Current Mood: Drained
Currently Listening: Gary Jules - Mad World
Currently Watching: Karin
Currently Reading: Hana Kimi


I used to have an About Me page on Ebay advertising my artistic services and what my fees were; however, I was told that I violated some fee cir-something policy. I've had that page up for like.. 4 years now? I know of other artists that do the same thing, I hope they don't get in trouble too.

I wonder who reported it, or did they just stumble on it. I don't know, it's fine though. I still offer services, I'm just not saying I do on Ebay anymore. If I have a piece I wanna auction, I'll put it up. I used to either take commissions and lately I was going to find out what they want and so that we'd both get feedback and it'd be via Ebay, I'd put it up for sale with Buy Now feature for what they'd pay for it.. then the person buys and it's done all fancy-dory through Ebay.

Onto other news..

The new layout of DeviantART. v5. It's fairly okay, I wish we had the option of color skins to pick without having to go through and install some skin that only we see. I mean, what about those of us who make graphics designed to color code with our page, but we have a black or pink or blue skin? It'll look odd on green to other users. Maybe I should mention this in the suggestion forum. Maybe.

I DO really like the user page in terms of layout, just not colors. The journal page, user page and all that.. the formats are absolutely wonderful! But I don't like the front page. Too mushed and lacks text articles, catagories..etc.

My gripes about it?

It looks fine on my resolution.. 1024x720. I think they designed the page specificly for that resolution. That's stupid though because there are a lot of people who are having trouble with banners being cut off, no word wrap just overflowing, massive having to scroll to see things.

The colors just bother me all together. It looks like someone sapped the saturation out of this site. This is supposed to be an art site, you'd think it'd be more graphically adept, or at least set with a fairly decent color concept. I can say this since I've been a colorist for a studio for a while now and have before too. Font is awesome though.

Also, having to reload the message center over a dozen times and the stuff still doesn't go away? That's ridiculous. One small thing I don't like about the message center is the fact that comments, messages, journals and polls are lumped into one. I don't like that. Sometimes I don't wanna read journals, but would like to read comments if I have some. If I don't see an M, F, C or N, I don't click it at the time being.

I think it looks like a knock off of Sheezy Art though, and I'm not the only one who thinks so. [link] And honestly, I think SA is sloppy. It's like DA is now SA after sniffing a Mac computer.

In the end, DA might be trying to go more 'high-tech', but ended up sub-par. What has DA become in the past year? *sigh* What happened a year ago that has changed DA so much? I don't know why, but it really seems in the past year or so that DA has started spiraling downward on everything from policies, to treatment of certain types of artists, to what they deem is art, to a layout mishap. That's just an opinion, take it for what it's worth. I'm not saying it to start a flamewar, this is my journal where I put my thoughts. Also, when users share thoughts like this, the administration can see how they feel and either look into it to see if it's a valid arguement to do something about, or if it's unjustifiable talking out of the user's arse.

It's also incredialy slower. I'm on 3mb Cable that downloads a song in hardly no time and it's still achingly slow.

Eh.. that's all I'll say. I'm not currently subscriped to the place so I'm not putting money in. I have been before, but I've not in a year or so. Meh.

I know a lot of it's bugs, but a lot of it isn't.. I'm just waiting on the kinks to work out. I hope they'll check around at the 'complaints' and 'feedback' and do some revising. I mean, it seems a universal opinion the majority of the things I said in this entry. Especially the message center, sheezy, and color scheme.


<s>S: Where the fuck is my userpage info? o.O;</s> Edit: It came back o.O

This is about to the point that I'm willing to leave DA because I'd rather not get a headache from trying to either be part of the community, but having to wade through a bunch of confusion -and- have to refresh all the time because the connection problems and slowness. Among many other version reasons. I've been with DA for 3 years and I've had no problems, just minor complaints about small things that mean nothing, so I kept them to myself and they went away or were handled. But this.. ugh. It's not worth the time to spend on the site.

Onto more fun stuff..

I started watching the anime Karin last night. I was blown away by the first episode. It's so fun and wonderfully unique. I really got hooked and watched 11 episodes last night in a row instead of worked on the piece I'm trying to get done between 9-12hr baby-sitting shifts where I work on paying job art while she sleeps. I guess I needed the break last night, hm? Darn, I hate when I get hooked on an anime that it has to end. The only series that keep me satisfied if I loved them were those with 100 episodes or more. Hikaru no Go, Naruto, Hunter x Hunter.. but still, they even had to come to an end.. well, not Naruto, but still. But I guess if they went on, it'd get monotone and stupid.

I guess that's all for now, catch you later.

-

EDIT August 8th: I've had some questions about me considering leaving.. if it was only because v5 sucked.. No, it's not.

That and the stupid fact that anime artists are getting basically screwed over. I don't get the recent "LETS RUIN ANIME ARTISTS 4EVA!"

[link] That's a good description of my feelings. So is this: [link]

Do you realize they put anime/manga as digital/traditional MEDIA, while everything else is considered art? What the fuck?

Oh yeah, I found out the answer to my "why has DA changed in a year" question. I didn't even realize that it was a year ago that the °jark incident happened. If DA is gonna get this bad in such a short time... I want °jark back. I had no problems up until a year ago with this site. Damn man, this blows.

We definately need °jark. Definately.


If you think your art is being forced into something you believe it isn't, say something. Link the journal, make a stamp, post a forum. If we make enough commotion, someone has to listen, but you're only as loud as the noises you make.

Copy and spread the word. Post each other's journal entries as links in other journals to spread it further and share ideas! It's time this anime-staffsupported- bashing comes to an end.

If you want to link this journal, here is the link for my entry: [link]


EDIT August 9th:

I'm posting this on here so everyone can understand a bit. This was a commented reply by me to a comment left in =ramy's journal.

----

Well I'd like to kinda comment on this if I may..

First, "At no point have I ever seen any of the DA staff call drawings done in an anime style anything less than art."

Actually, they imply it when they changed it to Digital/Traditional Media and left everything else as Digital/Traditional Art. Several have picked up on that subtle, but harsh blow.

Second, "
Now, Joe goes to look for some fantasy art that he likes -- "traditional" fantasy art, stuff that isn't in an anime style. He searches through DeviantArt looking for some cool stuff, but because of the (overwhelmingly large) population of anime artists submitting their works into the general Fantasy section, Joe finds 1 fantasy piece not in an anime style for every 100 anime drawings -- mostly shittily drawn, by the way -- that are posted.

And vice versa -- Perhaps Joe is looking for a piece of anime art -- not submitting, looking -- and doesn't want to have to go through the dozens of different categories that anime drawings might be in. Instead of going to Digital Art -> Fantasy, and Digital Art -> SciFi, and Digital Art -> Comics, FanArt, People, etc etc, etc. He only has to go to the Anime/Manga section and click search -- then everything he wants is in one area."

Yeah, and if he's looking for a particular series, a particular style (yes there are various styles of anime - anime realism, fantasy anime (like elves in anime style), cute styles, etc.).. and he'll have to wade through them all just to find a particular thing. I think if anime is going to be split into one section, then they should treat it as such. A section.. meaning it should have it's own subcatagories as well.

Anime/Manga > Traditional/Digital/whatever > Fanart/Original > 3D/Vector/Painting and Airbrushing/Mixed Media/Drawing/whatever > Misc/Fantasy/Anime Realism/Minimalism/Portrait/whatever

I think it should hold that same respect as other art. What if I'm looking for a photograph? I can go through and narrow down my search to a pinpointed portion.. I can't do that with anime. I have to go through everyone's pieces.

What if I'm not wanting to see a pairing of a couple from a video game that so many draw? What if I'm looking for that one in a 100 picture of an anime style elf done digitally in a painting style?

Instead of wading through massive amounts of anime (you'd think if there are so many anime artists, you'd narrow the search, not overpopulate a search), I could just go Anime/Manga > Digital > Original > Paintings and Airbrushing > Fantasy - and it'd be easier to find.

And your "most being shitty drawn" statement is your opinion, this is more of factual stuff being discussed. Not wheither anyone likes or dislikes anime or photography or whatever.

Third, "And to you personally -- your drawings make the front page almost every time. Why should you care about where it's submitted? Everyone is going to see your pieces anyways."

Even if his work does, that still doesn't mean anything. This isn't a popularity contest like everyone tries to believe. It's more of a, this is our art and we want .. no, demand to be taken seriously, and not thrown aside as a joke just because what we do is popular.

Thanks for taking the time to read this if you're still reading, and if not, I hate we couldn't discuss this civially. I try my best to hear all sides, so I feel I should say my thoughts.