Night-Sky13

..

I've become a lot less active lately for reasons I'm not entirely sure of, at least not yet. Right now, I feel it best to take some time off from deviant ant. I'm just not comfortable with how the site is run or how competitive people seem to be.

I just feel like people do things just for the pageviews and just to gain more watchers. I'm not saying those are bad things but I also don't feel like those should be a person's motive behind making art.  In all honesty, this site has become rather juvenile, at least in my opinion. The majority of deviations seem to be anime/manga, fanart or furries. I'm not saying these things are juvenile, just that these are the popular subjects to draw so people draw them in hopes of becoming popular. This may not be true for all, but that's the feeling I get off of a lot of artists.

Then there's the rampant art theft around here that is going unchecked. More and more users seem to think that dA is essentially photobucket. People seem to think that it's okay to upload someone else's work because they think it's "pretty" and want to share it with others. I'm so tired of looking through galleries and seeing blatant art theft. Tracing is a good way to learn, but traces belong in the scraps (unless of course what was traced was a stock image).

And then there are all the screencaps from television shows and movies. No, just putting "(c) Whatever" does not give you permission to make a macro or motivational poster out of COPYRIGHTED work. No, claiming you have "permission" from the original artist-- who is a famous artist-- doesn't make it okay. No, saying that everyone does it so why should it matter if you do it as well isn't going to cut it. It's disgusting how many deviations are reportable.

..Ugh, this seems to be getting into one of the other reasons I want to leave: favoritism by part of the mods. It definitely seems like to me, that if a "famous" or "popular" deviant does something wrong, the mods ignore it. I can think of one case where an artist-- who happens to make dA a lot of money through his prints-- submitted a digital painting clearly depicting "explicit pornography." Despite countless reports, the mods have let this one slip while there have been other similar deviations-- and even some a lot less explicit-- that are removed instantly after one report.

But of course: no one will be reading this because I never fell into the trap of wanting to become "popular"-- or at least I never fully fell into the trap-- so there will be no big uproar, there will be no farewells, there will be nothing which just proves my point...

I'll check in every now and then, probably mostly to find stock images to help with my realism. Ta-ta for now ;D

My computer broke on Wednesday after what seemed like years of it slowing down more and more each day. I'm currently using a loaner that has no programs at all. But I got a new one tonight which my brother-in-law is currently fiddling with.
It's red and pretty.
I'm also currently taking a class at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. I have some work form that I've been meaning to upload but with my scanner out of commission (since the loaner I'm on now doesn't have the right software), I can't upload anything.
Although it sucks that I have a bunch of work I want to upload, on the plus side I finally have a new computer after having to deal with a craptastic one for months/years.
Vacation also starts next week, meaning that I'll have quite a lot more time to work on some stuff I've been putting off for a while.
Expect frequent influxes of art this week.

I leave for four days to be out in the middle of nowhere, freezing my ass off
and I come back to 356 deviations and like, 15 journals in my inbox.



Woah.