Art Chatrooms

Even though the forums can provide a solid platform to showcase your art and ellaborate on various topics, the chat rooms are well appreciated since you can exchange opinions and feedback in real time, or just talk about things in a much more casual manner. Smeargle's Studio is no exception to the benefits of chat channels, and at the time of writing this, there are two chat rooms that any person, artist or not, can visit and hang out in.

Smeargle's Studio Discord channel — #smeargle

Discord has not only taken gamers by storm, but has also proven to be a welcoming platform for all communities who wish to have a chat presence of their own. The Discord channel for Smeargle's Studio was originally set up by Tikitik, and you can easily access it through this public invitation link. If you want access to all of Discord's functions, remember to download their official software to your own computer or device, although just using it in your internet browser works just fine.

The purpose of this channel is essentially the same as the forums: share your art for others to see, give or ask for feedback, get to know other studio dwellers a bit closer, or just hang out! While the forums still remains as our main base of operations, the chat channel is a nice complement to immediately get opinions on your work, or exchange ideas or plans with other users. Artists who are either approved or badged can also have their name colorised, as well as getting access to another room within the channel where they can ask for feedback on article illustrations that has yet to be published. At the time of writing, there are four rooms in the channel, each of them serving a specific purpose:

#art

The very backbone of the channel. Be it personal art, forum contributions, articule illustrations, asking for opinions on techniques or what software to use, or just about anything related to art goes into this room. Granted, you're also free to discuss unrelated topics too, but once art is brought up, it takes priority, and users who want to continue their unrelated topic will be referred to the other rooms.

#off-topic

Speaks for itself. Anything that's beyond the scope of the main room can be talked about at length in this room.

#workshop

If you're an approved or badged artist, you'll be added to one of the colorful Artist roles, and will thus also have access to this room where those who are illustrating articles or content that's still under wraps from public eyes can ask for feedback without feeling that they're spoiling the fun for anyone else.

#flavor

The name of this room will change from time to time, depending on what's trending in the art world, if there's a huge project on Smogon that could use some extra discussion space, or ..... for anything really. We're not above having fun.

More rooms might be added in the future, but for now, feel free to drop by and get to know the people behind the usernames on the forums! If you're a stranger to Discord in general, there's also a handy article written on that topic.

Art Room on Pokémon Showdown! (PS)

Pokémon Showdown! is Smogon's official battling simulator, as well as a site which houses a multitude of rooms for the community to chat in. Naturally, Art is one such topic, so the Art Room is thus the home for all artists on both PS and Smogon. Here's one direct link to it, as well as a link to the Room's website. This room is much more active than #smeargle and is thus moderated more closely, so all users with a #, @, or % are staff members capable of handling unruly users, while users with a + sign are trusted individuals who are a positive presence in the chat. Here's a complete staff list for the room, as well as the general rules.

Art discussion take priority in this room, so never feel discouraged to share your art and ask for feedback on it. Otherwise, just chatting in general is just fine if there's not much discussion going on. If an art discussion is going or there's a lot of activity in general, be careful not to be too off-topic, otherwise the staff members may warn or even mute you so that the chat isn't disrupted. One of the major features of the room is the bot Art2D2, which not only helps out with the moderation duty but is also often used to host various activities and info. For instance:

\dailydraw or \dd

The Art room always try to encourage breaking outside your comfort zone, so if you just need a small challenge for practise or just for fun, type in the above command and you'll see what the room's staff have decided for the day's Daily Draw challenge.

\randpoke

Typing this command will make Art2D2 select a random Pokemon for you, which is mostly used in conjunction with the Daily Draw challenge, or if you just feel like getting a suggestion. Replacing the 'poke' part with the words move, ability, type, stats, item, and location will get you a random answer for those categories as well!

\mail [user], [message]

Replacing :user: with the name of a different member, and :message: with the text or information you want to send, you can make Art2D2 withold the message until said user comes online again! Do note that you need to be of the rank Roompaw in order to utilise this feature, so if you've become somewhat of a regular of this room and needs to use this feature, ask a staff member to promote you to Roompaw.

Want more info about the room or Pokemon Showdown in general? Check out the below links then!

Beginner's Guide to PS - Room Authority Explanation - Art Room Website