About Sketch Fest ~ The History of Sketch Fest
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Registration and login are optional!

What's Sketch Fest?

Sketch Fest is a 48 hour creative jam session with artists across the world, brought to you by Ellen Million Graphics. Our audience and fellow artists give us prompts that can be single words, questions, phrases, lyrics, links, collections, creatures, characters or concepts, and we sketch, in any media, whatever catches our fancy. The only rule? Sketches can only be worked on for one hour.

Go to the Prompts Page to see it in action!

Registration and Email Alerts!

Registration is optional. However, you can't use the same name as someone who IS registered, so I recommend that you do register and log in to protect your identity. Many features do require registration - such as being able to edit your own work, or adding information to your artist page, uploading finished versions of your sketches later, or selling your work. If you are already a registered Ellen Million Graphics' artist, this account uses the same database. Please do not register a new account, just log in with your existing account!

Email alerts are available on prompts (find out when people claim them, or post a new sketch to them!) or on artwork (find out when people comment!). Right now, they're only available on your own prompts and artwork, but I'll expand those choices in the future so you can get alerts when new prompts are posted, or you can track other prompts and art (donate to make this happen!). If you want an email alerts on your own prompts or sketches, all you have to do is enter your email address when you submit them. If you are logged in OR if you have already entered your email once, it is automatically entered for you, but you can choose not to get emails just by deleting the address before you post. Emails will be coming from ellen @ ellenmilliongraphics.com. Please whitelist this address, or your email may think I'm spamming you, and that would make us both sad.

Prompters:

Please leave us ideas and inspiration to keep us sketching through the day! 48 hours is a long time to think up ideas, and we need all the help and encouragement we can get.

Prompts can be one or two words, character descriptions, photos, weird science facts, links to articles... whatever. All prompts will be available for all artists to choose from, and most of us will be working in the fantasy and science fiction genre. You may post one prompt or several. Most users are restricted to five prompts, to make sure that plenty of people have an opportunity to get their ideas worked on. Logged in supporters who have donated to Sketch Fest get to submit up to 15 and super supporters who have contributed more than $100 get 25 prompts! You do not have to be logged in or registered, you may post anonymously. The same prompt cannot be posted again in one Sketch Fest. (Also, I'm looking at ways to reprompt something from an older Sketch Fest...)

You may choose to get email alerts when someone claims your prompt or posts a sketch for it. Artists love to get comments, so be sure to let them know if you enjoy the work!

Artists:

If you are logged in, you may tag or claim a prompt. A claim says 'I've done this prompt!' and will allow you to upload your work after the Sketch Fest has ended - it also lets the prompter know that something has been completed for it and gives them something to look forward to. A tag will flag the prompt for you so you can find it again, but not let the prompter know. There is no limit to the amount of prompts you can claim or tag, and both are completely optional.

More than one person may claim a prompt - it's fun to see different interpretations of the same idea!

Artists have 1 hour to complete a sketch for the prompts they claim. You aren't required to post it within an hour - maybe you get a phone call, or want to scan all of your finished sketches at once, or who knows. You are simply on the honor system not to spend more than one hour on the sketch before posting it. You are also invited to finish the pieces later, if you like what you start, and you have the option to upload that to our site, if you are logged in! Any medium is welcome. You don't have to spend the whole hour on a sketch - if you get to a good stopping point after 20 minutes, that's fine, too! Hop in for an hour and do one sketch, or pull an all-nighter and spend all 48 hours jamming with us.

Upload your finished sketch using the 'Upload a sketch' link! (Click on the prompt to get to that page.)

You may list information about your sketch in the description field, and include a link to where it might be purchased at your own site. You also have the option to sell your sketch at the Sketch Fest webpage, with a portion of your price donated to cover costs and help improve the webpage. By doing so, you agree to mail the sketch (or a print, or a high-resolution copy, whatever you say you will send) to the buyer when Ellen provides you that information. You will be listed on the Sketch Fest webpage as a donor if your sketch sells (and you'll get other supporter perks!). You may also choose to have the funds from your sketch sale donated to Commission-Control, EMG-Zine, Torn World, Portrait Adoption, or to cover general Ellen Million Graphics improvements and administrative expenses (like webhosting).

For Everyone:

A few basic rules of conduct apply: no swearing, no spamming, no sexual content (though nudity is fine), no hate-stuff. Be nice to each other.

You can join us in #sketch_fest at starchat.net on IRC for sketch chat while we work, whether you are an artist or not! If you don't have a chat client, you can use this link to join us through javachat: javachat. Let Ellen know what features you'd like to see in the future, and what you liked best about your Sketch Fest experience! Email to ellen @ ellenmilliongraphics dot com, or chat with her on Livejournal or at Facebook. You can also watch her on Twitter.

Above all, have fun and be creative!

Random Sketches and Comments