x copy and paste this into your journal if you're sick of crap art x

Fail art is a little known but commonly encountered creature that resides in galleries across Deviantart. Fail art can be described as a low quality drawing, that has been created in paint or on Photoshop, that completely lacks originality and is usually orientated around some form of internet fandom. Fail art has posed some major challenges for the site and its community.  The most evident challenge for the community is that the quantity of fail art makes finding talented artists a rather laboured process, which predictably detracts from the recognition that they should be receiving. Fail art also drags down the amenity of the site as visitors will find themselves on the receiving end of an endless barrage of so-called original characters from various fandoms. And the more unfortunate consequence of fail art is that most of the site's participants are denying themselves of the opportunity to improve through the pursuit of fan art and an over reliance on computer programs as opposed to relying on well-practiced traditional methods. The final challenge is the result of the previous two and undermines the community to its core. Fail art can be blamed for attracting a low quality community by encouraging trouble makers and bored people to the site as content such as fail art would only appeal to such users. This detracts from the functionality of the site and ultimately drags down the community with it.  

The chief gremlin of fail art is just the sheer quantity of it. These quantity issues are a major challenge for talented artists as it reduces the capacity for others to locate the diverse work of original artists. Artists are always able to alter their use of the site to avoid the fail art and maximise exposure to their work however these methods may not always make higher exposure attainable. For instance if a talented artist chooses to join a group that focuses on traditional mediums or has quality limitations set in place for submissions, the fail art problem will remain un-remedied because groups that focus on quality instead of a fan art will suffer similarly from the negative impact of fail art. That is, the masses of fan art groups that dominate the site to perpetuate their fail art will simply push these groups into obscurity and no one will visit them.

Another issue that the quantity of the fail art poses for the site is that it reduces the amenity of the website to visitors. Logging onto a site with an endless stream of crude knock-offs of the lion king and anime hardly instils the idea that this is the place to come for art. This situation obviously reduces the site's ability to attract quality members, which is another loss for the community.  

One of the inevitable consequences of fail art is that it prevents artists from developing their creative skills. Fail art usually takes the form of fan art and is generally created on paint or something. Copying or tracing your favourite cartoon does not make you an artist. At the very best it dramatically reduces your credibility as someone with artistic talent, an artist who does this may appear as a copycat who is devoid of any originality to those with a little bit more skill. But drawing fan art using Photoshop well that just ensures a widespread belief that that person is cable of no artistic expression, you will never learn to draw if you use some computer program to do it for you. In fact a rule of thumb for any deviant wishing to avoid amassing fail art in their gallery should be to ask themself before uploading: Would I be willing to include this piece in a portfolio for a university or job application as an example of what my creative capabilities are? If the answer is no then you should not upload it onto Deviantart, after all the fail art will still reflect poorly upon the creator here. Even the website backs this idea as deviants are encouraged to reserve submissions to their gallery for their very best work, the rest can be placed within the scraps section.

And the final consequence of fail art is that it will lead to a decline in the quality of the community and will attract disruptive users and troublemakers. Many other sites are challenged with a high volume of poor quality submissions and have a less than equitable community to compliment. A perfect example of a site that encompasses this link would be youtube. The role of the standard user on youtube is to upload masses of unintelligent and pointless videos, which gain response from the likeminded unintelligent and pointless users, usually through making some form of incoherent remark about the video. Regardless it is the content on youtube that sets in place a never-ending cycle of blatant doggerel that will simply compound as time wares on. The fail art plays a similar role here on Deviantart as the pointless videos do on youtube, meaning the cycle of decline will also occur here within the Deviantart community.

To sum up, fail art is responsible for undermining the atmosphere of the site, it also undermines how useful the website is for locating and recognising talented artists. The community effectively discourages artists from achieving meaningful originality or creativity within their work through an incessant obsession with reproducing so-called fan art. This ultimately denies artists of a chance to develop their work into something more original or creative, simply adding to the cycle of decline and fail art. Therefore it can be safely said that Deviantart is not an appropriate site for real artists in fact: Deviantart is a site that the best artist, would do best to avoid, but if they choose not to the fail artist will steal all their work.