Christian sites on the Deviant “Art” Megasite
Overview of Deviant Art:
I recently thought that I would do some research into other potential galleries for displaying my comic, in that future time when my strip is far more developed than it is now. I investigated Deviant Art, probably the largest online free gallery (27million members), and thought I would relay some of my findings.
Firstly, since there’s no requirement that members post or discuss art in any form, huge portions of the site have become a social hangout for teens and tweens with tiny vocabularies and little interest in art. Secondly, since it costs members and administrators nothing to abandon group sites, there’s many, many, many group sites with…no activity (now there’s a Sermon topic.)
The Deviant art front page scrolls through new art entries every couple of minutes, so when you post an art piece it will be quickly buried. Your best chance of meaningful exposure and conversation is to join one or more of the 31,000 groups (a number which increases by about 8 a day). Another nice thing about joining a clean group is that viewers can link to that site directly without having to wade through a mire of suggestive/offensive art first.
Using the site’s Group Search engine reveals that there’s over 270 groups with the word “Christian” in their title. The groups are listed alphabetically with a brief description, number of members and for some of the sites, the number weeks since the last post. There’s a huge number of tiny (1-8members) or sites that haven’t had a post in a year or more.
Christian sites:
The biggest and most rigorously structured is a site called Christians. The site has a statement of faith that you must agree with before joining, the 3100 member site looks pretty well maintained. FlyWithGod, with 148 members looks fairly vigorous, and younger in flavor. A surprising well-done site was Bronies-for-Christ; the site has gathered 218 members who follow Christ and enjoy the overly sweet My Little Ponies, yet the site had a lively discussion and prayer section.
Typing in the Search word “Faith” bring up another 140 groups but many of these are nonchristian variants. Faith-Fun-Fellowship looked interesting. Typing “God” into the Deviant search engine brings up 1,040 groups, but they were mostly parodies and Rock bands and I lost interest after the first couple of pages. And there’s no way I’m combing through all the sites with the word “love” in their title.
Several hours of this and you can more fully appreciate the quality of members and admins at the CCAS site. I’m thankful for all of you guys.
Comments
I heard a good recommendation for Comic Rocket from another source, and I'll keep that in mind when I have enough of a buffer of ready comics. My personal (Lord willing) goal is to have a 1 chapter intro (done) and a 1.5 chapter buffer (about 30 pages, seven done so far) before launching with a Comics index.
I've had a gallery on DA for about a year. My goals in posting with more groups on DA are getting feedback, building a larger base of allies who will support and talk up the strip once it does launch, and (I hope this isn't too naïve) building security for my strip and its characters through long time publicized use(in addition to my copyright).
I really believe in furthering God's kingdom through making good art, but even more importantly by finding and encouraging Christ-honoring, creative art where ever I find it. Additionally I love talking up CCAS for any Christian talent I find on DA.
Hey Brien, I agree. DA is a little overwhelming. I just started posting some of my pages there but of course stuff gets buried fast so I don't expect much exposure unless I was making frequent uploads of art. Anyways, I posted before but you can add your comic...when you're ready, to comic-rocket.com People will be able to discover it there and add it to their "my comics" queue.
I totally agree with you both. I would credit both the tolerance and "Troll protection" to the holy spirit and vigilant admins. But the warmth and support that makes a site an incubator for talent and faith comes from an involved and active membership. As we scan our site for interesting art and discussion, it pays to drop off a bit of chatter.
Oh, plus, CCAS is comfy to express the personal viewpoint of faith in various visual ways. What I mean is that generally people easily think Christian artworks should be 'literal' Christian artworks: This may be bit delicate but I think Christian artists should be expressive. Their artworks can be metaphoric, symbolic and be creative etc to praise, pray and speak about the Gospel. Of course, this must be guided by the Holy Spirit in order to express the right message because the image is the God's powerful expression. It seems generally most of Christians, especially who are not artists, see 'Christian artworks' should be in the boundary of (a bit of) stereotypical Christian context :( So far I got the impression on CCAS that members are gentle and faithful to give comments and advices for any artworks you put it up. I think CCAS respects all expressions/levels of creativity that created by individual's faith... Hope this makes sense.. :p
Good post! Thank you, Brien!
I'm also using DA as one of portfolio websites, but didn't think of searching Christian group... well, any group at all! Maybe because I'm not into joining groups and be active on the internet... (Somehow I got the impression that DA isn't nice portfolio website for the professional exposure, if you want to be serious in design & art industry.)
I don't know how vigorous they are (who joined DA Christian groups) but I agree with Donny Yule at this point: CCAS is 'safe' to express the personal depth of faith.I will see if I happen to join them...:p
I've been on DA for awhile, there are some good Christian manga and comic groups like Twelve Gates but DA itself isn't the best art site in my opinion.
This is the best site for Christian artists, DA allows for a bigger audience but going through a lot Christian art groups and art pieces we see the backlash of "Enlightened" people who are quite fervent in letting us know we are ; Wrong, Mental Midgets, Monsters, Morons, Blights on society and thats just the words I feel are comfortable repeating.
I've spent a fair amount of my saved life in debates about my faith and don't shy away from sharing it on DA but I find the community here to be a big deep breath of fresh air. X3
I host my Webcomic on DA for the benefits but I feel CCAS is a much safer environment for those of us who want to share our art and not spend time arguing with trolls.
Sorry if this wasn't helpful, just sharing my experience and adding my two cents. 0w0