I can send you an invite to artlimited.com if you want. It is by invite only and is fairly strict when it comes to quality.

I meant artlimited.net...

By the way, I started out as one of those idiot teenagers doing crap manga drawings... now that I am more creative and put time, money, and effort into my art I get no comments or faves.

Haha. Did you get a lot of attention when you were doing the manga?

You never were an idiot about art. You've always taken it so much more seriously than anyone I'm talking about in this post.

Also yes, I would be interested in one of those invites.

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comment to construct, not to destroy.
share your kindness, not your hate.
love the art, before yourself.
meditate on this.

Hell yeah I got more attention. To this day I get more attention from a half assed doodle on the side of my homework than a full scale painting. I used to get comments on everything I did no matter how shitty it was, now I get nothing.
I dislike art critiques in class now a days becauce most people are like "Oh, look how unique and against the norm that is!" there are no comments about composition or form it is just about how cutting edge and new wave something is. I've spent enough money learning the proper terminology to describe art that I would really like to hear it now and then about my art.

Heh, I started drawing to get over writers block...

Hey, I agree with you both. While manga stuff can be a legitimate artform, there's far too much formulaic shit out there. I'm even kinda proud of the fact that I grew up not taking any inspiration or influence from it.

I know lots of other people only flock towards manga, and that makes me really sad.
I hope that you continue to share your art here, though, cause I know that I like your work a lot.
Yet if you don't like DA anymore, then I hope you find attention at some other place, if that's what you seek.
kt

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Life is too short to waste.

I've noticed the effect too. I posted one deviation based on "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and noticed a HUGE spike in traffic to it. Fandom is a powerful force which I intend to exploit mercilessly.

People like to see new takes on things that they're already familiar with. If you make a neat drawing, it's a neat drawing. If you make a neat drawing about a character from one of my fandoms, then it's a neat drawing about someone who I'm already emotionally invested in, and in addition to looking at its artistic merit, I can look at how well you've captured the character I know and whether you've managed to draw out something I hadn't previously noticed about that character.

Of course, that doesn't excuse people who pour massive amounts of attention on shallow and common things, but it does explain why independent work doesn't hold people's interest quite so much.

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Looks can be bought. Style one must possess.