Hi guys, and welcome to the first Artist Relations newsletter for the Fan Art Gallery! It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks! So what's been happening? Read on...


The divine and high-heeled $lolly has recently made a post concerning the future of DeviantArt, I suggest you all check it out!

Community Development Update


That'd be me. If you're curious you can read up on me on my own page, but here's the basics: I'm from Brissie, I'm 26, female, used to work for Walt Disney Animation Australia and I'm darn happy to be here as your Gallery Director.


Seems like an obvious question, but you'd be amazed how many fan art images are put into the wrong category here at DA. As a rule of thumb, if you're creating art of a character who is copyrighted to someone else, that's fan art. Doesn't matter whether it's painted, drawn or photo-manniped; if it's a copyrighted character it's DEFINITELY Fan Art.

That includes pictures of Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow, guys.


This leads me on to 'Miscats', or Mis-categorisations. A Miscat occurs when an image is uploaded to the wrong gallery. Image classification may not seem important but you'll find if your image is in the correct category, more people will see it and you'll get more of those sweet, juicy faves and comments. Match the right image with the right audience!

So if there's any Fan Art in your own gallery that isn't classified under Fan Art, it'd be awesome if you could shift it over yourself and save the AR team the trouble! If you'vw got the time and inclination to help out even more, try this: run a search on DA for your favourite fan character. Under the thumbnails on the search results page you'll see the name of the gallery each picture is filed in. If you see any pictures filed under the wrong gallery, click on that image, click the 'Report Policy Violation' link, and from the drop-down list select 'Misplacement'.

By something as simple as filing that report you'll be helping tidy up the messy galleries of DA and contributing something very real to the community, and I'll bloody well love ya for it.



When I took up this post I had no idea how much fun I'd have with Daily Deviations. It truly is a pleasure to give them, and to check back later to see the much-deserved rush of attention the chosen image receives. And I'm receiving some simply amazing suggestions! Please keep them coming!

Guidelines for DD suggestions can be found on my previous News update: Fan Art: The Year Ahead.

One request, guys: Please include a THUMBNAIL in your DD suggestion note. It makes it so much easier for me to go back and check who recommended which piece at a glance. The more time you can free up for me, the more I can do for this community. Which leads me to...

Official Contests

There's a big contest brewing for the Fan Art gallery, but I'm still getting my cr*p together, so please forgive me - it's going to be another week or so before I can post a definite update on The Big One!

In the meantime, I'm running mini-competitions of a sort in the form of week-long Daily Deviation themes. Commemorating special events in fandom, a themed week simply means that for each day of a given week, the DDs will all be chosen from the same fandom.

DD CHALLENGE: Potter Week: Keep your eyes peeled for Potter Week, which starts on the 16th and finishes on the 22nd, celebrating the release of the seventh and final Harry Potter book on July 21st. The rush of suggestions I've received for this has been absolutely incredible and I'm spoiled for choice: for every Potter DD chosen in the coming week, an equally deserving one had to miss out.

DD CHALLENGE: Simpsons Week This starts on July 23rd and ends on the 29th. Celebrating the release of the first-ever feature-length Simpsons film on the 27th, I'm opening suggestions.... NNNNNNOW! If you know of a fantastic Simpsons artwork that deserves DD, send me a note titled "Simpsons DD" and share the goodness.

Deviants' Contests

http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/13702536/ Thu, 12 Jul 2007 00:30:59 PDT Got a question about the Fan Art gallery, Miscats, Daily Deviations or the best way to contact me about any of the aforementioned? Check out Fan Art: The Year Ahead.




Hi guys;

Just a quick request tonight - I'm writing the first ever Fan Art Newsletter for Artist Relations, and I'll be posting it within the next 24 hours. This is a big opportunity for any of you out there who are currently planning or running a CONTEST or EVENT that falls under the Fan Art heading.

Send me the details of your Cunning Plans via Note and I'll include them in the Newsletter, which will be seen all over dA. Great publicity for you, and a great chance for us all to show the rest of dA what a thriving, conniving, overdriving lil' subculture we are.

~Tania

]]> `animator http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/13639445/ http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/13639445/ Fri, 06 Jul 2007 20:55:36 PDT Got a question about the Fan Art gallery, Miscats, Daily Deviations or the best way to contact me about any of the aforementioned? Check out Fan Art: The Year Ahead.

Attention all Potter fans! This one is for you.

As you know (as the entire world knows!), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows lands in bookstores worldwide on the 21st of July.

In celebration of the seventh and final book in J. K. Rowling's fantastic series, every single Daily Deviation from Monday the 16th through to Sunday the 22nd will be selected from the fine body of Harry Potter fan art here on DA.

So if you know of an amazing piece of HP art, old or new, please send me your recommendations via Note ASAP.

I'm not posting this to News because I don't want to spam the entirety of DA, but if all you HP fans can spread the word for me (and I know you can; you're like a human Floo network) I'm sure I'll be buried under Notes before you can say "Expelliarmus!"

~Tania

]]> `animator http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/13596385/ http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/13596385/ Tue, 03 Jul 2007 18:30:41 PDT

Seriously, though - hi. I'm your new Gallery Director for Fan Art. Thanks to $Moonbeam13 for giving me this opportunity.

The following few paragraphs contain Awkward Introductions, so please feel free to skim.

My name is Tania Walker, and I hail from the Land Downunder. I'm 25, enjoy taking Jumping Photos (see my Dev ID for an example) and currently work from home running a jewellery design service with my brother, ~Nodstad. This means I spend about ten hours a day working in front of this bloody computer, so I won't be hard to reach.

That said, please don't ask me any difficult questions for the next 24 hours or so, because frankly I've got no idea what I'm doing yet. I'm sure that gives you all a great deal of confidence.

I can be reached via comments on my page, by Note, or by email at animator@deviantart.com.

I've been Devving it up since 2002 and can be found in person at most *brisvegas DevMeets. Despite the amount of time I've spent on this website I'm yet to master some of the bells and whistles... I'm frankly embarrassed by my inability to work out CSS for this journal. It's so NAKED!

Before I ran my own business, I was an animator - hence the obvious username. I worked for a few different places, most notably Walt Disney Animation Australia as an Inbetweener on 'The Lion King 3' and 'The Three Musketeers', and Liquid Animation on 'The Proud Family'. I've also spent some time freelancing for various corporate and private clients.

However, I started out ten years ago drawing fan art for Disney films. Fan art got me started down the path that led to my life's dream: to actually be a part of creating the films I loved.

Now, I've heard people claim that there's no place for fan art on DA. I disagree. A huge number of talented artists here on DA got their start drawing fan art, and many of them never stopped: you'll find dozens of professionals in here who still draw Bugs Bunny or the Ghostbusters or Severus Snape whenever they get the chance. I don't think there's any better way to express your fascination with an idea than by incorporating it into your art.

So keep on creating, guys! I'll just be back here fiddling with these knobs and buttons and working out some awesomely fun contests and things...

PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE GIRL BEHIND THE CURTAIN!

Gallery Director - Fan Art

Portfolio: [link]

Comic: [link] ]]> `animator http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/13501402/ http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/13501402/ Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:07:39 PDT
One of the things I like about DA is that when I want something fresh for my WatchList, I don't need to go too far. Yesterday, as an experiment, I went to a random userpage and right-clicked open every usericon I could find on that page under 'Friends' and 'Comments'.

And of the couple-dozen of pages I opened, I found not one but THREE awesome artists, all of who deserve more recognition than they're getting. Actually, I found more than three, but these ones really stood out.





The kind of vectors I wish I was doing, refreshingly full of girls with personalities far bigger than their cup sizes.

* * *





Sweeping, detailed, flowing and intense. Subject matters include comic book heroes and fantasy figures.

* * *





Nothing shows an artist's ability as much as a broad range of styles. This gallery is a delight - a mix of intensely toony characters with delicate anime-styled characters and everything inbetween. Kudos to Sanaril for not going batty doing the image posted below:

* * *

That's all for today. But remember, you don't need recommendations to find good artists! Just open up a bunch of windows and plunge on in! The streets are paved with awesome artists here! (ouch, that's gotta hurt...)

Portfolio: [link]
Comic: [link] ]]> `animator http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/13480706/ http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/13480706/ Mon, 25 Jun 2007 04:49:03 PDT
Freelancing on the whole is awesome fun but now and then you get a client who makes you tear your hair out in frustrated rage. I'm happy to say they're few and far between. And they make for entertaining stories on DA. If you're planning on going into freelancing yourself, some of my past tales of woe should teach you a thing or two about what NOT to do!

Also, we just watched the second-last Supernatural S2 episode. OMG! Sam! T_T

Finally, my computer has developed such a "personality" (read: stuff that don't work right) I now have a (human-cooling) fan leaning against the open case all day long so it doesn't overheat. It's quite amazing to be sitting there, fingers and toes numb from winter cold, listening to the computer heat alarm scream. The best part is that every time that intensely irritating alarm goes off, my brother accompanies it with a Chewbacca-scream.

And with that thought, I bid you goodnight.

~Tania

Portfolio: [link]
Comic: [link] ]]> `animator http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/13400970/ http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/13400970/ Mon, 18 Jun 2007 23:52:23 PDT Nodstad - go say hi!

In other news, I've been heavily involved in running the business and as such haven't really uploaded anything lately. Sorry, guys! I'll get to it when I can.

Portfolio: [link]
Comic: [link] ]]> `animator http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/12354186/ http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/12354186/ Tue, 27 Mar 2007 18:29:46 PDT

ANYWAY. I'm selling a couple of ex-Disney animation desks complete with 16-field discs. Photos and details are here:

[link]

This is only really applicable to Australians, as the postage to get something like this over to the US would be prohibitive. But if you're an Aussie and you want a good drawing or animation desk, look no further than these; they're pretty damn sweet.

~Tania

Portfolio: [link]
Comic: [link] ]]> `animator http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/12146652/ http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/12146652/ Sun, 11 Mar 2007 16:41:00 PDT

But that's not the point of this post!

My brother Chris is selling his 1998 Holden Commodore VT. I offered to list it on Ebay for him. If you're local, and interested in buying a car, check it out:

[link] LCA:AU:11

There is a reserve, but it's not as high as you'd think, judging by the pricing of the other 98 Commodore VTs on Ebay.

Ciao;

~Tania

Portfolio: [link]
Comic: [link] ]]> `animator http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/11525814/ http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/11525814/ Mon, 22 Jan 2007 04:26:46 PST [link]

A video starring all the residents of my humble home: my boy Joey, myself and the divine Hammond!

Portfolio: [link]
Comic: [link] ]]> `animator http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/11435753/ http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/11435753/ Sun, 14 Jan 2007 14:17:54 PST
I'm thinking of helping out in a couple of ways with the kitten-rescuing, but that's a story for another entry, and for after we've inspected our possible-future-home tomorrow.

So it was Saturday night, Hammond and I came home and he talked me into watching some Grey's Anatomy with him. I was bumming around in my tracksuit pants and a random shirt and basically just passing time waiting for Sunday to roll around, because Joe was scheduled to get back on Sunday night and it was SO CLOSE FINALLY.

Hammond kept getting and sending texts, and I figured he was chatting to Adders. Then at one point Hammond grabbed his car keys and disappeared to 'go pick up Adders from work'. He arrived back home alone some time later to my surprise, and told me that Adders wasn't coming over tonight, and I'm not really sure why I didn't question that further...

Some time later I went upstairs to call my mother, and there was a knock at the door. Still on the phone, I crouched on the floor to restrain the cats (figuring it could be someone scary and important) while Hammond answered the door.

AND JOEY WALKED IN. IN A GORGEOUS SUIT. WITH A BOX OF CHOCOLATES. GRINNING. asdhjkgldfkhsadf;;;

I said "Oh my god, mum, I've got to go, don'tworryit'sgood!", hung up, and flew into a hug.

Hammond quietly disappeared over to Adders' place sometime shortly after and, yeah, this all goes to show how impossibly gullible I can be.

Also, the dudes down at the corner store must be starting to think we lot up here are REALLY weird. We frequently walk in giggling and being dorks and buy nothing but snacks. Another time Joey turned up to the counter with three round green things (a kiwifruit, a drink that comes in a round, green bottle, and something else which I've forgotten) and when he realised, he started laughing, to the bewilderment of the store employee serving him.

This time around, Joey and I turned up. He was dressed in a three-piece suit (vest, tie, shiny shoes and all). I was dressed in tracksuit pants, a t-shirt and bare feet. We wandered the store arm in arm. I think they're used to us down there now because nobody looked twice.

Life is really, really good.

~Tania

Portfolio: [link]
Comic: [link] ]]> `animator http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/11363558/ http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/11363558/ Mon, 08 Jan 2007 14:30:59 PST [link]!

Portfolio: [link]
Comic: [link] ]]> `animator http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/11352985/ http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/11352985/ Sun, 07 Jan 2007 17:17:37 PST
[link]

~Tania

Portfolio: [link]
Comic: [link] ]]> `animator http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/11024507/ http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/11024507/ Mon, 11 Dec 2006 03:35:06 PST
For US$20, you can sign up to a year-long package of original tubes from me. The initial release, which is already on the community, is five tubes. There'll be a new tube each fortnight for the next year. Through the community I'll be running contests and taking requests, so if tubing is your thing and you like my art, please sign up!

How, What and Where:

I am currently offering a PSP package for sig tag makers. A lifetime license for this package is available for $20. Examples of the tubes available are in my portfolio.

For PSP users and group managers who are interested in obtaining a license to use my work there is a three-step process:

1. PayPal payment of $20 must be made to info@taniawalker.com.

2. Forward your PayPal confirmation to tania@stamporanium.com. Once funds are verified your license information will be e-mailed to you.

3. Once you receive your e-mail with your license information, you MUST join The Official Tania Walker License Forum ([link]) in order to obtain your tubes. You will not be able to join the forum until you receive your license information as your license number must be on your forum application.

All information regarding licensing will be available in the forum including my Terms Of Use.

Join the Official Tania Walker License Forum: [link]

On a completely different topic, I'm currently offering the following print for sale:

Thanks guys!

~Tania

Portfolio: [link]
Comic: [link] ]]> `animator http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/11023601/ http://animator.deviantart.com/journal/11023601/ Sun, 10 Dec 2006 23:56:55 PST