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Message
Posted
Well here was me thinking the forum had become a mutual admiration society when, having clicked on this evening, I find that not one of the comments in the 5 latest posts on the left hand side of the screen is gushing about someones work. A refreshing change.
And now I guess this grumpy old man's in everyone's bad books.
Edited
by Michael Edwards
Posted
To get back to Michael’s comment (I’m not sure how it got onto drink!), but there’s so little discussion going on these days, which is the purpose of a forum!, or I thought it was.
Dawn’s monthly challenges were, and still are, something that I enjoy having a go at, but we seem to be inundated with challenges recently, it’s pretty much all that’s on here!
A case of challenge overkill for me I’m afraid, and I’m not the only one to notice it! It’s fast losing it’s appeal.
Posted
Thanks Alan - you've made the point I was trying to make but far more succinctly.
I really do get turned off when all I see are comments about how good someones latest posting in the forum is. I thought that was the purpose of the gallery. Please lets have a little more discussion and it doesn't all have to be technical, interesting though technical matters are.
Posted
I’m inclined to agree with Alan about the ‘challenge overkill’ on the forum at the moment - it does tend to rather take the focus off Dawn’s monthly POL challenge which I always look forward to. On the other hand, most of the challenges seem well supported, so people must obviously enjoy taking part in them, and it does keep the forum active - it wasn’t long ago everyone was complaining that the forum was a bit dead. I do find, though, that it’s often difficult to get back to an earlier topic that you might want to revisit - the search function doesn’t seem to work for me.
Edited
by Jenny Harris
Posted
I think from the comments on here, an "April daily sketch" to follow the ones in January, Feb and March, would not be popular. I originally set up the January one for daily sketches as last year I posted them all on the Gallery (along with one other participant) and thought a lot of mine weren't good enough for the Gallery - and I thought I was posting too much there. I thought setting up a thread would give a space for people (including myself) to post daily sketches without us inundating the Gallery and annoying other people - the not annoying other people bit doesn't seem to have worked! It has been good fun and I am certainly feeling the benefit of daily sketching - and has the benefit of being a bit of a "virtual art club" for folk who do not have access to a real one. However, it is perhaps unfortunate that the posts are showing up on the main page so that people who do not wish to be part of that thread can see them. My apologies. It was not intended to detract from Dawn's excellent challenges or spoil anybody else's enjoyment of the Forum.
Edited
by Margaret Nisbet
Posted
I don’t think you need to apologise Margaret, you started the thread and it is still serving it’s purpose. People are putting sketch on each day and using this as a learning experience. Most of us taking part would most probably not sketch daily.
As to the gushing comments, there has been some there is no doubt, but these have stemmed from the attempt to encourage people to keep going. No liking the way the thread is going does not mean you are grumpy, it’s not to your taste, the problem with a live thread is that it changes , but does come back on line again. What I tend to do if I don’t like a particular thread is to ignore it. The other point is the amount of challenges going on at the moment, surely having several on the go is good for the forum, as it keeps it alive. I don’t think there is a challenge to the monthly thread, as it is plodding along nicely, and will always continue to do so, some months better than others.
Posted
I’m on the fence here a little because I did enter in to and enjoy the January sketching challenge....to see if I could stick it really but it was productive, especially having fellow sketchers giving encouragement to carry on and do better.
To carry on into February and March would have been a disaster for me, I’m not the most committed person I know and I get bored easily. However, I acknowledge that there are lots of sketchers out there with more stamina and it’s a terrific idea to get people enthused about sketching, it’s the basic element of art really after all. It may have taken over a wee bit.
I enjoy Dawns challenges very much, they are a challenge, and test the little grey cells to produce something that may not ordinarily be a subject or medium I would choose.
Being an infrequent user of the forum to start with, I have become even more infrequent.....I had intended commenting on John Humber’s thread about abstract art but when I had the time to comment, it had disappeared. Yes, I could wade through umpteen pages and reinstate it but I would rather spend the time, when I have it, looking through the gallery and commenting.
Maybe, there is a way to incorporate a kind of sketch group/club in other areas of the site, independent of the forum, or post on the gallery. There shouldn’t be a marker as to what is worthy or not to be posted on the gallery surely....I prove that point regularly.
Keep sketching anyway, however you feel about the forum!