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Hey guys!

As many of you have noticed, I am now a part of the Artist Relations team working under the fantastic $Moonbeam13.

I just wanted to say that I'll miss the Creative Team. They're all my homies, and their moms are too. It was great working with $Heidi (your mom!), `janvanlysebettens (well, your mom too!), `mattdanna (), `elusive (Halo 3 meetings!), `mynti (Open the box!), $starvingartist (Do it!), and everybody else!

With that said, I'm looking forward to getting into Artist Relations and working with the team to make deviantART even more awesome than it already is. I'll specifically be handling the Vector Gallery cooperatively with the talented new Vector GD $Ikue. We both have big plans for the gallery in the future. Some of the goals we have are:

Clean up the gallery!
Right now, there's a ton of mis-categorized vectors and we're going to go through them and get the gallery looking more foxy than Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls. (Now that's foxy!)

Educate!
People need to know what vectors are. Sure, we've done a lot in the past, but it's time to get the vector message out there. We need to introduce them, explain them, showcase them, and help others to create them. I'll continue to write my Vector Today article, as well as revitalize and improve Vector Brothers Unite, ~vbu, the largest vector club on dA. And, that's just the first part of it. More to come soon!

Get Involved!
We'll both do our part to get involved in the community to know their needs and wants, helping to progress it further as an art form both on and off-site. This involves everyday interaction and also lots of news articles and some soon to be announced hotness from the ~vbu and beyond!


I hope you're all looking forward to this as much as I am. I'll try my best to serve you all and make the vector gallery arguably the best since the invention of art! On a side note, I'm going to be supporting a super secret special amazing project that's being worked on right now. So, keep your eyes peeled for something big!



VECTOR GALLERY _{(I copied this from $Ikue because he's a genius!)}
Vector Art is a technique, meaning art created in a vector-based program. Vector art is the use of primitives such as Points, Lines and Curves. The vector programs keeps track of the relationship between these primitives. This allows the images created, to be scaled and rescaled without loosing quality or becoming pixelated. This is in opposition to "raster (or bitmap) graphics" which is an image represented by a collection of pixels. These pixels if scaled above 100%, will degrade and loose quality.

Popular vector programs are: Illustrator, Freehand, Corel Draw, and Flash. Almost everything created with these programs is considered a vector piece. I say "almost" because there are exceptions to every rule. If your vector piece combines raster and vector images then I'm sorry to tell you but it is no longer a vector piece (and subsequently does not belong in the vector gallery). Example: If you finish your vector piece and realize after exporting it to a more web friendly version, you think it is lacking something. So you take it into photoshop and apply a simple texture to the surface of the piece just to give it a little something extra. This is no longer a vector piece, and should be posted to the "Digital art > Mixed media", gallery. Like wise if you take this raster texture image into illustrator and just apply a layer style (multiply, screen etc.) this is still not a vector piece. The common factor in these two equations is the raster texture. Since this texture cannot be scaled above 100% this makes the vector technically useless beyond that raster images original size. That being said don't think you are unable to add texturing to a vector piece. Most of these programs come equipped with detailed pattern swatches, textured brushes, and even the ability to "Live trace" which does as it's name implies, traces a raster image and turns it into a vector graphic.

Just to reiterate my point and to ensure there is no confusion here is a list of generally considered Raster Bases programs: Photoshop, Painter, MS Paint, , and a great free alternative Gimp. Basically everything created with these programs is considered a Raster image. I say use a clause simply because a few of these programs are capable of creating images with points, lines, and curves just as a vector program would. Photoshop for instance can create vector based images, however these are typically considered "Vexels" because of the fact that Vexel artists typically incorporate brush strokes into their images (for hair, etc.). Speaking of brushes. Just because you have downloaded and installed a brush set for photoshop or any other of the aforementioned raster programs that have the word "vector" in the title, does not deem your image a vector piece. These brushes come in different sizes and no matter how high a resolution they may come in, they still cannot be scaled above their 100% mark without loosing quality.

To put it simply "Vector is not a "style" like Anime, but a "medium" like charcoal. Asking what vector-art looks like is like asking what an oil painting looks like. It could look like Rembrandt, Picasso, or a fifth grader's fingerpainting."


DAILY DEVIATIONS
As part of my role here, feel free to send me or $Ikue Daily Deviation suggestions. Please note the following however:
Suggest Vector Work Only Please
Make sure the deviant has no more than 4 DDs and none were given within the last 3 months
Remember Quality over Quantity

Also, if you just want to discuss vectors or talk about events, organizations, and groups related to vectors, feel free to send me a note or drop a line here!


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