I am a fiber artist . I stop in to see the work that is being done in the field of Portrait paintings along with other art forums. I think all artists in all mediums struggle with many of the same issues. I often want to comment , usually to voice support and encouragement! I love the work that is featured here and indeed have improved upon my own skills with some of the advice and comments I have read here.
Karen http://threadstory.blogspot.com/

I'm also a "frequent lurker". I really enjoy the forum and stop in once or twice a week; it's intelligent, the work posted is very good,( often excellent), and it's nice to visit a forum of dedicated, trained artists. There's a different attitude amoung the members - it's serious and professional. I have no issue w/ the process of jurying in members, I beleive it's what keeps the integrity of the forum intact.

I've been a serious art student for several years on a part time basis, and just recently went to full time study. I just started studying the figure and portraits in the past 6 months and I don't beleive I will focus entirely on portrait work, so I don't see myself as a canidate for membership. Many thanks for having this forum - it's great, even for the folks who aren't registered members.

Materese Roche
www.ghostwoodstudio.com

I'm glad you find it valuable. The jurying process became necessary when many were registering and posting who had not even a beginning of drawing basics - the Forum was growing so fast that the demands for critiques started to overtax our resources. Those professionals who do critiques were and still are few in numbers and their contributory nature and time became over-taxed by posters who likely would never become professional. So, we had to make a decision. I think that some see the Forum as a separate, stand-alone entity. However, from the time I conceived it, it was always intended to be a reflection of the main site.

A suggestion - perhaps there are compromises that would allow those who are shy, and those who aren't sure they're ready, to ease into participating without introducing a burden upon the forum.

Limit posting to the the purely professional forums to those who have been juried and made full members. This would include the professional business and critique forums where unprofessional behavior and responses could be distracting if not outright harmful.

Allowed the unjuried to become limited members with priviledges that allow them to reply to existing threads (in the remaining forums) but not to start new threads.

Perhaps allow a single forum to be completely open to posting and thread creation by limited members but make this forum password protected like the critique section is now. This would allow limited members to introduce topics or questions that others could address, but it would provide some protection from search engines.

would like to join
 

I would like to join but I do not have anything done from life at this time, only photos. So to meet the requirements, I will have to wait until I get access to a model. I have enjoyed following the forum and learned a great deal from it.

I love that you are giving those of us who "lurk" the opportunity to speak! I've stopped into the forum regularly for a couple of years now.

I think you are smart to have a juried selection process, for just the reasons you listed...too many people joining who are at the beginning stage. I'm sure you want to encourage beginners, but their needs are very different from the pros and you can't accommodate all. I find that just being allowed to visit and read is very educational, so thank you for continuing to allow non-members to do so. I do wish you hadn't made the medium-specific critique forums members-only, I miss those.

I don't have a sense that your administration or moderation are overly heavy-handed, though not being subject to them I guess I can't say for sure. All forums need structure...I am watching another forum I am a member of self-destruct because having no rules is highly prized by many in the group, to the point of chaos.

I enjoy portraiture but am not likely to pursue it professionally, and therefore don't think I would be a regular or helpful member. I also do not think my work is ready for a juried admission. If all of that changes, I might apply. In the meantime, I shall simply continue to read, learn, and admire.

Thank you!

JM

My post right above, I couldn't edit it...I just figured out how to access the medium-specific critique forums, duh! How did I miss that?

No problem. There's a lot to absorb here.

Visitor poll
 

Hi. I voted "shy...", which I suppose is true for me both online and in life. I'm more of a listener than a talker, I guess. But it's also that I wouldn't get past the jury process, as I'm not a portrait painter. I am a professional painter, though, and I visit several art forums both for entertainment and information. I've only recently found this forum, and so far I'm impressed by the overall content, civility, and professional quality of the discourse here. I find I'm trusting of the information I glean from here maybe more than on some other forums. Because of that, I do wish there was greater participation and activity. Perhaps that is both the strength and weakness of limiting membership to juried portrait artists. But I certainly wouldn't advocate change.

As an aside, I was a freelance illustrator for many years before switching to fine art. As such, I have long been an admirer of the illustration work of Marvin Mattleson. I was not aware of his work as a portrait artist, and was very pleasantly surprised to see him here as such an active participant. To me, that again speaks to the quality of the discourse here.

Thank you!

Thank you for your vote of confidence. Many artists who are active professionals simply do not have the time to participate and some simply don't have that teaching inclination - however, we are always hopeful that more pros will become involved. I do think you will find that many, many subjects have already been addressed over the years - thus decreasing the possible new subjects that could be addressed in the future.

We have gone thru our crisis periods, mostly precipitated by conflicts of personalities and communication styles. We've always asked that artists state their methods without denigrading the methods of others and to keep posts diplomatic and respectful of others. Unfortunately, through some incidents where this was not honored, we have lost some valuable contributors.