the latter has to be very rare). Of course, it does seem cruel to use a prank of promises for free art and lead people on, indeed wasting your time; but really, why is everyone being rejected? It's a simple concept of that when people do things for others they give part of themselves to a project. No artist, ever, would want to put their heart and soul into something, for someone who can't show them respect. I hope that of those who did not get what you asked for, that you use this experience to forge better experiences with your fellow artists. If anyone were to come to me as a friend or a client, then to you I offer my respect. Hopefully in the future everyone can show more exemplary behavior, and be someone any artist would love to work with. Thank you all for your participation.

My apologies for those expecting normal Journals this time around, but sometimes I do need to break from the norm.

For a limited time only I'm offering colored images of 1-3 characters for anyone who asks. The reason why is mostly since I have art block and have just reached the quota I was aiming for in commission earnings. With the money part covered, but my art block not, I really need to do something to break this block and get to drawing things I enjoy.

Please leave the description of what you want by Noting me and your basic contact information and I will get back to you.

Disclaimer: All examples provided will be from my Gallery spanning across the whole 8 years.I do not want to compare other artists since that is not fair, and I also do not want to accuse active art thieves, or deal with images in my Journals that may disappear one day. All images again are being used as examples, and any situation mentioned with them is hypothetical.


Identifying an art thief is an art on of itself. You have to be able to recognize things such as artistic style, as well as being able to identify traits of human psychology and demographics. On deviantArt, the best of the art thief hunters out there are masters of these three things. In a way, it is less about knowing about the art involved, then it is about the type of people that steal.

Now not everyone steals outright on deviantArt. There are those who collect works that they like, honestly believing dA is akin to Photobucket in terms of image sharing. Then there are others who manipulate works that they should not, and even worse, take credit for work that is not theirs at all. Not everyone is in the latter category, as a lot of people are in the first. In the list of examples the prevailing mentality will be of 'people taking and posting nice work that is not theirs'. There are people out there that will steal adult images, or steal images of poor quality, but as this is a Journal and the second of those two is not common, then these will not be referred to.

Visual learners and people with amazing visual recall are capable of, at times, looking at a thumbnail and knowing exactly who drew the picture. From observation they can tell where that person is from in the world, what their gender is, and possibly their age. If you are a person who happens to know a lot of artists, then it may be a coincidence that you will literally know who said work belongs to. This is not always a guarantee that you will guess everything about the artist correctly. Everyone is different, but boys are boys, and girls think like girls for the most part, and we are all influenced by the culture of the country or countries we have grown up in. With something like a basic 7 image sweep of a person's gallery, it becomes even easier to identify prevailing themes, interests, and sometimes even political or other social views. Art is a representation of ourselves, so a consistent gallery drawn all by one person can usually be comfortably picked out without much effort. (There are people who have large spans of work, or who can successfully vary their style, but it isn't the norm, and even still, they usually carry the same skills between all their images.) This sort of talent is not something that can usually be based upon a single image. As a defender of art, it is just one of the methods used in conjunction with others that help profile a person and assist in catching thieves.

Three examples of a very consistent theme/style:

          

(Relatively consistent airbrushed shading, hard lined backgrounds, over-saturated skin tones and specific proportions.)

Three examples of a very inconsistent theme/style:

          

(Varied mediums. All different shading types. Different genres and themes.)

Over a period of a few days, or a few weeks, the consistent themes are expected, not the inconsistent ones especially when it comes down to proportions. Unless the person is a caricature artist, they will never purposely make mistakes on their proportions when going between their lower quality work, and higher quality work. Anything juvenile in appearance when comparing images is an instant red flag when looking at a gallery. As for using these images to tell what the gender of the artist is, where they come from and so on is that even despite the attempt to imitate certain styles, certain cultures find certain proportions and traits usually more appealing than others. Obnoxiously big breasts and adult bodies are more of an American preference if you happen to stumble upon human work. Very crafted anime work (the more professional looking stuff that should be in a game) is more of a trait to the asian artists, simply because the programs and tools they use support it. (Europeans have more ready access to paints, and asians to markers.) Again it is to note, people vary greatly but we are still all products of our environment. In the case of say an artist from Portugal posted a picture that is obviously made with Copic Markers (readily available in Asia. There are specialty stores elsewhere but that also makes them expensive), this is probably someone who is lying. If their art does not match what is said in their profile information, it is appropriate to bring it into question.

Matching the profile:



Good: A female artist, likely late teens from parts of North America, some of South America or Europe. (Female artists are prone to drawing more expressions, less line heavy pieces in softer colors. Closed lined or colored lips are less prevalent in asian influenced work.)
Bad: A male artist from Asia in his early teens, or mid-life. (Males are more into heavy details and bolder colors. Younger teens are poor at drawing, and older adults may not always draw fan art.)

Art is not the only identifier of an art thief. What they say also matters. An art thief often speaks little of the work they posted. They might not title it well, or inaccurately. To add to it, often they grossly misplace the work into the wrong categories: 3D into 2D, Digital as Traditional (this is the most common error and should be an immediate problem). Photographers may take lots of pictures, and categorize by number, but very bland descriptors with numbers for drawings are almost always guaranteed to be someone who did not draw the picture they are posting. If you made something that you are proud of, bottom line is you work to express that to others.

Poor Naming and Descriptions:



Title: "Rouge03"
Category: Fan Art > Traditional Art > Paintings > Books & Novels
Description: Bat is smexy XD

People who are afraid of their work being stolen will make efforts to protect their work. They put watermarks, signatures and other such things on the piece to keep people from taking it and claiming it as their own. If you are lucky and don't do that, and have a lot of people who like you, then your work has its own protection in those that care about you. If you don't and are a decent artist, then maybe watermarks are best. Not all work is stolen, but the more exposure it has, the more likely it will be stolen. Because of this very specific trait of good work, of a specific type and content, plus exposure means certain types of work will often be the products of art theft over other types. Work that is usually stolen is anime work of great quality, pretty pictures of also great quality, or very over exposed fan art.

Example of types of images people steal:

          

At this point it becomes rather obvious that you would have encountered some stolen work. The matter at hand is reporting it. Luck so has it that if an art thief is really active and people know about it, their page and images will be covered in "Hidden Comment/Report Spam" comments all over the place. The person does not want to admit their guilt, and thinks hiding it will make it go away. Then again, you may be the first person to see stolen work, and want to deal with it. deviantArt and the internet can assist in that. By going to the deviation in question and going to the bottom right below the statistics, there is an option to "Report Deviation." Choose  "Permission Issues". At this point there is a problem, since dA demands proof. Internet comes into play. By using the reverse search feature in Tineye [link] you can enter the url or an image of the art in question, and see if Tineye finds a copy. A new image shouldn't show with any results, and if it it does, it's likely taken from one of those sources. Google also offers the same feature. By going to Images, you can click on the little camera next to the "Search" button and also find the image the exact same way. Any hits often means it exists elsewhere, and likely not to the ownership of that person. The report can be submitted, and you can feel good that you defended the art of others.

On deviantArt reporting stolen work takes often months to result in removal. Harassing a person or false reporting can result in the reporter being removed in turn from dA. These sort of people who do steal knowingly are people who are lazy or trolls, and want to take credit for things they cannot create themselves. Hard work does pay off, and people will acknowledge it, just give it time. Of course, learning these sort of things about art thief can also help a person understand the type of people out there, and how they really feel about their work and the things they create. Not everyone has the vast scope of English at their disposal, some people are also really talented but shy, and use their work to speak for them. Not everyone is an art thief who acts like that. Still, no one wants their work stolen, so hopefully in the future everyone can protect someone's right to their art, and maybe someday, someone will return the favor to you in kind.

While not one to entirely goof around, there are some Journal topics either I would like to remind others to expect, remind myself to work on, or are simply too short, or not impersonal enough to justify going in as their own. The idea here will be to keep to twelve pointers, in spirit of the holidays.

12.) Giving Thanks
Firstly, I would like to extend my most sincerest gratitude to ~MewtwoStruckBack for giving me my Premium Membership. I just wish I used them to their full extent. As for those who generally comment on anything I do, thank you for reading, thinking and being articulate. There is nothing greater than knowing that there are people out there on dA with more than half a brain in their skull and a will to use it. While I could and may mention in the future about how people like to accumulate mass amounts of Watchers for often petty reasons; frankly having a mass of a pointless spam of comments is nauseating. Why anyone wants that is beyond my mental capacity to conceptualize.

11.) Polls
For the last year or so, Polls have been used as a method to get further insight into how everyone seems to think. Some have been well executed, some have not. As my Journals are frequent and long-winded, sometimes this is an easier way to get a response. Granted, at the same time because polls are constructed of one-liners, not all the questions have answers curtailed properly. I may express my frustration about this, as I am not a statistician and not capable of always having the foresight to give the most accurately framed polls. For those who have Premium Memberships, I may want to consider doing a Journal to demonstrate proper polling questions to reduce opinionated sway.

10.) Journal Diaries
Since relatively day one, the idea of Journals was to articulate thoughts, but not in the most vain, or narcissistic manner. As it stands, I am a person who has no care, or whim to either vent my complaints, or take any importance in my daily workings. Truly if it were the case, it would look something like this:
"December 19, 2011:
I swear to God the Poles' houses smoke as much as they do. Can't breathe. Can't sleep. Guess what? Another terrorist leader capable of nuclear arms just kicked the bucket. No more Oompa-Loompa Man (Kim Jung-Il)!"
Due to deviantArt's updates relating to Sta.sh and the Journals, I can now see how many people look at journals. It is far more than I had expected, but then there are people who make single sentence ones with greater results. As it is ones own writing, it is up to their discretion as to what they write, and if people will want to read it.

9.) Memes
Pronounced as "meems", this is the one most loathsome reason why I do not Watch almost anyone's Journals. A meme is a viral concept that superimposes itself onto everything around it, carried on by its viral appeal. Memes often include the lengthy questionnaires that are actually curtailed to a 14 year old audience. (Or in my husband's stroke of impudence, Fus Ro Dahing one of my images.) If you're an adult, and taking a "Virgin" quiz you are seriously missing the point. The idea of these are basically for immature giggles, and an excuse to get away with personal questions. As it goes, most people care little for your sex life, if you did drugs, or if you like Justin Bieber. For those who do not exist in the rapid response, insta-download mentality of life, we indulge in conversation. As such, conversation is in itself an art, and probably something to be brought up later.

8.) Statistical Openess
One of the things I have noticed with what I would deem as 'hostile' individuals is their capacity to shy away from openly expressing their Activity or their Stats, and sometimes everything else. With my membership, I can see regular visitors, and get a general idea of who actually goes through my activity. While some deem it as snooping of sorts, the idea remains to be open and transparent. Most internet activity cannot be hidden on dA to begin with, so bothering to hide it shows some level of uneducated paranoia. As for the Stats option, presumably anyone who hides that is out of pure vanity and shame (and then consequently brags all the time when they hit certain pageview counts or Watcher levels). Everyone does it for their own reasons, of course and it is not something I want to devote a lot of writing to. Personally, it offers a behavioral baseline.

7.) Art Theft
My New Year's resolution is to train people in the art of recognizing consistency in styles, when a person isn't posting their own work, and how to tell that apart. The struggle of doing this properly has been a strong stance against making a Journal a picture gallery, that, and I have been hesitant to make one on examples consisting of my work only (as I don't believe it is fair to compare the art of others). There are a lot of people who struggle at style recognition in general, and it is one of the hallmarks of becoming good at critiquing images, and being an art reviewer.

6.) How to get yourself banned in 60 seconds by being 'nice', but still technically 'naughty'
Some people see my Activity, so relating to that topic, they see that I report a massive amount of art theft, and tend to heckle the posters since the dA admin response time is very slow. There are ways to be a troll on here, but a lot will get you in trouble, and actually will result in a permanent user ban. Though it may be frustrating, silent reporting is always available and the recommended method. Sorry if everyone thinks going in guns-a-blazin' is risk free.

5.) "All I Want For Christmas"
Birthdays and holidays mark the time when friends, or admirers with free time ask for or award gifts to other users on deviantArt. One person I watch spends all of her art time doing nothing but gift giving. In the same frame of mind, there are those I know who persistently whine for things. During the holidays, artists have both a lot of free time, and none at all. Artists are poor and art can be used as gifts, but it takes time and energy that may be needed for friends and family. And if you're a gift giver who has no money, or capacity to draw, then there are ways to do so on dA by simply sending a message that wishes some holiday cheer but is beyond the simple "Merry Christmas". And for every artist in her life... a Daily Deviation would be nice. (Hint.)

4.) Art Blocks
This is just one of those things that depends on a person's work ethic, their emotional state and their self-esteem. For some, the hang-up on perfection, and showcasing the perfect piece is the obstacle, and for others, they simply cannot get any idea into their head. As I am from the "muscle through problems" class, then creating such a Journal is a bad idea since I can be prone to bias. If a person has an art block, be understanding and patient. These things can take a while to clear up.

3.) Bad business practices
If there is a single thing that needs to be done, it is of course teaching commissioners to expect good quality and service (getting a penciled sketch 3 months after paying is not good service), and teaching the artists to be responsible about what they offer, for how much, and clearly express and be realistic about their due dates. If you can't devote a few free hours a week to work for others, you can't accept commissions. Period. Personal pet peeve is seeing people being idiotic with their expectations of themselves and consequently ripping people off.

2.) Ashamed of older work
Like with the statistical shame, it seems there are people here who are afraid to admit that as artists, they develop. Part of my goal, as expressed through critiquing the work of others, is to encourage people to develop, learn and evolve as artists. Old work lets you know where you have come from. [link] is work from roughly 10 years ago, and something like this [link] or this [link] is from 12 years ago, possibly a little more. At the very least, it's good for a cheap laugh. Practice hard, draw lots, accept criticism and understand that as an artist, that we have our share of triumphs and defeats. If you work at it, you will get better, believe me.

1.) Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!
Best wishes to all, and hopes that your holiday season will be full of cheer.

I made a few polls some time ago asking about Fakemon creation. (A Fakemon is an unofficial, fan made Pokemon.)  I also made a general poll concerning what a person thought of their own creative originality. As it would go, most people weren't original all of the time, so everyone borrowed at least an idea or two, with some people doing that upwards of half of the time. Borrowing an idea is simple: Did this idea exist previously? Were you inspired by it? If yes to either, then you lack originality and almost everyone does it. As people, we can willingly share, document and express broader concepts of knowledge, and new ideas, but imitation is still a key point in which we learn. This is through our language structures, our art. Our DNA replicates, we reproduce, our knowledge is passed forth for generations. Existence is the act of copying. To the adage that anything original has already been done, that new content is in fact stolen, is there even such a thing as original anymore?

We conceptualize a character to another person in words more than in image. What makes a character is more than appearance. They have a name, a history, a reason for being. A common character is attached to a story. One of the most written about individuals, of whose story all knew at one point was through the Christian denomination, that being of Jesus. Resurrected from the dead, healed the sick, virgin birth, and believe it or not, this same story was copied after, as did it also exist before and among other religious factions of its time. From a non-religious standing, a messiah complex was a popular character arc; so is the concept of 'the hero' or a tragic damsel. Classic storytelling revolves around the hero's journey, going forth, seeking adventure, rescuing said damsels. Common appearances and names were to whatever was seen as noble and appealing during that time. Exotic character types originated from folklore, or based themselves after already existing phenomena. Cyclops have a real genetic variation, cyclopia. (Condition where the two hemispheres of the brain fail to diverge. Two eyes, two hemispheres.) Dwarfs are associated to real life, lack of stature conditions (about 200 of which result in abnormally short stature). Dragons, as one can guess come from lizards, and in some cases, the unearthing of dinosaur bones. These are examples then of inspiration from source. Not completely original, but not exactly copying from someone else either, at least initially.

As things come into fashion, then the real act of copying begins. Fan characters are imitations, or attempts at something that already exists. We see it, we like it, we want one for ourselves, because it is in vogue, and present to us, thus we imitate. This is where you get the Naruto characters, the Fakemon and the randomly made-up Jedi. To the standing of anything of the three mentioned, all are characters that more or less fit into a world or a set structure but don't always copy something to the same style. My Little Pony on the other hand, is a complete immersion with the only differences being name, color scheme and markings of said pony. You can't really take these out of context and place them into another world as easily as one could with a Naruto-based character. So then what line has to be crossed before you go from fan character, to original fan character, to an original character?

A fan character either is the exact copy of something already existing. (Example. You did a drawing of Pikachu.) Or, it's already existing but you decided to give it a different name. (Example. You did a drawing of a female Pikachu with a bow on it and called her Sprinkles.) An original fan character falls under the lines of; you've seen this thing somewhere before, it looks like a Digimon, but it's not one that exists in the canon. Unfortunately, while you own the name and design, Bandai still owns the rights to anything Digimon. The last one falls under the line of either it has no actual ownership in terms of concept (like a dragon), or you somehow miraculously pulled something out of thin air and made it new. If a person actually accomplishes this true form of rarity, usually it's some heavy modification of a human or animal, or an alien or a monster. Humans equate to a blander version of originality that while original, isn't exactly not inspired by our day-to-day lives.

Anyone who has probably watched me for longer than a month will recognize the black and purple Mewtwo-looking thing (known as Mewblade, a Mewthree Fakemon). My collection of characters is at about 200, between mains, supports and random things I have named. And from all of it, I have the full range of characters lacking in any originality, to being very original. Full on fan character is namely my persona, which is literally a Vaporeon, Lugia and a Krabby, with slight changes in coloring. This includes also any Pokemon I've ever made reference to in stories. I also have the range of fantasy, semi-original characters including a type of pegasus (Blades), and dragons ranging from Techtium, the satellite one, to a classic European Black, Chaos. Then there is my annoyingly obvious range of original fan characters, such as all my Mewthrees, Sunkissed (specifically a Fakemon species who probably looks more original than really anything else), and Charge The Raccoon (Sonic The Hedgehog inspired). As for wholly original, of course it comes down to the monsters and aliens, like the two-headed monster Di-koud (an example of the condition Polycephaly) (though after I created this, it suddenly became a mandatory drawing assignment in my post secondary school and the concept of being unique vanished), or the liquid metal mess that is Pronema (an extreme example of hypoplasia below the knee). In having such a range, it is easier to stand behind certain designs, and recognize the faults of many others in terms of originality.

Aiming to be original isn't hard, it's just inconvenient and hard to broach with others. In making something original, it alienates from the familiar, of which people generally dislike. At the same time though, that touch of originality can bring admiration and pride since it is challenging to gravitate from the norm and make something truly unique. With it comes a bit of an irony, in researching you know what's out there, that creates influence, but by not looking, then the chance of copying by mistake is higher. To get that original looking whatever takes time, and hopefully something everyone will try to attain at one time or another. For those who do find themselves making fan characters, and claiming them original, that is a sign of ignorance. As it goes, nothing ever is truly original to its fullest extent, and sticking by the statement that it is original, when it's obviously meant to be in Naruto only furthers that perception that you are ignorant. It is still a fan character, albeit of your own design. This is the moment you should stop deceiving yourself.

One of the things I do as part of my daily browsing routine on deviantArt is searching for and reporting offensive images, usually pornography. One of the other things I have been doing for the last year is taking commissions and working on a pile load of those; some of which is often of the unsavoury variety. Since I have been dealing with both for a while, the idea for this Journal is to highlight the differences between art, porn, and loosely that of fetish work and commissions. This is the classic artist arguement, slightly less upfront than "What is art?" it's, "Is porn art?"

Everyone who is of the minimum age requirement of 13 on this website probably already knows what pornography is to some extent. It's usually two adults engaged in visible depictions of sexual intimacy. If you're slightly older, and unfortunate, this will include things based off of fetishes, commonly of the power/dominance category. As for what art is, basically the loose description is something made by a person or group of people, meant to depict something. In the most loosest of sense, food sculptures, visual poems, and cinematography can all classify as art. One of the most common arguements of those who post fetish, erotic and pornographic pieces on dA, is that such things are artistic since they come from the hands of a person, with the intent to depict something.

Great art is usually summed as work that follows art rules. We have the golden ratio, perspective, color theory, the rule of thirds and so on as guidelines to what makes great work. Bad art, is more or less the uneducated attempt at great art. The rule of thirds itself is an art of mastery. The number three is one of the most appealing numbers to human kind. Images bend to this rule, where the receiving medium is mentally broken off into 3 sections: left, right and center. A good use of this is placing characters on the dividing lines, and never the center (or if you're doing the center, at least trying to break into the left and right fields). This prevents visual splits in half. From the land of cinema, the same rules can apply, but there are a variety of even stricter criteria that must be followed. In the case of presenting motion, you now deal with angles, placement, setting up a scene. While cinema has what is known as a "money shot", usually this is classed as an over-the-top attempt at grabbing attention, turning something as basic as a focal point and making it visually louder and obnoxious. And this is where porn broaches the art/porn boundary.

Pornography takes from cinema moreso than classical art. The "money shot" forces a viewer to look at whatever they deem to be the most attention grabbing aspect. This also applies to certain fetish work. Erotica obeys the rule of thirds, good lighting, and so on; fetish work, and especially pornography often do not. It's all for the most enhanced depiction of whatever the "artist" deems as most appealing. If this means center stage, with weird perspective, and a poor background to object contrast ratio, so be it. There is no way the whatever in question cannot be in the shot. This does not apply to all pornography, but a good way to tell is through the innate impression that as a visual display, something is lacking.

From a personal standing, my most absolutely frustrating experiences come down to work that is aimed to depict a fetish, or really any pornographic aspect. In turn, it can be frustrating for those who comment mistakingly on such things, either offering praise or criticism for ideas that are not mine, and for things that break classical art criteria. The focus is not the concept, but a very, very specific thing at times. I've lost the most beautiful of S-curves, clever poses, and great placement to depict things that have no artistic merit and actually take away from an image as a whole. As a person who considers themselves an artist, I myself can see in my own work when it loses all attempts at being art, and is there for the sake of portraying something that in the end does not come across as anything more than my being a person who knows how to draw, but nothing more.

What can be described as art is still a fleeting construct. It can usually be agreed upon by most people what a good quality something is over a bad quality something. If porn were to take on artistic qualities, would it actually then be considered art? Possibly so. Up until the majority over a very small minority breaks away from narrow mindedness with narrow fields of view, porn will be porn, and art will be art.

As of the last few hours deviantArt decided to roll out their latest feature, combining their standard Art/Literary format with Sta.sh, all while utilizing the existing Journals. Now Journals, just like pictures can be Favourited, have their View Counts tracked, and even be searchable within the dA searches. Want to do a search for "Pokemon", you'll get this Journal. dA has essentially allowed the generally unattractive and frankly annoying aspects of the Journals to now not only be viewed and searched by everybody, but to obtain popularity. Imagine a world where the Popular Search field is full of nothing but of a 1.5 million Pageview artist's (meaning they're viewed a lot) crying fits about how their laundry machine ate their sock.
And if I wish to add the other shear level of annoyance factor to the equation, your "Journal" now must be uploaded by the same means as the literary works. Granted, this keeps stupid people out, but also breaks user's CSS and other emoticon and linking features readily, and creates an obstacle in general when it comes to creating Journals. Less tech savvy people will find it next to impossible to just Forum fill a Journal. Now you must upload it.

One of the aspects of my Journals in particular has usually been frank discussions about the art world around us. A lot of it deals with deviantArt, but also includes the viewpoints about fandoms, writing and other such material. As it would go, they're less of a Journal than an actual Journal would be. A Journal is typically a more intellectual version of a "Dear Diary". There are medical journals, science journals, which give credit to the word and the highest of prestige. At the same time, the modern take on the word is literally the fancier word version of 'diary'. Anne Frank's work, is a diary; day to day writings of a teenage girl through Nazi occupation. Most diaries, while provoking do not have much literary potential. Journals, at least the proper form are not suppose to be literary works, normally they are forums for intellectual discussion. In other words, my Journals are more of proper form, where most people (at the fault of dA) identify them as diaries, or by their net lingo of 'blogs'.

The obvious disadvantage of the Journals now being searchable is that anyone can search it out, that it clutters all the art work, it creates a devaluing in written work, that worthless Journals can now hold rank, and irritating rants that you use to avoid are now more in-your-face than what was the norm. Of course, to all things there is a positive side, just as much as a negative (though it is rather vague to see any positive side of childhood cancer, mass hunger, or pandemic disease). On the plus side, people who actually write Journals in the proper sense can have their work widely viewed and represented. A worthy and good Journal has the potential for more exposure. The system itself reduces the amount of incompetent people from using it regularly. Also because it now requires uploading, most people will be forced to use word programs, and the potential for better spelling and grammar to arise is greater.

Whether this is an improvement or not, remains to be seen. From my own perspective, personally, it would be a great thing. The fact that it is available to others, and like some things on dA, ripe for abuse makes it seem like a poorly placed decision on the side of the dA staff.

Addendum: Depending on your method of entry, the system will take you either to Sta.sh or Sta.sh Writer. Utilizing Sta.sh Writer performs similar functions as per normal Journals. Accessing this is done through the top dropdown, "Write a Journal". Any other method will take you to Sta.sh, then you must navigate from that to Sta.sh Writer. The more irritating aspect of Sta.sh is the same problem that written submissions have. .txt, .html or .pdf submissions only. .doc and .docx (Microsoft Word files) do not work. Using Internet Explorer 8 creates additional issues. Further problem that is persisting involves the aspect of editing and deleting of Journals. Presumably, by posting said previous copy of this Journal to the different categories of the Journals makes it impossible to hunt it down, and either edit or kill it. And after submitting to Journal > Personal, only then does it go to the pre-existing form field we are all use to. In a sense, it's actually more user friendly to upload a blank .txt file as a Journal, and then Edit it after the fact.

One of the things that contributed to this Journal is the concept of what defines our galleries. When we come onto dA, some of us show at least some if not all of our work, maybe only our good work, maybe only our fan work. For the most part, I show just about everything on dA; the good, the bad and sometimes the plain old ugly. Of course, our presentation of ourselves and our galleries can also come with labelling. A person may not like it, but if your gallery consists of 90% Pokemon and 10% Vexel renderings of trees, then most people will say you're a Pokemon artist, and watch you because you're a Pokemon artist.

Something that makes me laugh are people who take themselves so absolutely seriously, saying they're versatile, varied and completely fresh in ideas when searching their gallery of 250 images, and about 150 come back as fan art. These are the same type of people who also complain endlessly when all their watchers leave when they change their main theme of Naruto to Bleach (thought it is the same thing to me). Truthfully, most people are probably not watching you for your artistic skill, but rather what is in your pictures. If the majority of your work is one theme, you are thus labeled by that theme.

Maybe the most clever bit of falsary is for those people who are either too ashamed of their work to post it, or actually make multiple accounts for seperate work. Said "main" account is often either for whatever theme has the most stuff going to it (this account is meant to be the popular one) or for their most professional of works. Then again, people create many accounts for many different reasons, and for this current Journal, we are including accounts made for different work, and a change in the artist's theme, as to why they created a new/seperate account. Here you will have technically one artist with about 2-3 accounts. One portfolio, one original work, and one fan art, with possibly one of those three being replaced with a stalker account. By no means can either gallery overlap the others, as the second account might bring shame to first, and vice versa; since if you're a "professional" artist, the reputation of one account can bring down your overall status as an artist. We all draw for fun, but just as with Facebook, posting pictures of yourself hurling into a trash can is akin to having naked drawings of Dante from Devil May Cry plastered all over your dA account.

Truthfully, my dA account embarassed me. Now, it embarasses me even more. As a defensive mechanism, all of my "professional" work has no actual association to dA, FA, Side7, or even my main website, "The Northern Pacific". I proudly proclaim myself as a "Mewthree" artist. Fakemons all the way, with Mewblade leading the charge, and that looks really bad in a professional environment. That being said, most of this was inspired by the rather persistent habit of people commissioning me for really big things (Furries know this as Macro, but can also be referred to Giantism). Of the 777 images in my gallery, only one was considered "Macro" prior to commissioning, with a few Godzilla-sized monsters and dragons thrown in for good measure. Of my commissions, something between half and two-thirds are of that genre. People who find themselves in these circumstances then tend to do obsessive pushes for whatever they think is their main theme (or absolutely cry and whine about it in their Journals. Granted, this is a little bit of a whine, but it's not to the level probably some have seen of the artists they watch). The struggle continues for perception.

We as people like to broadcast ourselves to different groups of people, differently. To our employer we want to be seen as loyal and professional, and possibly to our friends as fun-loving and engaging, completely in-tune with our friends' interests. Like with anything else in life, certain behaviors, and our art can cause a backlash, or propel us farther if we project it just right. You cannot and never will be able to change the outlook people see you as without a lot of work on your behalf. This goes for anything. If people watch you for a certain theme that you aimed for, then you have met those goals, but never be discouraged if they don't. We are all people, we see what we like, and jump to conclusions based on what we see.

It's done, it's over. After 2 1/2 years, there are finally no more agenda book comic strips. Those who were watching me, and sick of seeing these black and white, pencil shaded comics that originated from when I was still in highschool, your torment has ceased. As of today, Mewblade's comics finally finished at the 118th strip with an ending unlike that of the novel that it was associated. Those who have no idea what I'm talking about, here is an explanation.

As part of a highschool project starting some 9 years ago, I made an effort to use my agenda books, and drawing in them encouraged me to use them. Most were little one off skits of my characters complaining about homework assignments, like Charge The Raccoon actually liking the Science classes, with Harddense running and screaming from everything. Then in my Grade 12 year, I decided that I would do full fledge comics which turned out to be some 150 pages full of nothing but black and white penciled comics. Of course, this was an idiotic idea since it took forever to complete them, but I am stubborn, and my goal was to share some of the stories of my 19 various characters with everyone. Thus I ended up working hard to complete the work, with Mewblade's comic tying up everything as hers was the longest.

For those who haven't started, or are just curious you can go to my gallery here [link] and see all of my character comics on the left side of the page. These things sort of embarass me since I've improved a lot since then, and the comics that were drawn and shaded at the end of the 5+ year cycle ended up having to be restrained quite a lot so their styles didn't mismatch too much with the older work. They also can be kind of lame at times, though each has their own charm to it. Anyone who actually has read them and enjoyed them, sorry to say it but I'm actually not that big into drawing comics, I'm just that freakishly stubborn and refused to drop this project.

Amazing what willpower can do! (Or being as stubborn as an ox.)