TABLE OF CONTENTS
Letter from the Editor
Hey FringeFX!
It may be a bit strange to see me writing here for this issue, but I assure you that this isn't a permanent thing. If you guys haven't listened to the 2010 Audiobook that is posted in the Bulletin Board forum, you may not know that I.haveanidea (the usual editor of the StripeVine) was in an unfortunate car crash on the 16th of December. Sadly, we haven't heard from him since the 16th and at the moment have no idea what his status is or when he will be able to return to the Fringe. Yes, we know, he does log on to FFX on a daily basis, but doesn't interact with the site (on a slightly kidding note, Matt and I think he may have broken all of his fingers, preventing him to type).
On a serious note, the StripeVine newsletter must continue as scheduled! Because of this, Kav and I have tried to take up the reigns to get this issue written, and will do so until we regain contact with I.hai. Here's to I.haveanidea's help and fast recovery! Enjoy this issue, you guys, and thanks to the new group of writers for helping us get it done!
Why "StripeVine?"
Hey fellas, welcome to the StripeVine! Although this area usually contains a snippet of what can be read in the following pages of the newsletter, we thought we'd break tradition for this release and explain where the name StripeVine came from. If you are just joining us on our journey as an art design community, this is FringeFX's second version. Our first version featured a colorful striped zebra in our banner (you can see that banner here). Simply enough, when we decided to publish a newsletter with biweekly updates and art news, we decided to call it the StripeVine and use the slogan "I heard it through the StripeVine," a play on words from the oft-used "I heard it through the grapevine." Where did our beloved zebra go? We'd like to think that our striped friend (nicknamed "Chief Justice Alejandro" after a contest on V1) is still alive and well - now with a brand new look - on the Stock Garage.
With that explanation out of the way, enjoy this issue and continue producing killer art that Alejandro and FringeFX as a whole can be proud of!
FringeFX News!
Heya Fringies!
A question is haunting me as we head into the decade. Are you going to call 2010 "twenty-ten" or "two-zero-one-zero"? I think I’m going to stick with "twenty-ten," because everything else is too long, and after I say it I feel like taking a nap...
Anyways, as we head into twenty-ten, certain revamps and changes are going on such as the Team Deletion, where all the teams will be pruned (for the most part). Team leaders have the choice of bringing back their team if they send Kav a PM. Also, Keith and Matt have got a new audiobook. Give it a listen if you haven't already. For the most part, it talks about new things coming in 2010, as well as Marvel's inclusion to the staff and the reason why our StripeVine leader, i.haveanidea, has been lurking but not posting. Well what can I say? New Year, new start, new authors. After the update to FringeFX V2, the StripeVine has been a bit inactive due to Christmas, New Years and whatnot. So we have decided to liven it up again. We (Mr Gwaffix Yui and +mw.toothfish) together have decided to tackle the recent updates that have happened at FringeFX. So lets start.
After the update to V2, there has definitely been more buzz around the forums, causing this article to seem rather long. The worldwide Christmas holidays have given people the chance to make tags and LPs as often as they want and expect CnC in return. As well as that, some Fringies have started to earn some points by selling their PSDs in the ‘Members Trading Post’ section. With the latest tags up to a good standard, the CnCing has been a bit relaxed which many are relieved by. The news that a non-moderated section became available for the +Premiums was a surprise only to be backfired and therefore has had to be taken down.
So many tags, so many galleries and so many shops! Where should we start? Ah, the beloved Small Art Showcase, that’s where we shall begin. Lets go!
As we all know, the ‘Small Art Showcase’ section is probably the largest in the whole of Fringe with over 30 topics per page. This has made it hard for us to decide what to write about in this section and what to do for the rest of the article so we have had to narrow it down to a few special ones which we think deserve a mention and why. The choices are unbiased and are based on our own opinions. These are in no way ordered and have been placed randomly. Shall we begin?
First up is a tag by .Crush who has left and come back home again.
Topic title: I’m back…again…
Poster: .Crush
This is his tag:
This is a great tag and we think a few others would agree, although there is always a "but". The smudged image on the left feels out of place and more colours wouldn’t hurt, would it? Great tag all in all!
Secondly, we have a tag by kojirou1221. He claims this tag to be his first ever so let's take his word.
Tag:
I absolutely adore this tag. It beats my first tag and many others I know. Many agree that this tag is amazing as a first and I shall congratulate kojirou1221 on his first tag ever and a welcome to the Fringe!
I think we only have space for 3 tags that can be “analyzed” so this last one was a hard choice. Out of the 28 tags that are left we decided to choose ruaz’s tag. Not only for its unique style but for the great effects and flow found in the tag. The tag can be seen below.
Personally I think this tag has many features which some tags struggle to contain. This mainly includes the great use of colour, the depth, and the atmosphere. This tag was named ‘Underwater,’ although as the author stated, he struggled to find a decent water stock halfway through. I agree with many that a variation of effects would have been better as well as some blur to give it that “look.”
Alrighty, hows about we go onto the Large Art gallery? This one not quite as active as the Small Art gallery it still holds many great works and many more to come. Now, making an LP is hard work and receiving critique on it - whether it be good or bad - can make life that more difficult depending on what type of person you are. I personally am not amazingly patient and can easily give up halfway through whilst others have the patience of a God and can go through one, maybe two, LPs which is still something my brain is struggling to take in. An LP can be anything from a photograph to a photo manipulation. The possibilities are endless and this is what makes it all the lot harder for us to choose. This time we have limited the amount of LPs reviewed to 2 because simply they are pretty large and pretty lengthy to write about. However the same rules apply like above.
First up is an LP by hellraid.
Topic title: Rainbow in the sky
Author: Hellraid
Image:
Personally I’m loving this for many reasons. My main reason has to be the contrast between the rainbow and the icy/snowy road, trees and houses. This brings out how far away the rainbow is and how dark and gloomy the general atmosphere is. Another reason I love this piece is because of the background. Although snow may seem a frequent sight to some, it is still unbelievable how beautiful it can look when it has covered the surroundings.
Our second piece was created by CorporalPhantom with the topic ‘The Graveyard Walker.’ By the name of the author and the style used along with his avatar I would come to think that he likes horror, but as they all say, “Never judge a book by its cover.” The image is below.
This makes us wonder. What does really happen in a graveyard at night? Do the ghosts wander around and have chats? Or does nothing happen like what we are made to believe? This piece really brings out how dark and mysterious the graveyard can be. Although some areas need blending whilst other are fine, you still get the general image.
Wewh! That was hard to overcome. I’m sorry for those of you that weren’t included in that part and maybe next time you may be featured on our special list. Now we shall move onto another active section of FringeFX, the ‘Members Trading Post,’ where people can come and sell their goods for points, request a name change for points, request something to be done for a price in points and much more. Basically points heaven. This section is basically split into: Requests, single sale, member shops and special permissions requests. You can request anything from a banner made to a name change to a sub forum for your battling team. Here in this forum is also where battling teams sprout. With 250 points and 500 posts to get one up and running it really is a hefty fee but most say it is worth it.
Okay, now we're heading over to the glorious Proving Grounds, where tons of battles are underway or are already completed. Winners for the recently completed Tag of the Week, Rotating Competition of the Fortnight (avatar), and webdesign competition have been announced, and they are...
noods: http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt295/ndle/xmascopy.png
basicMANGZ: http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/5707/artificial.png
and Ace:http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z38/Ace07369/Layout2-1.png
The Cncer of the week this week is Kairyu. If interested, you can check out the results of past competitions in the News Section. Perhaps you might even show up in that section too, if you try!
Interesting battles have been seen around the Member Battles forum. There is one between Toothfish, Amanda and Mapleleaf, which has sparked some discussion about which tag ought to get votes and the reasons that people give when they vote. Another battle is that between Rene and Terranatic, from which the line “i love how rene's dinosaur is folding its arms it's so badass” came about. Yes, that is most interesting and I find it most delightful.
Member Teams are also emerging to pit their skills again each other. A new team, Illuminati - formed by DarkEH and Amanda - has already boomed, currently with four battles going on at the same time! So did Insanity, owned by Atomik and Q-rizzle. Anyhow, remember to head down to the battle forum to vote periodically. TAKE NOTE; DO REMEMBER.
You know how important resources are to most people, right? Well, the tutorials in the tutorial section are getting a reshuffle as some people don’t think the tutorials are classed in the right place (i.e. novice tutorials are in the advanced tutorial section) and I’d like to remind you to post tutorials you are unsure of the class of (the tag) in the Tutorial Processing forum to be sorted accordingly.
Anyhow, here are some HOT, BADASS tutorial picks:
Beginner Tutorials
http://www.fringefx.net/forums/index.php?/topic/23135-each-petal Each Petal Tutorial
http://www.fringefx.net/forums/index.php?/topic/8163-style-says-it-all-sig-tutorial - Style Says It All
Moderate Tutorials
http://www.fringefx.net/forums/index.php?/topic/22697-flower-goddess - Flower Goddess
http://www.fringefx.net/forums/index.php?/topic/17681-promiscuous -Promiscuous
Advanced Tutorials
http://www.fringefx.net/forums/index.php?/topic/20318-abstract-style-tutorial - Abstract Style
http://www.fringefx.net/forums/index.php?/topic/19857-unq-tutorial-showcase - unq tutorial showcase
Okay that’s about it. Selections for other resource types are coming in the next issue. And if you’d like to visit the Premium section for lots of badass exclusive tutorials, you have to be a Premium Member. And that’s only $5 and it’s a lifetime of premium content, all the time. How delightful!
Well Fringies, I hope you had a good time reading this and we look forward to writing for you again soon. This has been a long and hefty few hours typing on a laptop with no internet but we have managed it and hope you like the outcome. Stay tuned in two weeks when we have a new issue coming out. Taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~
A question is haunting me as we head into the decade. Are you going to call 2010 "twenty-ten" or "two-zero-one-zero"? I think I’m going to stick with "twenty-ten," because everything else is too long, and after I say it I feel like taking a nap...
Anyways, as we head into twenty-ten, certain revamps and changes are going on such as the Team Deletion, where all the teams will be pruned (for the most part). Team leaders have the choice of bringing back their team if they send Kav a PM. Also, Keith and Matt have got a new audiobook. Give it a listen if you haven't already. For the most part, it talks about new things coming in 2010, as well as Marvel's inclusion to the staff and the reason why our StripeVine leader, i.haveanidea, has been lurking but not posting. Well what can I say? New Year, new start, new authors. After the update to FringeFX V2, the StripeVine has been a bit inactive due to Christmas, New Years and whatnot. So we have decided to liven it up again. We (Mr Gwaffix Yui and +mw.toothfish) together have decided to tackle the recent updates that have happened at FringeFX. So lets start.
After the update to V2, there has definitely been more buzz around the forums, causing this article to seem rather long. The worldwide Christmas holidays have given people the chance to make tags and LPs as often as they want and expect CnC in return. As well as that, some Fringies have started to earn some points by selling their PSDs in the ‘Members Trading Post’ section. With the latest tags up to a good standard, the CnCing has been a bit relaxed which many are relieved by. The news that a non-moderated section became available for the +Premiums was a surprise only to be backfired and therefore has had to be taken down.
So many tags, so many galleries and so many shops! Where should we start? Ah, the beloved Small Art Showcase, that’s where we shall begin. Lets go!
As we all know, the ‘Small Art Showcase’ section is probably the largest in the whole of Fringe with over 30 topics per page. This has made it hard for us to decide what to write about in this section and what to do for the rest of the article so we have had to narrow it down to a few special ones which we think deserve a mention and why. The choices are unbiased and are based on our own opinions. These are in no way ordered and have been placed randomly. Shall we begin?
First up is a tag by .Crush who has left and come back home again.
Topic title: I’m back…again…
Poster: .Crush
This is his tag:
This is a great tag and we think a few others would agree, although there is always a "but". The smudged image on the left feels out of place and more colours wouldn’t hurt, would it? Great tag all in all!
Secondly, we have a tag by kojirou1221. He claims this tag to be his first ever so let's take his word.
Tag:
I absolutely adore this tag. It beats my first tag and many others I know. Many agree that this tag is amazing as a first and I shall congratulate kojirou1221 on his first tag ever and a welcome to the Fringe!
I think we only have space for 3 tags that can be “analyzed” so this last one was a hard choice. Out of the 28 tags that are left we decided to choose ruaz’s tag. Not only for its unique style but for the great effects and flow found in the tag. The tag can be seen below.
Personally I think this tag has many features which some tags struggle to contain. This mainly includes the great use of colour, the depth, and the atmosphere. This tag was named ‘Underwater,’ although as the author stated, he struggled to find a decent water stock halfway through. I agree with many that a variation of effects would have been better as well as some blur to give it that “look.”
Alrighty, hows about we go onto the Large Art gallery? This one not quite as active as the Small Art gallery it still holds many great works and many more to come. Now, making an LP is hard work and receiving critique on it - whether it be good or bad - can make life that more difficult depending on what type of person you are. I personally am not amazingly patient and can easily give up halfway through whilst others have the patience of a God and can go through one, maybe two, LPs which is still something my brain is struggling to take in. An LP can be anything from a photograph to a photo manipulation. The possibilities are endless and this is what makes it all the lot harder for us to choose. This time we have limited the amount of LPs reviewed to 2 because simply they are pretty large and pretty lengthy to write about. However the same rules apply like above.
First up is an LP by hellraid.
Topic title: Rainbow in the sky
Author: Hellraid
Image:
Personally I’m loving this for many reasons. My main reason has to be the contrast between the rainbow and the icy/snowy road, trees and houses. This brings out how far away the rainbow is and how dark and gloomy the general atmosphere is. Another reason I love this piece is because of the background. Although snow may seem a frequent sight to some, it is still unbelievable how beautiful it can look when it has covered the surroundings.
Our second piece was created by CorporalPhantom with the topic ‘The Graveyard Walker.’ By the name of the author and the style used along with his avatar I would come to think that he likes horror, but as they all say, “Never judge a book by its cover.” The image is below.
This makes us wonder. What does really happen in a graveyard at night? Do the ghosts wander around and have chats? Or does nothing happen like what we are made to believe? This piece really brings out how dark and mysterious the graveyard can be. Although some areas need blending whilst other are fine, you still get the general image.
Wewh! That was hard to overcome. I’m sorry for those of you that weren’t included in that part and maybe next time you may be featured on our special list. Now we shall move onto another active section of FringeFX, the ‘Members Trading Post,’ where people can come and sell their goods for points, request a name change for points, request something to be done for a price in points and much more. Basically points heaven. This section is basically split into: Requests, single sale, member shops and special permissions requests. You can request anything from a banner made to a name change to a sub forum for your battling team. Here in this forum is also where battling teams sprout. With 250 points and 500 posts to get one up and running it really is a hefty fee but most say it is worth it.
Okay, now we're heading over to the glorious Proving Grounds, where tons of battles are underway or are already completed. Winners for the recently completed Tag of the Week, Rotating Competition of the Fortnight (avatar), and webdesign competition have been announced, and they are...
noods: http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt295/ndle/xmascopy.png
basicMANGZ: http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/5707/artificial.png
and Ace:http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z38/Ace07369/Layout2-1.png
The Cncer of the week this week is Kairyu. If interested, you can check out the results of past competitions in the News Section. Perhaps you might even show up in that section too, if you try!
Interesting battles have been seen around the Member Battles forum. There is one between Toothfish, Amanda and Mapleleaf, which has sparked some discussion about which tag ought to get votes and the reasons that people give when they vote. Another battle is that between Rene and Terranatic, from which the line “i love how rene's dinosaur is folding its arms it's so badass” came about. Yes, that is most interesting and I find it most delightful.
Member Teams are also emerging to pit their skills again each other. A new team, Illuminati - formed by DarkEH and Amanda - has already boomed, currently with four battles going on at the same time! So did Insanity, owned by Atomik and Q-rizzle. Anyhow, remember to head down to the battle forum to vote periodically. TAKE NOTE; DO REMEMBER.
You know how important resources are to most people, right? Well, the tutorials in the tutorial section are getting a reshuffle as some people don’t think the tutorials are classed in the right place (i.e. novice tutorials are in the advanced tutorial section) and I’d like to remind you to post tutorials you are unsure of the class of (the tag) in the Tutorial Processing forum to be sorted accordingly.
Anyhow, here are some HOT, BADASS tutorial picks:
Beginner Tutorials
http://www.fringefx.net/forums/index.php?/topic/23135-each-petal Each Petal Tutorial
http://www.fringefx.net/forums/index.php?/topic/8163-style-says-it-all-sig-tutorial - Style Says It All
Moderate Tutorials
http://www.fringefx.net/forums/index.php?/topic/22697-flower-goddess - Flower Goddess
http://www.fringefx.net/forums/index.php?/topic/17681-promiscuous -Promiscuous
Advanced Tutorials
http://www.fringefx.net/forums/index.php?/topic/20318-abstract-style-tutorial - Abstract Style
http://www.fringefx.net/forums/index.php?/topic/19857-unq-tutorial-showcase - unq tutorial showcase
Okay that’s about it. Selections for other resource types are coming in the next issue. And if you’d like to visit the Premium section for lots of badass exclusive tutorials, you have to be a Premium Member. And that’s only $5 and it’s a lifetime of premium content, all the time. How delightful!
Well Fringies, I hope you had a good time reading this and we look forward to writing for you again soon. This has been a long and hefty few hours typing on a laptop with no internet but we have managed it and hope you like the outcome. Stay tuned in two weeks when we have a new issue coming out. Taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~
Flow
The other day I was thinking of flow, yeah. I've seen artists with great flow in their pieces and artwork. I kept telling myself
"How can I develop flow?"
It's always been some sort of a problem for me, and I've never liked the fact of flow. I decided to look through various pieces of artwork to try and see how they developed flow and what it actually was. I came across a man with no friends, and who was driven insane by his very being. He demonstrated such artistic talent, nobody can reproduce it. Although many have tried. Vincent Van Gogh
The guy only sold one painting in his lifetime but his talent was so extraordinary. He had no friends, and he cut off his own ear. The only painting he sold was to his brother out of nine-hundred. Yeah nine - zero - zero.
So anyway back to my story.
I was trying to find flow and I came across perhaps one of his most famous paintings. Starry Night.
It just amazed me how somebody who painted this could have no friends, committed suicide, cut off his ear-lobe, and sold one painting while he lived painted something like this.
Anyway, if you look at his artwork, it's great and innovative.
After he died, two of his paintings are now on the Most Expensive Paintings Ever Sold list.
4. Portrait of Dr. Gachet by Vincent van Gogh ($82,500,000)
8. Portrait de l'Artiste sans Barbe by Vincent van Gogh ($71,500,000)
Both portraits of people that he visited regularly, but were never his friends.
The Red Vineyard, when he was alive was sold for 400 Francs, or the equivalent of 1000 USD.
So, after looking at Starry Night I saw my flow try to improve. Well not looking, but really observing what he did. The way he connects the flow from three focals into one piece.
I mean, he isn't any digital or graphic artist, but no matter what your art is you can still learn alot from this guy, I know I did. He utilizes so many techniques that are vital in creating good pieces in any area of art.
It doesn't have to be Van Gogh, you can learn placement and abstracts from Picasso. You can learn emotion and energy from Edvard Munch's Scream.
In conclusion I highly recommend you look at past artists work, the emotion and passion put into them. I believe even though this is just forum graphics, or photography, or whatever you may do. It's important to have a passion just as the people before us did. We're not all Van Goghs, or Picassos or Munchs. Art makes us individually unique.
Hope you enjoyed the read.
It's always been some sort of a problem for me, and I've never liked the fact of flow. I decided to look through various pieces of artwork to try and see how they developed flow and what it actually was. I came across a man with no friends, and who was driven insane by his very being. He demonstrated such artistic talent, nobody can reproduce it. Although many have tried. Vincent Van Gogh
The guy only sold one painting in his lifetime but his talent was so extraordinary. He had no friends, and he cut off his own ear. The only painting he sold was to his brother out of nine-hundred. Yeah nine - zero - zero.
So anyway back to my story.
I was trying to find flow and I came across perhaps one of his most famous paintings. Starry Night.
It just amazed me how somebody who painted this could have no friends, committed suicide, cut off his ear-lobe, and sold one painting while he lived painted something like this.
Anyway, if you look at his artwork, it's great and innovative.
After he died, two of his paintings are now on the Most Expensive Paintings Ever Sold list.
4. Portrait of Dr. Gachet by Vincent van Gogh ($82,500,000)
8. Portrait de l'Artiste sans Barbe by Vincent van Gogh ($71,500,000)
Both portraits of people that he visited regularly, but were never his friends.
The Red Vineyard, when he was alive was sold for 400 Francs, or the equivalent of 1000 USD.
So, after looking at Starry Night I saw my flow try to improve. Well not looking, but really observing what he did. The way he connects the flow from three focals into one piece.
I mean, he isn't any digital or graphic artist, but no matter what your art is you can still learn alot from this guy, I know I did. He utilizes so many techniques that are vital in creating good pieces in any area of art.
It doesn't have to be Van Gogh, you can learn placement and abstracts from Picasso. You can learn emotion and energy from Edvard Munch's Scream.
In conclusion I highly recommend you look at past artists work, the emotion and passion put into them. I believe even though this is just forum graphics, or photography, or whatever you may do. It's important to have a passion just as the people before us did. We're not all Van Goghs, or Picassos or Munchs. Art makes us individually unique.
Hope you enjoyed the read.