Well, that was short lived.

My journey with art and design on the internet started somewhat early. In 2001, I joined skinz.org, the then-bustling social network for designers. Needing more "room to breathe" on my non-digital works, I joined DeviantArt in January 2002, a small social network for artists and designers to showcase their traditional and digital works. During what I fondly nickname it's "renaissance age" in 2004, DeviantArt was home to thousands of the web's biggest and most talented names in design. This was back when the term "social network" hadn't yet been coined.

Sometime in 2005, the term "Web 2.0" started floating around the internet, and more young and upcoming artists sought the releases of the internet to promote their works. DeviantArt became huge, and it's "work submitted in the last day" page turned into "work submitted in the last minute".

And then came the influx of what I'd like to call "artrash". Thousands upon thousands of pieces flooding the site depicting badly-drawn fanart and various instances of copyright infringement turned finding art and design works on DeviantArt into the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack. I found myself logging in less throughout 2006. When I did, I found that the quality of feedback left on my work had dwindled into single-word comments. Their frequent server crashes had wiped a good portion of my downloadable works (photoshop brushes and icon packages) off their servers and with a recent hard drive crash of my own, I was unable to upload the works back onto the site.

At present in 2008, DeviantArt is the web's largest and most successful art and design-based social network. I have 579 unread messages on DeviantArt, a sign that I need to either increase my involvement with the site, or leave it altogether. I'm debating the latter.

Throughout the years, DeviantArt has played an important role in my development as an artist. The feedback I received early on has helped me find my "weak points" and put the effort into my work where it matters most. DeviantArt has also done wonders for my self esteem. To date, my works have had 321,968 pageviews and my most popular work on DeviantArt (which I had to re-upload several times due to DevianArt's server crashes) has been downloaded over 63,000 times.

All of this in mind, why would I want to leave the platform? It's time for me to move on. Part of my new year's resolutions for 2008 was to try and minimize my infatuation with beating dead horses, and this horse is so dead, that's it's been reincarnated into an emerald beetle and is living happily on the side of a tree in Brazilian rainforest.

I'm weighing my options, but it seems that I've comfortably settled myself at the Behance Network. I feel that the way Behance is built and it's portfolio/project-based display ensures that the bar stays high - something I wish DeviantArt would have done in one way or another. An extraordinary amount of designers, animators, artists and photographers showcasing their work at Behance are mind-blowingly talented. I find myself browsing member's portfolios on Behance for fun and inspiration, something I haven't done at DeviantArt in a long, long time.

You can find my profile and works on my Behance profile page.

To my friends who work or have worked at DeviantArt, please understand that this is not personal. I admire the dedication to the DeviantArt community throughout the years and wish you well in your future endeavors.

I figured to update my journal, since I'm really bad at that. That, and a few other things, like getting to bed before 3am.

I've been working on some exciting things recently, which helps get me out of the day to day drudge. I'm working on an interesting project for a friend of mine who is an enterpreneur living in London which will allow me to work for a format I've never done before. I'm also working on a personal project, which I would love to spill the entire beans on, but then I'd have to kill you.

So those aside, I'm glad I'm drawing/designing/coding again. Hamburg is still cold and rainy, yesterday I met an Israeli here which hates Hamburg so much, she gets cold fire in her eyes when she talks about the city.

Personally, I like Hamburg more than it likes me, but I'm happy.
I'd still rather be in Tel Aviv right now.

Frank's people brought Paul Van Dyk to Hamburg for an evening to which we were invited. None of us, while perhaps fans of electronic music, had much of an idea what to expect. I don't follow the DJ charts and the gang doesn't, either. The evening turned out to be quite nice, Paul's music is great (although somewhat repetative), and the only shame was the German crowd. I've blogged about this before, but it still amazes me how even when brought a world famous, world class DJ, the German crowd kind of wiggles around in an apathetic dance which resembles the contortions of a dying fish. Considering the fact that it was an invitation, my friends were with me, and some guy I barely knew brought me a glass of champagne, it was a great evening. I'd love to see Paul Van Dyk play in Tel Aviv - the Israelis know how to party hard (ref - Apoptygma Berzerk live in Tel Aviv 2002) and in a case like that I'd even be willing to forego the champagne.

Every art-obsessed young'n (and old'n) knows to automatically stop by the discount bin of bookstores - for some reason, the best art books end up there, like a pile of missing left socks.

But what do you find in the discount bin of artbook stores? Treasures, I tell you. Treasures.

Today's find: Crackpot Calendar 2007.

Cover: [link]
Inside scan #1: [link]
Inside scan #2: [link]

I love Sautter + Lackmann. If you're ever in Hamburg, that should be your next stop after the red-light district.