You work harder than ever before on an image, checking every bit of it to see if there is anything else that can be done.  With a bit of pride and excitement, you post it and get a little excited as people post some comments and faves to it.  This is the one that is going to flood the gallery directors inbox with suggestion notes as people flock to suggest it for a daily deviation.  Some people might have even told you they suggested it, all you have to do is wait for your spot in the sun as it gets featured.

Well, some time goes by and nothing happens.  Maybe the admin has a ton of suggestions and the suggestion note was not opened yet.  Some more waiting, no feature.  All the excitement turns to a variety of negative feelings as time slips by.  Maybe the frustration causes you to question why you even bother with it all.  "Why are people with smaller galleries than mine, or less time here than mine getting featured?"

The answer is simple, the criteria for what does get featured is small.  Gallery directors and staff members feature what they feel deserves to be featured.  Each of us have our own criteria, and more important, tastes in art that please us, or impresses us.  There could be a thousand different reasons why an image is not featured, and only a handful to why one is featured.

An image might get featured simply because a technique used impressed someone.  Another simple reason one gets featured is it had a charged emotional value that stirred someones heart or mind.  Unique ideas go very far also.  Whatever got an image to be featured, know this, getting a daily deviation does not make you a great artist.  It doesn't add anything to your talent, or reveal any new techniques or tricks that will push you to a greater skill level.  All it does is make you a bit more popular for 24 hours.

Not getting a daily deviation doesn't mean you are not a talented artist by any means.  It doesn't diminish any work you've done to improve your gallery, nor does it mean you cannot rise to the ranks of the "elite" artists that post here.  Don't believe me, below are just a small sample of the truly talented pieces that were posted by artists who have no daily deviation in their gallery.

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Each one of these images are exceptional in their own way, and each has thousands of faves given to them without any help from a daily deviation feature.

I fully believe in the daily deviation system and feed it daily with my own features.  It's a lot of joy seeing people get excited over being featured.  It's also a chore as people get swamped when they probably weren't ready for it.  I also see images while browsing that have only a handful of faves on them just a few weeks after one of their other images was featured.  I've seen people go from being on top of the world to being just another face in the galleries.

One thing I've learned more than anything else here is that to be a truly great artist, you need dedication, determination, and passion for your art.  Only a handful of people are naturally talented artists, for most of us, we have to work hard to get better.  If you give enough time to your art, you don't need a daily deviation to achieve greatness, you can do it all on your own.  The people who created the art above did, I see no reason you can't be one of them.  It's your hard work that should make you proud, not a 24 hour spotlight shining down on you.