Welcome to Creative Spark!

Creative Spark is a discussion community for artists around the world, and of all kinds. All creative people are welcome! We have a very small staff of four artists who run this place for the love of art. We are doing it in our spare time, and it's all funded by loose change found in our couch cushions. And of course, the beautiful people who have become contributing members. Thank you to our generous donors for your support!

New members are pre-approved to help prevent spam. Please allow up to 24 hours for moderator approval, but most likely much sooner. Check your spam box for your confirmation email if you haven't received it within a few minutes.

Once approved, we ask that you introduce yourself in the Welcome Center Forum. Don't be shy!

We do have a few rules:

• We expect users to show basic civility, etiquette, and respect for all other members and staff. Creative Spark is a friendly and supportive community, and we expect everyone to play their part in ensuring it remains so.
• We do not engage in artistic censorship, but the forums are moderated to ensure everyone abides by the rules.

  That said, we do ask that you use some discretion when posting potentially sensitive work. For example, artwork depicting nudes are completely fine. However, if the work is bordering on pornographic, please do not post it. If you aren't sure, add a “NSFW” (Not-Safe-For-Work) warning in the topic of your post. There is also a NSFW prefix icon available for your use.

• This is not a place to debate or discuss politics, religion, conspiracy theories, or any divisive topics. Those things are not welcome here. We will delete posts that will provoke any kind of discord or argument. Stick to relevant topics (art!).

  Artwork depicting something political in nature is allowed, however, there is a fine line here. Tasteful portraits of political figures, or political landmarks for example are perfectly acceptable to share. We ask that you keep any political opinions to yourself, however, and keep the discussion related to the technical aspects of the artwork.

• Posting lengthy excerpts from other sites (including Wikipedia) is not allowed. We respect the copyrights of others, and too much text from other sites can land us in hot water with Google. And we must not anger the Google gods!
• Do not use the forum only as a place for self-promotion and do not solicit other forum members or solicit in general. You're welcome to add your website and contact information to your signature, and members who participate in the community can certainly promote things from time to time. But if you don't participate in the community, you shouldn’t be advertising. Excessive advertising will be removed at the administrators' discretion.

  Allowed – Including a website in your signature or profile; including contact information in your signature or profile; a brief mention that a shared artwork is available for sale; mentioning a show you are participating in.

  NOT Allowed – Requesting money for any reason; requesting, suggesting or otherwise encouraging donations*

  * If you are participating in an art-related program (for example: community art programs; collection and donation of art supplies; other art-related education), it might be allowed to be posted. However, please contact a moderator or administrator to obtain permission before doing so. If approved, you will be encouraged to share it in either the Art School Forum, Market Place Forum, or Art Business Forum.

• We are a human rights, LGBTQ+ friendly community. If you are not, or have any anti-gay, anti-trans views that you just have to express, this is not the place. Any hate speech, disparaging language against physically/mentally disabled people, or any other human beings will be taken very seriously.
• We have ZERO tolerance towards trolls, any troll-like behavior, or anything the staff perceives to be harassing, argumentative, or hostile toward others or the site’s policies. Trolls will be swiftly banned without warning.
• We are an English-speaking forum. Please don't post in other languages.
• Please do not use uncommon acronyms unless you define them in parentheses. We don't want anyone to feel left out.
• We issue warnings when anyone runs afoul of the rules, and we will permanently ban users who disregard the rules at our discretion.
• Finally, we'd just like to stress that the Creative Spark rules are not optional or open for debate with moderators. Respect our guidelines and everyone will respect you. Please and thank you.

A few other things to note:

• You may post up to ten images per post. They will automatically be resized at a maximum of 900 pixels wide.
• You do not have the ability to delete your posts, but you have up to 90 minutes to edit them.
• Direct-messages are private, but everyone can see your profile posts.
• We do not delete posts or remove all of a user's content on request. For GDPR compliance, we will remove identifying profile information when an EU or UK member requests removal (see details below).

If you require any assistance or have any questions, feel free to reach out to any staff member at any time! We're happy to help!

We look forward to meeting you and enjoying your participation. Have fun!

GDPR Compliance: For European Union General Data Protection Regulation compliance purposes, Creative Spark owns all user-generated content on the site. If an EU or UK member requests data removal, we will remove identifying information such as username and avatar (the existing username and avatar will be replaced by an anonymous author name and avatar), but we will not remove post content. If someone requesting GDPR data removal has used identifying information in specific posts, they can ask that the information be removed from the specific posts by providing the URLs for the posts and specifying which identifying information should be removed. That includes posts made by other members that contain personal data about the GDPR data removal requester.