New Gallery Coming Up: Digital Art Mixed Media

Mar 18, 200715 min read

Deviation Actions

Published: Mar 18, 2007

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by Moniquette

Yes, that's right

the Digital realm will get a new gallery called Mixed Media for all of those wonderful mixed up deviations

And I will be the one looking after it - so you better listen up now

Purpose

So why do we need the gallery anyway?

To give all those sweet DIGITAL mixed media pieces a home so they no longer have to reside in the miscellaneous gallery.

I emphasize DIGITAL because this will not be a place to put your traditional pieces that you dragged through Photoshop - and neither is the already existing gallery in the traditional section meant to hold these. If your piece is part digital and part traditional, you need to decide which of the two parts is dominant and then place it accordingly. The traditional mixed media gallery will hopefully have its description revised soon, to avoid confusing.

We will concentrate on the DIGITAL MIXED MEDIA gallery (that is to come soon) here (cos frankly, I don't know much about traditional art forms)...

Gallery Description

This gallery is a home to those deviations that consist of two (or more) DIGITAL art forms (namely Paintings/Drawings/Airbrushing, Photomanipulation, 3-Dimensional, Fractals and Vectors/Vexels – from here on referred to as basic art forms). The basic art forms should be clearly distinguishable in the piece.
This makes the gallery ideal for matte paintings (use of photomanipulation and painting) or terraspace art (use of 3D rendered landscapes combined with painting and/or photomanipulation to "extend" them into a space scene).

Only images consisting of two or more of the above mentioned basic art forms are to be posted here. If your image consists only or mainly of one of those art forms, it should be posted in the respective gallery. That also holds true for drawing/doodling/sketching onto a photo – be advised that this is not a photomanipulation either and should be put in either Digital Art > Miscellaneous or one of the painting categories (the latter only if you used the picture as reference or as a background image). If you have used filters or plug-ins to alter your digital creations, they should be submitted to Digital Art > Miscellanous.

For example if you have started with a photomanipulation and decided along the way to add vector elements, both need to be prominent features of your art for the image to be posted in Mixed Media – adding two tiny vector flowers for instance doesn't make it a mixed media piece, but rather it should still be a photomanipulation.

Please note that just like anywhere else on deviantArt, the use of copyrighted material is prohibited. If you use third party material you must have written permission from the owner of the original piece (be it a render, a photo, a painting or whatever) to do so or it must be clear from stating the source that the image is considered stock. In the case of stock, be sure to include the proper credit and adhere to any rules the stock source may have defined. Also see FAQ #157: Can I use things created by other people in my submissions?. Please be advised that there are websites out there that pretend to be offering free stock when in fact they have no legal claim on the material!

Once the gallery launches, I implore you to read this description BEFORE moving your deviations over to make sure they fit the description. There absolutely have to be two of the basic art forms used to qualify the deviation being put in there!

A few words about the basic art forms

I refer to the art forms that make up the "pool" from which a Digital Mixed Media piece can be derived as basic art forms (for lack of a better term). To understand what Mixed Media is, it is necessary to understand what the basic art forms are... therefore, I have compiled a list with descriptions, that will suffice for our needs (for more details, please refer to the individual gallery descriptions or to wikipedia for example).

• Painting/Drawing/Airbrushing:
This involves using a mouse or graphics tablet along with a graphics program to create paintings or sketches directly in said program. Programs used include: Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, the Gimp and others.

• Photomanipulation:
The use of photographs (in most cases more than one) which are then altered via a graphics program is considered to be Photomanipulation. Be advised that using filters or plug-ins is not a Photomanipulation and all deviations altered in that fashion should not be put here or in Photomanipulation, but in Digital Art > Miscellaneous. Also, using post-processing techniques like photographers would be able to apply in a darkroom is not a Photomanipulation either but still considered Photography. These techniques include, but are not limited to, changing hue, saturation, color, contrast, levels, desaturating, inverting,…
Photomanipulations can be performed in programs such as Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, the Gimp and others.

• 3-Dimensional:
Scenes or objects created through the means of rendering software that lets you set up the object and its environment (including position of objects and camera, light, atmosphere etc) as a first step. When you are ready, you have the option of rendering the scene in higher resolution for displaying your work. Programs used include: Poser, Maya, Cinema 4D, 3dsMax, Blender, Daz3D, Terragen and others.

• Fractals:
Fractal images are created using mathematical formulas. Their characteristic features is that it consists of a geometric shape that can be subdivided in parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole (it is self-similar no mater how far you zoom in). Programs used to create fractals include: UltraFractal, Apophysis and others.

• Vectors/Vexels:
The difference between a vector and a vexel lies in their nature: while a vector uses vectors to store the image information, a vexel stores the information in raster format. For the purpose of the Mixed Media gallery, the difference is negligible though. The reason for this is that as soon as you add another art form to vectors, you need to raster the image thus converting it to a vexel basically. Both art forms have in common, that their looks are similar: imagine a picture composed from basic shapes filled with solid color, a gradient or a pattern, that when stacked upon each other form your picture ("posterized look").

And what about the sub-categories?

Glad you asked

I plan on starting rather small and first see how things work out before adding more. It's pretty easy to create a new gallery, but getting rid of one that is not used properly can be a pain - especially if the deviations inside the category cannot be "mass-moved" but have to be sorted by hand. But I digress, the layout for the sub categories is planned as follows:

Digital Art > Mixed Media

• Abstract
Images submitted to this category should focus on color and/or form to represent the subject. Photorealistic content should not be part of this category (mandalas belong in this category).

• Animals & Plants
Images focusing on the depiction of Animals (mammals, insects, fish,...) and/or plants (flowers, trees,...) should be put here.

• Conceptual
Images where the artist's intent is to convey a concept rather than focus on the subject shown.

• Emotional
Images with the intent to convey an emotion such as sadness, happiness, joy, sorrow, loss,…

• Fantasy
Images focusing on the depiction of a fantasy theme (for example fairies, dwarfs, elves, gods/godesses, mythological creatures etc.) should be placed here.

• Landscapes & Scenery
Images depicting an expanse of scenery generally found outdoors or derived from fiction should be placed here.

• Miscellaneous
If you cannot place your image in any of the other sub-categories, you may place it here. But be sure to check the other sub-galleries first and only use this one as a last resort.

• People
Images focusing on depicting a person or a group of people should be placed here.

• Science Fiction
Images focusing on a Science Fiction like theme should be placed here. The name being a combination of science and fiction already suggests its nature as often dealing with technologically advanced people, on earth or on other planets, and how they master their lives. Popular examples of the genre are for example TV shows such as Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica; Movies such as Star Wars, Aeon Flux, AI or Matrix; books such as 1984 (George Orwell), Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) and many others.
Please note that just like anywhere else on deviantArt, the use of copyrighted material is prohibited. This includes movie or TV screenshots and the like.

In Conclusion

As you can see, this project is kinda large

and personally, I'd love to see it implemented yesterday, but on the other hand, rushing a new gallery into being is not such a great idea. Especially not on such a large site as this one.

I'd rather see this done properly than just done and I believe you do, too.
That's why I am giving you all this information now:

Please look through everything you see above and tell me what you think! Keep in mind, the sub categories are kept to a minimum for the time being, but if there's something big missing, now is your chance to speak up! The same goes for anything else up there.

Also, please tell your fellow artists about this, the sooner we can get the word out, the sooner we can implement the gallery

Examples of Digital Mixed Media Work

I'm going to try and do some interviews with artists whose specialty lies in Mixed Media, so if you've got suggestions, feel free to drop me a line or send me a note.
I'll leave you with some of my favourites: