Please note that these rules have been adapted since the archiving of all past topics and the end of Bionicle. Most of the following is condensed from the old rules; the major changes are highlighted in green and the two biggest are in large text.
General Art Rules
1. Obey all general BZPower rules, as found in the Reference Desk.
2. No flaming. Criticism of artwork is good, but it should be constructive; pointing out ways to improve. Keep in mind also that being overly negative about a person's art can come across as flaming the artist, even if you didn't intend it that way.
3. No spam. Posts must add to the discussion at hand. Spam includes random nonsense, overuse of emoticons, "leet" or chatspeak", and "first to post" comments. Casual chatting belongs elsewhere, such as in member profile comments or by PM / IM, etc.
4. Please avoid meaningless number ratings and focus on substantive reviewing.
(If you have devised a meaningful ratings system you explain and apply consistently, however, more power to you. But "Awesome 9/10" is not a good post as it doesn't make clear what's in the 9 and what's in the 1, and also counts as spam.)
5. All topics in General Art must present your own LEGO-related artwork. Use brickshelf or other image hosting sites to upload your art images and link to them in topics here.
Topics that are NOT allowed here include posting someone else's art you found, topics that have nothing to do with art, request topics, teaser topics, contests, project-planning topics, and several types of topics that instead belong in the other three artwork forums:
-Music & Movies (animations and other multimedia)
-Shops & Kits (sprites, kits, and specially approved shops and help topics)
-Comics (comedic or storylined series of art panels)
See topic types guide below for more.
Note: Since June 2011 all four Artwork forums are now open to LEGO artwork in general, not just Bionicle artwork. So Hero Factory, Atlantis, City, whatever, it all goes in one of these four forum divisions.
6. In general it is best to make a new topic for each new work of art. However, if you have many art pieces that are very similar or variants of the same thing, it's best to make one topic for them rather than flooding the forum.
Note: You may also make personal artwork collection topics which link to your other art topics. (If your collection includes topics from multiple Artwork forum divisions, including this one, it's best to make it here. If it does not include anything from this division, it's best to make it in one of the other three divisions as appropriate.) These collection topics enjoy certain exemptions as explained below.
7. No topic revival past 30 (thirty) days since the latest post.
Note: Personal artwork collection topics are exempt from this rule and may be revived (please use the word "Collection" in such topics' titles to be clear, and you may also note that it is revivable in your text).
8. No double-posting; if you forgot to add something, edit your post instead or wait until someone else has posted first.
Note: Topic starters of their own personal artwork collection topics may, however, double post to announce new artwork and other updates. Note that the software will auto-merge double posts within a few hours of each other -- in fact, please do not double post within 24 hours of your previous post.
8. Please use a descriptive title. Though there's a gray area here (because pictures are worth a thousand words
), staff reserve the right to edit titles to improve their clarity in extreme cases. Note: If your art is an edit (meaning a printscreen or another pre-made piece of art manipulated in an image processing program), you must include the word "edit" in the title. However, we do not allow edits of member profiles.
11. Do not post your topic more than once. If you get a Mail error, or "Page cannot be displayed" when posting a topic, do NOT click "Back." Close the window, and bring BZP up in a new one, so that you can get back to this forum, and check to see if your topic really did go through. Most times it has.
12. All images posted on BZPower must be 500 kilobytes (kB) in size or smaller. As explained here, images that are large in dimensions will be automatically resized by the forum software and are not problems, but images large in filesize are problematic. Please check the filesizes before you directly display it. If you don't have time, or would like to avoid the issue altogether, link to the image instead of displaying it.
Note: Artwork topics are most "user-friendly" when at least a thumbnail of your artwork is directly displayed, so people don't have to click twice to see your art. You can easily make the thumbnail image work as a link to the larger version if clicked as well, by putting the image tags for the thumbnail in place of the hyperlink text for the link to the larger file, like this:
[url=URLFORBIG][img]URLFORTHUMBNAIL[/img][/url]
Also note: As long as you're presenting finished art rather than a shop, you may post banners and avatars for others to use on BZPower, so it is best to also be aware of BZPower's guidelines for signatures and avatars. I'd specifically recommend keeping most such banners smaller than the maximum so those who choose to use them have room for other text, and to make such avatars exactly 64 x 64 pixels in size so there's no loss of quality due to auto-resizing.
13. No inappropriate/offensive artwork or posts. Excessive violence, sexual content, and toilet humor are examples of things that aren't allowed.
Note: All BZPower and General Art rules that apply to language use in posts also apply to text in pictures.
Also note: Do NOT quote objectionable material. This applies across BZPower but especially to offensive images.
14. If you have any questions or concerns about these rules, please PM me and I'll try to answer in a timely fashion.
Topic Types Guide for General Art
Allowed Topics
* Paper sketch artwork (scanned or photographed, colored or not)
* Computer-graphics artwork
* Combination of paper and computer art
* Edits of pre-existing images (as long as you use "edit" in the title)
* Non-shop banners and avatars for others' use (if you prefer requiring permission and/or credit cited, say so, or if you are willing for them to be freeware, say that)
* Sculptures and similar creations
* Personal artwork Collection topics (revivable), linking to other art topics of yours (as long as some topics you're linking to are in General Art)
Prohibited Topics & Where They Go Instead
* No music files; they go in Music & Movies
* No sound files; they go in Music & Movies
* No animations; they go in Music & Movies
* No movies with sound and/or music, they go in Music & Movies
* No shops; belong in Shops & Kits (and require staff permission)
* No help topics; belong in Shops & Kits (and require staff permission)
* No spritesheets (pixel art designed for computer games, animations, comics, etc.); belong in Shops & Kits
* No sprite kits; belong in Shops & Kits
* No comics; belong in Comics
* No MOC (My Own Creation out of plastic LEGO pieces) topics; go in Bionicle-Based Creations or System-Based Creations
* No digital LEGO creation topics (such as LDD printscreens); those also go in Bionicle-Based Creations or System-Based Creations
* No games; computer games go in Fan-Created Games
Note: Card game topics belong in Games & Trivia. If you make a General Artwork topic to display the card artwork itself, comments in that topic may only be artwork-related, not playing the card game itself. (And by contrast, a card game topic in G&T is for playing the game, not to review the artistry of the cards.)
* No request topics. These may go in your signature, as PMs to artists whose work you admire, or as posts in one of the specially-approved shops in Shops & Kits.
* No post-it-here topics. If you want to see other people's artwork, browse the Artwork forums. Or, you may put a line in your signature asking for others to PM you links to their art topics to review or the like.
* No contest topics. The only contests allowed here are the official General Art forum contests run by staff. However, if you are premier you may run artwork contests on your blog -- and entrants may post topics about their entries here for such contests (as long as they're otherwise fitting for General Art versus Comics or any other forum division).
* No project-planning topics. You may ask for guest stars and helpers in your signature, however, and of course you may plan projects by PM/IM/etc. Also note that major fan project planning discussion may be tolerable in topics that feature some of the artwork produced "so far" -- see below for more.
* No teaser topics. By teaser here I mean posting such barebones early-sketchy version of unfinished art that you're not really showing the art at all, or showing highly vague edits of your art and demanding posts before you reveal the clear version, etc.
There's a gray area here, and including clearly finished art that is part of a series of works or a major fan project is usually fine. Teasers are also usually fine in signatures or on your blog if you are premier. Teasers may also be okay if they are used as thumbnail images linking to the completed artwork for dramatic purposes.
* No mere inverts or other "one-click" edits. This refers to merely changing the colors or inverting the colors of a pre-existing image that would not otherwise be considered art. Or, just applying a filter (such as those that make it look like canvas or bricks, etc.). If you can make it by hitting just one or two buttons, chances are it doesn't belong here, but might be okay in a signature, etc. (if properly sized).
However, "one-click" edits of artwork that would be allowed here anyways if it hadn't been edited in such a way are okay. So don't misunderstand -- color inverts and filters and the like ARE allowed, but only if that's not all that's new that you're producing. There has to be some real creative work put into it besides "one-clicks".
* No profile edits. To quote Pohuaki from the old rules, "These are edited screenshots showing member's profiles with altered rank, post count, PE, etc. They became sufficiently annoying that they have been banned."
* No non-LEGO artwork; belongs in the Completely Off Topic forum division. Note that "human Bionicle" and similar art styles do belong here as long as something in the art makes it clear it's LEGO-related.
Edited by Black Six, Sep 12 2011 - 07:50 PM.
