Hey gang, ^thespook and ^bleedsopretty here again!

In this update you're finally going to get the next issue of Resourceful!, which I'm going to publish within this journal to make things easier for us both. I'm also going to outline plans and invite suggestions for the completion of ^bleedsopretty's restructure project - the start of which you might have noticed in Resources > Tutorials.

Lots of thumbs in this update - so a warning to those on slower computers or those stuck on dialup - get yer finger ready to hit the STOP button!

^bleedsopretty's restructure project

Back in the early days of deviantart many of the categories we have now didn't exist. Resources for example, wasn't even a gallery back in the beginning - all we had where Textures and Fonts. Stock Photos and Tutorials arrived soon after, and in the years that followed Resources evolved into the state it is in now. internet archive FTW!

...and it's current state needs some updating. ^bleedsopretty got the ball rolling with her revamp of Tutorials, and we're ready now to move on and update the rest. The rest being:

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  Textures

  
  

  My baby - the texture gallery is long overdue additional categories. Soon after ^bleedsopretty attacked Tutorials, she gave *tExTuReMaTtIc a prod for his thoughts on how Textures could be improved. He came up with an awesome list that pretty much covered everything I could think of - now I just have to find that note.

  
  
  

  This will probably be one of the first categories we tackle, and your suggestions are still more than welcome.

  
  


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  Application Resources

  
  

  Did you know Brushes are one of the most searched for terms on deviantart?

  
  

  We're planning to make the restructure of App Resources as thorough as Tutorials - so expect 'Brushes' to be a top level category for instance, followed by a list of applications, and then a new range of categories to make finding that special type of brush set easier than ever before.

  
  


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  Fonts

  
  

  We haven't spent much time discussing fonts yet, but one thing is for certain - typography and font designs (but not actual working fonts) are a bit of a problem in this gallery, so I'm thinking it'd be great for the new submission system to deal with this. ie when submitting and you come to Fonts, the subcat Font Design, or Typography etc will point to categories outside of resources.

  
  


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  Clipart

  
  

  It seems from a poll I ran a while ago - [link] - that not many people like the current state of Clipart. Now that we're no longer in the mid 90's where Clipart means cheesy graphiks for your MS Word documents, I'd like to ... re-brand, if you will, the Clipart gallery into 'Stock Art' perhaps, and shift it under the wings of Stock Images - if it's loving GD's don't mind

  
  


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  3D Models

  
  

  If I made a poll for 3D Models, I think the results would be about as they where for Clipart. 3D Models was meant for... 3D Models - but nowdays it seems people are using it for pre-rendered graphics, or even worse the occasional video game 'render' - making it such that I doubt any 3D artists consider this a resource worth using.

  
  

  As with Fonts, I'm hoping to make use of some submission process magic to redirect resources that aren't actually 3D Models into Clipart/Stock Art. I think it'd also be swell if there where a few sub categories - but we'll asses the need for them after we've cleaned it of the miscats.

  
  


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  Vector Resources

  
  

  This is an odd sort of category. Most, if not all the resources submitted here could be moved into the other categories within Resources... so I've got half a mind to have it removed altogether - but I'll ask the advice of some vector artists before doing so. Anyone reading this got any ideas?

  
  

  In practice it seems most thing submitted are miscats or copyright violations, so I'm leaning towards having it scrapped, but my mind isn't made up yet.

  
  


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  Miscellaneous

  
  

  Ah. The lovely Miscellaneous, what would we do without thee? Nothing much to do here, but I'm thinking we might use some submission system magic to try and encourage people to submit their resources into the more specific categories. Tends to be a lot of brushes/tutorials that probably go unnoticed...

  
  

We're very serious about getting feedback from the community for the category restructure. You can post your suggestions/thoughts here and we can get a discussion going - but what would also be awesome is if you spread the news in your own journals and got your watchers talking about it. Not everyone will read this journal, so it'd be great if you guys could help spread this through deviantart.

Resourceful!

Resourceful! was intended to be a bi-weekly newsletter, but I think I'm going to start including it as part of the AR updates... which are bi-weekly too. I'm useless without my CSS

Firstly, I'd like to direct you to Working together - not against eachother by ^kuschelirmel. If you're a resource provider, read it. If you use resources, read it. Educate yourself! It's about the relationship between resource providers and the artists that use their resources - Work together, not against eachother!

Fonts

Featured font designer: =shonenpunk

I love =shonenpunk's fonts, from the comic book lettering of Adam Warren and Manga Speak to the energetic BAM! CRACK! of Robo Pimp Slap. Great stuff. Be sure to check out all his Fonts (yes! there's more!)

MOAR Fonts:

Textures

Featured texture hunter/gatherer/processor: ~Stocking-Stuffer

I've already featured ~Stocking-Stuffer, by way of a DD for SS-0191 Wall Vines, but it was hard not to feature them again here. Their textures are hi-res and oh so tasty

MOAR Textures:

Photoshop Brushes

Featured brush creator: ... ¢mynti!

She thought no one would find them in her scraps, eh?

MOAR Brushes

Tutorials

Tutorials are awesome. Nothing speaks community like the sharing of knowledge and open exchange of ideas. Writing is the greatest invention of all time because it has allowed the human race to pass on knowledge through the generations - allowing each generation to in effect start where the last left off and to better the world by learning from the mistakes of the past.

Take a moment to let that sink in - and then think about what your first (or next!) tutorial will be; what knowledge can you pass on? Once you've figured that out, you'll want to read through The Tutor's Tutorial by ~Eilorendil - it should be considered required reading for tutors (thems people wot write tutorials).

Featured Tutor: `Cedarseed

`Cedarseed has a gallery of absolutely awesome tutorials, must read material for illustrators and artists that need to know their anatomy (and colour theory! ).

MOAR Tutorials. yes, MOAR!!

Image Editing / Photo Manipulation

Design / Typography / Logotype

Illustration / Drawing

Pixel Art

Artisan Crafts

Vector Illustration

Painting (tradition and digital)

Photoshop tips and techniques

DeviantART Guides

Journal CSS

Be sure to also check out *TipsAndTricks, a funky group that features top tutorials from around deviantart... great stuff. You can also find some more hand picked tutorials over at *StockResources's favourites - [link]

der end

Phew. Glad that's over with... see you in two weeks, hopefully with a few less thumbs!

Before you go... or rather, as you go, don't neglect to check out *createbyweek for weekly contests based around a chosen Resource - as far as I know it's not restricted to photo manipulators, so get involved and win der prizes!

=pendlestock and `Hanratty-Stock are also hosting a contest at the moment that might tickle your fancy. The rules are simple and the prize list is HUGE - it ends on the 1st of September, so get your ass into gear! visit pendlestok's journal for more info.

...are you running/aware of a Resource related contest? NOTE ME dammit!