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Not sure if I've ever really talked about how or why I joined dA, so I might as well put it in the captain's log on account of dA's 14th birthday celebration.
I'm not gonna lie; I joined dA for the emotes. I'm not even kidding. And this was back in 2007 when I was eighteen and the coolest emote was
and before there were freaking awesome emotes like these:
:bademoticon: 
And of course my personal favorite:
Telling stories with emotes is a fun pastime for me, and I have this site toblame thank for it. I actually joined a few days before dA's 7th birthday, which is a convenient way for me to never forget my joining anniversary and be reminded year after year how much of an old-timer I am now. So that's a fun coincidence.
While all of this is true, the main reason I joined dA was to become part of what I perceived to be a cool community of talented artist and graphic designers. I was learning Photoshop at the time and admired the many brilliant website designs. This was when I was first starting to dabble in writing fiction, and I didn't even know there was a writing community on here.
I was also obsessed with Final Fantasy VII Advent Children back then, and I spent way more time than I'd like to admit enamored by the fanart. But let's be honest, fanart and fanfiction is a big part of the community and all around appeal of the dA community. I troll for fanart all the time, and I'm currently hunting for awesome Guardians of the Galaxy art to add to my favorites. (Please send me links to any fun Guardians art you've seen!)
Pretty soon after joining, though, I discovered the awesome writing community and joined a few writing groups (back before there were official dA sanctioned groups--I'm so old!), and I participated in a lot of contests and was awarded my first DD for a terrifyingly awful short story. (Please don't read it!) Let the good times roll!
So yeah, since then I've kept writing and developed a fondness for creating writing tutorials. Sadly, I don't have time to write as many as I'd like or participate in the community as much as I want to. DeviantART has had it's ups and downs, but it's seen me through all my creative phases, ill-fated or otherwise. I'm obviously here to stay. I love this place for all the inspiration it provides and the cool friends I've made over the years. You guys rock.
Happy birthday to all of us!
So, do tell, what's your dA story?
What about you? What were some of your early favorites and deviations?
I'm not gonna lie; I joined dA for the emotes. I'm not even kidding. And this was back in 2007 when I was eighteen and the coolest emote was
and before there were freaking awesome emotes like these: :bademoticon: And of course my personal favorite:
Telling stories with emotes is a fun pastime for me, and I have this site to
While all of this is true, the main reason I joined dA was to become part of what I perceived to be a cool community of talented artist and graphic designers. I was learning Photoshop at the time and admired the many brilliant website designs. This was when I was first starting to dabble in writing fiction, and I didn't even know there was a writing community on here.
I was also obsessed with Final Fantasy VII Advent Children back then, and I spent way more time than I'd like to admit enamored by the fanart. But let's be honest, fanart and fanfiction is a big part of the community and all around appeal of the dA community. I troll for fanart all the time, and I'm currently hunting for awesome Guardians of the Galaxy art to add to my favorites. (Please send me links to any fun Guardians art you've seen!)
Pretty soon after joining, though, I discovered the awesome writing community and joined a few writing groups (back before there were official dA sanctioned groups--I'm so old!), and I participated in a lot of contests and was awarded my first DD for a terrifyingly awful short story. (Please don't read it!) Let the good times roll!
So yeah, since then I've kept writing and developed a fondness for creating writing tutorials. Sadly, I don't have time to write as many as I'd like or participate in the community as much as I want to. DeviantART has had it's ups and downs, but it's seen me through all my creative phases, ill-fated or otherwise. I'm obviously here to stay. I love this place for all the inspiration it provides and the cool friends I've made over the years. You guys rock.
Happy birthday to all of us!
So, do tell, what's your dA story?
THEN AND NOW
FIRST FAVORITES
MOST RECENT FAVORITES
<da:thumb id="200532825"/>
ONE OF MY FIRST DEVIATIONS
MOST RECENT DEVIATION
What about you? What were some of your early favorites and deviations?
I've been published!
I've been published!
Check out my short story "The Case of a Portal on Mars" in this awesome anthology Pioneers & Pathfinders (Kindle edition) and you can get the paperback version here.
:excited:
Don't Plot with Tarot
Ever been curious about tarot's storytelling abilities? Or just curious about it in general? I've been learning it and relating it to the thing I know best: creativity and storytelling. I've gotta say, while I'm certainly not a mystic nor superstitious and I don't remotely believe tarot can tell the future, it has a lot to say about the human experience. Since storytelling is all about the human experience, I've found tarot has a lot of insight into storytelling and creativity in general.
I thought it would be a fun challenge to learn and practice by pulling two cards and connecting them in a humorous way that relates to storytelling and/or
Books to Make Your Life Better - 2019
I have an older journal with more books and videos that will make your life better here: Books that Will Make Your Life Better. Now I'm continuing to share the philosophies and information that make my life better in 2019, mainly those about living intentionally and creative mastery. Nearly all of them are available as audiobooks and should be available at your local library or on the free app Libby.
Enhance Your Creativity:
Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport
Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success by Kerry Patterson (and others)
Art Matters: Because Your Imagination Can Change the Wor
14 Ways to Acquire Knowledge (from 1936)
I thought this was interesting and useful, so I'm sharing it here:
14 Ways to Acquire Knowledge: A Timeless Guide from 1936
by Maria Popova
The quest for intellectual growth and self-improvement through education has occupied yesteryear’s luminaries like Bertrand Russell and modern-day thinkers like Sir Ken Robinson and Noam Chomsky. In 1936, at the zenith of the Great Depression, the prolific self-help guru and famous eccentric James T. Mangan published You Can Do Anything! — an enthusiastic and exclamation-heavy pep-manual for the art of living. Though Mangan was a positively kooky character — in 1948, he publicly clai
© 2014 - 2024 illuminara
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Oh my yes! the emotes were a strange and wonderful form of art that no one ever felt sure of acknowledging as art. 2007 was another world, good and bad. Some very fondly remembered and badly missed good... and some hideous and dark and not fondly remembered bad.
Isn't it funny? so much of it we both miss, but I think neither of us would ever go back if we were given the option.
I'm glad that DA still breaths. I think I've taken for granted the familiar refuge of this place.
Psychadelicmind was my source of major dream-fuel, and Rimfrost was my twisted humor incarnate. most of my early deviations were killed in a a terrible hardrive crash. (Drunk driving again)
Good riddance to most of them. but The album cover I did for the unreal band "Ketchup and Mustard"... I do miss that one.
I'm so glad you're still here and don't want to leave!
Isn't it funny? so much of it we both miss, but I think neither of us would ever go back if we were given the option.
I'm glad that DA still breaths. I think I've taken for granted the familiar refuge of this place.
Psychadelicmind was my source of major dream-fuel, and Rimfrost was my twisted humor incarnate. most of my early deviations were killed in a a terrible hardrive crash. (Drunk driving again)
Good riddance to most of them. but The album cover I did for the unreal band "Ketchup and Mustard"... I do miss that one.
I'm so glad you're still here and don't want to leave!