The status quo in the photomanipulation community is GO! GO! GO! We have been extremely busy with creating, supporting one another, and dreaming up contests and other fun challenges. I have been delayed in reporting our news for personal reasons, so this news article is jam-packed with goodness that you, the photomanipulation community, need to know!
Let's get started!
Calling on Community Leaders
We have a wonderful photomanipulation community here, and I'm really honored to serve you all as your Community Volunteer (CV). I have been trying to post weekly news, conduct interviews and do features, post DDs, organize Project Educate and other community challenges, host critique events, and hold contests that I hope are challenging and interesting. I absolutely love doing all of this, but I am also trying to get a Ph.D. and am going to run into trouble juggling it all in the Fall.
So, I will be asking a few of you who I know well and trust to help me by stepping up as informal "Photomanipulation Community Leaders". This is not the same as being a CV, but of course it could be a good place to start if you ever want to fill my seat someday. It is not an official Community Relations position, and you will not get special privileges. It is basically a challenge for you to stand out from the crowd by doing something that YOU think needs to be done for the community and to help me make sure that ALL voices in our community are heard.
Examples of roles include:
- Interview coordinator
- News coordinator
- Contest coordinator
- Event coordinator
- New member liaison - ChisSweetArt
- Features coordinator (weekly features, not DDs) - michelle--renee
- Other?? - How would YOU like to get involved?
So, I will be asking people to fill these spots, but I am also willing to consider requests. In the interim, if YOU are interested in helping plan events, or if you have any other ideas about things we can do to support the community, please let me know.
Also, remember that you don't NEED me to do it.
If you have an idea, make it happen, and let me know how I can support YOU! 
We can make great things happen together.Stock Policy Reminder
If you have not done so already, I would strongly recommend that you read this article by dxd: Stock and Resources: Policy Clarification. In essence, the article underscores dA's commitment to fighting copyright violations, especially in the stock and photomanipulation galleries. For stock providers, it means that people must own or have permission to post stock photographs for you, the manipulators, to use. Celebrity images are not stock. Moreover, it is illegal for stock providers to offer images as premades that were created using other stock, even if it is purchased, without explicit permission to do so. If I download a bunch of stock from dreamstime.com or sxc.hu, I cannot combine them and manipulate them into a premade background and offer it to YOU to use in a manipulation because doing so is considered 'Redistribution' of the image. Your stock can be removed or moved to your Scraps folder (so it is no longer in your gallery) if you distribute images illegally as stock.
What does that mean for photomanipulators? Well, it means you should be really careful what you are using in your work. NO celebrity images. And if you use premades, you need to check that the stock provider is using works that are ALLOWED to be redistributed or using his/her own works to create the premade. If you do not, your work can be moved to your Scraps folder or even deleted altogether. Wouldn't it be terrible to spend all that time making a photomanipulation and not even be able to display it in your gallery? Be careful with copyright! Know where your stocks are coming from.
DD Requirements Change for Photomanipulation ONLY
In accordance with the above policy and exclusively related to photomanipulations, ALL photomanipulation Daily Deviations (DDs) must now include DIRECT LINKS to stock images. This is so that I can make sure we are not in any copyright violation when posting these site-wide features. As I stated above, dA is very serious about copyright, and we as a community want to make sure we are in compliance with their policies.
Questions?
FAQ #217: What are "Stock and Resources" and can I use them in my submissions?
dA's 12th Birthday is August 7th!
Get excited! deviantART turns 12 on Tuesday, August 7th!
You've probably seen journals or heard murmurings of dA birthday stuff going on all around the community, and I am here to tell you that Photomanipulation has not been left out. There are two important things you need to know about: a chat event and manipulation challenge, and an opportunity to earn free premium memberships just for being awesome.
Stock/Resources and Photomanipulation Chat Event and Challenge
Elandria, Dan-Heffer, and I will be hosting a two-hour Chat Event and Challenge for all of you on August 7th at 9 AM PST/deviantART time [12 noon EDT, 5 PM GMT, 6 PM CET]. It will be a stock hunt and trivia challenge, and then you will have 3 days to manipulate like crazy to make this stock into something awesome! Tons of points are on the line. More details soon!!
Random Acts of Kindness and FREE Premium Memberships!
Why should Fella get all the love on dA's birthday? Let's see some love for our fellow photomanipulators, too. 12 lucky Photomanipulation community members who go out of their way to leave a kind comment, support someone in the community, suggest a DD, get involved, and/or otherwise make a difference on August 7th will receive free premium memberships. My friends and I will be watching, and we will also be accepting notes from YOU telling us about something awesome someone did for you. Let's show each other some love! More details coming soon.
Advanced Photomanipulation Month
Project Educate: Advanced Photomanipulation Workshop Month is being moved to OCTOBER rather than September. This move serves two purposes: (1) It gives us more time to plan
and (2) It lets us do something in conjunction with Halloween. 
We have a planning committee going on over at The-Sacred-Space, and if you would like to join, you would be more than welcome. I will be contacting some of our more experienced photomanipulators to get their input on the events that we plan as well, so expect me to "pick your brains" (such a disgusting saying) a bit more in the coming weeks. Current Contests
There are a lot of contests in which you can participate right now! Why not challenge yourself?
- Before & After Feedback Competition
- The Other Side of Me contest
- Satanic Contest
- Pearls are Women's Best Friends" contest
- Ruby contest
- Mythical Forest World
- Black Magic contest
- Create your own Fantasy Photomanipulation contest
- Fairy Contest
- Seven Virtues Contest
- Bravery contest
- Challenge in Digital Art: Photomanipulation
Show your imaginary world- Chinese Horoscope Contest
- When Angels Fly
- Halloween Tarot Deck
- The Best Ever Female Portrait Contest
- Native American contest
- The Raven and the Dove
- #PsychoArtistUnited Challenges
- Behind the Mask Contest
- Double Contest!
- Lighting Challenge
- Collaboration Contest: Dark Halloween
Other Good News
Lots of other interesting new things to check out here in the photomanipulation community as well as on dA in general!
- Rising Stars of Photomanipulation Volume 2
- Winners of the Magical Character Contest
- Interview with Sylwia77
- Purple Majesty Tutorial
- Tutorial: Giving Volume to a Dress
- Photomanipulation Tutorial IX
- Sacred Soul Tutorial
- New group: EliteManips
- New group: BeyondOthers
- New group: conspiracymindsgroup
- New group: upgrade-art
- New group: AllManips
- New group: WhisperingNights
- Pimps and Whoas
- Help support our application to manage .ART
Feature
I sat here for a while wondering whether it would be better to feature a ton of artists to get as many people exposed as possible, or to obtain maximum exposure for just a few people? I have settled on a compromise of 10 features from across our community, various levels of expertise. I hope you like them.
And my personal favorite of the week:
Be well!
Jade (Aeirmid)
