We recently came across a fun little community called Happy ATC on Livejournal. Its premise is to swap hand made trading cards with other artists, with a focus on hand-drawn cards done with traditional media. It’s relatively new, so for right now the number of participants is fairly small but that makes for a more intimate feel and an easier time at making some new friends.
Reflecting on our last post about Tegaki E, we thought why not link to a couple more of our favorites. For those of you already on Tegaki E, there’s a book marking feature which allows you to easily follow others. Handy when no one really sticks out on the front page.
Anarahk – (even has a little Tegaki E tutorial which you can find here).
bunfats
CNWOLF
alexds1 (Check out Der-shing's interview here).
boopkit
chupachup (bonus points for being named after the lollipop).
*Image © CNWOLF
The Creep Machine is a popular webzine that often features alternative and underground artists from various fields including traditional art, illustration, and photography. Run by webmaster Josh who also writes for the San Francisco weekly, the Creep Machine hopes to expose various artists to a more mainstream audience.
I vote for art is an online gallery that launched about a week ago where users can vote for their favorite art, as well as buy and sell their work. The concept is not unlike deviantART where the more ‘popular works’ are found one the front page. However, unlike dA there is some quality control to works that can be submitted. Regardless, it provides a new venue for artists to get their work out to the masses.
With as much progress the company Tokyopop has often taken towards pushing the envelope for aspiring comic artists, they too often take an insane amount of steps backwards as well. It’s almost impossible to ignore their latest scheme which is the Manga Pilot program, as the contempt against it has been posted onto several blogs, most prominently Lea Hernandez’s. Reading through the comments and through the contract itself, potential writers and artists should definitely proceed with caution if considering to enter any binding contract. If you can’t afford your own lawyer, it doesn’t hurt to use Google or to get advice from people who have been or are in the industry. Tokyopop is NOT the only company out there.
Besides visiting individual galleries, there are quite a number of artist blogs we enjoy visiting. Whether it’s hearing news of their upcoming endeavors or simply seeing some of the creative process, there’s always something a little more intimate about a blog.
*Image © Stephen Hetrick
Bobby Chiu’s Sketch Group Blog - Blog featuring several artists and their sketches during their time on the subway.
Chepeng - Sketch blog group that contains the work of various artists including Robin Chyo, Kevin Dalton, and Stephen Hetrick
Bugglefug - The art of Tim Mcburnie and former home of the dailyscribble blog (still has archives).
Zombie Jam - The art of Christy Lijewski, (you’ll have to friend the journal on lj to see the art).
Pyawakit@LJ - The art of Ashleigh Firth Hetrick
http://www.edtadem.com/ - The art of Ed Tadem who’s an artist on the comic ’76
In an earlier entry we mentioned the website Tegaki E, which allows users to make handwritten entries. Since then it has grown tremendously just as we expected and often times it’s hard to navigate through all the ‘junk’ entries. However finding artists like bloodypepper, Beli, diana, and Pibity is worth it. Below are links to their respective dA accounts (or lj).
bloodypepper
Beli
diana
Pibity
*Image © diana
Check out this amazing animated mural by Blu:
Long time no post, eh? Anyway, we have a cool site to give a shout out to called Tegaki E. Based on an original concept found here. Tegaki E allows users to make handwritten blog entries and comments. That said, it's already brimming with a lot of awesome artists and for right now the community is fairly small but will probably grow within the coming weeks. One warning though: You'll probably lose a countless number of hours getting caught up in all the fun.
Hi Rococo Flow readers,
We hope everyone’s enjoying the holiday season. Once again it’s been a long wait but hopefully you’ll stick with us.
We’re sure many of you out there probably have probably heard of Facebook and if so have probably also checked out the Graffiti application. It has recently expanded and now hosts monthly contests with various themes. Participants have the opportunity to win a brand new Bamboo or Intuos 3 tablet from Wacom the sponsor of these competitions. We encourage everyone to check it out.
Click Here to Read Full Article...
We’d hate to admit that we waste spend ridiculous amounts of time perusing about LiveJournal. It’s hard not to though, especially when a number of artists use it to share behind the scenes work. Not to mention, all the other fun things you can do. Recently we stumbled upon this lovely little meme going around:
We’re all about spreading the love, so we encourage you guys to check out the link and join in. <3
Click Here to Read Full Article...
With each passing day, we at Rococo Flow find ourselves more hesitant to visit deviantART. For its humongous size, the front page often leaves a lot to be desired. If we’re lucky, we’ll see one or two pieces worth clicking on. However, it seems as if it’s always the same group of artists who we see over and over. Not that they don’t deserve it, but it’s sad to think of the number of talented artists who get buried beneath all the other ‘junk’. Also, though all the artists we’ve ever talked to are some of the nicest people around, it’s obvious that there tends to be certain tight-knit groups or cliques. It’s just human nature to do such. Only problem is, it can make it hard to branch out if you’re looking for new people based on another artist’s favorites, since it’ll be biased to their preferences.
We’re sure that are plenty of other issues and complaints that people have brought up against deviantART. However, it won’t change the fact that it’s the most popular online gallery with the biggest user base. We surely won’t stop visiting anytime soon, especially with the prospect of finding several online gems.
We've got so many artists that we absolutely love, it'd be impossible to list them all. However, we thought we'd start by sharing those we feel everyone should already know about. If not, we hope you'll find some new favorites. =)
We'd also love to hear about some of your favorites too. Send us an e-mail!!
Questionstar.org - The online gallery of Aysha Shehim. Enough said. If you haven't seen her work, then please go to her gallery now because you're definitely missing out!!!
Chira-chira - We've interviewed her before, but who says we can't link to her again? Especially when it seems that she's open for commissions :D
lsvr - Beautiful and delicate works. Definitely needs more love.
wredwrat- So yet another artist we've interviewed. But seriously, her art has gotten even better in the last few months and she's usually open for commissions.
RUFFTOON- The gallery of Johanne Matte. You can also find more work at her deviantART gallery. She's featured in Flight Vol. 2 and 3 and maybe one day we'll be lucky enough to get an interview with her.
