Art Portal User Guide

[bigjonny13]

The art portal is finally up and running. That's great, it's totally groovy. The only problem is, other than the bugs that still need to be worked out but that's another story, that people don't seem to properly understand how to use the Art Portal. So I have decided to take on the responsibility of informing the rest of the Newgrounds public, especially those aspiring artists.

So, since the main focus of the Art Portal is art, let's talk about the different kinds of categories of art that we have. There are 5 different categories under which art can fall - Illustration, Fine Art, 3D Art, Pixel Art and Other. Let's go in order shall we?

First up is Illustration. Illustration is art that is not as reformed and cleaned. It is more of a simple style that works to stress the subject of the piece rather than the physical appearance of it. While it may not elicit a strong visual appeal, it plays more to one's hubris, their emotions. The piece is used to convey a message or a story through it's visual representation.

For example, this was the piece I submitted for the Notepad Collab 09. Now, while it may not be a superb drawing, it's more about the subject of the piece rather than it's form. This piece is a fist punching through the notepad. Note the fist is holding a pencil. The message in this piece is that although artists always have barriers to face, they continue to fight. Basically, "you can never stop an artist".

[Luis]

I tend to disagree with the drawing above being art portal worthy. To me, the idea of the art portal, is they want polished finished art. Pretend that these are your flagship pieces you are showing to the public. Yes some sketches are quite beautiful in their own right. I know that alot of Leonardo's sketches hang in galleries and are heavily sought after, but the idea is that generally speaking what you upload should be finished work. You should reserve your sketches and studies for non-art portal submitting, ie art that ends in your userpage, you can still benefit from the feedback of others but you are refining and polishing it until you feel that it is ready for a public debut.

Thats my 2 cents. Also it might be a bit premature to be talking about an Art Portal Guide considering its so new and the categories themselves might change or new ones be added. You might inevitably have to make a Guide v2.0 v2.1 v2.2 etc ... the art portal is so new.

[Jonas]

That picture is terrible, that's like a faux illustration.

[bigjonny13]

Well, I didn't submit that to the portal though because I really didn't feel it was that great; I was just trying to illustrate what each type of drawing was like using my own works. But if it doesn't meet your standards then I will use others works to illustrate the definitions then.

[Jarvid]

On the submit page there should be a big picture that outlines the major nonos of the art portal.

[Fleshlight]

At 6/24/09 11:19 PM, Jarvid wrote: On the submit page there should be a big picture that outlines the major nonos of the art portal.

text is kinda hard to read and photos aren't against uploading rules as long as you don't post them in the portal.

[J-qb]

At 6/24/09 10:54 PM, AustinBreed wrote: I also consider anything drawn and finished in flash to be illustration?

wrong, but that is a mistake most users of the portal make. I think a lot of poeple tend to think that artwork in traditional media is fine art, and digital is illustration.
As Jonny said, illustration is about sending a message, it is about the subject, not about the form. So if you do a hilarious parody of batman, that would be illustration, since the main goal is to make someone laugh, it is fine art when the goal of it is to be beautifull.

[FullFistMaria]

At 6/25/09 12:09 AM, Fleshlight wrote: photos aren't against uploading rules as long as you don't post them in the portal.

Nah thats not true.I thought it was Ok as well but all of mine got taken down.ReNaeNae went and asked Bob for me and he gave it a no.Ah well.

[JoeTheToucan]

Well anything to stop all the ''plz scout me I'm sooo good *sad face*'' threads. Boy, they get on me nerves.

[Luis]

yea dont upload photos.. i thought it was fine and i got bitchslapped by bob :(
actually tom got slapped too cause hes the one that told me i could tell people they could under certain circumstances

[bigjonny13]

Time to get back to the guide now.

The next art category is Fine Art. Fine Art would be art that is refined and perfectly worked out. The focus of the piece is the aesthetic aspect. It is supposed to be a visual stimulation, finely tuned and perfected, sanding the rough corners until it's smooth and beautiful.

The example I am presenting here is a drawing I did of Blanka from the Street Fighter series. Note how this piece is more refined than the illustration piece, note the attention to detail. Including every line and contour to denote definition in the piece, whether it be the muscles or the folds in the pants. I also included shadowing to add more depth to the piece.

[TheReturnOfTomsPulp]

Wut

[TheDaveAngle]

At 6/25/09 02:12 PM, TheReturnOfTomsPulp wrote: Wut

Don't be an arsehole now, he probably just didn't have enough time to do something completely original and just thought that picture would be good for what he's trying to do here.

[bigjonny13]

Many people seem to confuse Illustration and Fine Art, and tend to submit their pieces under the wrong category. Just review the image and the definitions if you are unsure about where to post it. If the piece is a concept, invoking emotions, it is an illustration. If the piece is a more polished work, then it is fine art.

The third category is 3D Art. 3D art is defined as the rendering of three dimensions using a two dimensional field. Note that this category refers to images created on a computer, and not physical objects.

I have not really dabbled in 3D artwork, so I don't have any pieces to use as an example. But just take a look at the link for some images. Besides I'm pretty sure everyone has an idea of what 3D art looks like.

[bigjonny13]

At 6/25/09 02:15 PM, TheDaveAngle wrote:

At 6/25/09 02:12 PM, TheReturnOfTomsPulp wrote: Wut

Don't be an arsehole now, he probably just didn't have enough time to do something completely original and just thought that picture would be good for what he's trying to do here.

I'm not going to lie. I did use that picture as a reference. But like I said earlier, I'm just trying to use my own artwork as examples for each definition. I prefer not to use others' art without their permission.

[TheCarny]

Just because the above piece is more detailed and shaded, i don't think it can be classified as "fine art".
It still looks a bit sketchy or unfinished to me. So this is more of a sketch or an illustration than fine art.
Fine art to me is really something that as you above stated, something that at least looks finished and "sanded" to perfection. These are the two things i do not see in your drawing.

[bigjonny13]

The fourth category of art is Pixel Art. Pixel Art is the creation of an image pixel by pixel, without any special tools. Many old computer games used pixel artwork. There are two types of pixel art: isometric and non-isometric. Isometric pixel art is used to portray a three dimensional view without any three dimensional processing (such as with 3D art). To properly create isometric pixel art, the pixels are created linearly in a 1:2 pixel ratio. Non-isometric pixel art is anything that is not isometric, such as views from the top, bottom, sides or front.

This was my entry for the Isometric Pixel Art Contest a few months back. Completely made in MS paint (yes, that's right, you can create pixel artwork in paint) it renders the illusion of three dimensions. The illusion of 3D is created through the use of the 1:2 pixel ratio, as well as the shading on the different sides of each object as well as creating shadows produced by each individual object.

[bigjonny13]

The last category is Other. This encompasses anything that you have that would not really fall under any other categories.

Now that you know about the different categories, it's time to figure out about submitting your work to the portal. A few tips for submitting your artwork:
- Make sure that you properly rate your artwork with regards to nudity, violence, language and adult themes. You don't want to have your artwork removed because it was too risque and you labeled it incorrectly. Also, don't mark your art as adult when it actually isn't just so that you can get more views. This makes you a complete douchebag. Same goes for tagging your piece with words that do not relate to the art just so that you can get more views. Stop being an asshole.
- Don't submit every single piece of artwork that you've created to the art portal. That's what a personal artwork thread in the art forum is for. Just submit your better pieces so you don't clutter up the portal. Or if you want to submit all of your pieces, only select your better pieces to appear public. Again this prevents the portal from getting clustered, yet if someone goes to your art page, they can view the pieces you did not submit to the portal.
- Only submit your own art; do not post others' artwork. You will get reported and the image will be removed (more about reporting later on).
- Do not submit photographs. While photographs can be extremely beautiful and artistic, they do not belong in the art portal. Go post them in your own thread or the photography thread. The only photographs that are allowed in the portal are photographs of your artwork (if you do not have a scanner) or photographs of other pieces that you have created, such as a sculpture.

[TheCarny]

I don't know if you were going to point this out or not, but there is still the issue of the reviewers.
Most of the reviews i saw in the art portal are very short and offer little or no constructive criticism.
If you think the image could be improved and you know how, do your best to explain to the artist what he did wrong and how he can improve. And give the image a reasonable score. If you don't like the motive (ie: you don't like anime and the motive is anime etc.), don't rate the motive, rate how well it is made.
That's all i could think of.

[bigjonny13]

At 6/25/09 04:16 PM, TheCarny wrote: I don't know if you were going to point this out or not, but there is still the issue of the reviewers.
Most of the reviews i saw in the art portal are very short and offer little or no constructive criticism.
If you think the image could be improved and you know how, do your best to explain to the artist what he did wrong and how he can improve. And give the image a reasonable score. If you don't like the motive (ie: you don't like anime and the motive is anime etc.), don't rate the motive, rate how well it is made.
That's all i could think of.

Yeah, I was planning to explain how to properly review submissions. Thanks for starting things off for me. Basically don't just say "this sucks" with no explanation why. Give some feedback to the artist as to why you weren't a fan of their piece, or give them some constructive criticism on how to I also want to talk about the last part you mentioned. Everyone has different art tastes, and that's perfectly fine. Some people think that certain types of art are strange. I know a lot of people are freaked out by anthro art (in which animals have human characteristics), I'm a little weirded out by it myself. Yet I still appreciate the effort and design put into the artwork by those people. I want to specifically mention Fatchos (sorry for pointing you out man). Although his artwork may seem a little weird, what with the lizard women and all, but he does such a brilliant job of creating such elegant pieces. Therefore he deserves to be rated on the quality of the piece, regardless of it's subject. The same goes for all other artists. Do not give poor ratings/reviews because your not a fan of that art form. Rate them on the form not the figure. If you still feel prejudiced against the art, just don't review it then. We have more than enough idiots leaving stupid reviews in the flash and audio portal (I got a review on one of my audio pieces that said " Im sorry, =[ =[ =[" with a score of 3). We don't need the art portal to become corrupt too.

[bigjonny13]

Now it's time to talk about scouting. First we will take into consideration what Rob said.
"When scouting a new artist, ask yourself, "Will (s)he take the Art Portal seriously and not clutter it with lackluster art?" If you have any doubts, don't scout. If you haphazardly scout users who do not put effort into their art and who clearly drag the portal down, you risk losing your scout privilege, or being removed from the portal altogether along with those you've scouted."
So make sure that the artist that you have scouted has put effort into their pieces. You don't want them to spam up the portal with tons of crappy images, clustering it up and hiding all the real gems.
Also, when you scout someone, take some precautions to make sure that they are not stealing images. Check their post history to see if they have posted previous artwork in the past. If the art they posted in the portal doesn't match up with what they've posted in the forums, then there is a good chance that it isn't theirs. Check their news feed for the same thing.
Also, another way to check if the art is stolen is through TinEye. TinEye allows you to search the internet for the image, and if it finds any hits, there is a chance that it's stolen. The more hits TinEye gets, the higher the chance that it's stolen.

[bigjonny13]

Now that I've talked about stolen artwork, might as well talk about reporting it.
If someone's artwork has broken any rules, you report them with the report abuse link. Now there are three reasons for reporting an image
1) The image is stolen
2) The submission is a photograph
3) The submission is innapropriate
So lets review the 3 rules and how then are broken.
1) The image is stolen
I already talked about stealing images in the previous post. The best thing to do if you report an image as being stolen is to post where the image has been stolen from (the link). TinEye works wonders for this. I've reported over 60 images as being stolen through TinEye. Basically my report for a stolen image would be like this - TinEye has this many hits for this image. Then I would list a few links as examples from where the picture could have come from.
2) This submission is a photograph
As I already mentioned before, photographs are unacceptable unless its a photograph of something you've made like a sculpture.
3) This submission is inappropriate.
Inappropriate would mean the image is something like hardcore adult (sexually explicit photographs), illegal (it is stolen from a someone who has copyrighted the image) or it is hateful (racist, sexist, etc). Images of this sort are unfitting for the portal and extremely rude and immature. Please keep those sort of things elsewhere on the internet. We don't want newgrounds to become a place of intolerance and pornography.
So lets all do our part to report what needs to be reported so that our art portal can stay nice and clean, so that everyone can enjoy it.

[bigjonny13]

At 6/28/09 08:23 PM, Min27 wrote: So you mean I got unscouted because I was falsely accused of stealing my art? I haven't posted my work in the forums for ages and only sent my most recent work into the portal. All of my work is on my Deviantart and Sheezyart accounts too. I know sometimes it can be very difficult to tell whether someone has stolen art or not (because they've made art accounts with the same username and posted the art there too), but being told you've stolen artwork when you haven't is just a bit irritating.

No, not necessarily. You could have been unscouted because someone you scouted broke the rules, someone you scouted scouted someone who broke the rules, the person who scouted you broke the rules... etc. It's a big branching tree that topples like dominoes when someone is unscouted.

[Stunji]

I'm going to have to completely disagree with the definitions provided. Illustration is so broad it practically encompasses fine art.

Some consider sniffing dye and then sneezing on a canvas to be fine art. Some consider abstract paintings fine art. Some consider things such as Still lives, Landscape paintings, and other forms of academic art (aka "Realism")

I'd say anime is illustration, Flash drawings are illustration, digital paintings that aren't either deeply analytical or highly conceptual in nature are illustration, pencil sketches of your characters/stories are illustration.

Okay, let me say it this way: Illustration tells a story. I don't think it should be limited past that.

[bigjonny13]

At 6/28/09 09:01 PM, Stunji wrote: I disagree with your definition of illustration and here's why

Well, you are entitled to your own opinion. But when Rob announced that the art portal was released, he linked wikipedia for the definition of illustration. Let me quote the first paragraph of the wikipedia page for you.
An illustration is a visualization such as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that stresses subject more than form. The aim of an illustration is to elucidate or decorate textual information (such as a story, poem or newspaper article) by providing a visual representation.
So yes, concept art is illustration because it is used to explain the story of the character. Sketches are also included. The main point is that it focuses more on subject rather than form.