There is a flavor of deviants out there whom I just don't understand. Their behavior is completely inconsistent in my opinion, and I often wonder why they do what they do. Maybe you know? There are a couple of types.

Type 1
A deviant comes in to my gallery, and leaves a comment such as "OMG, I LOVE your art!!" on my front page without having faved or commented on a single one of my pieces. This one I get. It's the simplest kind of brownnosery, designed to get me to go to their gallery and see their stuff.

Type 2
A deviant who leaves a comment such as "OMG, I LOVE this piece!" and doesn't fave it. If you love it, why don't you fave it? And if you don't love it enough to fave it... why do you say you do? I figure this one is also BS written to get me over to their gallery, but sometimes it's people who don't have their own galleries. What's the point then?

Type 3 (we're out of flattery land now)
A deviant who comes in, faves every single one of my pieces... and doesn't watch. If you like my art enough to keep ALL of it in your faves... why don't you watch me for when new stuff comes out? I'm vain enough to believe that my newer works are better than my older works. I don't get these people at all.

And finally, Type 4
A deviant who comes in, watches me, and doesn't look at, comment on, or fave, a single one of my existing works. Why watch me if you don't even know if you like my art? And if you liked it, why would you only glance at a couple pieces and not look at the whole gallery? And furthermore, if you liked my art enough to watch me... why not fave a single one? Can someone explain this to me?

I myself rarely add on new people to watch. Any new artist I watch has to be absolutely amazing. Their art must be inspiring to me and embody some concept that I would like my own art to improve at. But when I find such an artist, I look at their whole gallery. I fave everything that I like. And I comment on everything that I have something worthwhile to say about (no "wow, that's kewl!"s for me, thankyouverymuch). And then I watch them. Because if they did some amazing things in the past, I want to know about it when they come out with their latest amazing thing too.

Is that the best way to expose myself to great art, network with other artists, and still stay honest with myself? It is for me. If you have a different way you work, please share.



~Maria


PS: if you haven't noticed already... I have a Twitter account now. Good place to know when I'm in town, when I'm painting, and also a great place to see sketches, since I won't be posting them here in my gallery. I'm getting some sketches done for my commission series now, and will post those there when they're approved.

NEWS : July 1st

Hey, guess what, everybody?! I'm at 50K views! How did that happen?!

~~~

I am hard at work painting my latest, which you can see a sketch for down below on the left. I'm really starting to learn a lot about watercolor, and thanks to the crits of my lovely boyfriend, I think my colors are getting better.

I was going to send some art to the Gathering this year, but it turned out that I had to go on like 3 consecutive business trips in the weeks leading up to it... and never got around to sending them art. So sad... Maybe I'll get my butt in gear in time for Comicon.

~~~

In other news, I unwatched about 50 people last night because they hadn't posted anything at all in years, or because they weren't doing the kind of art I wanted to be inspired by, or both.

~Maria

NEWS : April 2nd

I would like to express my general disappointment with some of the people I watch. Artists who shall remain unnamed, who have amazing skill and potential, but who have a tendency of drawing the same thing for every picture, using the same elements, the same poses, not really showing any desire to improve their work. Formulaic, boring, repetitive "art" defines what these people have done in the year or so that I've been watching them.

I've unwatched 2 people today. I wouldn't be sorry if I never saw another work by them again. And that's really sad. I love seeing new art. It inspires me like nothing else.

Neither of these two people watch me, so I doubt they will read this entry... this entry is really for those of you who DO watch me... two questions:

1. Does my work ever strike you as repetitive? (dear god, I hope not)

2. Have you had similar experience to mine, where you're just so underwhelmed with what lackluster stuff some artists have been producing despite their amazing skill and potential?



~~~



I've started posting WIPs and sketches in my LiveJournal.

The link is this: [link]

It's not friends-only, it's not discriminative, it doesn't promise anything. It's just a blog for finished art, with some sketches in between.

My current painting I don't have any scans of because the work is too light to show up on a scanner properly. When I've made enough progress to pass the scanner receptivity threshold, I'll post a wip in my lj.


~Maria

NEWS : February 24th

We're almost at 45,000 pageviews, boys and girls! If you hit it, send me a screenshot, and I will feature you on this journal.

In other news, I'm about halfway done with Ryoken.. and mm-mm, is he coming out well!

NEWS : February 24th

New Art! Wow.



Next, I need to do at least one of the commissions for Beth.

Toodles!

NEWS : February 6th

OMG OMG OMG OMG

I actually finished something! Wow.



A much overdue commission. Next up? A personal piece, probably in watercolor on my Arches paper. And after that, I'm tackling the commission series for ~fanfictionaxis. Omg, the end is near! Yay.

- happy dance -

XD