THE PLEDGE: One Week Later.....Tell us What did you guys think of it? (NEW Dateline)

[Aidenn]

When I came back home I was already three Pledges behind (for starters I thought that they were going to begin monday, not saturday) and today I did the last three. It was kind of a mad race. ;)
Overall I think it was a great impetus for everyone who had participated and, if my unskilled newbie voice counts, should be repeated more than once. Basically thumbs up.

[djtrousdale]

To be honest, a few of the topics were uninteresting, or at least difficult for me.
I felt kind of pressured to make something awesome, but ended up messing up alot.

Was there a point?

[RobertoOrtiz]

To be honest, a few of the topics were uninteresting, or at least difficult for me.
I felt kind of pressured to make something awesome, but ended up messing up alot.

Was there a point?

Hey Hex...
I wanted to try a more academic style for a week...
And to be honest it worked. The participation for the threads went up A LOT.

-R

[Aidenn]

Methinks that this pressure was actually core of the whole idea. Pressure is sometimes very helpful and educative, and it was voluntary also. I think it coexisted alongside traditional DS way quite well.

[paulR]

Well I didn't take part, even though i said I would (sry :shrug: ). Mhm.. neither of the topics really ticked me off to actually start (and pick the missed ones up afterwards)... Also I'm about to start a new - unrelated - project and saw my time better spent on my research. I guess it just wasn't the right week for me.. lack of mood n' stuff.

But.. as the participation of the pledge was optional to posting normaly on the topics, I fail to see a flaw in the plan itself. ^_^ :thumbsup:

[paperclip]

I finished them all, wahey! It's good, since it gives you an impetus to actually do some work and I felt my work improve over the past week. It never hurts to practise anyway.


I can't wait to go back to college. I'm moving into my new place in 2 weeks. Seems so far off, but I still have to make my website before then! I hope I'll be able to finish it before then.
(on a side note, anyone have any suggestions for a domain name? It's going to be something.ie)

[djtrousdale]

The idea was great... it's just we could have picked better topics.
Sometime later it would be fun to do again, maybe we could have a more definite theme to it.

I like how you come up with stuff, Roberto. Keep doing that. :)

[AmyScott-Murray]

I loved it. For me, daily sketch is much more about getting my imagination working on a good topic than it is really about the drawing (you'd never guess.....) :) so having to post wether the topic immediately appealed or not was good. For a few of them I would not have bothered if I hadn't decided to do the pledge, so it was good that i HAD to keep thinking about it even when it wasn't too easy.

I vote for run again sometime :thumbsup:

Amy

[rawwad]

This was be hard week, but funny :)
Some topics were very great : How I would look if I was a monster, Girl fight or Ninjas vs.Pirates. First of these topics has fantastic 84 posts :applause:
But I missed there some "big" names as andrewley, keko, alice or pipichu :shrug:
I must thanks to 11th door, which has this great idea with pledge.

Will be any top10 of bests artists which completed plege? :D

and sorry my english, too words for me :scream:

[yAdam]

Its been fun, although I dont think I'll get chance to finish off the 2 I havent done yet. I might participate in another pledge, but I do enjoy just doing the topics that I like.

maybe it could be constructed a little differently? Not sure how, maybe post all the topics on the first day and then people could say whether or not they wanted to take the pledge for that week. Or if people are short on time they could do some in advance...or maybe a special pledge sub forum within the dailysketch sub forum! that would probably just be crazy??:) Or maybe there could be pledges with slightly different rules, like a shorter or longer time limit or a week based on a theme (like hex said) , I dunno, i'm just throwing ideas around:D

Anyway its been good and its helped me a lot by looking at my own and other peoples work!

[RobertoOrtiz]

Will be any top10 of bests artists which completed plege? :D


I have something in mind..
-R

[pipichu]

I didn't have much time this week as I have other things to take care of.Also, I thought the topics were hard.:sad:

Kudo to everyone who participated.:) I was amazed at the amount of sketches this week! It's gonna be hard to pick SotW though.

rawwad, when did i become big name? o_o I'm just a hit and miss.

[LagPRO]

I thought the idea was great and the topics were very well chosen. Thanks RobertoOrtiz for taking the time to do this man.

LagPRO

[electricsketchbook]

Coming from a guy who took the pledge and didn't make it, I think the idea is very good. The reason I think the pledge was a good idea has only to do with having an active, thinking, moderator who shakes things up from time to time so we all don't get stagnant. I like that Roberto keeps trying new things out because it keeps us fresh and on our toes. :thumbsup:

So whether the Pledge worked for each of us or not, I think that it was good to do something different, raise expectations a little, and kick up participation. I think an occational "pledge" is good to do, as is other ideas to keep us all interested. Bravo Roberto... :)

I am interested in seeing what will be tried next. :thumbsup:

[Imagus]

Just finished up the pledges... three on the final day, since I only found out about it on Monday.

Saturday? I thought they were all due on Friday... :shrug: Well, they're all posted, anyway.

Overall, I'd say that this was a good idea, but one that I wouldn't want to do too often. Maybe once every month, more likely once every 6-8 weeks.

I actually enjoyed the topics... part of the challenge was coming up with unique ways of depicting them visually. More than once, my idea was taken before I got the chance to use it, and I had to come up with another approach. For example, I was going to have a pirate and ninja playing pool, but the golf one got there first, and I decided to try for something different... and ended up liking the result.

Overall, the Pledge did have the desired effect, though... I got a lot done, and having the deadline got me to plan to work on the sketch each day, rather than saying "meh... maybe the next one." :thumbsup:

[Gord-MacDonald]

Well I certainly got my dose of guilt - just didn't have the time to complete them all, and I wasn't happy with most of my stuff - oh well, there is always next week... *sigh*

*edit*
Now mind you - I saw some really excellent work from many folks who did 'make the train on time' - Thanks to all of you who did take the time to complete the 'pledge', and in doing so, provided me (and I am sure many others) with a wondeful viewing experience. DSG Rocks!

Gord

[kaylon]

I thought the pledge was a great Idea..and I had much fun being part of it. The idea of having a set image to do that you may not normally do is what it's all about. In the professional side of things you dont often get to draw what you want to draw but still have to give it your all.


I vote we do a pledge once every couple of months...maybe once a month..somethng like that.

K.

[Cyanid]

I liked it, I didnt participate (I did 4 of the7) but it is cool, especially when you are being mentioned when you fulfill the mission.
When the DSG started, in every topicstart post from Roberto was a line:

(The author will be given credit). So guys keep them coming.
*You can add multiple entries, but please dont post WIP (Unless you intend to update them). NEW RULE!
* Ill post ANOTHER thread to quantify and track WHO has participated the most on these threads.



I think that will have a same effect as a pledge has. It is quiet a lot work though.

//edit:that line is still in the posts.

[LadyMedusa]

I didn't get time to do them all :(, but I've seen many fine enties in there.
I liked the idea and I hope there will be more of them :)

[Zeitwolf]

It was a good, productive week, wasn't it? And we had a lot of fights :)
We should do topic weeks more often. I think, I learned something about colour this week, since the pieces did not took much time, so I had to play around with color, for the pic looks not too bad in the end... ^^;

I loved the I look like a monster day!!! People here seem to be very interesting as monsters :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/odinsregen/sketches/zeitwolfspledge.jpg
my 7 parts

[navate]

I really wanted to do this! I couldn't, though--just started college and it's been "Welcome week" for incoming freshmen, and before that I was runnong around packing...just too hectic to do any sketches. :[ But I really would like to see this more often so I have another chance at participating. (I do agree about the topics being not always so intersting, though...)

[anibal187]

I really enjoyed the week. It was a good motivation, it helped me to start participating on the the great sketch forum.
One thing that I think could be improved is that there should be something special about The pledge topics... something that makes the difference than if you just paticipate daily on the forum.
Great idea Roberto :thumbsup:.

[TobyArt]

I thought it was great. Forced myself to do each day on the day of release. This pushed me to come up with new ideas instead of just participating in the one's that immediatly popped into my head. I also got a chance to try new techniques in photoshop (and got to see how bad I can do in a rush while drunk).
The turn out was amazing, I loved looking thru the endless pages of ideas and art. Full supporter of a pledge every 4 to 6 weeks.
Good times.

[jebas]

I have to say that I enjoyed it, even though I was not able to complete the pledge. I got 5 out of 7. However, I agree with the earlier suggestion that if we do this again, place the weeks list up all at one time. Monday and Tuesday I would have been able to get ahead. Thursday and Friday, I was dealing with a sick child. Life interrupts art.

[lunae]

I didn't participate the pledge, I drew only one of them :sad:, because I was a bit late to find out there was going to be a pledge. Evenso, I really like the idea and the topics were good ones, if you hold a new pledge within a few months / weeks and I have the time to participate, I surely will ^^.

[djtrousdale]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/odinsregen/sketches/zeitwolfspledge.jpg
my 7 parts

Cool! Why don't we all make a small collage (the people who did all 7)?

[paperclip]

I'll bite.

http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/5966/pledge9za.jpg
Should probably have used a diff color background though. :shrug:

[Miyagu]

just wanted to say, i love the idea! :thumbsup:

this time i saw it too late, otherwise i would have forced myself to participate more.. i was one day too late.. :sad:

i think it´s very motivating to participate over the whole week if there is a "pledge"
also nice to have a collection of 7 finnished sketches at the end of a week..

if it´s not too much of administration work to keep this idea running i would love to have pledges very very often :)


great idea! and thanks, roberto!

[Garma]

Hey folks, I haven't been participating for quite a while so I shouldn't involve myself in this but I feel I have something supportive to add here, so please take this however you want. I'm still checking the place out every day :)

I think a lot of people take every opportunity to submit something they didn't put their heart into. I mean, a comment that i've seen a lot is: "I don't have more time but it is still better than nothing.". Is it? I don't think so. My advise to everybody: Don't rush when you're running out of time, it's better to put it down and finish it the next day. Doodling something down just to get something submitted isn't going to help you progress, and that is what this group is all about isn't it? Sketching doesn't mean that there are no artistic rules. You still need to find reference, redo parts when you failed, look at others, etc. When you feel like you're really getting somewhere, go make a painting out of it :)

imho the Pledge supports people in this attitude. Pressure in real life is accompanied by a quality standard to which your work must comply. THis is not the case with the pledge.

keep it up folks!

[doomdragon]

I dont' think that I agree with you there Garma.
You compare a rushed sketch with a fully worked out one, but I think for many people it is just: do a quick one or nothing at all.

Especially when you are new to painting you just can't do an artwork because you are not used to it. You paint in details in one part of the picture to then realize that the light is wrong, fix it and realize that the proportions are off, then you realize that the whole picture got a wrong perspective and you can start all over again, or unfortunatly more likely - drop it.
You learn by doing that, but you wasted a lot of time in just putting tons of work into a picture which later turns out to be all wrong. That's hours of work for a second of learning.

Some pictures are just not meant to be an artwork but to train you.
And when you are showing your work to other people, there is always a quality standard even if it is just your own.

Your way of argumentation might lead to something like "if you can't do it right, don't do it at all". But you just have to do something to learn how to do it right.

I think doing a sketch always is better than doing nothing, and even if not - it won't degrade your painting skill, but it might improve you. Nothing to lose, so why not go for it?

[RobertoOrtiz]

I would like to add.
The only way we can learn is by practicing.
And what better place to learn than here among friends.

-R

[erilaz]

I almost made it! :sad: On weekends it's difficult to get to my computer... too many commitments!

But I loved the idea. It makes you want to succeed.

[Garma]

Your way of argumentation might lead to something like "if you can't do it right, don't do it at all". But you just have to do something to learn how to do it right.

I think doing a sketch always is better than doing nothing, and even if not - it won't degrade your painting skill, but it might improve you. Nothing to lose, so why not go for it?

well there is something to say for your argumentation, although this last line of you is exactly what I meant to oppose. I don't think one (at least I didn't) learns anything from a rushed sketch. For me it was so much more rewarding to take the time it took me to do 3 rushed ones and do 1 real one. Nothing to loose.. no not really, just some time one could've used in a better way?

I guess it's also got to do with personal experience. I must say I recognise what you mean (go in detail - find an error - fix it - etc) is extremely frustrating. So I went looking for help, and found out that lots of artists work with thumbnails and perspective lines and stick figures :) get what I mean?

@ Roberto: amen to that. :) but it's better to focus your learning progress than just doodle around. That's what I'm trying to say.

[Art2]

Don't underestimate the power of the doodle. Doodling can be very educational.
It's a good way to put an idea on paper quickly. A five minute sketch can give you as much education as a 2 hour sketch. It's what you would like to learn at that time. Sometimes I like to just do (or only have time for) a quick sketch and be happy with it, and other times I'd like to do a speedpaint. It's what I'd like to learn at that time. Learn to put one or several quick ideas on paper, or learn about color and light for example.
The only time you don't learn anything is when you don't draw.

[ButchMakora]

i think that pledge was a good idea. it was really fun and interesting to see so many people and works for each topic. i didn't feel myself enough powerfull to perticipate this time - but i will in nearest future!

one little idea: maybe we can have different pledges when we talk about terms and dates? i mean not everybody can efford to paint each day of the WEEK - so it will be helpful if sometimes pledges will be shorter (3-5 days)

[evakristjans]

I agree with Butch's suggestion. I myself don't have a lot (or any at all) time to do the DailySketch in the weekends, so it might be better for some to have it only on workdays (Monday thru Friday) or something like that :S

However I really enjoyed doing the Pledge, even though I didn't manage to do the 7th picture :sad: Topics could've been better though, didn't enjoy half of them :/ But like someone said here before, it is training to draw things you wouldn't normally do, just like you were doing a project for someone, so that's alright :)

[umbrellasky]

I really enjoyed the pledge even though I didn't manage to complete the last two images as I was too busy.

Is there going to be another one?? Maybe you could make it a monthly thing??

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.