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PE: 5 reasons to believe in yourselfSuccess is not a measure of how much money you earn or how popular you are, rather, it is being able to find your passion - one that makes you happy and ultimately, one that you would be happy to leave as your legacy. To make a step forward to reach your dream takes smarts and guts but why couldn't you? Here is five reasons why you can.
1. Everyone was born equal
More-less, this is true, some people are born more challenged than others but we all possess skills and ability to learn. It is possible to build something out of nothing if we really want to. It all comes down to our preferences and decisions.
"Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent."
Eleanor Roosevelt
2. Overcoming your fears
By constantly challenging yourself, you can get rid of fears that used to follow you. You will no longer be worried, you'll know you can count on yourself.
"If you think you can, you can. If you think you can't, you're right."
Mar

How to make a great Journal featureJournal Feature Tutorial
How to make a great Journal feature!
This article has been written for #projecteducate by `miontre.
Featuring other artists in your Journal is a great thing to do, because everyone wins! Not only are you supporting other artists by giving them some extra exposure, but you can also earn some exposure for yourself and make new friends too. Additionally, those who view your feature have the opportunity to find some new art and artists.

Therefore, it pays to make your Journal features the best they can be. Making a really good Journal feature can involve a lot of time and work - planning, collecting artwork, arranging the artwork in a Journal, publication, and promotion. Taking these steps instead of merely dragging in thumbs from your Favourites will result in an appealing and rewarding Journal feature. In this tutorial, we're going to produce a feature with images arranged like this:

PE: dA help - in English or Other LanguagesOn a big site like deviantART you're no doubt going to come across something you have a question about or just don't quite understand. There are many channels you can use to find the answers to various types of questions - such as the +faq, the *welcome tour, the deviantART Tutorials category and the :#help: chatroom. How do you know which to use?
The best point to start with any question or problem related to dA is the official Need Help? thread. It lists all official help channels and what they can be used for. In this article we focus on the +faq - as well as places to find dA information in many other languages! Let's start with English.
English - The FAQ
The FAQ (a common abbreviation for Frequently Asked Questions) c

A Copyright Briefing (New Updates 3/5/13)I am not a lawyer. I do not know everything there is to know about copyright law and cannot assist you with legal matters. I have studied copyright extensively and written many DMCA Takedown Requests for myself to successfully get the illegal use of my work stopped. This article is in no way comprehensive. It does not include 100% detail on copyright laws. If you want more information or just want to browse more of my writing on copyrights, please go here.
Copyright and "Theft"
Why sharing can be illegal.
There is quite a bit of confusion about copyright law, the DMCA, fair use, de minimus, etc. And rightly so. I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt when I come across what appears to be a "theft" issue. Even people in the United States, the home of the DMCA and one of the strongest supporters of

Getting the Most out of dA: CommentingUsually, when you read something involving 'Commenting', you think of deviations and the commenting platform that allows other members of the community to voice their thoughts and opinions on the art shown. However, what is pretty evident, and something that most of us may forget, is that deviantART runs on the ability to give and get comments, be it on pieces of artwork, our profile pages, +forums, and everywhere else in between.
In a sense, without the ability to give and get comments, deviantART wouldn't be much of a website, much less #1 of online art communities around. Comments are not solely the cause of what makes deviantART what it is, but it has a huge impact on a lot of things. By giving and getting comments, not only do we interact with other members to really make this a community, we also have the ability to get our voices heard.
It's quite an odd concept with us all facing screens, typing out our thoughts and opinions, but one thing we shouldn't forget is that commen

Getting the Most out of dA: GroupsGroups are a platform on deviantART which allow you to share your art - what it is primarily used for. Immediately, once your art is accepted into the Gallery, your art is sent to the message centres of many members of that particular group, gaining you instant and wider exposure. However, to really enhance your deviantART experience, and to get the most out of deviantART, +Groups shouldn't, and aren't, simply used for that.
There are many roles you can play within a group. By taking up a role, you immediately get more out of deviantART than if you had not done so.
Let's start with being a...
Member
Not only do you get the chance to submit your art to the group, as a Member, you also

the many happenings within the group too. This means you can read about the immediate happenings as soon as they are launched through the group, such as contests, projects and more in between. As a member, seizing the

Small steps: Preventing Art Theft on dA

Permission Issues and Art theft: It's sadly a common thing now.
It is a huge problem on deviantART/ internetz.

But wait! IDK what art theft is..

Then Read this!
Art theft is unacceptable. Think about how long people spend on their works. And how much of themselves go into it. Now someone else has spent 0 seconds and claimed it as theirs. NO.

You must credit resources. That includes OCs, stocks, brushes, textures, snippets of code(no, changing the colors of a journal skin does not mean you made it) , tutorials(sometimes).
Written credits. Google images is not good enough.
Read these FAQs.
Can I use the works which I find on deviantART?Does deviantART own my a

Why you feature stolen work?!?!Lately there seem to have been a few myths flying around in particular with regards to how we as Community Volunteers, give Daily Deviations. Many people seem to think that we sit at our desks in dark little rooms and let out evil laughter whilst we purposefully feature stolen work. The dark rooms and laughter - well I can't say yes or no on that one! But I can promise you it's not our intent to give exposure to people who have stolen work. I recently featured a piece of work that turned out to be stolen. However I went into extensive conversations with the artist before I featured it, and with added metadata and dates, it's difficult to know where to draw the line. I've given people the benefit of the doubt before - and it's worked out nicely as their work has been legitimate. Below are some comments I have seen being thrown around the past few days - and hopefully an attempt to bust the myth.
"I thought at least that you people would check to make sure the work was the

PE: Getting the Most out of dA: Chat and ForumsThe Forums and the Chatrooms, collectively known as the dAmn (deviantART Message Network), are home to many kinds of discussion. In this article we'll briefly go over the different forums and chatrooms there are, with some specific attention to those that are helpful for you as deviant who wants to contribute to the community.

+forum
First, the forum are not the place to go ask for help or report a problem with deviantART - but they do have the handy Need HELP? thread which tells you exactly where to go with your question.
So if not that, then what are the forums for? Let's break it down down down

to the subcategories!

Tip: before making a thread, always have a look not only at the Forum Posting Guidelines to the top, but also at other recent threads to see what the forum is for and what response you can expect.
<strong>

Attention, don't give away your work!If possible please

this news article so that more people can see it and be wary, thank you!

This week I received messages from two different people (through Etsy and Storenvy) offering to make a review of my work. They splattered huge statics, like having millions of instagram followers, popularity, or having done it before and making people famous. Of course, their generosity was conditioned by me agreeing to send them some of my work for free. While I don't object the concept of reviewing someone's work, I worry that this has become a popular way of scamming artisan crafters to give away their work for free with promises of exposure and increasing their sales. I wanted to write this journal to tell everyone to be careful, specially if you're just starting your business and struggling to get noticed, it may sound tempting but you should never give away your hard work!
One of them was even more blunt and said that he could write a positive review of my work just by

On the importance of submitting icons correctly.Why this journal?
The reason I'm writing this journal is because miscatting has become quite a popular practice on dA and as such it needs to be addressed from time to time. Before a new Icon-CV had been appointed (say hi to ^ValaSedai as the new Icon-CV!), I had discussed with ^ClefairyKid about writing up a small journal (though likely text-wall) about the importance of correctly submitting icons and pixel art.
While some deviants may be doing it on purpose, due to the recent changes in the Fair Exposure-algorythm, a lot of you don't, which is why I hope this journal helps clear up some misunderstandings about both galleries. Most of the info in this journal caters specifically towards iconists, so iconists: welcome to you!
But even if you aren't an iconist, the information in this article will hopefully still be beneficial to you: welcome to you as well!
Reasons why submitting correctly is beneficial for you.

PE Note to Daily DeviationHello all,
In this section of Daily Deviations (DD) PE week I wanted to write about how your suggestions are processed and then turned into DDs, but with a bit more of a focus on the process of how we Community Volunteers (CVs) utilize the note system. I felt it was a place where some common problems arise which may not be talked about all too often resulting in confusion and frustration for both suggesters and CVs.
The Note System
I think many are aware of this but just for the sake of being clear, CVs use the same exact note system as every other user on the site. We do not have any special bells and whistles to organize our notes other than the same tools you all are also given. There is no special tool or program that sorts or does anything special with our DD suggestions for us, it is entirely up to us, how we choose to sort them in our note system.
Let's take a closer look at how the process works, shall we?
:bul

Holiday Card Project - Monroe Clinic HospitalHello all,
I had the pleasure of being able to take 80 cards from the Holiday Card Project and drop them off at my local hospital, thus spreading some cheer here in Wisconsin! The package with the cards arrived Wednesday evening and I was excited to get them sent off to the hospital however I had to wait until Friday because of a silly blizzard.
For the sake of showing off how amazing this community is, I took a picture of a few cards which are now at my local hospital.

I wish I could have taken photos of all of the wonderful cards, but I wanted to be sure they remained categorized as well as safe from the hands of my children. If anyone recognizes any of these cards as their own I'd love to know who sent them all.
After clearing off my car which was covered in nearly a foot of snow ^laserBEAST and I drove to our local hospital to drop off all of the cards.

Photo taken by :dev

A Note on Daily Deviation FeaturesAt ten features into my tenure as Community Volunteer for Abstract & Surreal Photography I am noticing a certain trend in response to abstract and surreal Daily Deviations. I shall address some of the recurring themes here, and hopefully answer some questions along the way. At this point I would like to mention that I am talking about a small and vocal minority, and I sincerely thank the overwhelming majority for supporting the featured artists and their work. You're what makes this site such a great community.
With that said, let's get to the troublesome themes I am coming across.
The "This is crap!" Argument
As an observer and a critic, you're entitled to think that something isn't very good. However, exclaiming as such on the comments of a piece of work that an artist has spent time and energy creating is not only counter-productive, but rude and insulting, especially if it's not followed up with some advice about how you think they could make their

Photography Troubleshooting: Capturing SnowThe best of the Wintery weather conditions often come later on in the season, especially here in the UK. The next week or so will hopefully provide many photographers with the chance to capture those snowy scenes. So what’s the best way to achieve them?
I’m sure many will agree that snowy landscapes are amongst the trickiest things to photograph. Exposure is the common problem; temperature is usually a close second! If your camera has a snow or winter setting then this will help override the auto white balance and lower the exposure, so you are already set to go. But if your camera doesn’t have these functions, then you might find these tips handy:

1.Before you head out, check your equipment. The white skies that often accompany a snowy scene are the most likely out of any shot you’ll take, to show up the dirt on your lens. Give it a good clean beforehand or you’ll be spending a long time with th

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A Few Words on Art Theftby ^ValaSedai

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Submitted on: January 8
Submitted with: Sta.sh Writer

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*MiSt-Stavi Jan 15, 2013 Professional Traditional Artist

thank you for this journal!

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^ValaSedai Jan 15, 2013 Hobbyist Digital Artist

My pleasure.

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~artisticpig Jan 12, 2013 Traditional Artist

I think this is a great post. A helpful reminder to "diminish the probability of your works being stolen..."

I'm not sure of the effectiveness, but when I take the picture for my gallery I focus the camera primarily on the center of the painting. The edges are then slightly blurred. Almost imperceptible for DA viewers, but noticeable if reproduced.

What pisses me off more is when other DA members use my work as a foundation for their digital art.

Reply

^ValaSedai Jan 13, 2013 Hobbyist Digital Artist

That's an interesting way to leave a personal touch on the picture.

Ah yes, people need to learn that things aren't free and that one needs to ask before using something.

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~SplitNinja Jan 11, 2013 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

Lovely advice.

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^ValaSedai Jan 12, 2013 Hobbyist Digital Artist

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~RinaRyuu Jan 11, 2013 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

Thanks for the advice. Perhaps I shall start watermarking, or at least signing in an obvious place!

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^ValaSedai Jan 11, 2013 Hobbyist Digital Artist

It surely can't hurt.

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~Waytfm Jan 10, 2013

Well, the level of hostility in these comments is quite depressing. This person puts out a nice journal post genuinely intended to help the dA community, and this is what it's met with? Whether you agree with her or not, this hostility is uncalled for. So stop with the name calling, with the defensiveness, and with the hostility, and engage in rational debate if you disagree with someone else. Anything else just makes dA, as a whole, look bad.

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^ValaSedai Jan 10, 2013 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Well said.

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