Deviant -- Part II

Last time, I mentioned I've been spending time on deviantArt.com. Limited sales opportunities are available there -- whatever image you post there can be used to make prints, including (I think) on substrates other than paper.

These are some of the things I've learned about deviantArt:

• Lots of "manga & anime." I haven't gotten this genre figured out yet. Sort of cartoony/fantasy/warrior-like, all at the same time. And the characters have a thing for gloves w/o fingers.
  
• Lots of really cute females there. Many of the photos show models who, I'm sure, were chosen because they're attractive. But here, the artists post self-portraits, and the ARTISTS are unbelievably cute! I don't remember seen that much cuteness when I was younger. Where'd they all come from?
  
• Love and sex are common themes in deviantArt. I haven't made a count, but lesbian themes seem to be more common than gay men or hetero images.
  
• Otherworldly imagery is the overwhelming look.
  
• I love that the romantic images show people holding hands, fingers interlocked. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that's sexy!

DeviantArt features quite a wide range of quality, from very-well done (usually in photography) to sketches made on ruled paper used to practice handwriting in elementary school. I can't say to what degree the "Deviations" (members are "Deviants," and images are "Deviations!) represent what younger people, especially, enjoy in their art. But I have been wondering:

Who are the art collectors of the future? Will classical realism in painting attract younger buyers at all, or will painters like me become totally obsolete? Will these kids grow up able to buy the type of art I do, assuming they even want it? Or will they be happy to hang mass-produced posters of anime or comic-looking characters? Or might they be able to subscribe to a service that downloads images of their choosing to a large LCD flatscreen, eliminating the need for originals or even prints of an artist's work?

Don't know, don't know. Maybe that's part of what fascinates me so much about deviantArt.com. It could be showing us the look of the future...or it could all be a fad that will blow away in the winds of the coming years.

Deviant

Yes, it's true: I'm a deviant!

That's what they call members of deviantArt.com. And I'm one of them.

I haven't had the opportunity to explore this site in detail, but artists post examples of their work which are all "collected" together on page after page of...well, quite a variety of work and artists from all over the world.

In a sense, I don't really fit there: classical/traditional artists (like me) are few and far between on deviantArt. There's photography, digital art and drawings and paintings, but the results lean toward the fantastic and "manga/anime," a cartoonish style that I haven't figured out yet. If members turn the mature content filter "off," many nudes and sexual images (especially lesbian encounters, for some reason) appear among all of the different styles and media types. Some of the language, in addition to the images, are not suitable for children, IMO.

I'm sure deviantArt is full of artists who are simply looking for a place to display their art. But if I understand right, once an artist posts an image, other people can order copies of the image as prints, T-shirts and other objects. DeviantArt and the artist then split the proceeds. This is where the business part of it comes in.

At this time, I don't know if this will be a venue that will be helpful to me. But as time goes along, I hope to get a better idea of what would work for me and, perhaps, make images that are unlike the traditional landscapes I make now and try 'em out on deviantArt.

Hmmm...I wonder if there is such a thing as anime cactus. =)