What other art forums are you guys on?
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This year, I wanted to minimize my Facebook scrolling so I'm on the hunt for good art forums to join
Aside from SVSLearn, what other forums would you recommend?
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/donnamakesart/
Behance: https://www.behance.net/donnamakesart
Website: https://donnamakesart.com/ -
@donnamakesart just this one really
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Same! Although I also have a (art) chat group with some class mates (we study illustration)
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Sometimes discord servers can be good! Ive found some really skilled artists in them that are really friendly and down to critique/help.
But most of the time its just full of so many kids.
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Oh actually I just started streaming and talking to people on twitch and a lot of these streamers have their own discords! They're like small communities
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Thanks for the response guys! Oh yes I am part of a few open discord groups but like @Frost-Drive said it tends to be a different crowd and kind of fast paced
I’m an old soul haha -
@donnamakesart There are forums at The Illustration Department where I know a few of the posters here sometimes post and vice versa. That site feels much broader in scope, covering a wider range of illustration than these forums normally concentrate on. There is a big kidlit publishing thrust as the founder was a children's book Art Director, but it's much much newer and intentionally casting a wider net that hasn't developed as much depth or traffic yet as this forum has.
Personally, I know more sites to avoid than sites to explore... Some FB groups have succumbed to moderator fatigue, so they either run hot or very very cold. @NessIllustration just recently started one for Freelance Illustrators Café and it promises to be one of the good ones.
But I think you're right--Artists have turned to smaller, more intimate locations to discuss work like Discord. There are some sites out there that try to provide an "index" of Discord servers to help find specific topics. In general, your observation is correct, though--the user base of those small communities is much younger. Discord started as a gaming tool, if I'm not mistaken, so it has some of that flavor on a lot of servers. It seems to be the new trend for younger artists to start their own communities.
[Edit: Just found this page dated Nov 2020 regarding Art-oriented Discord servers... hehe...]
All that being said, it seems to me that generally illustrators and writers in the kidlit publishing industry are a bit older. To my eye, the average age of the 200+ members in my local SCBWI chapter has to be in the early 50s, and I would imagine they don't spend as much time online as many younger folks do. I'm not surprised Discord users are usually much younger than that.
Twitch seems to be just now starting to have older, non-gaming folks using it, but Behance has a lot of high quality streamers, too (including Anna Daviscourt, who teaches a character design course here at SVSLearn). YouTube now has a forum-like feature that you can join for certain channels as well, but I'm not sure how that's set up.
Children's Illustration Portfolio: https://www.coreyartusillustration.com
Art Portfolio: https://www.coreyartusimagery.com
Mastodon: https://mindly.social/@Coreyartus
Pixelfed: https://pixelfed.social/Coreyartus -
@Coreyartus This is a wealth of knowledge. Thanks so much! I'll explore all your suggestions and see which one fits
Your observations of fb groups and discord are spot on. I've decided to cut back on social media in favor or slower pace so I thought forums might be a good way to have online interactions without the anxiety of having lots of notifs
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@Coreyartus Thank you for recommending the Illustration Department as a forum.
Question. Are the people on that forum typically harsher in their critiques, considering they're more experienced, or is the experience actually a lot more mixed?
