deviantArt Version 7

Alright, so yesterday, I made my usual stop at deviantArt yesterday and had a mild panic attack. Things had changed. Now, I'm not adverse to change. Sure, I may resist it tooth and nail because I'm a stubborn creature of habit, but I can adapt and even grow to like the new changes. . . which is why I didn't instantly flee to my dA journal to declare Version 7 as some sort of demonic entity sorely in need of an exorcism during my "buh... wha?" phase yesterday.

Today, I've had some time to adjust and find where they put things, and... well, it's growing on me. Parts of it, anyway. And there are some nice features. For example:

• The ability to navigate through galleries and my devWatch with my keyboard's arrow keys.
• Having the comment bubble directly under the artist's comments.
• The artist's comments auto-expand when you scroll down.

Alas, there are also some problems. Most of them just strike me as annoyances that were likely incorporated to make the site more iPhone and iPad-friendly. For instance:

• The giant arrows to either side of a deviation. They just clutter up the page.
• The pop-up thumbnail navigation bar at the bottom of a browsing page. Irritating at best.
• The way full-size deviations load now, what with the pixels and the zoom and the augh.

However, there is one thing that irritates me above all else about Version 7: the small views of deviations. Thumbnails? Look great. Full versions? Pretty much look fine. But the small view? Tiny, jagged, pixelated pieces of crap.

Maybe it's meant to strongly encourage full view. I don't know, but I actually liked having a nice small view. Imagine you have an epic illustration of a sweeping landscape. In full view, perhaps you can scroll around this epic and marvel at all the tiny details and subtle nuances, but if it doesn't fit entirely on the screen, you can't get the full impact of that pic. In a decent-sized small view, like the ones dA used to have, you could see enough of the detail and the whole piece and fully appreciate it for the masterpiece it is.

Now? Not an option.

*sigh*

There seem to be a lot of people up in arms about Version 7. If they choose one thing to fix, though, I just hope it's that.

Eros and Anteros

Last week, I finished the Valentine Fairy pic and posted it up on my deviantArt page, where one of my frequent visitors asked if she had "plumed" butterfly wings. Thinking I was sorely uneducated in butterfly terminology, I asked what, exactly, plumed butterfly wings were. Turns out, they're the feathered butterfly wings of Eros's little brother, Anteros. Being the mythology nut I am, of course I had to plunge right into researching the guy... and then, I had to draw him.



Eros, little attention whore that he is, insisted on hopping in, too.

In any case, this took three straight days from sketch to posting, which translates to maybe 24-30 hours of work. I'm pretty happy with it. For once, I think I've managed a background that is present but supports the composition of the picture as a whole rather than going, "Look at me! Look at me!" There's a nice, warm atmosphere to it all, and the peachy color scheme really helps Anteros's wings and their eyes stand out, but not jarringly so.

As for those wings... For Anteros, I spent awhile trying to figure out just how one feathers butterfly wings and still has them functional. In the end, just feathering the basic butterfly structure seemed the way to go. That lovely blue comes from a passage on the Erotes from Philostatus the Elder over at The Theoi Project, where he described them as having deep blue, purple, or golden wings. Blue seemed to suit Anteros, with him being the personification of mutual or returned love: soothing, calm, and beautiful.

Meanwhile, his big brother Eros started out with the typical white dove wings, but next to Anteros, they just seemed so bland, and didn't really pop enough in the picture. They needed something more... so I bit the bullet, pulled out the lasso tool, and turned his wings into a hawk's. He's a little more predatory and arrow-happy in nature, so that seemed like a good fit for him.

Now, I know that somewhere out there, there is someone going, "But I thought they were supposed to be chubby cherubs with a head full of golden curls!" Well... artistic license here. I've never really been comfortable with Eros/Cupid being all child-like, especially in the context of the Eros and Psyche myth. I'm far more comfortable with them being attractive adult males. I did intend them as blonds when I started, but it just did not work out. But I think auburn works wonderfully for the two of them.

Overall, I am really happy with this piece. I kinda wish I'd done a step-by-step as I went along. Maybe next time!

2009 Summary Meme

As I was finally going through the massive pile of deviations stacking up in my devArt inbox, I stumbled across a new meme: the 2009 Summary Meme. I think I'm actually going to do this one. I mean, what better way to end the year than to sit back and take stock of everything you've done over the past 12 months?

It helps that for once, I had pretty decent artwork every single month. In fact, for the first couple months, I'm going to have a hard time picking. In March, for example, we had both The Centaur Kiraz and Attempt 02, my second attempt at drawing one of my DI characters in a realistic style (namely Astarte, who turned out rather fantastically). At the moment, I'm leaning more towards Astarte, but I am still hella proud of how Kiraz turned out, too. And let's not even get started on February...

Also as an end-of-year type thing, I'm working on a another doodle page, done on the old paper again. Why? Because that's how I started the year. It should be an interesting comparison, seeing how my style has changed over the year, assuming it has at all. Considering my so-called "style" seems to be in flux from one piece to another, it would be a miracle if it hasn't.

Here's a sneak preview from the doodle page:



Yeah, there's more than a few *ahem* character interaction exercises on this sheet. I've got about a week to finish coloring things in, which I will get right back to as soon as I get something done for Strawberry Syrup this week. It's Christmas - gotta do something!