An art project is a project that has the primary purpose of displaying artwork, either interactive or not; they are sometimes called "Art Dumps".[1] If the project is very interactive or a series of frames, it is usually referred to as an animation. Art projects are encouraged by the Scratch Team, as Scratch is not only about programming but also expressing creativity in any way, even artistically. Art projects will often have less programming, will only play music besides showing and switching artwork, and are sometimes a still image with no scripts at all.
Art Contests
A common event Scratchers use to celebrate with art projects is an art contest. A typical contest has a theme which the contestants must base their drawings on. Once they finish their artwork, it is shared as an art project. There is a limited time to complete the work, and on the release date the judge (contest creator) or the viewers of the project will vote for the best artwork. Often there is a reward to the winners, sometimes being love-its and favorites or follows, however, this may be discouraged by some members of the Scratch community.[2] Another common form of “prize” for contests is one or more drawings of the winners’ original character, also known as OC, or, they may receive a shoutout on the contest creator's profile.
There is a variant of the contests, called as DMC (Draw My Character), where the contestants draw the hosting user's own OC or another character that the user has created.
Art contest creators often require the contestants to remix a base project for organization of the contest. The contest creator can then view each remix, as they are the officially submitted projects. Due to the remixing involved in art contests, the base projects often make the What the Community is Remixing row on the Front Page.
Art Requests
An art request is where a Scratcher gives another Scratcher a piece of art without receiving anything in return. They are often abbreviated as "ARs". Typically, most scratchers will not do Art Requests because they are either too busy, already have ARs they are working on, or would like something in return for their art.
Art Trades
Another popular type of art projects is an "art trade", which occurs when two or more Scratchers draw art for each other. Art trades are often abbreviated as "ATs". These happen to be fairly common on Scratch, but some users discourage it because they feel that the art they draw should only be for themselves. Art trades are unlike art requests, because during art requests, one scratcher requests a piece of art from another Scratcher, but doesn't have to draw art in return. Art trades are almost never front paged, mainly because they have no purpose to anybody but the Scratcher who receives it.
Design Trades
"Design Trades" are similar to Art Trades, except character design are exchanged instead of art. The character design can be anything, once one receive their character from the other scratcher, the character is all theirs. They can do whatever they want with the character. These are commonly abbreviated as "DTs".
Controversy
Opposition
One of the main purposes of Scratch is for users to create their own games, stories, and interactive art. Most art has been interactive in the past, but a recent trend in non-interactive art projects have been noticed by the Scratch Team; though an unexpected trend, such projects have been accepted.[3] Many complicated artworks reach the front page, and their artists usually reach fame and popularity. There is much controversy surrounding art projects in Scratch, a lot of Scratchers complain that they are a waste of space, since they do not contain any actual programming, and "ruin" the purpose of Scratch.[4][5] While this can be supported by Scratch's nature as a programming language, many Scratchers are still open to the new style of Scratch art.
| “ | Scratch is about being creative. That's why we don't capitalize “program” in “imagine, program, share”. Scratch is open to everyone - artists, gamers, RPGers, and people who make stuff that can not be categorized. | ” |
– Lightnin, Scratch Team at MIT[6] | ||
Remixing
Some users who create art projects feel that anyone who remixes their art is "stealing" it, and some suggestions have been made to be able to disable remixes. If a project is a direct copy, it should be reported, but any project that has changes is allowed. The main controversy is over recolors; although some users make contests for coloring, others do not like it when people remix their art and recolor it.
