Comments on: Maybe the first thing about DeviantART that doesn't suck

Maybe the first thing about DeviantART that doesn't suck

Rory Marinich — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 06:13:23 -0800

To celebrate its tenth birthday, popular site DeviantART unveils Muro, a gorgeous HTML5 drawing tool that handles multiple layers and a variety of artistic brushes. No account required.

By: schwa

schwa — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 06:17:23 -0800

"Login to buy brushes". So while no account is required, you only get a subset of functionality.

By: le morte de bea arthur

le morte de bea arthur — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 06:30:42 -0800

It's ok. But it doesn't seem terribly different from any of a hundred drawing tools people have been building for years in - dare I use the word? - Flash. And although these online drawing toys are probably fun to code and to mess about with if you don't have a pencil handy, I can't imagine many people making the commitment it takes to really learn a new drawing tool and start producing serious art with it - it's just too ephemeral. Plus the motion blur filter takes forever in Firefox.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 06:32:26 -0800

Maybe the first thing about DeviantART that doesn't suck That's a really messed up way to introduce a post about something you think is cool.

By: le morte de bea arthur

le morte de bea arthur — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 06:35:18 -0800

DeviantART doesn't suck, any more than the wall at my kid's school sucks. It's just a place for anyone and everyone to post their creative output. Better artists have their own sites.

By: hellojed

hellojed — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 06:39:47 -0800

DeviantART has a great mobile site, which allows me to pull up my gallery on my phone to show people, and a good dumping ground for all my drawings. Linking to my account as a de-facto portfolio has opened up more opportunities for me than anything else, so I would say that DeviantART does not suck in that regard. I hope that this site doesn't have the lag associated with other web-based drawing apps, especially when using a tablet. I will have to test this when I get home.

By: selfnoise

selfnoise — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 06:43:05 -0800

Huh, it even works on my Droid, although the interface is useless.

By: hellojed

hellojed — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 06:47:24 -0800

What browser are you using, selfnoise? Mine just crashes, or only displays a sliver of canvas.

By: selfnoise

selfnoise — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 06:50:10 -0800

Just the stock one. I'm running froyo, though. That might be the difference.

By: overeducated_alligator

overeducated_alligator — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 06:52:18 -0800

A program with this kind of polished interface just calls attention to the features that aren't there. Something like, say, Graffiti in Facebook doesn't have any pretensions, but just so happens to have some cool stuff like being able to play back your whole drawing. This, on the other hand, is like Photoshop Elements Elements. No zoom, even! (At least in Flash you could right-click and cheat to zoom in that way...)

By: hellojed

hellojed — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 06:55:56 -0800

It would be nice if I could import an image, enable blending, and color it. Even better if I could do it on my phone, since I typically draw something and then take a picture of it, hoping to color it later.

By: desjardins

desjardins — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 07:00:21 -0800

overeducated_alligator, you can zoom by moving the slider to "pro" at the top and then using the + and - in the window at the top right.

By: desjardins

desjardins — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 07:00:37 -0800

(it still sucks)

By: DU

DU — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 07:21:57 -0800

it doesn't seem terribly different from any of a hundred drawing tools people have been building for years in - dare I use the word? - Flash A proprietary tool built on open standards vs an open tool built on proprietary "standards". Hm.

By: le morte de bea arthur

le morte de bea arthur — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 07:38:37 -0800

A proprietary tool built on open standards vs an open tool built on proprietary "standards". Hm. Buckle up! We're leaving the rails.

By: hippybear

hippybear — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 07:38:52 -0800

deviantART page "An insight into Muro" has some good points about what it is, and what it isn't.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 07:43:26 -0800

This does indeed suck. But in a good way. It sucks (you in).

By: l33tpolicywonk

l33tpolicywonk — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 07:43:37 -0800

le morte de bea arthur: "It's ok. But it doesn't seem terribly different from any of a hundred drawing tools people have been building for years in - dare I use the word? - Flash." I'm hardly a Flash hater, but there is something really cool about clicking on that link and having the thing loaded before I can even switch tabs.

By: le morte de bea arthur

le morte de bea arthur — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 07:57:10 -0800

l33tpolicywonk, that's because most people who build Flash apps often fail to intelligently manage the way resources are loaded. There's no technical reason why a Flash app doing the same things couldn't load as quickly in the majority of browsers. We're just used to Flash developers embedding huge quantities of images, sounds and fonts into their files and then preloading the whole lot on startup. You could conceivably do things equally badly with HTML/CSS/JS if you tried. Anyway, the technology behind it is barely relevant. It's mostly just another vehicle for bad anime drawings, and as such it works fine.

By: Jpfed

Jpfed — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 08:09:42 -0800

Maybe the first thing about DeviantART that doesn't suck That's a really messed up way to introduce a post about something you think is cool. posted by jessamyn at 8:32 AM on August 10 If Rory worked for Apple (hmm...) his comment could be considered a compliment to the linked tool.

By: mrgrimm

mrgrimm — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 08:13:50 -0800

I like deviantart. I like this. Thanks!

By: The Devil Tesla

The Devil Tesla — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 08:44:52 -0800

it's entirely plausible that Muro could be put onto user page, into notes, it could even be put into the chatrooms. Okay, that's cool.

By: Kutsuwamushi

Kutsuwamushi — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 08:51:01 -0800

Better artists have their own sites. I'd like to point out that there are a lot of professional artists who have a DeviantArt account in addition to their personal website. The site offers more than a stand-alone website can, like the ability to network, interact with other artists, and find a larger audience of amateurs. It can be hard to find the good stuff because anyone can have an account, but once you do, there are tools (like favorites) to help you find more. Of course it's a site that has a lot of illustrators, so "serious" artists might brush off what the professional illustrators on DeviantArt do as sci-fi and fantasy pablum, but I think you're being pretty unfair to some of the people there.

By: le morte de bea arthur

le morte de bea arthur — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 09:05:37 -0800

Kutsuwamushi, you're perfectly right, and I didn't mean to imply that there's no good art going on there. Many of the 'proper' artists I know have DeviantArt accounts. But most of them also have their own personal site where they know they're not going to be judged for having their work share a site that prominently features not-so-good art. I think the problem DeviantArt presents to a viewer arriving at the homepage is that it's quite hard to filter out the things you're personally interested in.

By: zoogleplex

zoogleplex — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:28:18 -0800

Somewhat OT: the worst part of being on DeviantArt is you get jerks like this one trying to "hire" you: http://news.deviantart.com/article/125498/ It's interesting to see an art tool done this way, though.

By: Thomas Tallis is my Homeboy

Thomas Tallis is my Homeboy — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:03:00 -0800

is it sad that I want Kid Pix sounds? yes