What is this series?
The "Fix that Miscat" series has been designed to help educate deviantART members about the different galleries to which they can submit their art. Tired of submitting to a particular gallery and having your art moved to a different one? We will help minimize this occurrence by examining pairs of categories that frequently get confused and doing our best to clarify them for you.
What is a Photomanipulation?
What it is:
On deviantART, we define photomanipulation as "two or more PHOTOGRAPHIC elements that have been combined to form something NEW."
This means that:
At least 2 elements must be from photographs. The result must be something new and different, distinguishable from the original.What it is not:
It does not involve 3D images, even if there are also photos involved. A single photograph with texture(s) added over it is also not a photomanipulation. A retouch or a single photograph with a lot of painting is not a photomanipulation. A single photograph that has been filtered / "blown up" / otherwise edited digitally is NOT a photomanipulation.In the first three instances above, the medium (3D, textures, painting) in combination with a SINGLE photograph qualifies the image to be submitted to Digital Art > Mixed Media.
3D images and multiple photographs
Adding a 3D image to a photograph, even if there are multiple photographs, makes your image Mixed Media, not a Photomanipulation.
Painting and multiple photographs
If there are MULTIPLE manipulated photographs, then painting over them could qualify them as photomanipulations (Digital Art > Photomanipulation) OR as Digital Art > Mixed Media, depending on which one is more predominant. There is no "hard and fast rule" about when to submit to which category, so use your best judgment as to which one is more predominant in the image.
Is your work mostly painted-over, and does it feature mostly painted elements, even though it uses multiple photographs? It should go under Digital Art > Mixed Media. Is painting used to add highlights, to soften skin, etc., but the photographic elements are predominant? Then put it in Digital Art > Photomanipulation. Textures and multiple photographs
If there are multiple manipulated photographs, you can still add textures and have it be considered a photomanipulation.
Blow-ups and digital edits of STOCK photos
Legitimate stock photos that are edited with filters (for example, enlarging body parts or changing hue/tone) are NOT photomanipulations. They should go under Digital Art > Miscellaneous.
What is a Digital Mixed Media deviation?
The Digital Art > Mixed Media gallery is for images that use a combination of 2 or more media, such as 3D, photomanipulation, digital painting, photographs, etc.
Note that there is also a Traditional Mixed Media gallery. We will discuss digital vs. traditional mixed media in a separate article, but just so you know, for "tradigital work" (both traditional and digital media), we classify it according to the last phase. So, if it is a traditional painting that was photographed, imported into Photoshop, and edited with digital paint, that final image would be submitted to DIGITAL ART > Mixed Media.
Where do I send my DD suggestions?
Mixed Media where photographs or photomanipulations are one of the media (paint-overs, etc.) Aeirmid
