It is first week of August and a new art trade cycle begins! There is still a lot of room for artists to join, we accept anyone from aspiring artists as well as proficient illustrators. More details in the Discord about how to be an art trade artist for this new cycle. If you have any questions please ask them over there too or DM me.

Half fixed and started a group I used to manage way back when. Now with more free time in my hands, I decided to start it again! Sign Ups are open now for August! Sign Up period ends on the 7th to give more time over the weekend. This month's theme is GLASS - It can either be something made of glass or someone or something with the characteristics of glass. More details once you join the Discord and choose the M.A.T. Artist role to participate!

WORK IN PROGRESS

There is still a lot to iron out, since it is my first time managing a Discord server. I mainly built it so I can mitigate people abusing this particular method of art trading to farm for free art. Apologies in advanced for the multiple walls of text😅 Hopefully everything is ok and makes sense so far, and if there's anything that is confusing or that you would prefer to see, suggested them through the Discord too. I'm open to any criticism on it!

HISTORY OF THE GROUP

This group was founded in March of 2018, during a time when deviantArt had its old classic green layout and where all kinds of artists still had a place to come back to, not just illustrators. Member numbers grew, a lot more activity and interest would appear every month.

Then, everything changed in 2020 when deviantArt activated its trap card, forcing Eclipse site-wide. With no menu option on turning it back to old school, it was a mess: Things weren't loading, notifications weren't functioning properly and by the way they handled the logo redesign back in 2014 there was no hope for any constructive discourse to have THE option just not to use the new layout or turning back. Within just a month or two, as many other groups, along with the stress the apocalyptic like state the world was in, this group's activities fizzled out. Nothing was working and traffic dramatically slugged to a halt, and thus the group remained abandoned... until recently.

WHAT NOW?

Ever since, I have had the urge to revive the group elsewhere, but how? The next best thing I could think of was a public Discord. There are many other websites centered in art, but not many centered around having a group or community focused platform like deviantArt had. Having forums, groups and activities provided to promote group activity, there was just no website that did beyond just the personal profile and personal gallery.

At least had a formerly active member to join for this last month, so I am hoping I can get more people to join by the end of the year. I am also considering making monthly post announcements here about the group's activities and art submitted for others not in the Discord or deviantArt to check it out. I will need to ask permission from artists first to use their art, but I think it would work to help attract more attention from non-Discord users. For now, I will just keep it to announcements of when a new cycle begins and ends.