Artist's Easel: Suggestion Thread

**Coru** · 02-01-2016, 04:51 PM

Artist's Easel Suggestion Thread

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Okay, this is something that is a bit overdue now. I want help to try and liven up this section once again and all my previous attempts haven't seemed to work due to lack of interest, so this is why I now ask you, what do you want? I have tried doing stuff I want to see become fun and popular but obviously that isn't what people on here want, so it would be really nice if I could get a few ideas from the people who participate in this section so we can all work together to make this section lively and creative like it once was a while back.

What do you want to see happen in the future of this section?

Regular competitions
Artist showcases
Tutorials
Anything else

Your opinions are as important as anyone else's. Thank you, and I look forward to all the suggestions!

**Vishnal** · 02-01-2016, 05:15 PM

I'm really grooving on possible competitions + tutorials. To elaborate on both:

Competitions- I've always found icontests and banner/tag/signature contests a lot of fun, and from what I've seen they generally get entries. (Especially in the case of icontests.) Additionally, since PXR seems to have quite a few people interested in spriting and drawing/more traditional art, I could see contests for those going over well o: Of course, these competitions can rotate!

Tutorials- Perhaps encourage people (esp. regular members) to make their own tutorials? Not sure how often tokens are utilized, but maybe one can be awarded to frequent contributors/people who submit enough tutorials? Also, perhaps revive/remake the resources thread?

Additionally—and this may take more effort + multiple people helping out—but perhaps you could have an "art school" or something where members/staff tutor other members/staff interested in learning some form of art.

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As for other ideas, would anyone be interested in an icon wall? What you do is submit icons you created and they'll be added to a "wall". Aside from a couple other guidelines—most common sense (e.g., you can't submit others' icons)—that's about it. You could also utilize the token feature for frequent contributors, too o: There was one on PC a long time ago, and I recall that one going over pretty well. I also created one on EGC's second incarnation, and it was fairly popular!

**Coru** · 02-01-2016, 06:16 PM

Good ideas, all of these I have tried but it seems like I may have made them too big and scared off the casual artists so your ideas seem quite refreshing and fun and I love the idea of an icon wall, If I look around and find out a little bit more about it, I may in fact start one up.
The token idea is also nice. I intended to make tokens for the sake of the contests I tried to boot up a few months back without success so they would work very well, i think. A little thing to get people active.

I thought of the tutorial idea a while back just like your suggestion, a revival of the resources thread could be done too. I was going to start up a section wide tutorial/school system where tutorials that people make can be archived and also people could sign up to 'teach' through PM a certain aspect art and spriting to people. I started one in the spriting section and it wasn't successful and didn't gain much interest. [http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/for...riting-School]

It seems like Speed-X has taken over that in terms of a proposed revival of it, but a similar system could be made for the main section for Art/Graphic Art/Editing? It would need a few changes though.

I like the ideas. :)

**Pokemon Trainer Sarah** · 02-01-2016, 10:30 PM

I really liked Speed's spriting school idea where tutorials were available anytime and people moved through at their own pace and earned qualifications. If i have time one day I will try and get that going!

I'd be up for graphics/banner contests. :D

**Coru** · 02-10-2016, 10:10 PM

@Vishnal
I've searched around and cant really find many good examples of Icon Walls, It's an idea that would be great, so are there any examples you know of that I could look at to see how they set it up and how they work?
If you want to, you could help try and set one up considering it was your idea, so we can try and get some activity flowing again. :)

I think when we have the Icon Wall set up, I can start to create some small competitions on here when I see some interest start to return and with the help of the artists here and some of the mods that would like to help bring a bit more attention to the area, we can start to build up activity again.
@Pokemon Trainer Sarah I'll gladly help you try and get those tutorial ideas going if you need any help with that. :)

Hopefully this will be the start to an uphill climb for Artist's Easel. This is exciting. :)

**SassySnivy** · 02-10-2016, 10:32 PM

The icon wall idea sounds wonderful! Maybe we could have two walls: one for small, 50x50 icons that people can sprite / draw, and one for 100x100 or 150x150 for people who are more into working with the large scale of things. If we did this, it'd be cool to host one wall in the general art board and one in the sprite board.

Of course the big thing about this community is incentive. It seems like if there's no big incentive, there's not that much motivation. I love the idea, but I'm wondering if there's anything we could do to give people a little more incentive to contribute. Maybe only make it contributable during certain months for the duration of the month?

**Vishnal** · 02-10-2016, 11:05 PM

Originally Posted by Corrupt_Voidlich

@Vishnal
I've searched around and cant really find many good examples of Icon Walls, It's an idea that would be great, so are there any examples you know of that I could look at to see how they set it up and how they work?
If you want to, you could help try and set one up considering it was your idea, so we can try and get some activity flowing again. :)

I think when we have the Icon Wall set up, I can start to create some small competitions on here when I see some interest start to return and with the help of the artists here and some of the mods that would like to help bring a bit more attention to the area, we can start to build up activity again.
@Pokemon Trainer Sarah I'll gladly help you try and get those tutorial ideas going if you need any help with that. :)

Hopefully this will be the start to an uphill climb for Artist's Easel. This is exciting. :)

If you want, I can post what I wrote up for EGC + a sample of the wall itself once I can get on my laptop, just so you can see what it sort of looks like~

EDIT: Figured I'd post a sample of the layout (guidelines + some of the icons I posted) anyway. Not all the guidelines for EGC apply here, of course XD (Though, it could be cool if members' icons got added to the default avatar collection for others to use o: Not sure if that's something you'd want.)

Spoiler:

★ ☆ EGC's Icon Wall ☆ ★

★ What is this?

The Icon Wall is, well, a wall of icons. Simply put, you post icons that you've made in this thread, and they'll be added to the wall!

You do NOT need to be a graphics aficionado in order to contribute, nor do you need a graphics program! If you lack a graphics manipulation program, you can use sites like Pixlr and Lunapic.

☆ And the point of this is...?

Glad you asked! One of the benefits to posting your icons is that people will see what you have done. However, that's not the only thing. By constantly contributing to this thread, you'll have a better chance of being nominated for the Artistic Contributor badge. Pretty cool, huh?

But wait, there's more! If you post Pokémon icons that are 100 x 100 or 130 x 130, your icons may become part of EGC's new default avatar collection. That's quite an honor, don't you think?

★ Rules

Ah, yes, everyone's favorite section. Please, please, PLEASE read all of the rules before contributing to the Icon Wall.

☀ THE ICONS MUST BE YOUR OWN. This rule is very important. If we find out that you took someone else's icons and posted them for the Icon Wall, you will be infracted for plagiarism and will no longer be able to contribute to the wall.

☀ It is highly encouraged that you post new icons. You may post icons that you've made in the past, but new icons are preferred.

☀ You can only make five differently sized icons. Those sizes are 100 x 100, 130 x 130, 150 x 150, 180 x 180, and 200 x 200. If you make 170 x 170 icons or 199 x 199 ones, they will be ignored.

☀ Only post square icons, please. Any icons that are rectangular in shape--even if it's subtle (such as 129 x 130)--will not be added.

☀ Please use the following file formats for your icons: PNG, JPEG, or GIF. Additionally, if you want to add animated gif icons, they MUST BE NO LARGER THAN 1MB. This is to prevent people's computers from lagging. Plus, the max filesize for avatars/signatures on here is 1MB anyway.

☀ You can only post fifteen icons total per day. For example, you cannot post fifteen 100 x 100 and fifteen 130 x 130 icons, but you can post seven 100 x 100 icons and eight 130 x 130 icons. If you do post more, then the first fifteen icons will be added, but any others you must post again later.

☀ PLEASE TRY TO LIMIT THE NUMBER OF TIMES YOU POST PER DAY. This rule is here in order to prevent PC +1 posts (i.e., posts that are made for the sake of upping postcount). It's fine if you post a few times to add more icons, want to ask/answer questions, or comment on people's icons, but if we feel you're posting for the sake of upping your postcount, we'll start deleting any non-icon posts.

☀ If you are the last person to post, you may post again provided that 24 hours have passed since your last post. The Icon Wall is like a gallery, so posting multiple times in a row is allowed so long as you wait a full day for each post.

☀ If you have any questions, please contact the staff. Not really a rule, but this is important as well.

Spoiler:

**SassySnivy** · 03-09-2016, 04:14 PM

So...these are some fab ideas so far! Anyone have anything else in mind? :D

**Chibi Altaria** · 03-09-2016, 11:03 PM

I've got my gallery (but that's me related .-.). I guess I could try some tutorials? God only knows since I've updated my skills I can work out some banner tutorials, or easy sketch ones or something.

I actually really like that Pokefusion thread we've got going. If we could update that more regularly I'd be all for it. C: /canidoit?

We (Xanthe and a few others?) tried the art school once back on PE2K but it didn't work too well as a lot of the members went inactive and it was hard to find the time and motivation to teach others. Although if Speed wants to start up a spriting school that runs at her pace, I'm all for that. :3

Or if you like the idea of a forum-wide project, how about sketching all the Pokemon? It doesn't need to be some epic work of art to hang in a gallery, but just a simple sketch. Wouldn't it be fun if we could draw all the Pokemon? :D I know there's something similar to this, but it could work again if revived.

Also contests, yay! I don't mind hosting any of those, either. Prevents me from participating in them, but I'd submit just for fun. :p

EDIT: OH OH! Would anyone be interested in doing collaborations? These can be for drawings, sprites, graphics, whatever! Could be something fun to get the whole community involved.

**Chakramaster** · 03-09-2016, 11:11 PM

Tutorials would be nice. I've little experience with Photoshop and every little bit more helps improve on those skills. I've seen a few, like Pokemon Trainer Sarah had a tread that gave a tutorial I believe it was. So that's all I can think of right off though. More Photoshop tutorials =D