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DeviantArt (styled as deviantART from 2004-2014) is a website featuring art from registered users. Art types include full-fledged paintings, sketches, digital art, photography, sculptures, writing, fan art, fanfics, comics, and more; there are extensive downloadable resources such as tutorials and stock photography. It is currently owned by Israeli web software company Wix.com Ltd.

DeviantArt was originally launched Monday, August 7, 2000 by Angelo Sotira, Scott Jarkoff, and Matt Stephens as part of a larger network of music-related websites called the Dmusic Network. The site flourished largely because of its unique offering and the contributions of its core member base and a team of volunteers after its launch, but was officially incorporated in 2001 about eight months after launch.

DeviantArt was loosely inspired by projects like Winamp facelift, customize.org, deskmod.com, screenphuck.com, and skinz.org, all application skin-based websites. Sotira entrusted all public aspects of the project to Scott Jarkoff as an engineer and visionary to launch the early program. All three co-founders shared backgrounds in the application skinning community, but it was Matt Stephens whose major contribution to DeviantArt was the suggestion to take the concept further than skinning and more toward an "art community". Many of the individuals involved with the initial development and promotion of DeviantArt still hold positions with the project, from administrators to volunteers serving as gallery directors and Message Network Administration. Angelo Sotira currently serves as the CEO of DeviantArt, Inc.

In 2019, the site unveiled a new visual layout, termed "Eclipse", as an alternative option to the default one. On May 20, 2020, the older site layout was permanently retired and all accounts were switched to the Eclipse theme.

Other communities that offer a similar focus include Pixiv, which is essentially a Japanese counterpart of DeviantArt and tends to have less censorship regarding suggestive themes and is limited to just drawings and literature, so sorry, photography fans. Elfwood is an older fantasy art gallery that DeviantArt may have been later inspired by, and had its own share of backdoors drama in its heyday. Cghub.com was a site purely for professional artists, but effective censorship of suggestive pictures was sacrificed in exchange for a massive amount of truly talented work (for those interested, archived snapshots of several artists' pages can be found online).

Check out our Tropers group we have over there!

Also, on an interesting off note, this wiki had an It Just Bugs Menote  page for DeviantArt before the site had a work page, which, needless to say, is something very uncommon.


Works hosted on DeviantArt:

DeviantTropes:

  • Cap: The max amount of Llama and Cake badges one can receive is 100,000 and 20, respectively.
  • Content Warning: Mature content filters block mature artwork with a sign and warning. Moderate Mature content can be viewed after processing the warning for anyone, while Strict Mature content can only be viewed by adults.
  • Emoticon: They have a long list of emoticons that can be used, and they follow a mostly consistent art style. This was also abused with the many "plz" accounts, though this stopped once the site allowed all users to embed images in the comments. Since the site allows for all users to link other users with their 50x50 pixel (later 100x100) avatar images, there are a lot of these that show an image of popular things like memes or characters.
  • Mascot: Formerly had one with Fella, a robotic devil-like/cat-like character. He was dropped after the switchover to the Eclipse interface was complete. He still pops up here and there, though.
    • Llamas are also an unofficial mascot, and users can gift llama badges to other users.
  • Premium Currency: Played With. The main currency is Points, which can be only obtained by either buying them with real money or being given by generous users. Points can be used to buy commissions and prints from other users, and core membership from the site itself. Another currency is "fragments", which can be used to buy Badges to award to deviations and comments but can only be earned by having a Core subscription, winning contests and challenges, or being awarded a Badge yourself.

Alternative Title(s): Deviant Art

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