Thank you shelldevil !
If you haven't already, please drop by Shells page and say thank you to her for all her hard work and efforts for the stock and resources gallery during her time as a volunteer!
Proposed Changes to the Stock & Resources Gallery Sub-Cats
Over the last several months we've been listening to you, and making a list of things you as stock providers submitting to the gallery, and artists searching for stock, would like to see changed or improved.
As you can imagine, this list is pretty big - given that the stock & Resources Gallery is also pretty big!
These changes and improvements include altering some of the sub category names to be more in line with the other DA galleries, moving sub-categories around to make their position in the gallery tree more logical, and discontinuing some sub-categories we feel are not being utilised properly, or are unnecessary duplications.
Below are examples of some of the more important changes we are hoping to put into effect. At this point, we would like to hear back from you guys - the community. You are after all the ones who will be affected by these changes.
Proposed Changes/Improvements/additions
Child Stock
Currently we have 2 sub categories for child stock, hidden inside the male and female model stock categories. This has been a concern for the stock community for some time, as often we find child stock mixed in with nude reference art, which is not the most ideal situation. Our proposed change involves creating a sub-category - "Child" under the main model sub-cat, and relocating the male/female folders to this area giving us a category tree that looks like this...model:
...........Female
...........Groups
...........Male
...........*Child:
.....................*Male
.....................*Female
.....................*Groups
Fonts
This entire sub category is currently under review as the names and current categories do not adequately reflect the types and styles of fonts in general use. We've had a lot of feedback from font designers and artists who regularly search for fonts and have come up with a provisional update for the whole fonts category which will include the addition of new sub categories, and the relocation or renaming of some of the existing sub categories - and will be completed separately to the rest of the updates.Others
Addition of "Jewellery" to the Stock/Objects sub category. Addition of "Paint Tool Sai" to the tutorials/application resources sub category. Tutorials/Artisan Crafts currently has NO sub categories, and could quite obviously do with some! Are there any sub categories you'd like to see for Artisan Crafts Tutorials or should we stick to similar sub categories like the main Artisan Crafts Gallery? - As this is a large addition it will be completed separately to the rest of the updates.Resources Forum
For some time now since the changes to the old forums system Resources & Stock has been without an official "home" in DA's Forums. The old stock forum used to be regularly active with artists and stock providers communicating for commissions, requests and collaborations. We would like to see a return of a "Resources" Forum that would fit under "Art Related/Resources" but need to know if you A) miss the old one and B) If you think there is still a need for a new one?
Sub Category Name Changes/relocations
There are several sub categories with names that do not really make their contents clear, and that are not in line with the other main DA galleries. Sub categories that are up for a name change include:
Classical change to "Classical & Vintage" Female/nude/formal, classical change to "Full Body" (to be the same as the male equiv.) Premade Backgrounds/places change to "Exterior" (to be in line with the main Places stock cat) Premade Backgrounds/Rooms change to "Interior" (to be in line with the main Places stock cat) Tutorials/non-art/food & drink Change to "Culinary Arts" and move to Artisan Crafts (to be in line with the main Artisan Crafts gallery)Sub Category Discontinuations
Currently in the Stock & Resources Gallery we have 16 "Miscellaneous" sub categories. To better streamline the entire gallery, and to encourage the better use of our many named sub categories we are proposing the Discontinuation of the 2 top level Miscellaneous sub cats.
Resources & Stock Images/Miscellaneous - browse.deviantart.com/resource… Resources & Stock Images/Stock Images/Miscellaneous - browse.deviantart.com/resource…Both of these categories are causing unnecessary miscats to be created from Deviants simply not drilling down to the main areas to better locate their stock and resources. This not only makes the Stock & Resources gallery look messy, but also prevents artists from easily finding and locating stock that could be better placed. An artist looking in Objects/Transport is not going to find your stock image of a train filed under Miscellaneous.
We Want to know Your Thoughts
These changes will all hopefully make the stock & resources gallery more streamlined, and more intuitive to use and search, but we'd like to hear from you. Have we missed something obvious you'd like to highlight? Do you think there are other sub categories that could be better named/located?
Do you think some of the proposed changes are unnecessary or do you have a better alternative? Please take a little time to give us your thoughts as we need and appreciate your feedback!
Some Final Points
We are aware that there are a few specific types of "resources" being regularly posted in the Stock & Resource galleries that should not be there. At this point we'd like to take a moment to reiterate that the use of celebrity photography as pre cut out stock, or as previews for actions and brushes is NOT acceptable as per the submission agreement and DA's ToS. Similarly inaccurately titled anime and manga "renders" of existing and copyrighted material are not stock for the same reason. As usual we are asking the community to report work you see that does not cover DA's submission rules. This is the only way we can monitor and effectively do something about these works.
Please only submit images and resources that you either created yourself and are original, or that you have explicit permission from the creator to use and redistribute.
Dan-Heffer & Elandria
Community Feedback
Addition of a .psd / .png cutout sub gallery of application resources Use the existing Artisan Crafts sub galleries to reflect sub galleries in Artisan Crafts Tutorials Change CorEl Painter XI to Just CorEl Painter (edited for the spelling police 
) Add/split Photoshop Brushes into < Photoshop 7 & > Photoshop CS
