Duncan-Eagleson

Deviant Art reawakened my love of drawing and painting..

Not like it ever went away, but, yeah, it's been napping the last few years.  I've continued to make masks, which right now are my bread and butter, and do the occasional graphics job - a logo here, an illustration there - but my main creative outlet the last few years has been writing fiction.  I've done four novels and a handful of short stories.  I've been learning about the craft of writing,  the business of publishing, and the arcane art and science of convincing publishers they want to pay you for your work.

As it happens, dA wasn't the only factor in jumpstarting my art process again.  The writing helped, too.  Shortly before I joined dA, I submitted a short story to an anthology, and when they accepted it, the publisher asked if they could hire me to paint the cover (I did, and you can see it to the left, or go here).  And a Sandman fan approached me with a commission (yes, I worked on Gaiman's Sandman once - I'll upload some of that art eventually).

So as I was uploading all this older art to dA (and thinking, Hey, that's not bad about stuff I hadn't seen in a while), I was also working on two new paintings, the first serious traditional media paintings I've done in several years. Aside from getting frustrated that in traditional art there's no hitting Control-Z (or Apple-Z) when you make a mark you don't like, I was totally digging it.

My reception here at dA has been such that I decided to start showing art in the "real world" again as well.  This weekend, (barring any more blizzards, or as an old friend used to say, "Gods willin', and the crick don't rise..."), I'll be showing work in the art show at the Arisia, an SF con in Boston, and in another month at Boskone, which takes place in the very same Boston hotel.

In between, I'll probably be showing some work at the Art Salon at A Feast of Lights at the Clarion Hotel in Northampton, Ma.

Any Deviants who might be attending any of these events, by all means, look me up.

I joined Deviant Art in November, and it made December an interesting month.  For a couple of weeks, I spent every spare moment photographing, scanning, and uploading like a madman, in order to get a basic cross section of my existing work up.  I've done this sort of thing before (on Zazzle, in building my various websites, assembling portfolios), so I knew what to expect -- basically, I had no life outside of paying work during the day and working on the dA pages at night (figuratively speaking - with my schedule, it's more like afternoon and evening on jobs, wee hours of the morning on dA).

And then there was browsing and finding all sorts of stunning (and let's face it, a fair amount of less than stunning) art. You could spend years doing nothing but browsing dA, and you'd never see all the awesome work here.  Both humbling, and a time eater.  But I sort of expected that, too (and steeled myself to be disciplined and responsible, and not lose whole evenings just browsing)..

What I didn't expect was the outpouring of response from the dA community.  I'm overwhelmed. This is an amazing collection of people.  Of course, I started out trying to answer every message and comment individually, if only to say "Thanks," but quickly discovered that it was all to easy to fall behind with even that.  And I don't really know the social rules, being new here. (Yeah, I know, there's a FAQ and forums and stuff, where I could look it all up.  Think of me as a Mac guy rather then PC guy in social contexts -- I tend not to read the manual, figuring reasonable, intelligent, respectful behavior gets you by in most places).  But scoping out other people's galleries, it doesn't seem like people take it as rude if you don't personally acknowledge every single comment and fave (though it seems reasonable to at least try to reply to the longer, more thoughtful ones, or the ones that actually ask questions).  So if you faved or commented me, and I didn't respond, my apologies, hope you weren't offended, and I'm trying to get round to all of them eventually. And thank you.

The assemblage of talent and generosity on dA is nothing short of astounding.  I'm a kid in a candy shop.  Look at this, people putting up their stock photos for free - sure, not all of it ranks with the best quality you'd get on Getty or some of the other pay sites -- but a lot of it is.  And even the work that's less technically polished is generally more imaginative than most of what you'll find in the pay photo services.

Toward the end of December, I felt like I was getting my feet under me, and getting a clue about how to manage being a deviant. I've proceeded slowly.  I didn't want to barrel into any groups or forums right off the bat. Joining any community, I like to lurk and get the feel of the place and the people before opening my mouth too loudly.  Seems only reasonable and polite.

I was wary of the journal thing.  I've avoided blogging and journaling so far, because I'm the type who finds it hard to keep up with posting regularly.  I didn't want to become one of those folks who posts an entry every few days for a month, and then doesn't post again for a year or something.  As my list friends and email correspondents know, I tend toward massive long-winded posts, with extended silences in between.  Twitter I'm not even thinking about yet.  

But then it occurred to me that I could probably manage a post a month on a regular basis.  So that's my goal - I may post more often, but will try not to post less.

And I'll keep trying to respond to as many comments as possible.