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As August 7th, deviantART's 11th Birthday, so does a premier event: the deviantART Staff Appreciation Week! This event has been undergoing planning since April 2011, all of which can be followed by watching #StaffAppreciation!

The goal of #StaffAppreciation and the deviantART Staff Appreciation Week is to promote general community positiveness, and to show the core staff members that we, as a community, appreciate their time, efforts, dedication, and overall work here on deviantART.

There will be a week-long event held from August 8th until August 14th, during which time the community will be able to participate in chat events, mini-contests, and a super-secret gift for the $taff of deviantART.

So, if you are interested in anything mentioned above, feel free to +devWatch #StaffAppreciation and take part in the festivities!

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In order for our event to be a success, we need as much community participation as possible!




That's right! You can read more about this little offering in our blog entry!

You can spread the word in many ways:

By linking to us in your signature;
By faving this news article;
By posting a journal about us;

...and those are just some of the ways!

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A big, heaping thank you from the volunteers at #StaffAppreciation and myself,


dASAW on Twitter

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One night, I decided to write a journal. It wasn't a very seriously thought-out journal, but I was rambling on when I hatched an idea. It quickly flew in and out of my brain, I passed it off, and then I revisited it.

The dA staff do so much to make deviantART a comprehensive, friendly, top-of-the-line community for us -- I think it's time we give back!

We should hold a deviantART Staff Appreciation Week!

Think about it!

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The deviantART Staff are very proactive. Whether it's being a pimp, posting various design tips and helpful journals, or answering our help-desk inquiries, there is always a staff member lurking. Unlike other popular websites now, which treat the staff like obscure beings whom you need to email to possibly contact, deviantART staff are readily available (if you don't know, they have either a $ or a + in front of their username).

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Sure, you could argue that they only do it because deviantART is a business, but do the staff need to be involved in the community if this is JUST for business? No, of course not! They could isolate themselves from us and intervene where necessary...

...but they don't.

So, come on! Give back! deviantART is a wonderful tool for networking with new people who have similar interests, and it is truly getting improved, modified, and nurtured every month, if not every week!



I truly don't know. I asked my watchers for their opinions, and many of them provided some awesome ideas! Some of the popular ideas for this event are quoted here:

`Krissi001

We can spam the staff with muro-heart-drawings on their page  

^SparklyDest

For the Staff Appreciation Week, there could be fan art of some sort. Drawings, stamps, muro doodles....just a thought.

*keyanadrake

What about random staff ... um.. hugs or prizes or something. Like, choose random staff members, or staff that have personally helped or done craploads of stuff, and do something nice for them. We could collect together stuff... to give them?

*shrug*

How about a sort of secret santa, people enter the competition, are given the name of a staff member who deserves appreciation and that person is responsible for doing something nice for that staff member.

Some of my personal ideas are:

Interviews with staff to see what exactly they do.
Putting the "spotlight" on staff members throughout the week.
Chat events!
Perhaps a scuzzle?

I am really trying to just plan this special week now, so input is welcome!




Obviously this idea would take a lot of planning. Not only would we need to decide on dates, times, and activities, but we would need to network with the admins and get more deviants interested in participating!

To be honest, everyone can help. I can't possibly organize this by myself, so volunteers are invited to note me and offer your services. Some things I could use help with are:

Networking with communities.
Prizes for contests or events.
General pimpage and interest generation.
Ideas for contests or activities.
Setting a group of dates for this to occur.
Other things that I haven't thought of!

Don't be afraid to contact me! I assure you that you can be helpful, and I know that there are some innovative, brilliant deviants out there. I would love to be able to let the staff know how much we appreciate their time, work, and effort, and I feel that this is a perfect way to do so.

I hope you do too.

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So, please, feel free to contact me or comment on this news article. Join into the fun, since I know that the community can come together to make this idea a reality.

`SanguineEpitaph

www.deviantart.com/discovery/

I will be underexposed artists that I happened to find using the Discovery page here on dA! If you would like an overview of how to use this page, feel free to see this brief guide!

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!Coved-J

I really enjoyed taking a peek at !Coved-J's photography -- especially the awesome pictures of animals that they have! I find it strange that such adorable and clear photos have gone with such little notice!

~imveryconfused

A wonderful gallery filled with marvelous pictures that use Mother Nature as their subject. I love it when an artist can capture the beauty of Earth.

*cameraflou

*cameraflou has amazing urban photos and amazing photos of subject that contrast with that intense, vivid subject. I would recommend taking a look through his gallery and thinking about his pictures because I was lost for quite awhile in there.

*thomaswievegg

I must say that *thomaswievegg has some splendid paintings in his gallery. I would recommend it to anyone looking for an interesting balance of intense, vivid art and more light-hearted things like his piece The Bully!

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Please consider pressing the button on the left to this article -- not for the sake of getting more faves, but for the sake of allowing these artists' artworks to be noticed by more of the community.

`SanguineEpitaph

Previous Issues:


Finally! It's officially the tenth issue of Penciled In! _{I would say "tenth week," but you may have noticed that this issue has been delayed a week for personal reasons...} If you have read the last few issues of my article, you might've heard me piping off about "Oh, watch out for the dreaded Issue X!"

Well...

This is Issue X.

And my, my have I tried to stuff this issue full of fun things! The layout will be different from the rest of the articles, since I'm commemorating this occasion (though it's not totally special ). You can start by looking at the table of contents below. Unlike past weeks, I will be featuring only one deviant! Also, after much internal debating, I've decided to split this into two parts. This week, I have included `Mollinda's interview! Next week, I will feature ideas that my watchers have thrown around about traditional art.

Table of Contents
Logistical Things for First-Time Readers
Interview with `Mollinda
Featured Deviant
Trad. Art. Spotlight!





The purpose of my article is to bring together pieces of artwork from the Traditional gallery for artists who are interested in those media. In doing so, I hope to bring exposure to artists who might be lacking in it, and I would like to provide a platform of inspiration for other traditional artists! I haven't been able to find any articles of this nature, but if you know of any and would like me to link to them, I will!

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Please see this if you would like to suggest someone.

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For this special occasion, our traditional art GM graciously agreed to a little interview!

<sub>What quality do you think most attracted you to deviantART?

I'll be honest, when I first joined DA it was for the prints. I wanted to sell prints of my work, DA did it. I don't think I ever sold any back then but yes.

Has this site affected your personality or art?

Of course. Something that's such a big part of my life is bound to affect me. It made me want to try new things when I saw something awesome - I'd want to try it.

What exactly does being a GM mean to you?

It means educating, encouraging and exposing deviants. Kinda like being the mayor of Trad Town

I recently posed a question to my watchers about how they feel digital art has affected traditional art. The majority seemed to feel that it had neither an overtly positive or negative affect. A common consensus was that digital art allows you to add more detail and "life-likeness". What do you think?

I think digital art has ctrl+z. It has layers. It basically has a safety net. It's cheap (once you have your equipment and software) and it's not messy.

But you can't throw a bucket of paint at a digital canvas. And that's why I am a trad artist. I like the mess and the tactile materials.

As for it being more life-like - total rubbish. The only difference there between trad and digital is that with trad it takes longer. You can't do blur or alter opacity or use texture overlays - you have to do it all by hand, waiting for layers to dry. You can knock out a fairly photo realistic portrait in Corel Painter in about 8 hours. It may take 8 weeks, or 8 months to do a traditional photo realistic painting!

Even with digital media, why do you think that traditional art has prevailed still?

Has it prevailed? I don't think there's a war or anything - they are what they are. Some people prefer traditional, some prefer digital.

What do you predict for the new Installation Art gallery?

LOTS OF MISCATS And hopefully people understanding what installation is and doing it!

Do you think there's a such thing as "good art"?

Of course there is, what an odd question.

I also posed a question to my watchers about whether or not they think you have to be good at traditional art to be good at digital art, and vice-versa. They were almost evenly split. What do you think?

They are very different beasts, you may not be able to do both, you may be able to do both, I think it's a non issue.

Do you have any suggestions for people who art trying to improve their traditional art skills?

Practice and experiment! I've recently taken up collage as that's what I'm teaching my pre degree group - I like to complete a sketchbook on whatever they're doing. And I love it!

What do you see for traditional art in the near/distant future?

I don't think trends can be restricted to traditional art I know I'm the trad art gallery but that doesn't mean I think traditional art is superior to other art forms.

I think there will be a LOT more digital/traditional mixed media. Why just use one when you can use both?</sub>

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I would like to draw attention to a new traditional art group, #ArtistsPerception. Please take a minute to have a look!







Traditional Art - `Mollinda
Body Art - `Anmagdan
Sculpture - `LabyrinthCreations

FAQ #18: Who selects Daily Deviations and how are they chosen?
FAQ #61: What is a Daily Deviation?
FAQ #873: What do I do when I disapprove of a Daily Deviation feature?

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I really was reluctant about overloading this article with too much information. As I began filling it with everything I intended to, I decided that that would be too much. Please stay tuned for the next article to get the full experience of traditional art galore!


Thanks,
`SanguineEpitaph!

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First, thank you for agreeing to be interviewed! I truly appreciate it. If you don't mind, could you tell us briefly how it was that you came to be an official staff member, and about how long ago that was?

I joined deviantART as  a member in 2003 and in 2004 I started volunteering as a Photography Gallery Director.  After volunteering in that area for a little over a year I was offered a job as the Director of Artist Relations (Now Community Relations) in June of 2005

Very interesting! At the time, and even now, what part of this job do you enjoy the most, and could you give a brief overview of what you get to do?

The unique community at deviantART is what encouraged me to join and take part as a member in the first place, and I consider blessed that I get to work directly with the community on a daily basis as part of my job.  Community Relations, works to build, grow and manage the deviantART community around the deviantART brand.  While Community Operations focuses primarily around the operational side of the site, Community Relations works organically within the community encouraging, facilitating and developing relationships, not only within the community but, sometimes more importantly, between the community and the administration.

I've attached a fun infographic that breaks down my job

Throughout your years as such a prominent figure for the community, in what ways do you think the community has changed the most? Surely it has grown in size, but have there been any interesting things you did not expect?

You're right, the community has certainly grown exponentially over the years and very organically, meaning it wasn't until recently that we started any outward promotion of deviantART itself.  I think the most interesting thing for me, to this day, is the variety of people we attract to the community.  I have the privilege of attending many off-site events and seeing our community live and in person at these events I've witnessed young people, older people, professionals, amateurs, people of all races, genres, and walks of life coming together and celebrate the unifying power of art.  I find the impact very powerful when you see it one on one.  It makes me very proud to be a part of something so powerful that crosses so many boundaries.

I have come to notice this, too, and it was something unexpected for me. What qualities do you think are necessary to have or to learn for your position on the staff?

I think it's essential to have patience, be passionate and fully believe in the power of the community and most importantly - to listen.  Sometimes we get caught up believing we know best and are doing what is best for the community when most times the community has already said what it wants or needs and all we needed to do was to listen.  Similarly, I find it important to hear the message behind your biggest complainers and not discount the opinion of anyone simply because they disagree.  Sometimes you can learn something important.

If you could resurrect any artist from the past to get their feedback and thoughts on how deviantART operates, its community, and what it stands for (regardless of the century they lived during), who do you think you would choose and perhaps why?

I'm going to go with Yousuf Karsh. His body of work focused on portrait photography and presented an intimate and unique view of humanity.  He lived through a period of no technology to uber technology and I believe he would provide an interesting perspective and opinion on what we have created.

  

What is one big hope that you have for deviantART, whether it be as a website, community, or business?

That we continue to be the biggest and best community because I believe there is no one else like us that does it anywhere near as well

  

The next few questions I have are more fun, and generated by the community! =conniekidd asks: if dA were a planet, what do you think it would look like?

It would look like this:


<3

if you could make any change to deviantART, big or small in any way, what would you do if anything?

I think I would have liked to have personally found it in 2000, instead of 2003   Otherwise, there's nothing I would change. I truly believe that  every experience to date, positive and negative, has led us to where we are now and I wouldn't wish it to be an iota different then the biggest, and best online art community in the world

I think that about wraps up the interview! Is there anything more you would like to add?

Just a huge "THANK YOU" to the community for making us what we are

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Thank you very much to $Moonbeam13 for taking the time to answer these questions (and individually nonetheless!). It was great to interview her.

If you are interested in participating in festivities from now till 14 August, then just #StaffAppreciation! We have a lot planned.

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Background Info _{(no tl;dr)}

The Here and Now

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The official dates of the deviantART Staff Appreciation Week are: Monday, August 8th until Sunday, August 14th!

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_{This is the week after deviantART's birthday!}


Thank you for reading. I hope you're as excited as we are!!

`SanguineEpitaph

Can you guess what the story is? <3

Welcome to Volume I of "Penciled In". I'm going to try to make this article weekly!

The purpose of my article is to bring together pieces of artwork from the Traditional gallery for artists who are interested in those media. In doing so, I hope to bring exposure to artists who might be lacking in it, and I would like to provide a platform of inspiration for other traditional artists! I haven't been able to find any articles of this nature, but if you know of any and would like me to link to them, I will!

To Suggest a Piece or Pieces:

Please note me. Follow this format to ensure that your submission is included in the next issue!
Subject: Penciled In Suggestion
In the note, please include the :thumb: code of the deviation you would like me to feature. It's as simple as that! If you have multiple pieces from one artist, I will be happy to feature them. I don't want to give one artist too much exposure compared to others, so I will only feature up to three pieces, and I will only feature them once every three issues.

If you  don't want me to include that you suggested the deviation, please say so. If not, I will say that you were the suggester.

Featured Deviant

Every week I will pick one deviant to feature in this spot. This isn't to imply that his or her artwork is better, but maybe because they have relatively low exposure, or because their art IS amazing. If I have multiple suggestions for an artist, I will consider them to be in this section.

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Features

`Cataclysm-X _{Suggested by ~darkmeridian13}


~Briscott _{Suggested by ~darkmeridian13}


~Aimski _{Suggested by ~darkHunTer2009}


`Hellobaby _{Suggested by ~darkmeridian13}


~TwoDD _{Suggested by `SanguineEpitaph}


*ParisAlleyne _{Suggested by `SanguineEpitaph}




I hope you found this week's article particularly inspirational, and I hope you enjoy the pieces featured here! Remember, if you want to suggest someone, please note me.

Happy new year!
`SanguineEpitaph