this board is dead and i demand to know where everyone went

[lobote]

this forum used to have regular posts of caricatures

now it doesn't

it's because the forum went down for a while, and this new one has an ugly skin

but where did everyone go to post their caricatures? I want to know? Facebook or something? link plz

[donpinsent]

Man, I know! I'll tell you one thing, they haven't gone to E-Caricatures. We're dead over there too. I know an awful lot of people are participating in the weekly caricature challenges at the Facebook group Caricaturama Showdown 3000, but where they're posting their regular caricature work, i don't know, unless it's just on their own blogs. Wittygraphy.com still has regular users, but not many of them are the ones who used to be regulars here. I think a lot of people tried a few times to log on here when the boards were down and, after a while, just assumed it wasn't coming back, so they stopped checking.

[bangalore_monkey]

well, i used to post here just about every day, now i rarely visit the site.

some of it has to do with the site being down, one person stops posting stuff, then another. soon enough nobody bothers visiting anymore cause nobody thinks anyone will see their art, so why bother posting. it's kind of a vicious cycle.


but personally, i've just not been drawing as many caricatures lately.

[david11]

Yes, it's sad, I regret the time when there was a lot of creative people here. When the site was down, I really thought it would never be reborn again. I sometimes go to caricaturama showdown, and I've been posting some caricature there, but I have to say that it's not as good as the drawing board was. Personnaly, I'm not very fan of the facebook appearence, it's not very convenient, there are honnestly a lot of awful drawings (but hopefully also terrific ones), and most of the comments are "wow! I love it!", not very constructive. And I don't know, all those caricatures of the same subject finally make me sick
William, as you said, there's a kind of a vicious cycle, but maybe if some of ours keep posting caricatures here, maybe we could give a second life to the drawing board (hoping it won't close again!) By the way, Don, I think you are very brave to still post here, I'll soon try to follow you! (and the other ones as px,Jubhubmubfub...)

[lobote]

Do you know what we need? A community activity that is so awesome people hear about and come here to participate. The activity will be:

A pirate ship, with pirates on it which are all caricatures of movie pirates.

So someone needs to draw:

a large cartoony pirate ship

a large cartoony pirate ship overlayed with a grid so people can draw a pirate within each square

And make a list:

of all movie pirates

and then people participate by saying: I BAGS Jack sparrow and A5 and they draw Jack Sparrow within that square

At the end we have a big picture of a pirate ship with pirate caricatures.

[donpinsent]

Have to admit, that does sound like something that would fun to participate in. It also sounds like it wouldn't work. But that doesn't mean it wouldn't be worth trying. I'm not the one to draw the boat, though. That would have to be someone who's actually good at that kind of thing.

[Jubhubmubfub]

Sorry I'm not posting caricatures so frequently. School's started up and caricature production has slowed down, but I do post all my artwork here whenever I finish a piece. Drawingboard.org is where I began as a caricature artist, and I'll always post here.

[lucas_irineu]

I'd check this every day, even when it was down, but then it came back and nobody was really posting and I stopped checking.
I guess it doesn't make much of a difference as I was never much of a poster before - I just looked at what other people made. But yeah, not a lot of things to look at these days... :/

[About Faces1]

I know it's a ridiculous reason, but I think the first poster, lobote, was right: it's the unappealing skin. The old Drawing Board design was exciting and inviting. This one is boring and utilitarian.

[donpinsent]

I agree about the look, but I'm not sure I'd attribute the loss of posters to that. Things dropped off pretty quickly around here the last time the drawingboard went down for a while too. I think a lot of people cheked every day for a while, then eventually assumed the board was one for good and stopped coming around.

[Haystak]

Seems like the board was already losing steam before it went down for weeks... and then to come back with this skin which seems ULTRA generic... and with the internet today it actually feels outdated and something we would have posted on in the late 90s. Men view websites a lot like they view women.. appearance matters. This place could have the best functionality etc, but because of the "look" people won't even give it a chance. The board was already slowing down dramatically before it went off line for all that time. Its kind of like having a restaurant that was declining with the exception of a few regulars, and then you close down for a few months and reopen with a worse concept. The regulars have moved on to a more stable consistent environment and the new appearance doesn't attract new clients.

This board is like a band that had a few hits, it was on top of the world and fun while it lasted... but now all it can hope for.. is to continue its career playing county fairs and car dealership openings.


R.I.P. drawingboard.org (don't know who the owner of the site is, but they've killed this place and quite frankly are wasting money on server space to keep it going at this point)

[donpinsent]

Its kind of like having a restaurant that was declining with the exception of a few regulars, and then you close down for a few months and reopen with a worse concept. The regulars have moved on to a more stable consistent environment and the new appearance doesn't attract new clients.

I agree. Well stated.

R.I.P. drawingboard.org (don't know who the owner of the site is, but they've killed this place and quite frankly are wasting money on server space to keep it going at this point)

I disagree. I think there is still potential here, if more of us get back to using the board the way Bangalore Monkey is. I would gladly do so myself, but just haven't had a lot of time for extracurricular drawring lately.

[lobote]

Men view websites a lot like they view women..

They scroll down to the interesting bits?

But sreiously folks I worked out how the "Caricatures of the Carri bean Community Challenge" or CCCC will work.

Person starts in the middle. Draws one pirate. In pen, B+W, no color. That way if it looks shit you can say "its not my preferred medium". That means professionals won't not contribute. The middle picture must draw 2 random line on each edge.

The two people start on two seperate caricatures. The one on the left makes sure the right part of his picture fits with the random middle line. The person on the right makes sure his left bit connects with the right bit of the middle piece. So every caricature fits with every other.

I'll try to draw the middle picture tonight.

[de aap]

I usually don't have much to post in the caricature thread, hope you don't mind if i do give my two cents on this one. I personally don't have a big problem with the lay-out and look of this site. To me the new look actually feels rather fresh. Also I don't think that somthing as trivial as the look makes that much a difference.

I joined the board maybe three years ago, after some guys at school tipped me about it. I was so surprised when I saw how many professionals were active over here. Back then I already sort of had the feeling that I was visiting a party that had seen most of it's fun, but compared to the board of today it was just fantastic.

I believe that the biggest problem has to do with the attitude of certain board members. When I joined the board I read the conditions and it was clearly stated that everybody would have to be treated with respect. Let's just say that appearantly some people have a very twisted view of what this means.

There were some big arguments centred around some people who were in my opinion not worthy of all the attention. the board was being flooded with art that appeared to be made without much care or love, but when the people posting this stuff were confronted with this they reacted furiously and extremely impolite. As a reaction to these little flame wars I think a lot of pro's moved away. they don't care for that shit, they are only here as long as it is fun for them.

I believe that most pro's feel sympathetic towards newcomers because they can only remember those days too well themselves. But they don't want to get sucked up into some heated argument with somebody who isn't worth their time. the people misbehaving have ruined the board by chasing away the pro's.Take a look at most new threads: how many poeple get any critique on their work at all?

These days there are some people posting intersting stuff here, but mostly it is doodles by people who don't take their art too seriously. Please don't take this the wrong way, everybody has the right to draw and everybody has the right to share his or her stuff here. But the lack of people who seriously desire to improve their skills has changed the demographics of this place. Today most people posting stuff just hope to hear they did a good job, and that's a shame. The best reply I ever got was a pro telling me what my storyboard was missing panel for panel. It was a long and hard critique, but I was happy with it. I was proud that a pro took the time to review my stuff in such detail, he was fair with me and just told me that i had to up my game. And he was right.

I'l keep visting this place. I still love it, and maybe one day it will again be the place where young ambitious artists come to seek crticism. (and maybe by then I have become one of the pro's, and i'll get to tell them to up their game...)

[PEDROSCOPE]

I'm sorry that there isn't more traffic here also. I've been busy of late with personal stuff and work and it's kept me from posting and commenting more.
Putting aside the new interface (which I don't mind, accept for having new images on the front page). I think this forum can rebound. It may not be the same as it once was, but truthfully some of the earlier board members are probably just in a different position then they were in the past... Maybe its family, or a job, or some other part of life that people are busy with. Nothing wrong with that... Just less time for posts.

I'll try to get some more caricatures popping in the coming weeks and months... Perhaps we can revitalize the caricatures board here together...
P