An "Advanced" board has been added to the oekaki!

[Cydonia]

I'll say 1 thing.
You see two drawings, side by side. First one is
viewtopic.php?f=74&t=1916885
Right next to it is:
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=1928427
Most of the time the first one will be clicked, because it stands out in texture, style and quality. The other picture will go mostly unnoticed then, thus the second one being under appreciated because there's that super high quality one with the contrasting background and foreground colors. But stick the second one next to other artists of the same quality, and it has a higher chance of getting picked for viewing.
And if some beginners have hurt feelings over THIS then if they ever want an art career then they will be murdered over the segregation, criticsm, ego, demand and quality of other artist.
This is nothing.

[PumpkinP]

Ummm....I believe that second drawing your talking about is mine...

[Vintage]

I believe that the Advanced Board will always help things out. Yes, you might get a tad bit angry if your art is moved from Advanced to Intermediate, but please, it just means that you have some room to improve, not that your art is horrible, as none of it is.

[Bovidae]

I'll say 1 thing.
You see two drawings, side by side. First one is
viewtopic.php?f=74&t=1916885
Right next to it is:
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=1928427
Most of the time the first one will be clicked, because it stands out in texture, style and quality. The other picture will go mostly unnoticed then, thus the second one being under appreciated because there's that super high quality one with the contrasting background and foreground colors. But stick the second one next to other artists of the same quality, and it has a higher chance of getting picked for viewing.
And if some beginners have hurt feelings over THIS then if they ever want an art career then they will be murdered over the segregation, criticsm, ego, demand and quality of other artist.
This is nothing.

Good point!

I believe that the Advanced Board will always help things out. Yes, you might get a tad bit angry if your art is moved from Advanced to Intermediate, but please, it just means that you have some room to improve, not that your art is horrible, as none of it is.

This too.
You guys are way better at explaining this than I am haha

If you see your art as inferior, this is normal. Your brain is about five years ahead of your actual artistic ability.
This does not give you an excuse to sit around and whine about how your art sucks and oh, woe is you because your art was moved down a board. You should be practicing. Use the desire to get into the intermediate or advanced boards as MOTIVATION! Not discouragement!
Like some have said before me, if you want to make a living off of being an artist, feeling sorry for yourself will get you nowhere. It's a tough world out there.

[PumpkinP]

I'll say 1 thing.
You see two drawings, side by side. First one is
viewtopic.php?f=74&t=1916885
Right next to it is:
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=1928427
Most of the time the first one will be clicked, because it stands out in texture, style and quality. The other picture will go mostly unnoticed then, thus the second one being under appreciated because there's that super high quality one with the contrasting background and foreground colors. But stick the second one next to other artists of the same quality, and it has a higher chance of getting picked for viewing.
And if some beginners have hurt feelings over THIS then if they ever want an art career then they will be murdered over the segregation, criticsm, ego, demand and quality of other artist.
This is nothing.

Good point!

I believe that the Advanced Board will always help things out. Yes, you might get a tad bit angry if your art is moved from Advanced to Intermediate, but please, it just means that you have some room to improve, not that your art is horrible, as none of it is.

This too.
You guys are way better at explaining this than I am haha

If you see your art as inferior, this is normal. Your brain is about five years ahead of your actual artistic ability.
This does not give you an excuse to sit around and whine about how your art sucks and oh, woe is you because your art was moved down a board. You should be practicing. Use the desire to get into the intermediate or advanced boards as MOTIVATION! Not discouragement!
Like some have said before me, if you want to make a living off of being an artist, feeling sorry for yourself will get you nowhere. It's a tough world out there.

I seem to be agreeing with everything people are saying on here to day but...I agree with you I myself am the artist of the second oekaki Cydonia talked about and was frilled to be moved to be intermediate. And once I've been moved down from intermediate to beginners, so? It doesn't matter, at least I can improve, yes I admit I hated my art but I didn't complain. I told no one, kept it to myself and got on with drawing more oekakis.

[Bovidae]

I'll say 1 thing.
You see two drawings, side by side. First one is
viewtopic.php?f=74&t=1916885
Right next to it is:
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=1928427
Most of the time the first one will be clicked, because it stands out in texture, style and quality. The other picture will go mostly unnoticed then, thus the second one being under appreciated because there's that super high quality one with the contrasting background and foreground colors. But stick the second one next to other artists of the same quality, and it has a higher chance of getting picked for viewing.
And if some beginners have hurt feelings over THIS then if they ever want an art career then they will be murdered over the segregation, criticsm, ego, demand and quality of other artist.
This is nothing.

Good point!

I believe that the Advanced Board will always help things out. Yes, you might get a tad bit angry if your art is moved from Advanced to Intermediate, but please, it just means that you have some room to improve, not that your art is horrible, as none of it is.

This too.
You guys are way better at explaining this than I am haha

If you see your art as inferior, this is normal. Your brain is about five years ahead of your actual artistic ability.
This does not give you an excuse to sit around and whine about how your art sucks and oh, woe is you because your art was moved down a board. You should be practicing. Use the desire to get into the intermediate or advanced boards as MOTIVATION! Not discouragement!
Like some have said before me, if you want to make a living off of being an artist, feeling sorry for yourself will get you nowhere. It's a tough world out there.

I seem to be agreeing with everything people are saying on here to day but...I agree with you I myself am the artist of the second oekaki Cydonia talked about and was frilled to be moved to be intermediate. And once I've been moved down from intermediate to beginners, so? It doesn't matter, at least I can improve, yes I admit I hated my art but I didn't complain. I told no one, kept it to myself and got on with drawing more oekakis.

Ah I like your attitude! If only more people handled things like this.

Guys, having your drawing moved down is not a personal attack. The mods don't hate you if they move your drawing. Don't take it personally!

[LEAVING-]

The way I see it, is that they have made an "advanced" oekaki board so they could separate the "best" from the "average". People used to work so hard to get into intermediate. Some people might not see it as good or helpful. I don't. It singles artists out.
Edit: in my point of view, the art in advanced isn't really any different to intermediate.

[chescab]

I think as things settle in the oekaki catagories will become more defined. Right now it's the I have no idea where to post so I'll post here thing going on and so everyone is everywhere. Give it time and things will even out.

[Kodabomb]

I don't get the fuss about this. =P
Now that there are 3 different level categories, it makes it much easier to sort out the drawing capabilities of people. Because there were only two before, it got a little stressed. In beginners, some people new to drawing and younger kids were posting there, bumping down the talented art. But the artists of some of the drawings bumped down were just too afraid to post in Intermediate, because the best was in there. 
So now, with Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced, everybody can find their level where they're comfortable! People who post in Beginners don't have to be afraid to post in Intermediate, because their higher competition is now in Advanced.
Lol I hope you get my boring rant. XD

[Atwood]

Advanced art is to make a place for art that tends to outshine the real intermediate art, so now you can see the real 'middle artists'!

Outshines? That just makes it look like it's way better, albeit it could be, but that just seems like another reason why you buy a photo rather than a Picasso because it is realistic, because it's a photo.

think of this as your chance! A big break! you are a real artist. (Yes, beginners, that includes you. [Please note I'm a beginner as well.])
And every single real artist deserves in there too. It only takes time.

even if it's a scribble someone's a real artist. However by the advanced boards standards not every real artist will make it in there without drawing things that look like photos, which is all i've been seeing in the advanced board from what i've looked at.

I just went through the first few pages of the Advanced board, and about one quarter of the art there right now is not realism and does not look like a photo. ;3

The following isn't directed at anyone in particular - it's more just a general thing in regards to a lot of the comments I'm seeing about what defines 'good' art and 'real' artists:

'Real' artists are those who keep working, who keep developing their skills and who realise that they will always have something more to learn. No one is an expert when they start out, and it takes time and practice to get better, real practice in which you challenge yourself to do something new or better every time, not just drawing the same old things the same old way and complaining about not getting better. Comparing your work negatively to others is only harming your abilities unless you take that as inspiration to get better. The only person whose work you should be comparing yours to is yourself - instead of thinking, "Aww, I'll never be in Advanced" or "I'll never draw like _______", look at your past work and think "Wow, I'm really getting better" or "Hmm, I'm still having problems with this aspect of art. TUTORIAL-HUNTING TIME! 8D"

Those who are great at drawing are that way because they've practiced hard (and believe me, it is hard work - there's no magic wand for insta-expert art). They've studied how others achieve various effects, asked for mentoring from others, maybe taken classes in art, and almost certainly scoured the Internet and art books for tutorials. They've likely spent hours and hours over the span of years studying anatomy, accurate lighting, creating balanced backgrounds, colour theory, how to 'push' poses to make them both dramatic and eye-pleasing, how to draw in perspective, and so on. None of these things are specific to realism, by the way - for art in any style to look 'great', these are the basics you need to know, and anyone can learn them. ;3 While they're studying these things, they're also practicing them. Pages upon pages of hand sketches, followed by pages upon pages of arm sketches, followed by pages upon pages of fur practice, and on it goes. Hard? Yep. Fun? Not always. Worth it? Oh, yes. I've personally got an entire binder filled with nothing but gesture drawings of poses, with about 100 gestures per page, and when I was practicing poses I'd be doing about five to ten pages per night. So... about 500-1000 sketches each day, purely for poses. And I'm still just beginning. ^^

You don't want to be grouped in with the experts when you've got vastly more to learn than they do. Your art will not look good beside theirs. It won't get attention beside theirs, or at least not anything positive. It doesn't matter if the art is grouped by 'type' - as someone mentioned earlier, if you're a beginner at realism and your realism drawing is sitting next to Oofay's, it's going to look pretty bad and you're not going to get noticed and likely won't get many positive comments. However, if your beginner's attempt at realism is sitting next to a few other beginners' attempts at realism, it'll probably look okay. It might even catch people's eye as having some special quality, like the way you've used a particular colour, or how you've managed a nice water splash effect, and they'll look at it, comment on it, like it, and so on. You might even get a feature, because your art stands out within your skill bracket.

The only one who can make your skill bracket go up is you, and the only way to do that is to practice and to learn. No magic wand, remember? It doesn't matter what your style is - all styles benefit from understanding how art works and how the eye perceives things. If you don't have those basics, your art won't be as good as it could be. Learn those basics, practice them, practice some more, and look at every piece as an opportunity to improve. Not all of them will be improvements - some of them will be burn-your-eyes-out catastrophes, and that's okay. Everyone has them sometimes, maybe even most times, and all you can do is learn what you can from it and move on to your next opportunity. :3 That's the mark of a real artist.

So far as the mods go, we place art where it has the best chance of getting positive attention without diminishing those around it. If you're a beginner, your art has its best chance in Beginners, not stuffed in with all the other art done by far more experienced artists. If your art is expertly done, it's going to be better off in a slower board where people have time to see and appreciate it, and it's also better for the beginners to not have it in their area, stealing all their thunder. The Advanced board is a way to give the top pieces a place where they can get the recognition they deserve while also not allowing that art to overshadow everyone else's work, so everyone has a chance at being seen, acknowledged and admired for what they've achieved.

And I know: no one's actually going to read this whole thing through. :b