What is this tutorial/guide?

This guide is meant to be a reminder to everyone that deviantART is still about the art, and I hope that in writing this people will be more open to browsing in using the techniques that I have found most helpful throughout my time here. This guide will outline helpful ways to browse successfully throughout the deviantART galleries, among other places. This guide could also be used as a Beginner's guide to browsing on dA, so if you're new and are eager to find artwork this could be the place for you to begin your journey. If, for any reason you have a question, concern or suggestion about anything written here, please tell me in a comment or note after you have read it all! Thank you, and let's begin.


Step One: The Browse Button!

Most likely the most popular means of browsing the site for artwork, the Browse page will show you the most recently posted artwork on dA. But, knowing you, you probably don't want to see the most recent artwork for today so what you will need to do is click on the link entitled "Popular". From here, you can actually get some browsing done. If you're looking for specific artwork, and I'm sure you are, please follow me to the "Categories" button. This will bring you to a drop-down menu with every gallery that can be found on dA. Click on a favourite gallery of yours, mine is going to be Digital Art. After you have left the main gallery menu you are brought to that galleries Sub-Categories; these are important in categorizing the artwork that is submitted to this, and all the galleries respectively. These first sub-cats are usually described by the medium in which the pieces were created. For me, I'll go on to browse the Paintings & Airbrusing sub-cat of Digital Art. In this second group of sub-cats you can see specific types of art styles. I usually like to browse the whole gallery, so I will click on "All Paintings & Airbrushing", but you can choose whichever style you like in whichever gallery you chose. Now, you have successfully brought yourself to the galleries browse page. At the top of the page you will see that you are browsing popular artwork submitted to this gallery in the last 24 Hours. You can choose from any time frame you like, and if you're a Subscriber you can choose the option of "Way Back" which let's you view artwork from any day, week, month and year! Continue to click the Next button at the bottom of the page and you will surely find some interesting artwork that suits your needs.

One a side note, up in the top right hand corner of the browse page you will see a search bar. This little function will let you browse by keyword; this means that if you are interested in finding artwork that will have something to do with an interest to you (something like "music" would work), you can search a word there and find said artwork! It will search in the Popular field that you choose (24 Hours, 2 Days, etc), so if you're looking for newer stuff keep it at 24 hours. But if you don't care about popularity you should definitely take a look at the All Time tag which will show you all the popular pieces submitted under the keyword you have chosen.


Bunny's Hop, Deviant's Favorite Hop!

One of my most useful and awesome techniques that I have found is something that I like to call "favorite hopping". It's very effective in finding new artists and artwork while getting to browse the favorites of some of my favorite artists on the site. This idea came to me when the staff introduced the new Front Page customization that allows users to set favorites from artists they admire on the front page. This technique is just as effective, and allows you to browse quite a few people's favorites at the same time.

Here is how it works: you go to a deviant you admire through their art or otherwise. What I do is when I start with a deviant, I go into their gallery and comment on one of their pieces, and I try to do so in a constructive manner. I like to tell the artist what I liked, didn't like and think they could improve on the piece. After I said what I have on the artwork, I go from their gallery to their favorites. It's very easy to do this, just go to their userpage and click on "Browse Favorites". From here you will be brought to their favorites page, which is basically everything they admire and like. If I like the artwork that the deviant produces it usually turns out I enjoy their favorites as well. So, from browsing through their favorites I pick one piece that I think I could give a constructive comment to and go to that piece, comment on it and go to that artist's favorites. This chain of favorites hopping can go on for hours depending on how much time you would like to invest in finding new artwork and artists!

Another thing to mention is that if you're looking for a certain gallery to browse through on the artist's favorites page, you can do like you did at the Browse page. Click on the "Categories" button and you will be brought to the main galleries menu, and you can choose whichever gallery you like. This helps in widening your chances of finding a good piece to comment on.

Remember, always try to give constructive comments when possible!! It helps the artists out that you comment on, and will always bring a smile to their face. If you're unsure about the medium that they did the piece in (or, you're a photographer but they are a traditional artist), just tell them what you enjoyed about the piece. Let them know that you aren't a traditional artist and that you might be hoping to learn some day about that art type so you're browsing for it on dA. Be creative, original and try not to repeat yourself - especially if you're browsing the same artist's gallery/favorites.


Forums before Cheerios!

The Forums are a great place to find new artwork, new friends and new places to hang out. But, I'm only going to focus on one forum in particular, and that forum is the Deviation ThumbShare forum. Here, you can post your artwork while asking to view other deviant's artwork at the same time. It's a good place to find artwork that you would not have found before, as well as possibly meet new artists to watch. The rules are simple, and you should always make sure you read them. They can be found at the top of the forum, usually noticed with "Warning:" or "Read before posting". All sticky threads should be read before posting as they will contain valuable information that will help you along your journal across the deviantART site.

While browsing this forum it would be a good idea for you to go ahead and browse through some of the other threads and topics that have already been posted. This way you can familiarize yourself with the ways of the Thumbshare forum and how it operates. After you have viewed some other artwork, commented and favorited some, browsed the forums for a bit you are more than likely highly qualified to post your own topic. You can do so at the bottom of the forum page. Make sure your title is relevant to the artwork you would like to see. More about creating titles in the Thumbshare forum can be read here.


News to the Future!

As `andy261 has reminded us, the news on deviantART has become quite the popular medium to get features of unknown to not so unknown artists out there for the public to see. There are so many features out there that this source can certainly be considered for its own browsing network. A journal entry of mine outlines a lot of deviants who feature artists and their artwork through the news.

Upon entering the news page you will be greeted with quite a few categories of news for you to browse. The place to find features is under the "Art News" category. To get there simply click on it under the News header. As you enter this category you will see that there are more categories listed under this, and they are all titled based on what type of art features are put there. For instance, if you clicked on Wallpaper you will certainly see some Wallpaper-inhabited features within. Read through the names of the categories and choose some that you think might interest you. Go on, click them. After going through a few news articles you are bound to find some great artwork!


Helpful Browsing Extensions.

Note: Most of these links are FireFox Extensions!

- deviantEXPERIENCE: Panorama

This brilliant piece of genius created by $dancewiththesky is one of my favourite tools, ever. It allows you, the view of the artwork (none literature) to view the piece in full-view while being capable of moving the piece, zooming in and out which all allow you to view details and textures you might not have been able to see before. It's a great tool if you're wanting to give a critique because the black background usually allows for more contrast letting you see the highlights of visual pieces. A must have!

- deviantEXPERIENCE:CrystalBall

Another great tool created by $dancewiththesky, Crystal Ball is the search-all-of-dA search engine that you could ever ask for. You can type in a few, none, or as many as you want keywords while being able to choose which galleries you do or do not want to browse with those keywords. It works marvelously when you are trying to find certain pieces for a feature in your journal or news, and really helps in narrowing down your searches. Another must have, for sure!

- GallerySkip 0.9

`doofsmack created this nifty user-gallery browsing GreaseMonkey script a while back, but has recently updated it to work with dAv5. This script allows you to go from one deviation to another in a gallery without having to go from Tab (or window) to Tab with only a few simple clicks. It has made life easier for me, and I know it will for you too!

- deviantEXPERIENCE:FetchMore

What can I say, $dancewiththesky doesn't leave anything behind! Another extension from him, FetchMore, allows you to browse galleries at the desired amount and stay on one page without having to click "Next Page". It is incredibly convenient when you are browsing a gallery with more than enough thumbs, so get this if you often find yourself browsing those types of galleries!

In conclusion.

I hope that this guide/tutorial has helped you find your way around dA, and opened a few doors that will allow you to browse more than ever. Now, I have one task for you all: get out there and comment constructively!