Hi everyone,

I want to officially announce that my new art forum is now open and ready to go! Called The Inking Room, it is a non-elitist environment for open critiques and tutorials for all skill levels.

The idea for the forum came about when I decided to start making video tutorials. Since my ultimate goal and reason for attending graduate studies at SCAD was to become a professor of art, I wanted a place where I could dump all of my lessons and later send all of my future students for supplemental materials. So if I'm showing them how to ink with a brush, I can say "Check out tutorial #1 on the Inking Room" and they'll have a little extra help outside of class.

After tossing around the idea for a while, it quickly evolved into a full environment for online critiques. I hate the fact that most art forums I've found cater specifically to a certain type of artist, be it digital vs. traditional, cartooning vs. portrait/illustration, etc. The fact remained that this elitist attitude made it so that people who didn't focus in a particular genre -- or who were just starting out and weren't at the same skill as most everyone else -- couldn't post their work and be taken seriously. I wanted to create an environment that was as close to an actual in-class workroom as possible, since I have come to love the level of critique and honest assistance that I've found in my classes at SCAD with my fellow peers.

The Inking Room is dedicated to accepting everyone, regardless of their chosen medium or inherent skill level. The site is not exclusive to any one genre, and is most certainly not a popularity contest like other forums I've found. If you're just now having a desire to draw, or if you've been an illustrator for 30 years and just want some feedback or would like to help others, then by all means come on over and sign up. It's just getting started so there isn't a huge crowd of people just yet, but the more people who participate the better the environment will become.

Thanks, and I hope to see you there!

The Inking Room - [link]

-Jon Ponikvar