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

[Tess]

This topic is very important to read if you are an oekaki artist!

We're finally going to add an "Advanced" oekaki board to the general art currently split between "Beginners" and "Intermediate".

The reason for splitting art into "level" categories is not to make people feel bad

the problem with putting everyone in one board is that it reduces exposure for the artists who spend more time on their art

the boards are ordered by "most recent post time" so the fact is that if 10 people submit art that took them 5 minutes each to make, they will bump down an artwork which took 50 minutes to make, which will end up 10 posts behind them. The beginners art is produced at a much higher rate than intermediate or advanced because those artists have usually spent a lot less time perfecting and polishing their artwork. They rapidly bury the intermediate/advanced artists.

It also allows the "most popular this week" categories to include art from all skill levels, because it picks a set number of the most popular from each board - if everyone is all in one board together then only the most advanced pics are likely to ever be featured in those categories. This way beginners have a chance to make it into most popular because they're only competing with other beginners for a spot from their category

We've felt for a long time that the standards in the "Intermediate" board have been too high, and don't really match the descriptive label of 'intermediate', since it is largely populated with artists who would be better described as advanced.

A lot of people have been stuck in the "Beginners" board even after many months of practicing and improving their anatomy and coloring skills, when they are no longer feeling like beginners at all.

So what we're planning on doing is lowering the standards for the "Intermediate" board so that some of the top "beginners" that we have will now qualify as intermediate artists, and introducing a new "Advanced" board which the top intermediate artists will qualify for.

This is the kind of change we're aiming for (each colored section is the approximate number of artists qualifying for that board):


Introducing the new board will change the requirements for the 2 previous boards so a lot of existing oekakis will be moved around and you should pay attention to our requirements so you can work out where to post your new drawings.

All art is different, and we all have different drawing and coloring styles, so it's not easy to organize the whole range of oekaki drawings into just 3 categories. Some art styles are intentionally "messier" than other styles, or the anatomy is simplified/exaggerated so much that it doesn't look much like anything in real life, but we know those styles can be just as skillful as realism. Drawings won't meet all guidelines for their category, but we've tried to describe each category in a general way so you can work out which category is the best fit. Please don't be offended if staff move your art to a different category than you want to be in.

The proposed guidelines and a few examples of "best fit" art is listed below. This will eventually be copied into each of the oekaki boards so people know where to post their drawings. Note that we are seeking more examples from volunteers - post here to let us know if you're willing to have us categorize and show your art in our examples note: you can't choose the category you want to be in, we will do that based on our guidelines and standards

Beginners:
- Artwork by people who are still learning how to use the oekaki tools effectively and sometimes have trouble with tidy coloring or smooth shapes and lines
- Artwork by people who are still learning how to draw, or are drawing something new and don't feel very confident yet
- Artwork by people who are still learning how to draw accurate body structures/anatomy
- Artwork that doesn't have many "finishing details" like a basic background, shading, or detailed design
- Artwork which is very simple and didn't take much time or effort to complete

Examples:
PitchBlack http://www.chickensmoothie.com/oekaki/i ... 1273890755
PitchBlack http://www.chickensmoothie.com/oekaki/i ... 1307673487
PitchBlack http://www.chickensmoothie.com/oekaki/i ... 1322940002
PitchBlack http://www.chickensmoothie.com/oekaki/i ... 1305262100
Orchid Sprig http://www.chickensmoothie.com/oekaki/i ... 1264985204
Orchid Sprig http://www.chickensmoothie.com/oekaki/i ... 1266538217
Coalchaser http://www.chickensmoothie.com/oekaki/i ... 1255761481
Coalchaser http://www.chickensmoothie.com/oekaki/i ... 1251052373

Intermediate:
- Good understanding of how the oekaki tools work
- Lines and shapes should be clean, smooth, and not shakey (where appropriate)
- Coloring should be tidy/purposeful and stay inside the lines (where appropriate)
- Extra effort in details like shading, a simple background, or intricate designs/details to "finish" the artwork
- Good understanding of anatomy, even if the artwork is stylized/simplified

art which is intentionally "messy" or fuzzy/rough/soft/sketchy in style may not meet some of these criteria but can still be considered intermediate when done well

examples:

Metallic Dragon http://www.chickensmoothie.com/oekaki/i ... 1316155467
Metallic Dragon http://www.chickensmoothie.com/oekaki/i ... 1338676016
Metallic Dragon http://www.chickensmoothie.com/oekaki/i ... 1371694146
PitchBlack http://www.chickensmoothie.com/oekaki/i ... 1312854148
PitchBlack http://www.chickensmoothie.com/oekaki/i ... 1304016887
Coalchaser http://www.chickensmoothie.com/oekaki/i ... 1278120442
Sorren Fey http://www.chickensmoothie.com/oekaki/i ... 1300547711
Ricorn http://www.chickensmoothie.com/oekaki/i ... 1301861843
Ricorn http://www.chickensmoothie.com/oekaki/i ... 1298092371

Advanced:
- Artwork by people who can use the oekaki tools very effectively
- Great understanding of anatomy
- Very detailed drawings and intricate designs
- Coloring is applied creatively and purposefully, with detailed shading/highlighting
- Detailed background is preferable, so artworks appear "complete"

examples:
Yağmur http://www.chickensmoothie.com/oekaki/i ... 1340104459
Selkiegal viewtopic.php?f=34&t=1318948
(we need more examples so please let us know if you want us to put yours up )

The advanced board will soon be added and staff will start moving artwork between the boards to where they "best fit". Only the most recent drawings will be re-categorized and it may take several days for those to be categorized. Please be patient while we are moving oekakis, we don't need you to contact us to tell us where to put things.

[Dogian]

It would be good.

[chescab]

Awesome! I found many artists seemed out of place in both 2 catagories so haveing a middle ground will be sweet!

[ferretjuice]

wow! this is amazing! thanks tess!

[Robojam]

Awesome idea!

[Fancy Cat.]

This is great!
Thanks Tess!

[vexxie]

What an awesome idea! (: I was wondering when that would happen. c:

[banshee;]

That's amazing Tess, thanks c:

[Xzile]

Thank you so much!


I would love my art to be posted with all the other lovely people's <3 haha, but seriously, thank you!

You can use any piece you want!

[EmberWolf]

Can't say I'm too thrilled about this, especially that everyone's art is now going to be following guidelines that, like you even said, are not always followed with certain styles and can cause for a lot of confusion. I almost find it insulting to certain artists. It's categorizing people's art skills and it has the potential to hurt some feelings. It should be a friendly art community where people can post their art and get some recognition, not feel like they aren't as good as other people because they don't follow specific guidelines predetermined by what others think is "attractive results."

Opinions on what is and isn't "attractive results" vary greatly. Hugely. I already think that the oekaki board shouldn't have two levels and should be equal- which works just fine in the other oekaki boards- instead of split. It just makes more artists feel they aren't good enough, and I know that all of us who have ever called ourselves artists have probably felt a time where we weren't at the level we should be when it comes to drawing, and that feeling sucks. This just helps amplify that feeling for those who don't make it to advanced or intermediate.

I for one do not approve of this change, not that I can do anything about it- it sounds like it's going through whether the community agrees or not. That's just my opinion on the matter.