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PE: Walkthroughs, an alternative way to learn

 Walkthroughs, alongside tutorials, are always an excellent way to learn. It's really helpful to get educated through a tutorial which tells exactly what to do in a detailed way step by step. However at times what is even more helpful is to actually see the artist in action, there are things you need to see get done by yourself and here is where walkthroughs come into play.

There's always something fascinating about seeing the different stages of the creation process of a piece, and you can always learn from the artists and adapt part of said process to your own.






Besides showing part of this process through images which show the different stages of a piece, and
PE: Digital Art VS other categoriesThe category system within deviantArt has the purpose to organize the thousands of artworks submitted every day and group them together in accordance to style, media, genre and/or theme, etc. Imagine deviantArt without categories, it would be a chaos! Imagine yourself wanting to browse for photography only; without the system organizing every deviation by media, you would find yourself unable to filter artworks that aren't photography in your search results.
Thus the importance of categorizing your artwork correctly. By submitting your work to the appropiate category combined with a correct use of keywords, you're a step ahead of being discovered by people wanting to search for art like yours.
All this sounds so nice and all, but what happens when a particular piece could fit in several categories? The category system as it is now is very specialized and has literally thousands of different subcategories buried down tons of more subcategories, which is both a blessing and a curse. Havi
PE: Daily Deviations - The Myth and the LegendDaily Deviations, or DDs . . . for some deviants, receiving one is the epitome of awesomesauce in the deviantART world. For others, they are a nice way to show off the work of lesser-known artists. Still others treat them as a special way to bring attention to great art that exemplifies works being done by a particular gallery or community.
Perhaps because there are so many different ways of conceptualizing DDs, there are also many myths and misconceptions. I would like to address some of those myths by responding to the ones most frequently heard. Please note that these opinions are mine and reflect my experiences with the photomanipulation community, but perhaps they will be informative nevertheless.
Myth 1: DDs should always be perfect.
To many of us, the ideal Daily Deviation goes to an artist with amazing talent whose work draws you in and makes you think, "Wow, everyone needs to see this!" A DD should move you, inspire you, and provoke you to think, b
PE Daily Deviations: What if...? 
Hello everyone! :wave:
After news articles explaining 'The Myth and the Legend' of the Daily Deviations, how to suggest them, tolerance towards Daily Deviations, the negativity, the focus on the notes and what it actually is, this article tackle the 'What if...?' scenarios t
Project Educate: Digital Art Week!Welcome to #projecteducate's Digital Art Week!
This first week of december will be dedicated to the digital art community, so keep an eye on this space for updates and annoucements. Here is a glimpse of what you'll get to see this week:

DEC
03
DEC
09
Digital Art
3rdMONDAYOpening article (the one you're reading now!)What is SketchMatch? And rules
4thTUESDAYAn introduction to the Digital Art subcategories with
2012 Roundup!2012 has seen #projecteducate advance with the changing times here on deviantART and become an official group! That means that it has been a lot easier to bring you all the information, features, interviews and articles as part of various Project Educate weeks. So with the functions of groups at our fingertips, the articles shared are all in organised gallery folders for ease - all of which are linked in this article.
2012 also saw the Introduction of Community Weeks headed up by members of the community. They're now running monthly and are designed for members of the community to get involved by writing articles on whatever they want - educationally. `JamminJo and `lintu47 are your current community week leads and the people to note if you're interested in contributing! Our calendar for
10 Things a Photomanip Newbie Should KnowHi all, 
I wanted to talk for a moment to our newbie photomanipulators or even older photomanipulators who are out of the fray. How are you? Welcome to the inner circle.
Here are some things that you (and all photomanipulators) need to know about dA and the photomanipulation community.
1. Stay in touch with the Photomanipulation CV (currently me, ^Aeirmid).
Watch me. No, that's not an ill-formed plea for pageviews, favorites, or watchers. :XD: Actually, I rarely even post art anymore. :D I am the Community Volunteer (CV) for photomanipulation, which means I regularly run contests, feature art, share news, post Daily Deviations (DDs), and do other things to support the community. It is in your best interest to watch my journal because I post every photomanipulation-related update there. This information is important to you so you can learn about upcoming events, changes in rules, new groups, and other news.
2. Watch :devcommunity
What is Traditional Darkroom?What is Traditional Darkroom?
Traditional Darkroom is where it all began. It started in a world where the word 'photography' didn't yet exist and the art of creating images of reality with light and chemicals sat somewhere between science and magic. Did you know that the mathematicians Aristotle and Euclid describe pinhole cameras in the 4th and 5th centuries?

In the early 1800s, artist/inventors like Louis Dageurre and Henry Fox Talbot (among others) experimented with ways of fixing images using chemicals, including silver compounds, following exposures on materials like glass and metal, lasting from several minutes to several hours. By 1840, Talbot was creating negative images using the calotype process and John Herschel had invented the cyanotype process (where the term 'blueprint' comes from) and created the first glass negative in 1839.

In the middle part of the 1800s, the wet plate collodion process be
PE: Colour Count ConundrumThis article is heavily collaborated work between myself and ^ClefairyKid.  The images are all hers, and I thank her for the use of them and the explanations she provided.
We touched on colour count loosely in the first article of the week, here, and it has been mentioned through out since.  And a lot of people don't quite get what the term means, so this should be a thorough explanation.
What is colour count?
To most people, the amount of colours in a piece of art work would be viewed as "I used blue, green and purple, so 3 colours".  In Pixel Art that is not the case; colour count refers to the number of unique values in a piece.  Every shade of blue counts as a separate colour; if your piece is made entirely of 10 shades of blue, you used 10 colours.
Here is a visual example.
and
The first rose was created using pixel techniques as well as layer opacity change
Project Educate: People and Portraits IntroductionPortrait or Portraiture Photography is about a person or a group of people arranged in a certain way to convey the mood, emotions and possibly even a story. On DeviantART there are many sub-categories within the People & Portraits Gallery and some of those are self explanatory whilst others take a little bit more planning and thinking about to achieve. Throughout this week, we'll be working to hopefully clean up misconceptions and straighten out parts of the People & Portrait Galleries. So here's what's happening...
:bulletblack:Shoot Yourself - Photography Contest
:bulletblack: Open Forum - Throw your questions to the photography CVs and expect the answers (as much as possible) by the end of the week!
:bulletblack: Getting your Emotive on - Definition
Fix that miscat! ~ Artisan Crafts V. Still Life Fix that miscat! is the first of a series of articles which aims to help you distinguish between galleries that are commonly confused or abused in the category system here on deviantART. Submitting to the correct categories here can make a huge difference to exposure and feedback for your work as well as features within the Daily Deviations so we want to give you the best chances possible! Let's get started with Artisan Crafts Versus Still Life Photography! 
Artisan Crafts (Culinary) & Still Life Photography
DeviantART is a hive of activity with work from all sorts of genres and areas being shared and submitted on a daily basis. So it's only natural that sometimes, confusion happens. And there are a few pesky categories that are difficult to define and differentiate between. We've recently found that Photography -> Still Life and Artisan Crafts are a great example of this.
Still Li
Vexel Art and Stock: Making The Most Of ResourcesMany vexel artists like to use stock images as a creative influence for their artwork. Most stock images on deviantART are generously provided free of charge for this very purpose, so why not use them? :dummy: There are several forms of stock images out there, but for the purpose of this article, we are going to be looking into portrait photography, as this is a very popular choice for vexel artists.
 
This is a small selection portrait stock, which all happens to be by our lovely Stock & Resources Community Volunteer, ^Elandria :love: As with most stock, ^Elandria’s photos come with some guidelines to follow, which you can find linked in the description of all her stock images. It is very important to follow a stockist’s guidelines! Remember – they are providing their artwork for free for you to enjoy resourcefully, so be respectful of that by following their set rules, and by always
Community Voices: What is a Daily Deviation?DDs: The deviantART definition
So, as the title says, What in the world IS a Daily Deviation (DD), anyway?
You know what deviantART says about it, right? Under :faq61: it says:
A small assortment of submissions are chosen each day by a select group of staff/volunteer members who wish to showcase an image which they found impressive or otherwise interesting enough to deserve being brought to the attention of the community-at-large.
That says nothing about a DD being a perfect specimen of art-- in fact, it doesn't even use the word "art" at all. :XD: Basically, as CVs, when we are giving a DD, we are doing so because we think the image is interesting and well-done and deserves your attention. It may be technically exquisite. It may be technically quite good but exceptionally thought-provoking. It may be exceedingly creative. It may be all of these things! Above all else, it should stand out in some way from others in that medium or gallery.
PE DDs: When It's Not Always PositiveWhen DDs Go Awry
Daily Deviations, or “DDs,” are frequently held in very high esteem on deviantART. After all, what artist does not want his or her work displayed for more than 20 million viewers to see and admire? The benefits of receiving a DD feature include increased exposure for your work and a day in the spotlight for you as an artist. Many people therefore view DDs as badges of honor, awards that make them proud and validate the time they spend in our community.
Be careful what you wish for!
Don’t get us wrong-- DDs are wonderful for the purposes listed above. But, they can also bring a lot of drama upon the artist, especially if they are controversial.
Let’s talk about some of the sources of this drama.
The Critic
Some people feel that people who post art-- and especially those whose art is worthy of a Daily Deviation-- should have thick enough skin to accept criticism as well as praise. They argue that criticism is part
PE DD Week: Why did an icon get a DD?Why did an icon get a DD?
Daily deviations tend to be a controversial topic within the community and whether or not a DD is worthy of the feature is, as such, often discussed.
As a CV for Icons & Handhelds I often find it interesting to read these discussions, since that way I can see what the community expects of the features, but the recent negativity on the Icons & Handhelds DDs is something I would like to address, which is why I'm thankful I'm given this opportunity during the Daily Deviation PE-week. I will try to explain why I think icons and handhelds are worthy of the feature and why they may be dismissed just a bit too quickly.

Let's begin at the beginning.
When deviantART first started, it was a site that mainly geared towards customization. Be it wallpapers or icons, if you take a look at some of the first DDs. So how come there'
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December 4, 2012
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PE: Introduction to the Digital Art categories

Tue Dec 4, 2012, 4:17 PM



Digital Art Week :iconthiefoworld:


Hi! Welcome to the Digital Art categories central! The following article is intended to be a quick guide on the Digital Art categories to get you started, most of the descriptions included here came  from past Project Educate articles (so thanks for all the current and past CVs for their indirect help :P) and will include links to more articles if you want a more deep insight of said category, as well as a list of CVs you can send your DD suggestions to. (As of December 2012, for the updated list of current volunteers you can always check this blog)

    But first, what is considered DIGITAL Art?


    Digital Art includes every artwork created with the use and/or help of digital software and tools. Said in simple words: art you create with a computer (or other devices like a tablet or even a cellphone) and usually with the help of tools like a mouse, a pen and tablet or even a trackpad, etc. Some of the most famous digital software nowadays include: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, PaintoolSAI, Gimp, Apophysis, Maya, Poser, and a very large etc. 





    Digital Art on deviantArt is composed by the following main sub-galleries:

    3-Dimensional Art


    3D art is created by manipulating polygon meshes and molding them into objects, characters, and scenes.





    Drawings


    Art created through the use of digital programs and tools that simulate traditional drawings, a two dimensional presentation of a character, object or scene. Just like its Traditional counterpart, there is a wide variety of different styles of drawings, from those cartoony looking with very visible linearts and marked colors to those who step in the borderline of being considered paintings.





    Fractal Art


     Fractal Art is a genre concerned with fractals—shapes or sets characterized by self affinity (small portions of the image resemble the overall shape) and an infinite amount of detail, at all scales. Fractals are typically created on a digital computer, using an iterative numerical process.





    Mixed Media


    Digital Mixed Media is meant to hold deviations that have been created using at least two DIGITAL art forms: Paintings/Drawings/Airbrushing, Photomanipulation, 3-Dimensional, Fractals and Vectors/Vexels. There is a misconception that this category is meant for artworks combining traditional and digital elements, however this is not true, as Traditional Art also has its own Mixed Media sub-category.





    Paintings & Airbrushing


    Art created through the use of digital raster based programs and tools that simulate traditional painting and airbrushing. Similar to Drawings, there is also a great variety of styles that often simulate their traditional couterparts, like impressionism of hyperrealism.





    Photomanipulation


    Photomanipulations are images that have been composed of two or more photographic elements to create something new. In order for an artwork to be considered as Photomanipulation it needs to be composed of two different images combining. No simple changing of hues, applying filters, etc. They must be from photographs, i.e. not brushes or paint and the end result must be more than enhancing a photograph. The product is completely separate and distinguishable from its parts.





    Pixel Art


    Art created hand laying individual pixels one at a time. In simple words: the artist creates the artwork pixel by pixel through the use of a raster based program, for example, Photoshop. In the older days there was also the characteristic of limiting the palette to just a few colors, this due mainly because of the technological limitations of those years, however nowadays Pixel Art can be created using more varied palettes.





    Stereoscopy


    Stereoscopy, commonly known as '3-D' is a method of creating an image which creates an illusion of depth. This works by showing a slightly offset picture to your left eye than your right eye, making things appear further forward or back into the picture. Unlike the 3D gallery described previously, which is for art created in a computer program which uses X, Y and Z coordinates, Stereoscopy can be photography, drawings, sculpture, anything as long as it somehow offers a different image to each eye in order to create something with the illusion of depth.

    :thumb318864502:




    Text Art


    You can compare Text Art to Pixel Art. But instead of square shapes you use letters or glyphs to create an image. What you need is a monospaced or fixed-width font.





    Typography


    Typography is the art and technique of arranging type, designing a type face or modifying letters. The arrangment of type involves choosing a typeface, setting a font size and line height, adjusting spaces between words (tracking) and letters (kerning) and many more things.





    Vector


    Art created in a vector-based program. Vector art is the use of primitives such as Points, Lines and Curves. The vector programs keeps track of the relationship between these primitives. This allows the images created, to be scaled and rescaled without loosing quality or becoming pixelated. This is in opposition to "raster (or bitmap) graphics" which is an image represented by a collection of pixels.





    Vexel


    Art created in a raster based program like Photoshop in the style of a vector that consists of shapes. Vexels are layered shapes made on raster layers, filled with solid colour or gradients and look similar to vectors. The main difference between vexel and vector is that vexels are made on raster layers and vectors are made on vector layers. In other words: a vexel looks like a vector, but if you rescale it, it will get pixelated.





    Miscellaneous


    Basically, digital art that doesn't fit in any other category.






13 Comments
:iconthiefoworld:
A quick guide on the different Digital Art categories of deviantArt
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:iconginkgografix:
`ginkgografix Dec 5, 2012
Why do i see a "edit with sta.sh writer" button? D:
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:iconthiefoworld:
^Thiefoworld Dec 5, 2012
You're a contributor in #projecteducate, administrative members of a group with enough privs can edit the group's journals no matter who the original author is, (similar to how it used to be before the introduction of sta.sh writter) I believe this is a relatively recent change :P
Reply
:iconginkgografix:
`ginkgografix Dec 5, 2012
Oh, right. Haven't thought of that.
Reply
:iconjennystokes:
*jennystokes Dec 5, 2012  Professional General Artist
Very well done.
However: there are so many different ways of doing things now.
I found a method of using one photo changing it and manipulating it in photoshop, everyone thinks it's Fractal.
It isn't!
Reply
:iconpica-ae:
^pica-ae Dec 5, 2012  Professional Interface Designer
:woohoo:
Reply
:iconleomon32:
=leomon32 Dec 5, 2012  Student Digital Artist
Hopefully you didn't explain the subcategories cause each time I have a bunch of problems to choose from xP
Reply
:iconrilakkuma1212:
~rilakkuma1212 Dec 4, 2012  Student Digital Artist
Very helpful. Thanks!
Reply
:iconque-ink:
*Que-ink Dec 4, 2012  Professional Digital Artist
Interesting.
Reply
:iconpolymune:
^PolyMune Dec 4, 2012  Professional Digital Artist
Really well detailed and very informative :la: nicely done!! :clap:
Reply
:iconcrazycanadian94:
=crazycanadian94 Dec 4, 2012  Student General Artist
Nicely done! It's nice to see examples of the categories for the digital art and to know that their is more than one type of style with it. :clap: Awesome~ This will really help new and older artists to get a better understanding of the category.
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