Introducing /r/CommercialArt

[Fable74]

Hey everyone,

I hope you won't mind me posting about this here, I figured this would the place to share this since people have to find out about this somehow.

I've created a new subreddit specialized in Commercial Art. You can find it here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/CommercialArt/

Right now I'm the only one posting since there's less than 20 subscribers but it gave me the chance to nudge it into the right direction with the posts I've already made.

The point of this subreddit is to gather good posts from art related sites like Muddy Colors, share new tutorial videos like FZD Cinema, any new Kickstarters, info about book releases and conventions, inspirational or time management articles, discussions and anything else worth sharing with other artists. The only thing that won't be allowed is art itself in order to prevent it from becoming another confusing art dump.

The other major "feature" is the wiki in which I've already gathered quite a bit of info, although there's still a lot of work to be done. Right now we have:

• Books
  
• Tutorials
  
• Interviews
  
• Podcasts
  
• Brushes
  
• References
  
• Competitions
  
• Conventions
  
• Schools
  
• Companies
  
• Technical
  
• Watch as you work
  

Anything of reasonable quality will be added here. Of course I can't do this by myself so if you know about anything worth sharing, send me a mod message. I still have to go through the resource section of this forum, so don't waste time messaging me about that but if you have anything new, go ahead.

Obviously there are a lot of places where you can already find most of this but having it as a wiki on Reddit is a great way to have some order in things so we won't have to look through a whole bunch of websites.

I hope it will eventually grow into something similar to /r/Games, which is a great place to find news and discussions about games.

That's it, I hope you will be interested in this.

[Psychotime]

I've got this site, why would I want to go to a place like reddit?

[Fable74]

I've got this site, why would I want to go to a place like reddit?

Reddit is very different from a regular forum like this.

1. The voting system allows the best content to be on top and the rest is lower or completely downvoted to oblivion if it's crap. Same for the comments.

2. When I want to see new post here, all I get is new sketchbook posts. What you get on the subreddit is mostly new articles, info about events and anything of that sort. You won't have to dig through a pile of art to get to the more interesting stuff.

3. Nested comments allow for easier navigation during discussion. When you start replying to someone on a forum like this, you get people talking over each other since there's no way to separate replies and new posts.

4. The wiki is sorted in categories so rather than going through a bunch of threads and having to go through all of it. You will be able to just go to the section of the wiki that's focused on what you want (for example books) and it's sorted out into books about anatomy, perspective and so on.

Keep in mind this subreddit is not really supposed to replace forums like Crimson Daggers and ConceptArt.org. It's a completely different thing created for different purpose.

[Doolio]

Psychotime, I haven't been to reddit, but I don't see why two art sources would be mutually exclusive - especially if they are structured differently. I visit at least several art related sites daily. Or I am simply missing something in your post:)

[Psychotime]

I was just being instigative toward a thread that feels like spam. And I personally have little to no interest in bothering with a place like Reddit.

It's not about being mutually exclusive. I want to be convinced to bother with the site the OP is talking about. Especially when the main reason for this thread is to get users to join and contribute to it.

It's not the same as saying "Hey, there's this cool site you should check out" this is more "Hey, can you help me to make this site cool?"

It's also notable that the OP themself barely uses this site at all. They joined shortly after I did, but only has 10 posts to their name only on two threads, this one and their sketchbook. They haven't posted anything for anyone else's benefit. No critique or comments for other people's work, practically no interaction with other users (sorry, I don't count "likes"). Which just makes it feel even more parasitic.

[EduardoGaray]

You know, i wouldnt have said it that way, but Psychotime is probably right.
I'm not saying the OP had bad intentions in posting this, but it kinda feels a bit spamish for the reasons Psycho posted above.

Also, i recently joined reddit myself, and still dont get how that damn thing works.
Plus, i guess this is just my experience, but it seems to be full of excellent kind people AND haters, trolls, smartasses and bad people in general, no balance lol.

[Fable74]

I was just being instigative toward a thread that feels like spam. And I personally have little to no interest in bothering with a place like Reddit.

It's not about being mutually exclusive. I want to be convinced to bother with the site the OP is talking about. Especially when the main reason for this thread is to get users to join and contribute to it.

It's not the same as saying "Hey, there's this cool site you should check out" this is more "Hey, can you help me to make this site cool?"

It's also notable that the OP themself barely uses this site at all. They joined shortly after I did, but only has 10 posts to their name only on two threads, this one and their sketchbook. They haven't posted anything for anyone else's benefit. No critique or comments for other people's work, practically no interaction with other users (sorry, I don't count "likes"). Which just makes it feel even more parasitic.

It looks to me like you're looking for a reason to think this is some sort of spam that's aimed to take advantage of people, especially since you have already made up your opinion on Reddit as a whole.

I don't use this site only because I've decided not to post my progress in a sketchbook after a few posts and I don't critique and comment on other people's work because I know I'm not experienced enough to say anything of value. This doesn't come into play with the subreddit since my main work there is to moderate it, post anything new that comes up (for which I set-up my feedly.com with sites that are worth tracking) and fill up the wiki with any valuable resources that I find. My own personal opinion doesn't really come into play with any of this.

And it's definitely not the case of "Hey, can you help me to make this site cool?", because I'm already filling up the wiki and posting articles. In theory, no one besides me would have to contribute anything to the site and I think it would still be worth checking out since it has all the news in one place and the wiki is already filled with great stuff to which I'll only be adding more and more. By myself if I have to.

You know, i wouldnt have said it that way, but Psychotime is probably right.
I'm not saying the OP had bad intentions in posting this, but it kinda feels a bit spamish for the reasons Psycho posted above.

Also, i recently joined reddit myself, and still dont get how that damn thing works.
Plus, i guess this is just my experience, but it seems to be full of excellent kind people AND haters, trolls, smartasses and bad people in general, no balance lol.

Yes, some subreddits are filled with "haters, trolls, smartasses and bad people in general" but only because the mods allow it. But there are a lot of subreddit that are worth checking like /r/Games, /r/books, /r/explainlikeimfive, /r/IAmA and a whole bunch of others. Subreddits are always what the users make it and what mods allow it to be. And I won't be allowing any bullshit, that's for sure.

The problem in your case is probably just as you said - you only joined recently and don't get how it works so you don't realize how much you can get out of it.

[EduardoGaray]

ah you see, i had no idea that reddit worked that way, i though everyone could comment without any supervision, resulting in something like you see in youtube for example.
If its up to the mods, then i will have to look for the right subreddits.

I think there is a little misundestanding here, maybe the way you posted this wasnt perfect, and we were a little too belligerent about it.

[Doolio]

While I know what you guys are saying, I don't see it as a bad thing per se. I mean, it is an art resource (it's not like "hey guys, I lost 30 pounds in a week, check this out lol") and we have been informed about it, with freedom to participate or don't participate.

I probably wouldn't have the time to contribute even if it was some site with my name written on it, but I don't see it as something that can "take over" or ruin the forums or anything like that. At best, it could be useful and informative and at worst, it could be like the thread never happened.
It's up to you to contribute, or just watch or simply evade the thread whatsoever.

I mean, daggers isn't a competitive site in that sense, it's not like pepsi came to coca cola forums and posted marketing stuff:) If it was some kind of unrelated obviously written spam then I think it should have been locked in the blink of an eye, yes.

[Fable74]

I think there is a little misundestanding here, maybe the way you posted this wasnt perfect, and we were a little too belligerent about it.

Could be that, I'm in no way experienced with communicating things like this. I'm just a random young guy who decided to fill the gap on Reddit for this industry. Games have a big subreddit, so do movies and books so why not commercial art? I figured if it's done correctly, it could become as big as those.

I probably wouldn't have the time to contribute even if it was some site with my name written on it, but I don't see it as something that can "take over" or ruin the forums or anything like that. At best, it could be useful and informative and at worst, it could be like the thread never happened.
It's up to you to contribute, or just watch or simply evade the thread whatsoever.

Most people on Reddit never contribute with posts or comments and only "lurk", I would even say it's more than 95%. It's more about consuming, of course you have to make sure that what you consume is not just a waste of time and I'll make sure this won't.

[Tyrus]

I think there is a little misundestanding here, maybe the way you posted this wasnt perfect, and we were a little too belligerent about it.

Could be that, I'm in no way experienced with communicating things like this. I'm just a random young guy who decided to fill the gap on Reddit for this industry. Games have a big subreddit, so do movies and books so why not commercial art? I figured if it's done correctly, it could become as big as those.

I probably wouldn't have the time to contribute even if it was some site with my name written on it, but I don't see it as something that can "take over" or ruin the forums or anything like that. At best, it could be useful and informative and at worst, it could be like the thread never happened.
It's up to you to contribute, or just watch or simply evade the thread whatsoever.

Most people on Reddit never contribute with posts or comments and only "lurk", I would even say it's more than 95%. It's more about consuming, of course you have to make sure that what you consume is not just a waste of time and I'll make sure this won't.

Couple things here:

1) There ARE places on reddit for commercial art (and those serious about art). One has to understand that /r/games is an anomoly formed from an actual lack of one of it's kind when it was formed a couple years ago AND is a much more pleasant and heavily moderated alternative to /r/gaming (and /r/gamingnews and /r/gamernews. They all suck). It's a community within a community making it work.

The reason why the other commercial art subreddits don't quite work is that a) the communties are much much smaller and work toward a specific subject or fandom or b) they have all information they need and/or the main person contributing to the subreddit prefers to contribute on their own site and/or are seldom active.

2) To that end, CrimsonDaggers is something else entirely. We're our own small community with our own style of doing things. While there's nothing wrong with trying to form something on reddit (again) we're not really the first people you should consider.

That's why it feels like pointing such out to us feels like spam. For the most part Daggers works for what we need it for.

Personally I'm all for making the reddit work (it would be nice to have a central place for things like art podscasts to be posted and to have our own scene news, instead of talking in the general forums on here and on CA.org), BUT this does feel redundant.

[Fable74]

Couple things here:

1) There ARE places on reddit for commercial art (and those serious about art). One has to understand that /r/games is an anomoly formed from an actual lack of one of it's kind when it was formed a couple years ago AND is a much more pleasant and heavily moderated alternative to /r/gaming (and /r/gamingnews and /r/gamernews. They all suck). It's a community within a community making it work.

The reason why the other commercial art subreddits don't quite work is that a) the communties are much much smaller and work toward a specific subject or fandom or b) they have all information they need and/or the main person contributing to the subreddit prefers to contribute on their own site and/or are seldom active.

Is there a place on Reddit that focuses on sharing news and tutorials and everything else like this one does? I don't know about it, but let me know if there is. /r/Art only shares the artwork, same with /r/ConceptArt, /r/Imaginary, /r/MattePainting, /r/DigitalPainting and /r/IDAP. There's barealy any content posted on /r/LearnConceptArt, with no news and no system in the content that has already been posted. There's a few things in /r/Drawing's sidebar but I already have more content in the wiki than that and the posted content is just art. Then there's /r/ArtBlogs, which is mostly just a place to pitch your own blog and it ends up being filled with art only. The content of this subreddit is focused on something completely else.

2) To that end, CrimsonDaggers is something else entirely. We're our own small community with our own style of doing things. While there's nothing wrong with trying to form something on reddit (again) we're not really the first people you should consider.

That's why it feels like pointing such out to us feels like spam. For the most part Daggers works for what we need it for.

Personally I'm all for making the reddit work (it would be nice to have a central place for things like art podscasts to be posted and to have our own scene news, instead of talking in the general forums on here and on CA.org), BUT this does feel redundant.

Once again, this wasn't created with the intention to replace Crimson Daggers or CA.org. You say it would be nice to "have a central place for things like art podscasts to be posted and to have our own scene news" and when I introduce something aimed to be exactly that you say it feels redundant.

In the end, it's just another art related subreddit, don't make such a big deal out of it. I'm not forcing it on you, I just wanted to let people know it exists.