The Kiwi Coloring Corner - Calling all creative kiwis! Join in a workshop made for those who seek to improve in the arts.

[Double Taps]

Hello and welcome to the Kiwi Coloring Corner! As a new year dawns, a new opportunity arises for those who hunger for change. Over the course of the year, and depending on kiwi interest, this thread will hold a variety of events and challenges that will gloss over technical aspects of drawing, as well as offer creative prompts to get your imaginative juices flowing. With a bit of practice, patience, and perseverance, you may one day attain elevated insight into the visual arts.

Who Is This For Exactly?​

Everyone! Whether you're a beginner, an aspiring artist, savant, or just plain bored. All skill levels are encouraged to participate, or sit back and enjoy the autism produced by your fellow kiwis!

What Will I Need???​

With all pieces of art, one must have the proper tools. In the spirit of being as accessible as possible, anything one might have on-hand will suffice. At some point in a future challenge, it might call for color so I'd recommend for traditional drawers to get a cheap set of pencil crayons from a dollar store/dollar tree. For paper, the size doesn't need to exceed your average 8.5x11". Here are some suggestions:

Writing/Drawing Implements
-2B or HB Pencil with an eraser, and sharpener (highly recommended)
-Pen(s):ballpoint or gel; black, blue, or any color you might have
-Sharpie marker(s); black, blue, or any color you might have
-Pencil crayons or a derivative of them: crayons/markers/etc
Paper:
-Blank white sheets
-Gridded paper
-Lined paper
-Recycled construction paper or whatever is available to you
Miscellaneous Tools:
-Ruler *Optional*

I'm going to make one other suggestion for those who can afford it: invest in a sketchpad of some kind, if not now perhaps in the future. This will make the logging of your journey much easier and offer a paper type that can provide some durability against wear and potential inks running through the pages. I personally have used Canson 7x10inch mixed media 60 page sketch pads @98lb/160g <- (GSM dictates the thickness of paper to prevent ink bleed from other mediums). It doesn't have to be Canson, it's just a brand of sketchpads I use and like. A sketchpad like this should retail for roughly $11 USD or $16 CAD funny money. Always get one with a ring binding! The other book bindings suck imo.

Digital
For those who are more digitally inclined, there are a variety of free programs available. The timeless MS Paint, Krita, GIMP, or any others you might favor that differ from those mentioned. By all means, use what's most comfortable.

I am no expert in digital art creation. Future prompts that highlight digital use may be delegated to others who are more knowledgeable as to offer greater personal experience in digital strategies.

Challenge Breakdown​

There will be 2 challenges a month, these will be issued on the first Monday of every month and every other week after. Each challenge will ask for you to make a rough draft and a final copy of the given prompt within 14 days. Think of the rough as a collection of concepts for what you might want to make, and the final being a refined version of a fleshed out idea. This rough draft will also act as a marker of your creative process, slowly you'll figure out how to optimize that process and get a comfortable rhythm going.

Challenges will be designed to help you build some foundational habits and break some comfort zones to widen your scope of art. These will touch on a variety of elements such as: Line strokes, Shading & Lighting, Perspective, Anatomy, and Color Implementation. As you progress, these elements will hopefully become part of your drawing warm-up routines. Some themes or suggestions will be polled while others are seasonal on-goings. A template or some sort will also be shown to give everyone a starting point.

Submission format​

Be sure to add these general descriptions to your submissions

Title: Name of your submission
Medium: Did you use a pencil, pen, a program. If so what kind.
Challenge Name: Name of the current Challenge
Description: Tell everyone what's happening in your piece! Doesn't have to be long unless you crafted some lore rich detail for it.
Time Spent: If you choose not to share, be sure to log it for yourself somewhere or on the back to track progress.
Art Specific Critique: Yes/No (If yes, include an intensity like harsh or light)
Permission For User Edits: Yes/No/Please Ask. Other users might have some tips to share about your work that could help you improve.
Challenge Feedback: Too bland? Was it specific enough? Share you thoughts on how the challenge felt.
Future Challenge Suggestion: If you have an idea for an upcoming challenge/theme/genre, feel free to include it.

Deadlines​

Each challenge will have a 14 day soft deadline. The 2 weeks between challenges/prompts is quite a bit of time and is there to give people who might have extenuating circumstances a chance to be part of each prompt. If you are unable to post within that timeframe at all, just post when you can. Regardless of completion or posting, drawing something is better than drawing nothing! Life happens, we get it.

Feedback​

There are plenty of threads to call people faggots or insult their posts, try not to make this place one of them. The aim for feedback is to give people something constructive or some tips/advice in overcoming artistic adversity. Anyone with the affinity of being creative are often their own biggest critic, so unless someone explicitly says otherwise in their submission, be kind when offering your opinion on said creations.

OPSEC/Privacy *PLEASE READ*​

For those with slight paranoia, anyone who is using their phone or camera to take digital photos of their creations should be mindful of any metadata on the file. I'm no expert in this, but one solution for windows users: right click the file > properties > details tab, near the bottom will have "Remove Properties and Personal Information". Another method is using some kind of EXIF scrubber through an app or online, supposedly with some photo editing programs you can export them as different formats so that the metadata doesn't carry over/you can select what to remove. Exercise caution before uploading!

Fellow user @Unstable Diffusion recommended ExifTool in his post here.

No Stupid Questions Thread < Some other suggestions by fellow users about metadata removal.

DO NOT UPLOAD YOUR WORKS TO OTHER ART SITES! This will increase the possibility of being phonebooked, traced back via emails, or if people can somehow grab IPs from where that post originates. Use VPNs if that's your thing, always use a burner email if you really are going to roll the dice.

Considerations​

• Try to draw everyday, even if it's as little as 10-20mins. Consistency is the key to progress!
• Everyone is at different stages in their abilities, and some might have more time to commit to the challenge than you, so try not to compare yourself or your work with what others have made.
• Please keep submissions relevant to the prompts/challenges, there is a Post Your Art Here thread if you want to post random art.
• If you have an idea for future prompts, include them in your submission! They will be gathered and potentially polled at some point.
• December may or may not have any challenge/prompt as to not interfere with the traditional festivities, I know that time of year gets hectic for many.
• If travelling or are out and about, carry a small pocket notepad/sketchbook with you, inspiration can hit any time and its nice to have something on hand to get it all down.
• Try to have fun!

The REAL Challenge​

Is to overcome the self. Art is simply mind over matter; once you understand it's principles, there wont be anything in your way of translating an idea to paper.

Event Catalogue​

Every event, past, present, and upcoming will have their pages linked here on the OP to make finding pages easier. I will also try to cross-post any other potential art events from other threads incase people want to participate in those or didn't know were happening.

Week 1 Technical Challenge: Line Work Jan 6th-20th
Week 2 Creative Prompt: Snack Pack Jan 20th-Feb 3rd
Week 3 Fortune Card Feb 3rd - 17th
Week 4 The Lone Valentine Feb 17th-Mar 3rd
Week 5 Palette Lockdown March 3rd-17th
CweekC 6 KF Medallion March 17th-31st
Week 7: April Fools Break
Week 8: Mini-Challenge Easter Egg April 21st-May 7th
Week 9: The Shape Of You May 7th-19th
Week 10: Ordinary to Extraordinary May 19th-June 2nd
Week 11: Coat of Arms June 2nd-16th
Week 12: Ceiling Cat June 16th-30th <- In Progress
Week 13: Something Special - Upcoming

Other User Content​

User @NaggotFigger offers Chibi Avatar Conversions high octane autism, very talented
User @We Are The Witches has a Custom Heraldry and Vexillology creation thread for Flags and Coat of Arms enthusiasts

 

[CallmeCicada]

Sounds like fun. Sign me up.

 

[King Metalia]

You just might be on to something with this. Ok will follow this thread with great interest.

 

[NaggotFigger]

I'm interested. I'll join the party, and looking forward to other practices, especially ones that are related to character designs.

 

[Jimmy Dean Bowl]

I am technically crap, but enjoy creating art and haven't done it in way too long.
Secret Santa lit that fire again so I'm very grateful to OP for bringing this thread into existence and letting my tism fly!

 

[Osama Bin Laden]

this is so autistic

i love it

 

[neger psykolog]

Kiwi Koloring Korner

 

[Osama Bin Laden]

Kiwi Koloring Korner

We bring our colored pointy hats!

 

[CallmeCicada]

Some suggestions I would add if having input is welcome.

- Recommend pocket sketch books:
Not having time to sit and draw is always a struggle of mine. But even I can find 5 minutes here and there throughout the day where I need to just wait for something. Being able to take a book out and doodle is very helpful incases like that, but also generally. 5 minutes alone is not much, 5 minutes a few times a day adds up. Adding this to the OP would helpful imo.

- Art History/Artist highlight:
Seeing the work of other artists very important to learning art imo. Highlighting professional artists is a good way to help you expand your visual language and expose people to artists they may have not heard about to try and think about their creative process to apply it to your own. These selected artist could either be old masters or living artists. Weather the highlighted artist should be connected to enhance the lesson or be unrelated to the project would both be good options imo.

We bring our colored pointy hats!

Like for a party?

 

[neger psykolog]

I'll give this a try but don't know that I have the specific drawing implements. Would love to try something creative.

Added to watchlist.

 

[Lego Batman]

I like the coloring part the most!

 

[Double Taps]

I'll give this a try but don't know that I have the specific drawing implements. Would love to try something creative.

Added to watchlist.

Any pencil and paper is 100% suitable, I just wanted to offer ideas if all someone had was lined paper and a blue ballpoint pen. I'll try to work in some strategies for basic digital like ms paint in challenges if that's what some only have access to.

 

[CallmeCicada]

Any pencil and paper is 100% suitable, I just wanted to offer ideas if all someone had was lined paper and a blue ballpoint pen. I'll try to work in some strategies for basic digital like ms paint in challenges if that's what some only have access to.

Paint.NET is a robust, lightweight and free drawing/image editing program that has layers. So it runs well even on older machines. If you can browse KF you can run it. There are also tons of other free programs such as Krita, Clip Studio Paint, Sketchbook even Photoshop CS2 is free on Adobe's website. A mobile setup guide would be helpful to people who only have a phone but want to try digital art.

Also, I forgot to add. 20lb printer paper is cheap and widely available. I would advise against using lined/grid paper.

 

[stingray]

I'm so happy to see this come to fruition, and many thanks for creating the thread! I'm really looking forward to the first challenge!

Personally I use a dying iPad and an Apple Pencil with Procreate. I've used the program for over five years and I really don't have any negative feedback to provide. I purchased the program when it was $10, but I don't know what the price is these days. It's extremely difficult/rare to lose progress on a drawing because Procreate saves every time you lift your finger/pencil off the canvas, which is a pretty sweet feature. ETA this also includes a time lapse feature where you can download a video of your drawing as you were drawing it from start to finish. It can compress this video into a 30-second version, or it can produce the full-length video. I remember countless times I had to deal with losing art files with hours upon hours of work invested because Adobe Photoshop crashed and I hadn't remembered to save frequently before I upgraded to the iPad. If you draw frequently and/or have the money to spend, I think it's a good investment, especially because it doesn't function strictly as a drawing tablet and is extremely portable. I began on a Wacom Bamboo tablet that was $99 over ten years ago, which I would also recommend, but it takes a lot of practice to get used to drawing on a tablet and looking up at a computer screen. The iPad is more of a seamless transition because you're drawing on the same surface that you're looking at, like traditional art.

 

[Taxidermied Rat]

This is a cool idea! Always looking for an excuse to draw more

 

[Rei the Spirit Dog]

It's been surprisingly difficult to leave my "subject comfort zone" when I'm just drawing for fun, so some Kiwi peer pressure might force me to branch out more. I'm excited to participate!

 

[stingray]

bla bla bla bla bla

I would also recommend OpenCanvas7 if you have Steam.

 

[NaggotFigger]

Here’s some traditional art that I’ve did previously. You’re free to colorize or digitalize it.

I’m looking forward for your first challenge or your attempts to character designing! Last one is mainly pastel pink, lavender, blue and pastel yellow. I always use Clip Studio Paint.

Good fucking shit, recommend cracking the app if you want.

 

[Billhook]

Very cool idea. I've been trying to be more consistent with my creative hobbies so this is convenient

 

[CallmeCicada]

Should this thread link be posted to the Community Happenings thread? It would be good to have as many people see it as possible imo. And if yes, would it be good to also announce the start of each challenge every Monday?