The Strange World Of DeviantArt Bases

Today let's take a deep dive into the world DeviantArt bases! What are they? Why were they SO popular? Where did they come from? Why was there so much drama surrounding them? Let's find out, as we take a look at the strange world of bald anime drawings!

❤︎❤︎ SOCIAL MEDIA ❤︎❤︎

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❤︎❤︎ MUSIC ❤︎❤︎
Petz Catz 2 OST
LuKrembo
Cheel

❤︎❤︎ DISCLAIMER ❤︎❤︎
All credit goes to the musicians and composers! This video is not meant to target or harass any person. This video does not condone or encourage anyone to harass or contact any person or persons discussed in this video. This video is purely for entertainment and informational purposes.

[katykatmeow]

I wholeheartedly believe that badly made edgy OCs are an important developmental step for artistic/ nerdy tweens and teens. My favorite edgy OC of mine was a Pirates of the Caribbean self insert

[highly.katheinated]

I like how bases have grown from dramatic anime poses to absurd cartoony "draw ur squad" sort of pieces- those are always fun to see ahaha

[jayzeroey]

Alright but for real?despite being for a joke, Izzy’s little art commentary avatar is adorable!

[equally.marketable]

It makes me so sad that I missed the “make ‘cringey’ OCs because it’s fun” phase of my childhood. I watched these videos about making art perfect and do this not that, and I skipped over the actual fun part of learning art. There’s so much pressure that makes kids think their character is “bad” that they lose passion for it, or end up being self conscious for the rest of their art career. I’m still trying to unlearn that.

[MyStarseedColoring]

You have no idea how loud I "WHAT?!"'d when I saw my shading tutorial (which I've hated for years now, it still regularly gets likes and I cringe thinking of new generations using that thing as a tutorial lol) show up cited as oldest on the site. I had a website where I provided pixel drawn bases back in the day, so yeah, we did call them pixel bases, and by the time I posted that it had been at least a couple months of me diving deep into the pixel doll community. And even back then, many of the bases (including some made by myself) were done by tracing anime images, official art and so on.

[jayjayheinz]

As someone who is studying costume design In college, bases are incredibly helpful. Whilst they are mostly unrealistic they’re so much more fun to use for my costume designs than normal costume design bases that are just stiff women standing with their hands on their hips.

[consentclub]

I was that five year old who held my paper up to the television screen and traced off what I now realize were bases from Bambi. Its how I learned about things like line weighting, spacing and perspective, and now I'm a professional artist!

[PirateGurl]

I used to carry a bunch of tracing paper around with me in middle school and early high school and whenever one of my more experienced art friends would show me a new picture they drew, they'd lend it to me at lunch and let me trace it. I used to make weird collages of parts that I really liked, such as the facial expressions, poses, or clothing details. I eventually did start drawing my own art and slowly abandoned the tracing paper altogether, but I truly believe that helped kick off my own style that morphed into a hybrid of all my friends' art to make something new. There's genuinely some merit to copying things, especially as a young or developing artist.

[アリフィア]

Oh my god, I remember back in the day where I would use bases for my OCs instead of actually drawing them from scratch.

[maijashea]

This channel never fails to tap into a part of the internet that traumatized me but also brings back an odd sense of comfort due to nostalgia

(Edit: spelling)

[Froghart__]

I remember discovering bases when I was young, and loving them. I had a lot of trouble drawing bodies, so they were awesome for me! When I discovered the “you’re a fake artist if you use bases” I was devastated. I even quit drawing because of the fear of “not being a true artist”. Thankfully I was able to get back into it, and I’m going to be an art teacher now, but man…some of those base barking people really crushed my dreams

[kawadamashyuu]

Pro tip: use the pencil tool instead of the paintbrush in paint to avoid the gross outline gap when filling. You can change the thickness of the pencil, too.

[occultwife.]

Oh goodness. I remember when these bases flooded the pixel doll community, it made finding a quality base extremely difficult.

[deltaloraine]

I think a lot of people forget that you don't HAVE to always strive to improve your art. Sure, a lot of artist want to be better and want to make a career out of their work. But we have to remember that some people literally just draw for FUN. If they don't like drawing hands, they don't have to learn to draw hands. If they can't draw realistic anatomy, they don't HAVE to stress over learning proportions. If they only know how to draw one pose or one face, they can draw that one pose and face as many times as they want. Every artist's expression is different and we shouldn't have to put down other artists to feel "good".

[KazRowe]

Thank you for covering this topic, Izzy!! This really brought back a lot of nostalgia for me. Especially the lick icon and anime bases, god those were such cultural keystones back then lol

[neveerland]

i think a big part of why people hated bases back then was also this feeling of "unfairness". I remember when i started drawing fanart back then and posting it on deviant art i would only get a few views. it felt so frustrating to see poorly drawn over bases get more attention than my original artwork, even though i had poured in hours of work into it.
13 y/o me back then believed that base art was a lazy and quick way to steal the spotlight while the REAL artists of my fandom (me) were left to rot. oh tween entitlement, how i miss those simpler days :")

[WiFi-qjkr]

I always hated the controversy around using these bases, they're literally made to be drawn over. You don't hate someone for creating a custom character in a game instead of using the default.

[shoocharu]

omg i used to make these too, they were so much fun to make and use!

[FillaneAmmisto]

It's so weird how many people had the misconception that base users were planning to become artists. Most I encountered (and me myself) were just people with vision but not enough artistic skills to make something from scratch, who just wanted to visualize their idea. The question is "how many base users want to improve to professional artists in the first place?"

Edit just to make it clear: I was referring to all those ranting youtubers who say "you'll never become a real artist if you keep using bases". Cause, some people who use bases just do harmless fun and don't indent on becoming artists. There are also of course those who don't have in mind to become artists and move on from bases. God, nowadays I use a base for proportions and then erase it piece by piece once it start drawing the clothes and edit the body type. Outside the pose nothing stays

[NyxSnacks]

As someone who had to overcome debilitating nerve damage and paralysis, bases were *incredibly* helpful to not only re-teach myself how to draw my favorite characters but to rebuild the muscles. My PFP is one of my favorite recent pieces of a character I adopted because of this community. I had a blast because of bases helping me get through when I could barely just draw hair and a cute shirt. It helped me simplify my OCs and even design new ones. Now I draw them in my style again!