Art Gallery Rules and Resources

The PokéCommunity Art Gallery Rules
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Do not post requests or separate discussion threads.
You are not allowed to post threads requesting a drawing - if you wish to do this, use the Official Request Thread. Likewise, if you want to discuss art in general or to ask an art-related question, use the stickied Art Discussion thread. Don't post a thread just to ask for someone to draw you something.

Regarding "art-bumping"...
Felt I should clear this up. You ARE allowed to double post here to show new art in a thread as long as the post itself contains new art. If it's been more than a day or so and you have new art to show off, you can "bump" your old thread to post the new art even if no one has replied. The 30-day rule does not apply with this either, so long as it is your own thread. So reviving an art thread from over a month ago, so long as it belongs to you, is fine.

Post sprites, T-Cards and graphics in the right forum.
Sprites belong in the Pixel Art or Pixel Projects forum (whichever is relevant), Trainer Cards belong in the Pixel Projects forum, and Graphics/Photos (banners, avatars, photography and the like,) in the Graphics and Photography forum. The Art Gallery is for hand-drawn or computer-drawn artwork that does not fit under any of these categories. If you have any other kind of artwork and are unsure of as to where it belongs, please feel free to ask.

Do not create contests.
Do not create a contest thread without a mod's permission.

Do not plagiarize.
All art posted MUST be your own work. Do not post other people's artwork here. You will be given four permanent red infraction points if we find proof that you are plagiarising.

Do not use suggestive thread titles.
Do not post threads with suggestive titles (ones which contain rude/adult/banned words) in order to attract people's attention. Threads with misleading titles will have their titles changed.

Do not post SPAM-like comments
These include "That looks great!" or something vague of the like. Also, it is considered spam if you do something like this; Say, there is a houndoom artwork in the thread. If you skim the art thread and see the houndoom, commenting by saying "That houndoom is really good!" That is also SPAM, so don't do it.

Do not create community contributed projects
It's great to see everyone's works all compiled into one thing, but this often causes problems with miscredit, lack of credit, or similar nonsense, and in order to curve that headache, community contributed projects are not allowed. For example, if a member starts a collaborative activity such as drawing all the pokemon in the pokedex by having different artists draw different pokemon, and submit it to the overall project. This is not allowed. If it is an individual project, meaning that you are the only one who will be contributing, please be sure to make that clear at the top of your post, or PM a higher staff member to get approval for your thread.

All the usual PokéCommunity Rules apply.

Mixed Art Supplies, Lookups and References
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Here are some links to tutorials that will help you with your art. If you want to submit your own tutorials, send a PM to Forest Grovyle who will judge if they are good enough to add. Do NOT steal from any of these sites.

Current Member Tutorials
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Tutorial Websites

Animé​

Disintegration said:

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I know there are some people that may not understand some terms used here in the Art Gallery. So I'm creating this thread just to help clear things up. Feel free to use this as a reference.

1. CG
- "CG" simply stands for "computer graphics." It's commonly mistaken as "computer generated." Computer graphics are artworks created with the help of a computer, or more specifically, and art program, such as Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, and Paint Shop Pro.

2. WIP
- This basically stands for "Work in Progress." Self-explanatory, no? Other ways to write this are "WiP" or "wip."

3. Anatomy
- Anatomy has a few meanings. In science (biology), anatomy is the study of the structure of living things, including the human body. I'm sure some of you have heard someone say "I need to practice anatomy." What that person may mean is that they need to practice drawing and getting familiar with the human body. Y'know, like arms, legs and such.

4. Request
- A request is where someone ask another to do something for them art-wise, such as "Can someone draw blah-blah for me?" or "Would anyone bother to color this?" If you would like to ask for a request, you can in the Official Art Request thread.

5. Commission
- This is kind of like a request, except money is involved. A commission is a kind of art where it gets paid for.

6. Trade
- Where two people "trade" each other, kind of like a request. One persons side of the trade requests the other person to draw something for them and the other person vice-versa.

7. Collaboration
- "Collaboration" or "collab" is where two artists work on an art project together.

8. Watermark
- A watermark simply is a graphic or text image that's transparent and placed on an image, usually used to prevent art thieves getting away with something. It is highly recommended to watermark your works, so you'll have proof that you drew whatever in case your work is stolen or used by someone else. Watermarks may not be pretty, but better safe than sorry.

9. Signature
- A signature is simply where you sign you artwork when you are finished with it. It also shows who it was completed by.
That's all the ones I can think of right now. If you are unsure of one just ask it here and I'll get to it soon as possible. Hope this helps.

Click to expand...

This guide belongs to Disintegraton.

Hello all!

This thread is to help with critiquing the work of others in the Art Gallery. I hope that by reading this, it will be very helpful in both providing feedback on others' art, but also in gaining more responses to your own pieces.

Let's start with the definition of a critique:

critique
n.
1. A critical review or commentary, especially one dealing with works of art or literature.
2. A critical discussion of a specified topic.
3. The art of criticism.
The word "critique" seems to suggest negativity, as it often rings of criticism. But that's where constructive criticism comes in! Constructive criticism does not only give a response to the artist's work, but also helps them to improve. This form of critiquing is much more effective than plain criticism, which often comes across as harsh and offensive to the artist.

Let's compare two examples! :) Plain criticism would sound something like "that's ugly" or "that's just bad". But it can also include positive plain criticism, such as "that's cute!" This does not give any help as to where the artist needs to improve, and doesn't encourage them at all if it's in negative language. :( But here's an example of some constructive criticism dug up from an Art Gallery thread!

":3 that one's wicked too!! I think you should put some lineart around the trunk of the tree and give it more shading or depth :3 so it has more texture in it! Also, you should give the leaves a bit more highlights. Other than that it's awesome :3 Great composition :3 and good choice of colour!!" - Kura

What I love about this kind of critiquing is that it points out what needs improving about the piece (the highlights of the leaves, etc) but also encourages the artist to post more. Always remember to highlight the positive points of the drawing as well as the negatives! You never know how many new artists you could inspire by your comments. ^_^

Things to look out for when critiquing

These are the things I always look at when I give my response to a picture. :)
Effort - one of the most important things! Even if the picture is not of the best standard, it can really be clear that the artist has put a lot of effort into their work. This shows their passion for art ^_^ It's a great thing to comment on!
Pose, Anatomy etc. - it's useful to look for these details. Is the pose feasible? Is it an original pose or a copy of an official pose? Is the anatomy very good, or is it off in places? Don't be afraid to suggest where it needs improvements!
Use of colour and tone - does the picture have a colour scheme which just leaps off the page?
Shading and highlights - are these in the right places in comparison to the light source, or are they randomly placed?
Medium the picture is drawn in - is the picture a MSPaint work? Or is it hand-drawn? These can vastly affect the standards by which a picture can be judged. :)

When posting artwork - something to note

Some people are more sensitive than others when it comes to their artwork being critiqued. A good idea is to put before you post a picture which level of criticism you're prepared to accept - if you're not sure about your picture, it's best to say you're accepting gentle criticism, and if you want your picture very honestly and bluntly critiqued, tell people to rip it apart! XD

To conclude:

I thought to wrap up this thread, I'd critique a piece of my own artwork from a while back :) I did this piece a couple of years ago and I can see lots wrong with it now. Click below to see the picture!

Gyarados in the Rain

The good:

It's an original pose, although the head is a bit generic - though that can be difficult to avoid with Gyarados! XD
The scene has a lot of atmosphere.
The lineart is fairly steady.

The not-so-good:

The blur filter has been majorly overused on the waves (and to some extent, the rain).
The moon looks a bit button-moonish XD
The shading is rather random and doesn't seem to match the light source very well. Also it's done by dodge and burn which isn't a recommended method of shading.



I hope that this guide helps you with future posts in the Art Gallery, and that it comes in useful with regards to critiquing! ^_^

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Guide written by Forest Grovyle.