Mosaic: a work-in-progress community

This is the official blog for Mosaic, the work-in-progress creative community! Follow for development updates and community announcements. You can find Mosaic at http://mosaic-art.herokuapp.com -- see you there!

[mosaicart]

Site Updates and News

It’s an update! So sorry for the long delay in between news --- school craziness is finally over for me, so I can continue working on Mosaic! I’ve lined up a few awesome projects for this summer that I hope will make Mosaic even better and easy to use:

Releasing the incomplete zine! Because there are so many images going into this zine, it’s taking a little while to plan the layout and put together! Currently, I’m aiming to release the zine at the end of July, but hopefully sooner! If you have any suggestions for the charity to support with incomplete, please let me know by email or through a Tumblr note!

Moving to new server and domain. Currently, Mosaic is hosted on a tiny little test server that (as you may have noticed) can get pretty slow when lots of images are involved. I’m looking into moving Mosaic into something more heavy duty (and cost effective), under a domain that is easier to remember.

Mobile compatibility. The major feature here will be to allow users to upload photos of their WIPs straight from their phone! This will also include fixing up the site to be less visually buggy and easier to navigate in general.

Thanks for using Mosaic and stay tuned for more updates!

[mosaicart]

incomplete: the WIP Zine acceptances!

Voting for incomplete has closed, votes have been tallied up, and acceptances have been determined! The 10 submissions that received the most votes have been listed on the zine information page. A big congrats to the artists who were accepted and a huge thanks to everyone who submitted! I will be contacting artists regarding payments individually, so please keep an eye on your email inbox! I'm also going to start assembling the zine -- I'm estimating a release in about early June (due to all the typesetting and arrangement of the images that will happen! This zine is going to be a big one!)

Other Updates

The SPIRIT of SPRING Charity Zine closed it's donation window yesterday -- it raised about $33 dollars, which was donated to The Nature Conservancy this morning! Not too shabby for a little zine :)

If you are a Mosaic user and haven't already filled out the Mosaic user survey, please consider checking it out! It should only take about 10 - 15 minutes and will help us make Mosaic even better. Thanks!

[mosaicart]

Zine voting is open!

Thanks everyone for the wonderful zine submissions! The zine submission deadline has passed, so we are now going to be opening the voting phase.

TO VOTE, please go here: http://mosaic-art.herokuapp.com/submissions/vote

VOTING DEADLINE: Thursday, April 28, 2016, 11:59pm. This is soon, so look at the cool artwork and get your vote in now!

Some things to note:

You can vote for your three favorite submissions (including your own!)

You may vote even if you did not make a submission!

You must have a Mosaic account in order to vote.

The 10 submissions with the most votes will be included in the zine! Payments will be issued to complete submissions soon after the voting deadline passes. Thanks again, and enjoy looking through all the neat projects!

[mosaicart]

Reminder: WIP Zine submissions due 4/25!

Hi all! Just a friendly reminder that submissions to incomplete: the WIP zine are due next Monday, April 25th, at 11:59pm PST!

Some things to remember:

You must use the Submit tab on the zine rules page to officially submit your WIP to the zine! Just creating a project on Mosaic does NOT mean it’s entered into the zine.

Your submission will only count if it’s complete! In other words, it must show your creative process from start to finish, meaning there are multiple images paired with descriptions.

We will be paying $40 gift cards for submissions, capped at 30 slots.

10 submissions will be selected for the actual zine through popular vote from the Mosaic community. We’ll be posting more information about that after the submission deadline.

To make your submission, check out the submission rules here: http://mosaic-art.herokuapp.com/zine

Looking forward to seeing everyone’s WIPs!

[mosaicart]

The deadline is TONIGHT! Ahhh!

[mosaicart]

Reminder: WIP Zine submissions due 4/25!

Hi all! Just a friendly reminder that submissions to incomplete: the WIP zine are due next Monday, April 25th, at 11:59pm PST!

Some things to remember:

You must use the Submit tab on the zine rules page to officially submit your WIP to the zine! Just creating a project on Mosaic does NOT mean it’s entered into the zine.

Your submission will only count if it’s complete! In other words, it must show your creative process from start to finish, meaning there are multiple images paired with descriptions.

We will be paying $40 gift cards for submissions, capped at 30 slots.

10 submissions will be selected for the actual zine through popular vote from the Mosaic community. We’ll be posting more information about that after the submission deadline.

To make your submission, check out the submission rules here: http://mosaic-art.herokuapp.com/zine

Looking forward to seeing everyone’s WIPs!

[mosaicart]

Mosaic Development Updates!

Hi all! I just wanted to announce a few different features that have recently been implemented to hopefully make it easier to find interesting projects on the website.

You can now request critique on a project! Just edit any project, check the box the ask for critique, and additionally ask a specific question to help fellow artists be as helpful as they can be.

You can now browse by projects that need comments or want critique.

Feedback Friday! On Fridays, you’ll receive a short email with a few suggested projects to check out and comment on. Hopefully this is interesting and useful, but you can also unsubscribe from these emails at any time.

Notifications are back! They were causing some issues on the site earlier this week, but they have now-been reenabled.

Also, don’t forget to submit your submission to the WIP zine! You must use the Submit tab on this zine webpage to officially submit your project for the zine. As a reminder, the deadline for this is April 25th, 2016, 11:59pm PST.

Thanks for reading! As always, let me know in a note or email if you have any feedback or suggestions.

[mosaicart]

incomplete: the WIP zine is now paid!

After some deliberation, we've decided to pay for submissions rather than just pay for selected submissions! Submit to the WIP zine to receive a $40 Amazon.com gift card, before the deadline on April 25, 2016 :) There are some caveats you should note:

Submissions will be capped at 30 slots! This means that the artists for the first 30 submissions to be complete (aka, comply with the zine rules) at the time of the deadline will receive payment.

This also means we’re removing the $60 selection prize -- I hope that makes sense!

You may update your submission anytime before the deadline. 

You must be from the U.S. to receive payment for the zine. People from outside the U.S. are welcome to participate in Mosaic otherwise!

Have fun with your submissions and see you on Mosaic!

[mosaicart]

Updates for INCOMPLETE: a WIP zine

Hi all! We're already getting some great projects posted on Mosaic, and we're glad people are finding the system interesting and valuable!  We recently updated the information page for incomplete: the WIP zine with clearer rules and tips for submission. Please note that we are now able to provide compensation for the 10 artists that are selected --- artists whose work are accepted into the zine will receive a $60 Amazon.com gift card! This zine is less about how "good" you are at art, and more about a clear, readable, and interesting series of posts of how you completed a project. For this reason, we welcome artists of all levels to submit to the zine. To participate, go check out Mosaic! Thanks!

[mosaicart]

Announcing Mosaic Beta and INCOMPLETE: a work-in-progress zine!

The creative process is a huge part of creative work! Mosaic is putting out a call for submissions for a zine that showcases not just finished artwork, but the process and thought that goes into developing awesome work.

To participate, please head over to http://mosaic-art.herokuapp.com/zine! Mosaic is a new online platform for artists to share works-in-progress and their art processes (think DeviantArt or Pixiv, but for specifically designed for WIPs!). The deadline for submissions is April 25, 2016 11:59pm PDT.

Zine participants will be selected through community vote on the Mosaic platform. We are planning to feature the top 10 submissions, though we may expand to include more depending on popularity. Selected artists will receive an Amazon.com gift card!

In addition, you can help us make Mosaic better! Mosaic is currently in beta mode, and a major reason Mosaic exists is to study how artists work and how to better design online communities that can support artists. We may reach out to some of you for short, informal interviews and surveys about how Mosaic is working for you, but this is entirely optional.

However, because we will be looking at account activity for research purposes, please note that you do need to be 18+ years old in order to register for an account.

Thank you for reading and hope to see you at Mosaic!