WOWEEE!!!!
One week has passed since the biggest Discord party featuring an overload of musical, artistic, and entertainment talent from Newgrounds that I have ever attended in my lifetime.
It's time to officially unwind~
Block Party - Artist Alley Overview
The purpose of this thread is to accept feedback and admonish the rights and wrongs that occurred during the Artist Alley portion of @TheNewgroundsPodcast's Block Party. There is a lot that I would like to talk about <3
+ LIST OF POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS
Time Slot Length: The length of time slots for the Artists Alleys should be extended past an hour, although perfectly suited for artists that were used to streaming and could get art pieces done within an hour, it was not enough for the majority to only be able to talk and draw for an hour--many art pieces were left unfinished and time seemed to fly by.
- Suggestion: Time slots improved to an hour and a half? There's only so much time for the event to take place--as much as I'd fully enjoy talking about art for 8 hours, it's just impractical to hold an event all day long unless we could accommodate an audience of that caliber. Because otherwise, I'm perfectly good for attending an all day event with an hour break in the middle somewhere ^^; Also, I'd suggest two hour time slots, but that seems too long to have the same talent streaming (and a large commitment,) albeit that time really does seem to fly by.
Scheduling: There wasn't a large enough heads-up for some artists to properly fit the Block Party into their schedules.
- Suggestion: At least a month-and-a-half heads up. Plenty of actual confirmations actually don't occur until about two weeks before the day of the event, but because we're not officially an event that artists can look forward to and associate with positivity, there's going to be actual demand from here on out, so an earlier heads up will allow for a lot of important hindsight~
Commissions/Ko-Fi: Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly) enough the audience had a consistent attitude of wanting to donate. Whether it was for actual quick commissions or just because somebody loved what an artist had going on, donations were abundant and prevalent within the Block Party's atmosphere. Luckily I had grabbed everyone's links beforehand, but there were a few artists that did not have a way for supporters to donate.
- Suggestion: Encouraging artists to have a Ko-Fi, PayPal, or a means to donate on-hand. The amount of love that poured into the chat for the artists was phenomenal. It was surreal to witness such care, love, and positivity for the art community, and having artists at the audience's fingertips proved to be rewarded with generosity.
Number of Voice Chat Rooms: OK, so to be honestly clear, I am greedy. Finally! I thought to myself, I have a talented group to talk about art with! I was in my happy place, and originally I planned on letting artists have some breathing room from the other artists if they needed it. But, there was no way I wanted to miss out on any possible conversations by not including them into the same voice chat room I was in. As the mediator/interviewer, I'd like to think I did a great job having everyone included into ongoing conversations and applying enough personality to have a good time. The chat EXPLODED with compliments for the entertainment from not only my abilities to keep a consistent flow of discussion, but also for the artists being themselves, being interactive, and being informative. I honestly can't thank the artists enough for being personable and respectful towards others <3
- Suggestion: One voice chat room because I literally can't bear to miss out on including all the artists in beautiful conversation and expressive personality inquiries. Talking about art is what I do, and I can handle any amount of energy required to keep things interesting. Surprisingly enough, having 8 artists in the same VC did very little to diminish anyone's ability to not speak.
Number of Artists: I had over-scheduled in some spots, and ended up under-scheduling for the last time slot, so I was able to get a good grip on the prime number of artists to have in on voice chat. It was also troubling to follow everyone's streams with so much talent going on at once, so an optimal number would help a lot allow for better focused attention.
- Suggestion: Scheduling 6 artists per time slot. This allows for enough room to where nobody is talking over each other and provides enough entertainment for the audience, as well as allows for an easier navigation of everyone's art streams.
What to Draw: Because this was the first time we've ever hosted an event like this, we were unsure of how to go about it. I figured it'd be best to let the artists figure out what they would like to draw as the event was going on. The general consensus for some artists was that they were too nervous to feel prepared enough to whip up a drawing on a whim in front of an audience.
- Suggestion: Gathering the artists from the same time slot beforehand so they can get more familiar and possibly expel anxiety/nerves by discussing the event together. This should help artists decide as a collective about ideas and what to draw, since who better to help you brainstorm than other artists?
Audio Recording: In light of privacy and not pressuring already nervous artists, NGP and I decided to ask before recording any conversations that happened in the Block Party. A few artists had expressed concerns about being recorded or streamed elsewhere, so I felt it was respectable to ask first. But a lot of brilliant/fun times were not captured, and I wish I could forward full length recordings to everyone involved as a momento--not even for public release.
- Suggestion: Full-time recording. We would like to record the whole event in the Artist Alley next time, and not release any recordings without permission. The NGP and I are very respectful to the wishes of artists, and would only like to use the audio recordings for snippets that offer insight into how much fun we all had getting together. This is still just an open idea, and nothing concrete. I believe the real pleasure in attending the Block Party is in its organic form--not something that could be diminished by not recording, so all-in-all, this is of little worry.
In lieu of how overwhelmed I was from the Block Party, I am going to post the relevant information of all the artists that attended in this news post on my profile, just in case you were unable to catch their links or remember how to find them, as well as the art they made during the Block Party :-)
Give me your feedback , please!!!
I'm looking for anything you found memorable or disheartening during the event.
and of course, thank you to everyone who participated <3
Promo Art by Cashumeru
Attending artists:
@StaggerNight @MKMaffo @Oddlem @LobsterMango @RGPAnims @Kyuri08 @Tacopug @Snackers @Cymbourine @Cashumeru @Pepperoni-Ravioli @Namenloose @ookiyo @FuShark @papstuko @arkoirisangel @Shamfoo @LoganPhresh @YeloRed @MisMash @Stradomyre @Potatoman @ThePsychoSheep @Ooolongearlgrey @Cubesona @hcnone @rtil @Inknettl
*xin laugh*
