Seems whenever I make a new journal after a long time without one, something provokes me to make another very soon after it again. They feel like they come in pairs lol

But a Daily Deviation is always something I think is worth journalling about, as I like having a record of this stuff beyond the DD's themselves, plus the novelty of getting one hasn't worn off for me since they often come just when things for me are looking their slowest. So it sure helped revived what felt like a dwindling interest in my work and I can also use this as an opportunity to welcome all new watchers (who care to read) since I couldn't keep up with all of them before. And to thank my existing active ones again too. But since a DD isn't an Emmy award, I'll cut the speech now and go on to this gallery meme I thought would be interesting to try, anyone can do their own in their journal too, I found out through `CookiemagiK myself.

Select a picture from your gallery for each of these categories, give an explanation/statistic if you like!

Deviation with the most views, comments and faves:

With over 10'300 faves, it's the only deviation I have with a five-digit fave count (so far) If it makes you feel better, my least popular has 20 faves but the meme does not care about that.

Deviation that's closest to my heart:

This one was really hard to decide on. So many of my work (especially my earlier submissions) have an emotional attachment with me since I was learning and discovering so much and the thrill of posting to dA was relatively new. This one got it by a bit more since it marks the point where my work really started to become interesting, and as a result - it was my first ever Daily Deviation I got during a time I was very down and insecure about my art due to extreme lack of views I was getting before it

Still not convinced about it yet:

I have a love/hate relationship with this one. I love it for its concept which I had not yet seen when I thought of it and the level of details in some areas too (especially since cities are not typically my thing) But I feel like I went the wrong way about executing it, to me it feels a little abstract and I did feel "forced" in many aspects, and feeling like you're forced in an artwork means you'll never get truely desirable results. Still, at least others really like it and it even got a Daily Deviation - but even the DD comment seems like a "only just good enough for one" award too

Expected more of it, but failed:

I was hoping to draw the sexiest, most arousing (yet still non-mature content) fan-art of Cloud Strife around. We can all agree my mind was in the right place (by which I mean just a few inches lower and it would have been in the gutter) But my anatomy skills did limit me and result in some flaws and I didn't get quite the....response I expected. But I don't "hate it" though, I just expected it to come out better

Reflects my personality:

If people aged physically only as fast as they did mentally, I rightfully should still be a happy-go-lucky 12 year old. Being childish though is different to being immature. I'm definitely mature and level-headed about a lot of things and have been told I display a level of wisdom beyond my real age in some things. But at heart I still feel like a kid, most typical adult activities like drinking, clubbing and so-on don't appeal to me. Things that are colourful and shiny always grab my attention though. I've always been mesmerized by spherical things too. I love marbles, bouncy-balls, balloons, bubbles etc - guess that includes planets, the biggest marbles of all

Reflects my Nationality:

Australia doesn't really have much, and is probably the least-talked about of the developed nations and is often forgotten, all tucked away down here on the world's ass. But when it comes to beaches (and the types of people who attend them) We win hands down! Spending Summer at the beach is as Australian as Apple Pie is American. I don't go much myself but I enjoy it when I'm there. Christmas time lands on Summer here too, so what we lack in a pretty white Christmas, we make up for with bright, warm outdoor social gatherings

Took the most time:

Technically the single deviation that took the most time was my "Solar Scapes" calendar, but that's really more like a composite of 13 unique artworks, which each took less time to do than this and only beat it when added up. This however is the most time-consuming single piece I've done so far. I really bit off more than I could chew here and as a result don't really want commissions like this yet since I couldn't possibly charge fairly without ripping myself off time-wise. It took anywhere between 70-100 hours on and off over a couple of months

Made while in a bad mood:

With countless computer crashes, this was fast becoming a pain to work on as it was. Only to have the file get corrupted right near the end the first time around forcing me to start almost entirely from scratch again, I think only my "Vue it" ones have given me more crashes, but at least they can be justified. I don't know why this one gave me so much trouble

Made while in a good mood:

I love working on tropical landscapes, I've done them more than anything else, especially in my pre-dA years. I think they're a virtual "escape" and are relatively easy for me to do too. So it's not like I have to stress too hard about getting a decent result with these. Just pure fun

Made for someone special:

This didn't start out being for anyone, but just before posting it I was informed one of my most loyal watchers had passed away. It was a real moment of realization there so I dedicated this to her. We deviants are so used to our favourite artists and most loyal watchers always being here that we rarely remember that behind these digital accounts lies a very mortal human user, and that the possibility of logging in one day and finding out one of our favourite deviant artists or watchers has died is not as unreal as we think. It's almost haunting to think how many accounts there are already that are virtual gravestones, stuck forever in the same state they were when the deviant last logged in

That's all for now