it's like a meetup where all you do is doodle on napkins

March 3, 2011 2:40 PM

This might be a longshot, but are there any mefites that would be interested in an unofficial oekaki drawing board, or some other kind of drawing/art/Muro/doodle/paintchat board/community?

I've been looking around for ages for a good oekaki board but I think I'm spoiled by how good the community on Metafilter is and so I've had very little luck finding one that's... you know... smart. And friendly.

posted by NoraReed to MetaFilter-Related at 2:40 PM (40 comments total)

I'm interested.
posted by malapropist at 2:56 PM on March 3, 2011

AND MY (FAMOUS) AXE!
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 3:13 PM on March 3, 2011

actually it's more of a tablet
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 3:13 PM on March 3, 2011

Do you guys have favorite software(s) for this sort of thing? I'm mostly familiar with oekaki but am open to other things if there's something more... uh... 21st century.
posted by NoraReed at 3:17 PM on March 3, 2011

Yes.
posted by overeducated_alligator at 3:41 PM on March 3, 2011

Count me in!
posted by Phire at 3:44 PM on March 3, 2011

I am unfamiliar with oekaki, but I like drawing. I AM SO IN.
posted by Metroid Baby at 3:59 PM on March 3, 2011

Okay, so I'm thinking of just using a free service like oekakiBBS to do this because it's enough of a pain in the ass for me to keep Wordpress updated and most oekaki software is sort of weird and terrible and will often, like, throw up weird php errors for no reason. Or so I hear. And I'm not really tech-savvy enough to handle that shit.

BUT! If anyone actually *is* tech-savvy enough to handle that shit they are totally welcome to do so; I'd happily pitch in a few bucks for hosting if necessary. From what I'm seeing around they probably end up being about 5 gigs/month, though it is likely to be a lot less for us because there are not all that many of us, and I think it is unlikely that we are going to be spending all day in the site's chatroom discussing our favorite pokemans, which is the #1 use for oekaki software on the internet as far as I can tell.
posted by NoraReed at 5:26 PM on March 3, 2011

That'd be rad. I used to be a regular on OekakiCentral (and a mod, actually) but left after it got so bloated. It'd be great to have a smaller drawing community again.
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 7:14 PM on March 3, 2011

Yes please.
posted by elsietheeel at 8:45 PM on March 3, 2011

I've never heard of such a thing. It sounds like fun, and I look forward to drawing hours and hours worth of Psyduck pictures.
posted by Greg Nog at 5:01 AM on March 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

It sounds like iSketch without a goal. I'm interested. Also because I have to counter with Poliwhirl. I have a suspicion that its markings may make Psyduck's headaches increase.
posted by not_on_display at 7:13 AM on March 4, 2011

Oh, man. I miss being on oekakis...I used to draw infinite amounts of morose looking girls on them. I even had a title, "The Master of Eyes"........oooooh, the glory days of oekaki, IRC chats and ICQ. I weep for my spent youth.
posted by kkokkodalk at 9:08 AM on March 4, 2011

Yes yes yes yes yesplease. Greg Nog had better be serious too.
posted by jinjo at 9:15 AM on March 4, 2011

I am totally in on the pokemans drawing. I have an embarrassing number of Pokemon doodles in my sketchbook.
posted by Metroid Baby at 9:28 AM on March 4, 2011

I'm on board
posted by newmoistness at 11:47 AM on March 4, 2011

Neat! I would.
posted by Glinn at 12:13 PM on March 4, 2011

I'm in. Time to find my tablet.
posted by defenestration at 1:23 PM on March 4, 2011

I was not familiar with this. Do you have to be any good?
posted by Xezlec at 1:46 PM on March 4, 2011

Wow, I'd never heard of this. But it sounds interesting!
posted by limeonaire at 1:57 PM on March 4, 2011

Tablets?? Pfft, back in my day I only had only a trackpad (and MAYBE a finicky mouse if I ws any lucky). And I had to walk a mile through 10 feet of snow, uphill, BOTH WAYS to go out back and hand crank my internet connection.
posted by kkokkodalk at 3:33 PM on March 4, 2011

I was not familiar with this. Do you have to be any good?

This is why I wanted a metafilter one where the people are "friendly" and "interesting" as primary requirements instead of "good at drawing".

I might be able to throw one on my Dad's server, I'm gonna see about that over the weekend.
posted by NoraReed at 3:41 PM on March 4, 2011

I am intrigued by your newsletter and may wish to subscribe.

Will there be a tater room? Because, you know
posted by mwhybark at 5:06 PM on March 4, 2011

I have a hosting account with Bluehost, which, unless there's some really fine print I'm not reading, gives me unlimited bandwidth. So hosting isn't an issue if we decide we want something more dedicated than just a BBS somewhere, though I'm not familiar with installing oekaki software per se.
posted by Phire at 8:22 PM on March 4, 2011

I'm interested. No idea what the current state of oekaki software is, but I imagine mefites coming up with some interesting stuff.
posted by Alterscape at 10:11 PM on March 4, 2011

Phire, we don't have unlimited bandwidth, so if you could do it there I would be much obliged. This is the most current version of the oekaki software and here is a guide to installing.
posted by NoraReed at 10:58 PM on March 4, 2011

Okay. I think this is set up correctly if anyone wants to test it. I'll be up a while, so if there are any bugs shoot me a MeMail and I'll try to work it out.
posted by Phire at 11:18 PM on March 4, 2011

I put a sketch of bunny-with-pancake there to test it out - first impressions are that it takes a bit of testing to get a paint applet that works for you, and I had to take the "/oekaki" out of the email verification URL to get it to register me, but I love the idea of a MeFite art board.
posted by wanderingmind at 11:53 PM on March 4, 2011

Hmm. Verification seems to be broken. I tried it twice and for some reason it's not working. Could you manually approve either NoraReed or Reed?
posted by NoraReed at 11:58 PM on March 4, 2011

Oh! Wanderingmind has it figured out, nevermind.
posted by NoraReed at 11:59 PM on March 4, 2011

BOOYAH there are some XXX taters for y'all

So I recommend ShiPainter Pro to ya'll who're new. It's what I learned on, and I think it's pretty swell as far as simple programs are concerned-- variety of tools that isn't so many that it gets overwhelming, good layer tools, the masking feature is sweet. If you turn the animation on it'll keep track of everything you do so you can watch the drawing happen superfast, which is both a useful way to learn and a way to hide dicks in G-rated pictures
posted by NoraReed at 12:17 AM on March 5, 2011

I messed around with the config file so hopefully the next person to register shouldn't have that verification issue. I appreciate the bug reports!
posted by Phire at 12:28 AM on March 5, 2011

By the way, right now it's set to a maximum of 500 pictures (and then I guess it starts deleting old ones?) but if we feel like we need to I can move that number up.
posted by Phire at 12:31 AM on March 5, 2011

You are awesome, Phire. Thanks much for your hosting.
posted by NoraReed at 12:33 AM on March 5, 2011

No problem! What else am I going to use all that unlimited storage for, right? I've added you as an admin, I hope that's alright.
posted by Phire at 12:55 AM on March 5, 2011

Please post this to Projects or something to promote it?
posted by overeducated_alligator at 5:38 AM on March 5, 2011

Is Projects really the place for it? Maybe we should put it on the wiki or something?
posted by NoraReed at 7:03 PM on March 5, 2011

Does anyone else totally suck at drawing with a mouse or tablets despite being pretty good with pen or pencil or brush? No? Just me?
posted by Hoopo at 12:42 PM on March 6, 2011 [3 favorites]

Huh, interesting. I'd imagined this to be something completely different, more like a giant blank freeform canvas, like they used to have as part of NetMeeting, that anyone could add to and update. Wonder if there's software out there for that...
posted by limeonaire at 6:29 PM on March 6, 2011

I've been sick, but I will be totally be posting random crap next week when I have more energy.
posted by Phire at 7:57 PM on March 6, 2011