How do we get more artist participation here?

[Dottonedan]

How do we get more artist participation here?


The first issue I feel on this subject is that it's always compared to the old TSMB artist section. On that forum, the artist section was THE PLACE to check out what was going on. On any day, you could see a verbal brawl about anything such as religion, politics and everything in-between with some occasional tutorials or art examples of the latest design.


We will never have that first part here. It may start, but will never be left to continue on like they did at the old forums. It's just not beneficial for anyone, but like a good train wreck, it drew the people in. For that reason, you have less "action" in an artist section since it's truly all/only about art.


Outside of that alone, we also have more virtual competition of (Face Book and groups in Facebook). You can easily post up links, videos, (for everyone). Printers and (the outsiders). People in the family of printers and their friends and all of your friends. That draws a different crowd and does get the artist more exposure in numbers, but may be less specific (such as us). There is still a need for an artist section on this or any screen print forum, but there will also be the competition for the artist time. They need to get it out on facebook or they are not being proactive.


The ease and user friendliness of a forum adds to the draw as well. More customers (an audience) can add to the draw of artist. Something that could showcase an individuals work would be cool, but we sort of do that with each post. How do you do that when they can just have a link to their own website?  Visual aids are good. It would be nice to see previews (in a list as someone is scrolling down to see the different topics).


Maybe we could have child groups/sections that were (for each different artist) and they can post up the new stuff in their own own area.

[lemorris]

You know...I'd put this in the General board.  Those cats don't come look at this section and their the ones that hire us clowns.  What do they want to see?  Heck...maybe they only care about rates...who knows?

LOLOL

Open it up.  Good or bad....see what comes out of it.

I think doing better at meeting the needs of the lurkers is key.  There's more people that look than post.  Lets see what "our" customer base thinks.

Frankly you got an uphill battle here.  Social media is easy and very effective.  ROI on FB, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr....is off the charts.

Give them smelly printers a crack at this.  They know what they want to see.

note:  Only a couple of you smell....but I like your scent so it's still love. 

[3Deep]

To get artist to come here like Lemorris said your going to have to open it up to all kinds of artist just not screen print art even though this is a screen print forum and let them show and tell.  Right now we only see finished art printed by screen printers the only artist on this board are you Dan and Lemorris that post art from concept to finish which is very nice to see.

darryl

[jsheridan]

lets cater to a specific group to get them to join us..

history lesson anyone 

[dirkdiggler]

Not sure this is true, but look at the number of members that are OWNERS of a company and look at how many WORK at someone elses company.  Almost every single person I talk to on this board owns the company they represent.  When I worked for a screen printing company I put forth less effort after hours.  I think that's the case with artists generally, could be wrong though.

[Inkworks]

Personally I think less sub-forums make for a better overall forum. It's easy to get sucked into making a subforum for every topic under the sun and then you end up with most not getting any posts on any given day and a fragmented online community. I remember reading a long time ago that the number of sub-forums should be ~ 10% of the average number of posts per day.

How does this relate to artists participation? If topics are on subforums with a broad catchment for topic coverage they will get more overall views and garner posts from people who may not ordinarily read/participate in a very narrow-topic subforum.

Think of it as having us all meet in one big room to talk, or 60+ small rooms.

[Boldline]

I think there are more artists on here than some people realize. I am open to posting more of my art and the progressive steps involved. For me it's not any harder to take an image I would post on my own site or on social media and also post it here.  One of the special and unique characteristics of posting screen print art on the  forum here is that we all understand the concepts involved in printing said artwork. Here we have a collection of like-minded artists and screen printers who all understand the process and ca offer unique specialized perspective and critique and also encouragement. I think this part of the forum can grow if we all contribute to it and encourage the artists we work with and purchase work from to post it as well. There is great benefit to seeing other artwork and learning from one another.


Mat Woodworth
www.boldlinedesign.com

[mimosatexas]

My background is more in the illustration and graphic design realm than in the screen printing realm, if you're basing it on how long I have been doing either.  I feel like a lot of people on here are "artists", but few of us are only artists, and often art is dictated more by budget and time constraints than pure creativity.  In screen printing it is honestly hard to divorce the mass production from the art in a lot of ways, which changes a lot about how I approach a design if that makes sense.  Does this make it less "art" and more something else?

I "create" the artwork for around half of my prints, and I mean from start to finish, usually based on nothing more than something like "It needs to say "xxxxx" and I want it to have xxxxx imagery" or sometimes even "go wild!".  Sometimes I do simple text with something like tweaked "clipart" (pick a font, pick a central image, add some extra elements, and make it all look nice together).  Sometimes it is wholly original, whether that is hand illustrated or using the pen tool etc (often this is for clothing brands or new companies, and can range from logo creation/branding to abstract ideas and imagery).  Most of the time is somewhere in between.  I could post process stuff here I guess for some of those types of jobs, but honestly I rarely document the process.

Generally speaking, what would qualify as something worth posting in this subforum?  Does it need to be wholly hand illustrated, then penned in illustrator and colored, etc like all of the posts I see currently?  Would something like using fonts, even if tweaked, negate the art?  Is graphic design not art?

[Dottonedan]

I "create" the artwork for around half of my prints, and I mean from start to finish, usually based on nothing more than something like "It needs to say "xxxxx" and I want it to have xxxxx imagery" or sometimes even "go wild!".  Sometimes I do simple text with something like tweaked "clipart" (pick a font, pick a central image, add some extra elements, and make it all look nice together).  Sometimes it is wholly original, whether that is hand illustrated or using the pen tool etc (often this is for clothing brands or new companies, and can range from logo creation/branding to abstract ideas and imagery).  Most of the time is somewhere in between.  I could post process stuff here I guess for some of those types of jobs, but honestly I rarely document the process.

Generally speaking, what would qualify as something worth posting in this subforum?  Does it need to be wholly hand illustrated, then penned in illustrator and colored, etc like all of the posts I see currently?  Would something like using fonts, even if tweaked, negate the art?  Is graphic design not art?

All of the above mentioned is what is worth posting (to someone) and that one person counts.  I'm sure we all agree that anything educational is worthy. One does not need to be seen or known as "the best" or the go to guy to be able to post up steps/processes/tuts. They need not be award winners nor beginners. Everyone has something educational to share. Yes, even the non artist owners who just got by with clip art knows some shirt cuts (ha ha!) Shirt cuts...or they can share a procedure.


I think the key with all of that is not just the text info (how too's ) but also imagery and/or video.


I'll try my best to get something up but time is never on my side. Usually the case for many, so any contributions are extremely valuable.

[Dottonedan]

Boldline,  I know people would find it VERY interesting to see how digital inking is done in vector. Many people don't take advantage of that or even know it exist in Illy or Corel or what you do with it. I've wanted to do something basic like that for a while now so either you can or I will.  Another would be a how to on repeat patterns that seamlessly flow into full yet never ending patterns (used more so in retail and packaging).

[TCT]

This may not answer HOW to get more artists here, but it is something that would make me the artists customer seek them out... I always like to know what a artists "style" is or what they personally like to design. Someone that draws butterflys all day and loves it is probably not going to take the same passion and detail in drawing construction equipment. That is just my assumption as I am nowhere a artist.
There have been at least a dozen times I have searched the forum here for things artists have designed to see their style. Most of the time I come up empty handed. Browsing what people have posted coupled with my ignorance, I would and do assume over 95% of the artists like and or are good at drawing cars and hot rods... Could be totally off, but as a outsider that is how it has always came across to me.

If that all makes no sense I apologize, I am out of my league posting on the artists section. Believe I reached my peak while I was in high school making fake id's and phony parking passes on Photoshop 5.5

[Dottonedan]

Very valid point. A nice portfolio section would be good, but it's always been a task to get that feature into play. We looked into it once or twice. Should look again and see if their is something we have have put in easily enough. Thats the hard part I think. "easily enough".  Could take some decent coin. Not sure.  We will check into that one.

[Boldline]

Dan - yes I agree that some explanatory videos delving into the process of inking in illustrator would interest many. I will try to put something together. I've been meaning to do that for my own non-existent blog for a while now!


Mat Woodworth
www.boldlinedesign.com

[Sbrem]

When you guys say inking, I'm guessing you mean like the comic book art process, Jack Kirby pencils, Dick Ayers inks with a brush, a 3 guy colors...? So the lines have a brush feel?

Steve

[lemorris]

or....a sticky Non-Auto Art thread.