PetitPotato

First of all, I'm not using deviantArt anymore. I deleted most of my gallery safe for one image (that's gone now too) and I'm not going to post anything new - just to clear things up. I did so quietly, a while ago, because I didn't do so to prove a point, but because I genuinely just wanted my art gone from this place.

I believed there was no reason for me to talk about it but right now I do want to leave a final message. There are various reasons why I don't want to use dA anymore, but the most important one is the reposting of art on Tumblr.

Like many artists I have my own Tumblr blog, where I post my art. When people take art from deviantArt (or any other source, really) and post it on their Tumblr blogs, they're decreasing an artist's exposure by drawing people to their own blogs. Exposure however is very important for artists and they sometimes even depend on it financially. Many of them are trying to build a career by sharing their art online and the art has to be tracked back to them as directly as possible. Also, there are many people who like to keep an eye on their art and it's whereabouts. They want control of where people can find their art and I believe they deserve that as its creators.

When I ask people to take down my art from their blogs, I often get the reply that it's easy for people to look at my signature and google me as the original artist. However, the biggest flaw of that argument is that the reposters don't care enough themselves. They either don't care to google said signature themselves or they don't care to read descriptions or they just don't have any respect for an artist's wishes. So why should anyone, who's looking at reposted art, make an effort to look for it's artist?

Anyway, that's why I put a note on my dA profile asking for people not to repost my art on Tumblr and to go look at my blog instead. I know this isn't much, for many people don't look at an artist's profile. Therefore I decided to edit each and every picture's description and add a direct link to the respective Tumblr post of mine. Most of the time I also added a nice big Tumblr icon to catch people's attention and asked them not to repost. Reblogging my posts on Tumblr should have been beyond easy now. It took me a while to do so and I hoped people would actually respect my effort. I believe it did help to some extent and it's something I would advise other artists to do too. But my art still got posted on Tumblr, so apparently people just don't care. 

Another argument you often get as an artist is: If you don't want your art taken - don't post it.

Well, I'm not going to argue with that. This is why my art is gone from deviantArt now. I didn't want to talk about it, so I just quietly removed everything. Imagine every artist who at least once got that argument deleting their stuff. At some point there won't be much art to look at anymore. Even though artist's like to share their art, most of them still draw for their own enjoyment and they can just as well enjoy themselves without letting others in on the fun.

With this I'm saying good bye to everyone - thank you for your support throughout the years!

So much stuff has happend this year and so many things have changed. Changed for the better!
I'll be moving to a new city in about a month, finally leaving my parents' house. Now, I'd really like to save up some money for school supplies and general living expenses. (Moving itself is always a costly affair too >_<)

I'm currently offering commissions on my Tumblr, so I thought I'd let you know! If you considered commissioning me, you'd really help me out! <3

Commission Information

Once again, I'm going through a phase of being too busy to check my deviantArt account regularly. Thing is, a month ago, I had to leave home and even though I expected to come back soon, things have turned out very differently and I've got no idea when I'll be able to come back home. I hardly have any time or opportunity to use the internet at the place where I'm currently staying and I'm very busy with working on some personal stuff.
I'm very sorry that I haven't been able to reply to your comments on my last journal entry, though I'm incredibly thankful you took your time to share your experiences with me!
My life has been a terrible mess for some time now and I'm trying to make some important decisions. In the end, I'm the only person to decide what I want to do with my future. I have to take care of my studies, maybe change my subject… I'm not even sure what the future might bring, but I'm determined to fight to make the best out of it.

Sometimes, we reach a crossroad of life and it's scary not to know where to go next. It's especially difficult to choose our future profession when we have various interests or talents. Do we choose to turn our hobbies into jobs or do we choose a boring but secure occupation? Do we choose to follow in our parents' footsteps or do we choose to break free?
I've heard many stories from various people about how they chose their professions and how some of them decided to choose again later in life. However, I hardly know any artists who might want to share their experiences.
I've always believed art to be a somewhat risky option and there are lots of families that don't approve of their children to follow an artistic path. Some people decide to comply with their families' wishes, some have talents beside art. They chose a different profession and keep art as their hobby. Others decide to pursue their dream, no matter whether they receive any support from their families.
Personally, when I graduated from school as one of our top students, I chose to study economics, which my parents approved of. Art had never been an option, even though it had always been my most important hobby. I had decided to secure a well paid job and to keep drawing in my free time. However, life doesn't always turn out the way we plan and after having received my bachelor's degree, at the age of 25 I find myself unable to continue my studies. It's always difficult to excel at something when your heart has never been into it and at some point it even starts affecting your health. During the past years I haven't taken art seriously at all and even tried to quit but in the end, I realised that I can't do without it.
Currently, I'm facing the tough decision, whether I want to pursue a master's degree in economics or make a fresh start and apply to some art school. I know that no one can ever make this decision for me but you'd really help me out by sharing your experiences.
Do you like to draw? Did you ever think about becoming a professional artist? What did you choose?

I didn't think I'd ever write something on this topic, but here I am:
Guys, please don't post my art on Tumblr without permission!
I like to believe that it's common courtesy not to do so and that for decent people this goes without saying. At the same time I know that people who mindlessly repost art won't be stopped by any written request anyway. Also, many artist have already stated their opinion on this topic, so again, I though I didn't need to add anything to it.
Recently, I've seen my art being reposted every now and then and it honestly makes me very disappointed, because some of those pieces could have been easily reblogged from my personal Tumblr. I used to be ok with artwork being reposted with credit that I haven't put on Tumblr myself, but to be honest, this kind of bugs me too, since it's mostly old art I don't want to be floating around.
I know, people who repost art often think that it's an honour to the artist for their images to spread and reach a wide audience but this doesn't make much sense to me when the artist isn't even credited. Some people don't even think about the artist, which is even worse.

Personally, as stated above, I'm not happy with my own art surprisingly popping up on my dashboard, either credited or uncredited. Since I never said anything on this topic, I can't expect people to know my opinion, so I'm stating it mostly for the record.
I shall also add links to the pictures' descriptions so it'll be easier to find them on tumblr. Art that I didn't post on tumblr myself does not belong there and I'll also add this to the descriptions.

Maybe, I'm being rather strict here, but that's just my personal wishes as an artist and I'd like people to respect them.
I've become very reluctant about posting my art on deviantArt, and I actually don't want to feel forced to stop uploading it altogether. I love Tumblr. It's a great place and I'm on there very often. I'm not only an artist but also a fan of the series I draw fanart to. Chances are, I follow fan blogs of those series and chances are I shall see the reposted pictures myself which really isn't a nice feeling. So, please, be nice not only to artist, but to your fellow fans!

Also, I have to thank those people who actually made an effort to respect my wishes. Who told me about stuff being reposted and who actually stood up for me and looked for original sources.

For people who find art on the internet and want to know the original source, there are tools like Google image search click where you can upload a picture to find where it is located on the internet. There are also many other tools, but I actually don't even know which are best.

Thank you for your attention