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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

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

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

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.

Actually, I rarely even post art anymore.

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 Digital Darkroom?What is Digital Darkroom?
Digital Darkroom is the evolution, converting chemical processes to digital ones, cellulose and silver to pixels and bytes. The first digital camera, weighing 8 pounds with a resolution of 0.01 megapixels, was built in 1975 and recorded black and white images to a cassette tape. The first camera which recorded images as computerised files was made by Fuji in 1988 and the first commercially available digital camera was created in 1990.

The Digital Darkroom gallery on dA is for photographs which have been digitally processed or edited with the use of computer software to emulate traditional and alternative film darkroom techniques. It's also a place for very modern processes like HDR photography, which involves creating images with a higher range of visible tones than regular photography.

Most of the functions available in digital editing software were created to mimic actual darkroom

Complaints About Quality Declines in DD'sComplaints about quality declines in DDs
Let's take a quick look at what a Daily Deviation is first. You might remember this article from our last PE week A Daily Deviation is NOT an award, but a feature. If you haven't already, you might want to take a look at it! It's a great read and you can get a good foundation as to what a Daily Deviation stands for.
So, I'll be touching on the subject of "Complaints about quality declines in Daily Deviations". Why is this so important to touch on? That's a great question and I will be more than happy to answer it below as I describe some key factors that are often overlooked in the way of art vs quality.
Addressing Quality of Deviations
"A picture is worth a thousand words."
There is a lot of this going around "Daily Deviations are losing quality. They're not as beautimous as they used to be.". How about we step out of the shoes of "what is and isn't art" for just a s

People + Portraits: Capturing WeddingsThe Weddings category within the People & Portraits Photography gallery is often misused and misunderstood. It's not for capturing those generic wedding shots of shoes, cakes, decorations and rings. The idea is that there needs to be a person or people captured in the shot to make it portraiture photography. There also (and i know it's mind blowing) needs to be a wedding theme going on! Simply cropping in close on hands or shoes or a part of a dress isn't enough to get it into the gallery. If the gallery were simply 'Weddings' then it would be different of course. You should consider the use of the Photojournalism - Weddings Gallery too and if your shots are journalistic in style they need to be pushed towards that gallery.

Fiddle with your settings to ensure you capture the bright white of the wedding dress (as this is the common colour anyway). A lot of cameras will over compensate if you've got this large white area in your view finder and expose the dress as being

Project Educate: Classic Portrait PhotographyClassic Portraits are Photographs of people in traditional pose. These are often formal, refined and restrained in style. As you will see within the Gallery they often involve a plain and simple background which is a popular feature of Classic Portraiture. One of the most notable things within the Classic Portrait Photography Gallery is that there are a lot of art nudes. This actually occurs across the board with People & Portraits and I cannot stress enough - that if your work features nudity, it belongs within the artistic nude gallery!

Conversion to black and white with concentration on bringing out tones and shadows creates that timeless classic look and is often favoured by the elite artists that submit to the People & Portraits - Classic Gallery.

Whilst D-SLR's have a monochrome function, for the most part (mine h

People + Portraits Photography Talent Spotlight`Kendra-Paige has been on deviantART for over eight years now and has made a strong mark on the people and portraits gallery especially with her fashion work. Her kit consists of a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon EF 85mm 1.2L II lens using various other lenses and focal lengths but repeatedly gravitating towards the 85mm. She uses a combination of lightroom and photoshop to post-process her work although she keeps her editing as minimal as possible as she doesn't enjoy the post-processing bit of photography!
Why did you choose people as a photographical interest?
I have always found people to be fascinating, and I have a particular interest in expressions and eyes. The eyes tend to be the focal point in a lot of my work, and typically dictate the image. Aside from this, it’s the collaborative effort that I enjoy in portraiture. When you take images of animals and nature, there is only so much control you have with the subject - a lot of it is luck

Project Educate: Improving Spontaneity Spontaneous Portraiture
Here on deviantART there is a whole gallery for your casual, candid, secretive shots. I don't mean fetish. The Spontaneous People & Portrait Photography Gallery is where you should go if you are wanting to things that are less arranged, less planned and much more spontaneous. Have a browse here to see what's popular but keep in mind that miscats are in abundance, and that's why these education weeks exist - to try and educate and put the record straight.
I prefer to shoot all of my portraiture and people photography as candidly as possible. I believe that capturing people unawares gives them no time to organize their facial expressions and consider arranging their emotions. Eyes, are the windows to the soul - as they say, and if you're making someone stand and pose (which works well a lot of the time) you're closing off the honest

PE Stereoscopy: How to View Stereoscopic 3D ImagesHow to View Stereoscopic 3D Images
There are three basic methods of viewing the stereograms we have on DeviantArt. There might be other methods which differ slightly, but these are the main ones:
Anaglyph (and other glasses methods)
Viewing stereo images with glasses is great, because because you don't need to squint your eyes or focus in strange ways to see in stereoscopic vision (stereo 3D). Furthermore, anaglyph images are fantastic, because you don't need a special TV or screen, just a pair of anaglyph glasses. These are pretty easy to get, you can find them with some old 3D films, books, or even in some stores. Chances are you might have a pair lying around the house.
Most anaglyph glasses are red on one eye, and cyan on the other, these are the most common for people to own. But there's a whole range of types of anaglyph using different colors. the whole point is to hide part of the image for each eye, so many opposite-colors can work.
Because yo

PE Stereoscopy: What's Stereoscopy Anyway?So what is Stereoscopy Anyway?

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!
Stereoscopy covers any stereo viewing methods including:

Anaglyph

Wiggle (A pair of stereo images which are alternated quickly to give the feeling of depth)

Cross-eyed/Side by Side (here's a great tutorial to help you see them)

Autostereogram (Like Magic Eye)

Etc. (This includes any other method of displaying a stereo image)
Find out more on Wik

PE Artist Interview: VAngelLJHello! How are you today? Could you tell us a little about yourself?
Hello! I'm good thank you. My name is Leo, I live in England and I've been a member of deviantART for around 8 years now (quietly).
So, when did you first discover Vexel Art?
I came to discover vexel art in 2007, and it was introduced to me by `AwsumZ. I like the media because it is versatile and I find it relaxing, which is why I've been doing it ever since.
And how would you describe your work?
I'd describe my work as semi-realistic, and I like to think I'm creative with it at the same time as keeping the realism - as in, I tend to follow stock references to a certain extent, but I love to add all my own ideas into it and 'mix it up'.

If someone were to ask you, “what is vexel art?”, what would you tell them?
I tend to tell people that vexel art is blocks of solid colour or g

PE Feedback Week: It's a Wrap!Hi everyone,
This journal signifies the end of Project Educate: Feedback week here on dA, which was brought to you by #FeedbackFrenzy. This was truly a team effort.
We hope you enjoyed yourselves! Let's review some of the highlights of this week!

Feedback Frenzy
Feedback Frenzy was an activity in which all you devious people out there (164 of you, to be exact!) critiqued one another's deviations and received critique in return. It lasted an entire week. We do not know how many critiques in total were completed yet, but we do know that the lists are so long that they won't fit through the dA message system!

So, if you are trying to note us with your team's final list of critiques and the note won't go through, break it into multiple notes. Just label them something like Team No. 41 Part I & II so that we know they go together.
Final deadlines for Feedback Frenzy:

8 July 2012, 11:59 PM PST: No further critiques

REMINDER: Photomanip Critique/Chat Event!Photomanip Chat Afternoon/Night is TODAY!

Who?

YOU!
Any deviant is welcome to come, although we are specifically gearing our discussion toward photomanipulators.

What?

An afternoon of photomanipulation fun! There will be a "getting to know you/meet your fellow photomanipulators and CVs" session followed by a Critique Event at 2 PM. We will spend the remainder of the time sharing and discussing works in progress, problems and solutions we see in the community, strong points of the community, and anything else people want to discuss.
So, come get some constructive feedback on your work, share your thoughts with others, and have a laugh or two!

Where?

:#communityrelations:

When?

TODAY!!!!!
Sunday, June 10th, 2012
1-5 PM EDT (New York time)
Critique Event: 2 PM
You can come and go as you ple

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Vexel Art and Stock: Making The Most Of Resources

Thu Jan 10, 2013, 1:21 PM

Vexel Week

Many 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?

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

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 giving credit where due

See these FAQs for more information:

FAQ #217: What are "Stock and Resources" and can I use them in my submissions?

FAQ #157: Can I use things created by other people in my submissions?

FAQ #257: What sort of permission do I need to use someone else's work?

There are many things you may wish to use the stock for – some people may take a part of the image as inspiration, and others may wish to replicate the entire image in their own style...