In a sense, without the ability to give and get comments, deviantART wouldn't be much of a website, much less #1 of online art communities around. Comments are not solely the cause of what makes deviantART what it is, but it has a huge impact on a lot of things. By giving and getting comments, not only do we interact with other members to really make this a community, we also have the ability to get our voices heard.
It's quite an odd concept with us all facing screens, typing out our thoughts and opinions, but one thing we shouldn't forget is that comments are our clearest form of communication on this website, something we shouldn't take lightly. We get out what we put in, and this is something that applies to deviantART. Whenever we put in the time to give a comment to someone, whether that is on a deviation, as a reply, or something else entirely, we often get something from that. Perhaps we get more knowledge, a conversation, or even friendship that may lead to something more.
By commenting, we make a difference.
I don't want to limit the use of commenting to deviations only, though they certainly deserve some recognition. Often, there is the case of the 'fave-and-run' where people just
your art without commenting (for all sorts of reasons). Other times, people leave short comments of 'Cool!' or 'Nice stuff!', which, as I'm sure you'll all agree, is nice and all, but isn't that useful. So deviations themselves deserve to receive more constructive comments. It doesn't matter how polished the artwork is, or how unfinished it is, we all deserve and need comments to help us progress, as many more minds are better than one.Comments shouldn't be limited to just deviations. We should also make the effort to reach out using different platforms, different settings, on deviantART. This can be our Journals, Polls, forum, and countless more. By constantly putting ourselves out through our comments, we begin to get the most out of what deviantART has to offer us. We utilise the many features deviantART has, and we build upon it to make it our own.
To illustrate this with an example, if you uploaded deviations and didn't reach out to others through comments, didn't comment on other pieces of artwork, or comment anywhere else, it's likely that you'll be sitting in your corner for a very long time before someone passes by and sees you're alive. Maybe you'll get lucky with the other features available on dA, like :devgroups:, but, at the end of the day, without communicating with others, you wouldn't receive much attention. It's likely you wouldn't make friends here, and you probably wouldn't even stay long on this site.
Friendships are built on top of the foundation of first comments. Other advantages can also include improvement on one's art, getting your opinions heard and generally being seen by the community, getting attention and exposure as a person and an artist. However, for all of that to happen, we have to make the first step first to lay down the platform for others to join us.
Some helpful articles:
- Guide on How To Receive Feedback & Critique
- Why Comment in the First Place?
- Deviant Guide: Good Comments
...and a challenge!
For all those that complete it, you'll get your art featured in a news article at the end of this week.
Give one constructive comment on a deviation by someone you do not know!
The challenge is simple enough! Really spend time and effort on it, using the tips from the articles above if needs be. After you have done so, give us the link here in a reply to this blog.
Thank you all for reading!
3wyl, posting on behalf of the "Getting the most out of dA" PE Team; 3wyl | Astralseed | namenotrequired
