Views on the DA inflation/fetish community.

Really I've been hanging around DA for a couple of years now. Seen works from awesome artist, submitted more art than I honestly remember drawing. Over time, I've watched how the game work, and yet I've never really played it. What game might you ask? The popularity game, of course.

It's no denying the biggest way to gain the most popularity from the community which puts out the most non-mainstream stuff is the inflation or wg/FA community. Put out enough big bellies or plump girls and watch as the page views soar and the favs start rolling in. It makes perfect sense, do what people like and they like you back, at least while you keep doing it. I support this, of course, by tracking gallery stats. My biggest faved work is some BE piece that honestly I didn't think was that impressive followed by a series of inflation doodles that probably doesn't deserve the credit it's given and it goes down the line one inflation piece after the next. Ironically, save for a few examples, the works that I put the most work into often go largely ignored by comparison. So why do I do them?

Because I want to. No doubt for every piece I put out that might interest a person, I'll put out 5 more than won't. In fact, though general themes might define most of what I do, I put out a large enough variety to probably get a "wtf" out of everyone that continues to watch my gallery at some point. It's a blessing and a curse in some aspects. Since I don't please some of the people all of the time, I only please a few of the people a little at a time. I'm actually quite ok with this since, I've met a small circle some very supportive friends this way which seems to be the running theme in my life .

Why am I ranting then? Overtime, I've noticed the habits and ways of artist, and while every person is different, clearly there are certain types that come to DA for certain reasons.

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You have you're comment lovers. They don't care that people watch their work, fave their work. 10,000 views and 1,000 faves would mean very little to them. They just want comments, usually massive in depth comments and critiques so they can bask in written appreciation, or improve themselves. Not really a bad thing at all so whats wrong?

Well there are tons of people floating out there who love to fav, but never comment. I being one of them. Doing so apparently is a slap in the face to these artist. After all, how dare somebody like your work but not have 4 eloquent lines prepared to pat them on the back. How dare these people enjoy their hard work and toil and deny them that one final gesture? Well, some people aren't exactly talkative for one. Most, if they absolutely had too, would post something like "lolz, awesome!" and move on. So why twist their arms about it? If they have nothing profound to contribute, they can't contribute it. Is it really that bad that they would dare mark your work for easy access because they may, at some point want to view it again? Seems like a compliment to me.

What get's me about this is some of the rants that have arisen because of this. I've even seem some artist post detailed quality standards and do's and don'ts they expect all commenters to adhere to when commenting on their art. You want people to comment, only on what and in the certain way you expect it? That leaves very little freedom for the commenters and it will only result in less comments... Then again those weren't wanted in the first place so I guess it balances out.

Wanting critiques is perfectly understandable, it helps you grow as an artist. But not too many people other than better artist or the occasional preceptive individual can provide anything that you probably haven't spotted already. Besides if your page was filled with tons of people pointing out everything wrong with your pic, would you really want to keep drawing?

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On the middle ground seems to be the populars. Many comment lovers are popular, not all popular artist are comment lovers. You can spot them by the massive quantity of favs and page views that follow even the slightest doodle they put out. These are artist that have learned their game and stick to it. I shouldn't have to name any names since any inflationist/wg/fa person had one pop into their head when they read the last few sentences.

Most tend to have a singular focus art wise that rarely deviates from a set pattern. Maybe they do really good BE art, maybe they do expansion in general, or really cute pugdey girls. Whatever it is, it falls into a category that allows them to draw upon a massive fanbase that will stick to whatever they do. Interestingly enough, I've seen a few complain about this. All that's expected of them is what the fans want. If they post a normal girl, a bunch of people comment on how they'd like to see a belly on her. If they put out even a crappy picture everyone still loves it none the less, even if it intentionally lacked artistic merit. In a way, they become trapped within their fanbase. If they completely abandoned their interest, they might completely alienate their fanbase. Sticking with the program becomes a driving goal and much like a pop singer, they only stay in the lime light if they keep pumping out the next greatest hit.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this but it comes with it's own set of problems. If you're only known for your bellies, your wg, or FA, it becomes difficult to switch out of that focus. You might do plenty of other things, but the fanbase really isn't too interested. In that way, the artist true creativity can be squelched by the desire to please his fans and conform to the standards they are accustomed. I've seen a few succesfully switch out over time, but not many.

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Finnally, there's the variety and not so popular guys. Actually this might be two seperate groups. Since some people post variety and manage to become very popular, some not so much. The danger here are the little guys, they may be not well known, have a weird art style, they may be begginning artist, or maybe they release a whole bunch of unfinished stuff . Eitherway, they have a tendency to fall into a bit of a jealousy trap, especially ones who might be trying to play the game but with little success. They might whine about lack of pageviews, comments, favs, and everything else revolving around the fanbase they expected to gain when joining DA in the first place. Some eventually come up in popularity, others might dwell in relative obscurity till they finally quit.

The problem in this is that they are trying to draw for others and not for themselves. If they don't garner the attention they require it becomes frustrating for them. Why should Critical Volume get so much attention when my "yada yada" is barely noticed? Usually, if the artist has merit, time is the cure to this condition. But then again, I've seen very good pics in the inflation community that would seem like they should be very popular, but are relatively unseen.

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So what the hell is this all about? Nothing, absolutely nothing since theirs nothing really wrong with the motivations of the types of artist I've described above.

So why did I post this? The same reason I post every other thing I post of DA. Felt like it. What now I need reason to spill random thoughts?

Homework: Any artist who view this examine your motivations for being here, is it for popularity? Recognition(which isn't neccesarily the same as fame.)? Or just a place to post what you want? Examine yourself enough and you might learn a thing or two about yourself, not only as an artist, but as a person as well.

That is all.

peace