LOS ANGELES -- Hollywood was full of more deviants than normal this weekend, but they weren't the usual L.A. kind.
On Saturday and Sunday, thousands of aficionados of deviantArt -- or deviants, as they are known -- descended on the Hollywood Palladium for the art website's first gathering of the clan.
DeviantArt says it's the world's largest online art house, with 1.5 million members and an archive of about 12 million works. It also claims to be one of the best places for artists to showcase and sell their works. The event was organized to help aspiring artists break into the art world.
For two days, deviantArt's virtual community was transformed into a flesh-and-blood congregation.
"DeviantArt brings together 740 genres of art which are normally divided, but here the barriers collapse," said Angelo Sotira, deviantArt's president.
Members showed their work in about 200 booths. The convention walls were covered with anime drawings, comics panels, pencil sketches and screenshots from independent video games. A separate 18-and-over section featured nude photographs.
A "creation station" -- three computers connected to a 15-foot wall of paper printouts -- showed off works created by artists who journeyed to the summit.
Even the Palladium itself became a canvas for artistic inspiration, as chalk graffiti littered the outside walls of the building.
For many, the gathering was the first opportunity for online friends -- and even collaborators -- to rub elbows and wag chins.
Seattle-based artist Aaron Jasinski, whose work is very popular with the deviantArt community, set up a table to meet and greet other members. For him, it was an opportunity to meet people he'd known only as screen names.
Organizers tried to re-create the online experience, dedicating areas of the theater to faux online chat rooms where anyone could start a conversation.
A giant screen showed work as it was being submitted live to the site. Every few seconds, a new picture popped up as another of deviantArt's 30,000 daily images was uploaded.
Socially awkward art geeks discussed the newest digital-imaging software, the most useful Photoshop tools and the coolest sci-fi logos of all time.
"When I was 12, coming into contact with underground digital artists was intimidating," said Sotira. "It would make kids my age tremble."
But at this summit, 14-year-olds were eager to ask if Sotira would pose for a photo collage.
In its five-year history, deviantArt claims to have helped emerging artists, many of whom came to pay tribute to their heroes and the community that helped them become professional.
"It's the best thing that's ever happened to me," said Sean Galloway, a comics artist. "It got me my first job at Marvel Comics."
