Feedback Needed: Change to Oekaki Organisation

[Tess]

Quick side note: Hope everyone is safe and well. I'm sure many CS members and their families have been impacted in some way by the spread of corona virus, and we wanted to let you know the CS team is thinking of you all in these difficult times. CS is always open and ready to welcome you aboard!

Now to the point of today's topic: we are considering big changes to some of our Oekaki boards, but we need your feedback! This is a long topic, but please read and join the poll/discussion!

Our "general art" is currently being sorted into Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced, and Sketches/Experiments.

There are some problems with this sorting method.
It is just a matter of opinion to decide if art should be ranked as "beginner", "intermediate", or "advanced" quality. It can be hurtful having others judge your art using these labels, and it's common to have a different opinion about where things should be ranked.

Because of this, the sketches/experiments board has become a kind of "free-for-all" with a huge range in quality of artwork. Many of these are detailed, high effort drawings that don't meet the description of a sketch or experiment. These are mainly posted by people who don't want their art to be judged by our ranking system.

The beginners/intermediate/advanced boards have poorly defined criteria, so there is a huge mixture of quality and effort within each board.

Many artists specialize in a particular subject such as animals, humans, anthro, landscapes. If you're not interested in other subjects you may not enjoy browsing everything grouped together.

We would like to suggest an alternative category system: this would be based on the drawing subject, rather than quality/standard.

Boards that would be replaced:

• Beginner's Oekaki
• Intermediate Oekaki
• Advanced Oekaki
• Sketches and experiments

Art from those boards would be re-sorted into new categories.
Art in the other Oekaki boards like adoptables and avatars won't be affected by this.

Our suggestions for new replacement categories: (this is a draft - will be edited based on feedback)

• Human/Humanoid Humans and human-like species (vampires etc)
• Animals Real animals (living or extinct)
• Fantasy/Made-Up Species/Anthro Fantasy, mythology, or otherwise fictional species
• Fandom/Fanart Anything from a fandom - e.g. cartoons, games, books
• Landscapes/Scenery E.g. fields, forests, extraterrestrial, architecture
• Objects/Other Objects and anything else which doesn't fit the above categories
• Reference Sheets For your original characters
• Combo For pieces that fit into multiple categories e.g. featuring both a human and animal character

Please vote and comment with your thoughts and any other suggestions for the Oekaki organisation or desired boards!

[bee]

hey! hopefully it's alright to post on this thread :>
in my personal opinion, i don't think landscapes/scenery and objects are drawn much on the oekaki boards. perhaps combining these two into the same category would be helpful, to avoid having some very empty boards? maybe just the broad subject of everything that isn't a creature / human.

[Tess]

hey! hopefully it's alright to post on this thread :>
in my personal opinion, i don't think landscapes/scenery and objects are drawn much on the oekaki boards. perhaps combining these two into the same category would be helpful, to avoid having some very empty boards? maybe just the broad subject of everything that isn't a creature / human.

absolutely, please post any comments/suggestions, the list we put together is not set in stone

thanks for your idea, that is a good point for us to consider!

[Lostfairy]

Ahh, yes, I love the new organisation you have but might I suggest that Fandom/Fanart isn't a category? I mostly draw fanart but I wouldn't really like having to constantly post in that category because I'd want to post my art in the Humanoid category.

Usually, if people draw humans, it's an OC or it's fanart or a self portrait. If the humanoid category just gets OC art and self portraits, it just feels empty and won't get as used.

I just feel like Fandom/Fanart isn't a necessary category. And I agree with the user above and think that Landscapes/Scenery should be with the Objects category. ^^

I hope I made sense. ><

[hiero]

I adore this new system concept. I do have one question though, what about actual sketches and experiments? I think that having these clear categories that wouldn't upset anyone should their art be moved from one to another is great, but I know a lot of people would probably prefer that someone like myself who mostly does drawings without color or refined lineart post in a separate category for things like that. Basically, I propose that beginner/intermediate/advanced go, yes, but I think sketches and experiments would be nice to keep :)

[Guest]

I'd like to see the art by subject option, but have realistic category added. I feel like there are very few realistic oekaki artists and their art would be lost being separated by subject.

[valiant-quest]

my opinion:
sketches should stay. i draw a lot of actual sketches on oekaki and i need somewhere to put them xdcfvgbhnjm

but the other categories should probably be similar what you suggested. i dont really see the point of a reference sheet board though, and i agree that landscapes/objects should be combined

[mars]

I really like this idea! my only worry is that I tend to start off with one drawing in mind only to change to a different concept, such as changing humans to animals or vice versa. will there be an easier way to change what board you're posting to without requiring moderator intervention every single time? the old "trick" to switch boards no longer works and I don't want to overwhelm mods by making them move my posts constantly under this new system <":

[sillies]

Here's what I think. If we don't change things, we absolutely need to be more specific on what defines "beginner, intermediate, and advanced". Because, under the current description of advanced, I posted an art piece there that had fit it (ie, shading, a bg etc) but it was moved down to intermediate despite meeting that description.

If we do change to a system that's more specific, let's not go into incredible detail name wise, as that'd cause confusion. Maybe like the RP boards, there's more ,,, how to put less descriptive stuff but it's a bigger category. For example The Human (fantasy) rp board can encompass a lot of variety, where as if we're too specific with categories for oekaki, like the examples list, can get confusing. Most people would end up posting in the "Combo" section due to uncertainty as to where their art piece belongs. Certain categories can be combined such as animals and fantasy animals. Just make it Animals (Real, Fantasy, etc). If we're going to make something like this work, we need to think like we did with the RP boards when they got kind of a rework. We need to be more general with categories rather than so specific.

Oh I forgot to mention, I think we should keep sketches and experiments. Just be more defined on what does and doesn't belong there. I think, say a sketch with basic linework and some coloring is fine, but not a full art piece.

That's my two cents. Feel free to respond to this or w/e.

[grafaiai]

i definitely agree with hannahbun that it's kind of an overload of very specific-seeming categories, when there isn't much reason not to combine many of them. the "combo" board would probably become the replacement "sketches and experiments" for people who don't want to deal with categorizing their art? maybe one large gallery (with a subsection for unfinished works/wips/etc) with the ability to tag pieces or something, like most other art-focused websites?