SatelliteSoda
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SatelliteSoda is a collaborative group of artists with the focus of progressing artisticly through constructive criticism from peers and fellow artists, in addition to serving as a forefront for the artist's professional work and quickly-rising careers. Many artists there liken the forum on the site (where artists are encouraged to post work for critique from other board members and to offer the same to other posters) to a smaller, more personable ConceptArt.org, due to its lower member count and more selective attention. ("...like comparing a black mamba to an anaconda. -Mochi") A forum or crew member is often referred to as a "Sodyite" or less commonly a "Sodahead".
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[edit] Constructive Criticism
Constructive criticism is one of the primary focuses of the SatelliteSoda forums. Members there are encouraged to post works-in-progress, sketches, completed pieces, and collaborative work with the intention of having other members respond with critiques and criticism on the work, in order to help weed out problems at any stage and help the artist develop more effectively. One of the mantras of the site's crew is that heavy criticism and light motivation is a lot more helpful to an artist than the endless barrage of praise many artists appear to be accustomed to. ("Tough love", as they call it.) They believe it assists the artist in preparing for real-world situations, such as deadlines, harsher critics, and editors. Some of the more enthusiastic critics are known to do digital "draw-overs" in order to assist a poster with anatomical, pose, and detail problems.
[edit] The Crew
SatelliteSoda maintains a crew of members that financially support the site and are often the most frequent and helpful posters on the forum. The crew rotates from time to time as some members move on to other things or part ways with the group. The crew currently consists of the following artists (and their forum aliases):
- Dave Igo (Igo) Creator and founder.
- Dylan McCrae (Dylan)
- Shane Long (Shane)
- Fabian Schlaga (Monk)
- Nick Losq (mouse)
- Mochi (mochi)
- Kris Anka (Clawedchickeneye)
- Raul Osorio (SpyderFSG) SatSoda fix-it man.
Several members have come and gone from the crew, including the following:
- Jonah Gilbert (JON4H) Still active on the forums.
- David Murdoch (D_Murdoch) Still active on the forums
- Dave Collinson (Dave) Still active on the forums.
- Sam McKensie (sam) On hiatus. No computer access.
- Fazaad Feroze (Faz) Still active on the forums.
- Nate ... (N8B!) Still active on the forums.
- Lionel Gerschel (CreonFR)
- Chelsea Lewta (Conemonster)
- Chelsea ... (cgad)
- Enrique Corts (Enrique)
- Mar Hernandez (Mar)
[edit] Professional Work
Several of the SatelliteSoda crew have already begun their professional careers. One of the goals of the site is to present a good face for the crew's portfolios, which can been seen in their individual galleries. For example, crew member Dave Igo has begun work as a 2D artist at Gentle Giant Ltd.; Shane Long has many gig posters and design work already published throughout the Seattle area, and Fabian Schlaga has artwork on the first set of the Avatar: The Last AirBender- Collectible Card Game.
[edit] Jams and Battles
Art jams are set up to help engage the community to join together under a specific topic and each submit a piece of art. The subjects of these jams are selected by crew member Dylan, and usually run for about a week or two. The jam topic would stay open for about two weeks after completione before closing up, so that late-comers could continue to post and comment on work. The purpose of the jams is to present the common user on SatelliteSoda with a chance to do something different, to step outside of one's comfort zones (another one of SatelliteSoda's mantras) and provoke some lurkers or inactive members out of hiding. Collaboritive pieces are common in the jams, enciting Sodyites to contact each other to create art together and further forum ties.
Another form of the art jam that SatelliteSoda held, was the art battle. The art battle was a jam of sorts, with one forum member pitting themselves against a fellow artist with the goal of outdoing the other on a specific subject, commonly something out of both users comfort zones, but also sometimes between two artists with similar tastes. Users participated in the battles by signing up in a specific thread, as a means to notify the appropriate parties that they are able to or want to participate in the battles. From there, it was up to the Sodyite crew to set up a group of battles in a round, pairing off artists that were of similar skill, and devising something that would both push the artists outside their comfort zones, and be fun and engaging at the same time. The crew would create the threads for the challenges in the battle forum, thus giving the users notification on what they were doing, and the time of the battle's deadline. From there the users participating then work on their challenges in utter secrecy, and completion would then send their work towards one of the crew to be posted along with the competitors piece. The purpose of these battles was to again push artists outside their comfort zones, and furthermore, to task artists to work within a specific timeframe (much like a real-world deadline). Unfortunately the battles were hard to maintain because of dropouts midbattle, due to outside circumstances, and because of the apparent logistical headache it can cause. In early 2006, before a recent forum hacking, the battle system was halted, pending user interests in continuing the challenges.
As of late October 2006, the battles have begun again, with a turnout of nearly 50 participants within the first month of the battle jam's re-activation and an apparent overall positive response so far from the artists.
