Believe it or not, there’s life beyond Pinterest and Instagram: loads of other social networks out there cover tons of more specific interests besides scrapbooking or cat photos. DeviantArt is a point of reference in that regard, offering over the past 15 years a vigorous community where anyone can share all sorts of different creations related to painting or drawing, with more than 26 million registered users and 250 million published works to its name. And now it has been released its official free app for Android and iOS.
Whether you want to share your own creations or discover others, DeviantArt has always been a treasure trove of hidden handmade artwork from artists the world over, offering an endless array of techniques and styles where you could find anything from a watercolor fresco to elaborate works of pixel-art. You just need to search for a particular theme or person to discover the enormous array of art available.
As a registered user, you can (among loads of other features) comment on other people’s posts, upload images to store them on the galleries of your wall or follow all the updates from particular users, even creating your own timeline of the themes or artists you follow. This option was already interesting on DeviantArt’s website (now also mobile-responsive, and which holds it own pretty well on small screens), but with the release of the official smartphone client in December, it could well become one of your go-to apps for viewing social content.
The interface has been adapted to look familiar to consumers of this type of social content: you can view image galleries sequentially in full screen while showing just the comments, Likes, and share options. You can also browse through different sections: What’s Hot, Today, Undiscovered, etc. If you’re not careful you could end up spending hours digging around and exploring—a sure sign that we’re looking at an interesting and well-made product.
