Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Regarding Deviant Art

An interesting conversation about Deviant Art popped up yesterday that I thought I'd repost and share here:

X-Men editor Nick Love kicked it all off: I love Deviant Art's content, but the interface is just AWFUL! It's so hard to look through artists' work.

To which I replied: Amen to that.

Suburban Glamour artist Jamie McKelvie then jumped in: That's the whole reason I never used it (Deviantart) as a portfolio. Terrible navigation. So many clicks, and counter-intuitive.

I then tell people what I've always told them: I am so gonna keep driving that into new artists' heads: Don't use Deviant art as a portfolio! Start a blog instead!!

Wizard of Oz artists Skottie Young says that as a working pro, Deviant Art is useful to him in constantly building his fan-base and offers sage advice of his own to new artists: Use all the tools. Start a blog, use deviant art, flicker, photobucket, etc. More places, more eyes.

So I clarify my stance: Don't get me wrong, I like Deviant Art and visit everyday. I just don't recommend it as a place to showcase your art to break into comics.

And ian_x then jumped in with some potential good news: DeviantArt have been working on a new Portfolio feature which may change all of that


That's good to hear. Let's hope!

7 comments:

Jennifer Juniper said...

Agreed. I tried to look through Deviantart and found it very unpleasant...

Dave Hamann said...

I just linked to the /gallery portion when showing anyone my work.

The biggest obstacle years ago was the stigma a DA site had.
That's mostly gone now since a lot more professionals have joined.

Scott Sackett said...

What I hated about Deviantart is it took me forever to post an image!

I prefr something faster that encourages me to use it.

Craig Yeung Art said...

Despite it's drawbacks, I like hanging out at deviantart to be inspired by all the artwork on there. It really humbles you as an artist all the talent floating about in the interspace!

milx said...

DeviantArt is a nice place to build followers and fanbase. Plus the "portfolio" feature are still in beta phase.
Hope they upgrade it nicely, so that it can browse comic pages easily.

manyhats76 said...

Yeah I like Deviant Art, but to get your customers I guess the blog is good.

I've seen a lot more professional artists, such as Adam Hughes and Jim Lee. I've been on the site for a couple years and I haven't found any problems.

Christian Cornia said...

DeviantArt is good for finding new artist or ispiration...
but fr showing your works I think that a Blog is better...and faster :D