To Whom It May Concern

On behalf of the SatelliteSoda Crew, I welcome you to the SatelliteSoda forums should this be your first time here. If you have been here before or a frequent visitor welcome back.

The SatelliteSoda forums are best viewed at a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels in Mozilla's Firefox browser. To download Firefox simply click here.

Below are the guidelines and an introduction of sorts to how things run and operate here at SatelliteSoda. In order to maintain a classy and pleasant atmosphere, we appreciate it if users kindly co-operate with the following guidelines. These guidelines are in place to ensure that SatelliteSoda remains an enjoyable and somewhat informative site to visit, and to prevent unnecessary conflicts on the forums.

Knowledge Of Basic Art Fundamentals Required
Constructive Comment/Critique Encouraged
Try To Give And Take Criticism
No Image Linking Within Art!!! Area
Keep Your Threads Limited
Complaints and Suggestions

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please post them here so they can be properly answered and addressed.

Thank you for taking the time to read this information, I do hope you enjoy your stay and that SatelliteSoda becomes one of the most useful places online for you to advance your expertise in the field of visual art.


Stay Classy Sodyite

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F. Lovebot

Knowledge Of Basic Art Fundamentals Required

The goal of the SatelliteSoda forums is to help out those who, for whatever reason, seriously want to improve their artistic abilities and become the best that they can be. Having knowledge of the basic art fundamentals helps us help you. Having this knowledge puts everyone on the same level making critiques and explantions much easier.

Should you not already have some knowledge of the basic art fundamentals, for example colour and/or anatomy, that's ok, we cannot hold your hand, but we will help as much as possible. In the end its up to you to take the initiative to learn the basics for yourself.

Constructive Comment/Critique Encouraged

Try to be as constructive as possible when leaving a response to the art of other on these forums. Comments in the vein of "Those colours suck!" or "That chick looks like a guy!", no matter how humourous they occasionally may be, are not criticism nor constructive and do not help the artist in question. Comments such as "That is really cool" and "OMG!!!" fall into the same area. A single emoticon is also not a constructive comment, no matter how cool said emoticon may be. Try and keep those type of comments to a minimum, as it gives an artist nothing to work with.

Try to give reasons and explanations to why you like or dislike a certain element in a piece, as it goes along way. Be specific also, most threads contain multiple images, so please make sure the artist is aware which piece you are commenting on.

Try To Give And Take Criticism

If you have come here to show off you work without giving any input on anyone else’s work, then you’ll be shunned. If you would like help on your work or people to look and comment on your work, that's fine, but I’m sure other people would like your input on their work too.

Please try to give and recieve criticism in a professional manner and with an open mind. When you post art here at SatelliteSoda, it goes without saying that you are seeking comments and criticism. If you are after comments and critcism on a certain area of a piece, make sure you get that across when you first post the piece.

Criticism is a means to help you improve your artistic technique and/or the formal elements of a piece of art and in no way is a critique a personal attack.

A critique is an examination of the formal elements of a piece of art, line, color, form, composition etc. A critique is not about passing judgement or what is ‘wrong’ with a piece. Pointing out each and every thing you consider to be a flaw in a piece of art is not a good critique. Going over a piece with a fine tooth comb for ridiculous amounts of time nit picking it too bits and expecting the artist to go back and fix all the "problems" is not a good critique either.

A critique is a balanced examination of the formal elements in a piece, expressing both good and bad, what you feel works, and what doesn’t. Try to address the elements you think were carried out well in addition to the one’s you feel could maybe use some work.

Leave your personal tastes behind. If you don’t care for a particular genre or style, let it be, it's not needed to give a good critique. If you think your personal preference is a valid critism then explain why.

If you have the right attitude, an understanding of the basic art fundametals, the drive to improve your work and a sense of humour you will have no problems at all. These things are very important at SatelliteSoda and important to the SatelliteSoda Crew.

No Image Linking Within Art!!! Area

Please, do not post links in this section of the forum. There is really no need for anyone to go somewhere else to see something they could see here. If in need of a free image host try imageshack.us or photobucket.com

The only exceptions to linking is linking of things such as adult content, please post a link with a warning, and avi/movie files. Artistic nudity is permitted, you must however please include 'nudity' or 'nsfw' in the subject line of your post. If you are unsure about the content of your post, please approach one of the moderators or administrators who will happily help sort this problem out for you.

Also, please do not hotlink from DeviantArt.

Keep Your Threads Limited

Please try to keep your images to limited threads, if you have multiple images please post them all in one thread, and if you have new images within a short time period of your last post, simply update your current thread instead of posting a new one. To let people know you've updated your current thread, edit the subject title of the first post of said current thread. It keeps the forum from becoming congested and helps you out as it allows people to review your work in one thread.

Complaints and Suggestions

If you have read the posting guidelines, you can see the SatelliteSoda Crew clearly have their own way of doing things. Should you not like the way said things are carried out, have any problems or questions, be it these rules, a forum member or the forums themselves, simply send a private message (PM) to one of our Moderators or Administrators who will happily help you sort out this problem.

Before posting, also take the time to browse all area's of the forums to get a better feel for the SatelliteSoda community.