Elfwood
Encyclopedia
Elfwood is a popular web-based alternative art gallery
and online community
devoted to original science fiction
and fantasy
art and writing
. It was started 1 May 1996 by Thomas Abrahamsson and claims to be the largest science fiction and fantasy art site in the world.
of Linköping University
in Sweden
. At the time, its gallery consisted of three artists (including Abrahamsson), and all submissions and updates to the site were managed directly by Abrahamsson, with the individual users e-mailing Abrahamsson with their requested submissions or changes.
As the Lothlorien membership and gallery expanded, Abrahamsson developed the site's extranet
in August 1997, allowing Elfwood members to manage their own individual art galleries and account information directly, without requiring webmaster assistance.
After a while, "Zone 47" was created for sci-fi and modern fantasy art, and two years later the "Wyvern's Library" was created for written science fiction and fantasy submissions. A few months later, FARP (Fantasy Art Resource Project) was created.
In April 2000 the ERB (Elfwood Review Board) was founded; it is responsible for maintaining the rules on Elfwood.
In January 2004 the sections known as Zone 47 and Lothlorien followed suit with the Wyvern's Library, merging to create the current SF&F Art area. Along with the change came a new layout for the whole site, as well as revisions to the rules. In November of that year, Elfwood artist Paul Cameron Bennett was charged in League City, Texas
for kidnapping
a 14-year-old girl, Margaret “Katy” Catherine Wilkerson, who he met through a chat-room linked through Elfwood.
Elfwood had a major crash, dubbed "the infamous April Fool's Day Elfwood crash," on the first of April in 2005. All data was lost and the last backup was from February. The site came back with a timewarp to February and the rules were again revised and rewritten. Archived copies of the Elfwood statistics counter from the Wayback Machine
show 8000 fewer images and 200 fewer stories between the 1st and 10th of April 2005.
Elfwood celebrated its 10th anniversary in May 2006, and to commemorate this anniversary, the Opus Fantasy Arts Festival held the very first Elfwood summit in conjunction with the festival. A guest writer and guest artist was featured at the summit.
website, Elfwood was transformed into a commercial community in September 2007, adding new features for creating user profiles also for visiting users, tagging of favorite members and works and much more. Founder Thomas Abrahamsson said, "Cost for hosting and servers had become too high to handle as a hobby project." With this came the move of the servers from Linköping University. Before the move, Abrahamsson was frequently physically unable to access the servers to maintain the site due to their former location at the university grounds, which were locked down during the holidays.
In April 2009, Elfwood was re-launched in a new look and feel, with several important improvements at the site.
In May 2009, Elfwood launched a completely revised set of simplified rules, accepting a much wider range of works and even out-of-genre items under a special 'Other Works' tab. The Extranet was taken down its functions fully transferred to the main site, replaced by a more user friendly upload interface and simpler moderation process.
As of August 16, 2010, there were 941 separate galleries in SciFi & Fantasy Art and 148 galleries in FanQuarter.
Two other notable community projects of Elfwood were Elftown and Woodworks.
started out as the official Elfwood social networking site in February 2002 by Henrik Wallin. Later on the projects became more like sister projects and the projects got physically split in 2007 when Elfwood's servers moved.
The Elfwood claims that it currently gets around 3,500,000 pageviews a day and around 3,000,000 million unique IP numbers (visitors) every month. In December 2006, these numbers were around 80000 daily unique visitors and around 2000000 web pages daily.
.
The FARP section of the site has been frequently recommended as a free resource for tutorials in a wide variety of creative topics. For example, TeachEngineering.org cited two of FARP's tutorials as "excellent guides" for figure drawing
and writing about action, Figure Drawing: Basic Pose and Construction by William Li and Writing Action by S. B. "Kinko" Hulsey.
Each piece is reviewed by moderators before being displayed in a gallery, and profanity and provocative language is not allowed. Some Elfwood fans consider the rules necessary to ensure a certain level of quality in the art they find there, while others criticize these rules for restricting artistic freedom. As of August 31, 2005 the rules were simplified, and in May 2009 they were further streamlined allowing also Non-Genre contents under a new "Other Works" tab.
Art gallery
An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...
and online community
Online community
An online community is a virtual community that exists online and whose members enable its existence through taking part in membership ritual. An online community can take the form of an information system where anyone can post content, such as a Bulletin board system or one where only a restricted...
devoted to original science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
art and writing
Writing
Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
. It was started 1 May 1996 by Thomas Abrahamsson and claims to be the largest science fiction and fantasy art site in the world.
Early years
Elfwood was originally founded on May 1, 1996, by Thomas Abrahamsson, under the name of the "Lothlorien" project and was aimed at amateur high-fantasy artists. The site was hosted by the academic computer club LysatorLysator
Lysator is an academic computer club at Linköping University, Sweden with almost 600 members. It is an independent non-profit society, separate from the students' union and the faculties of the university.- History :...
of Linköping University
Linköping University
Linköping University is a state university in Linköping, Sweden. Linköping University was granted full university status in 1975 and is now one of Sweden's larger academic institutions. Education, research and PhD training are the mission of four faculties: Arts and Sciences, Educational...
in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. At the time, its gallery consisted of three artists (including Abrahamsson), and all submissions and updates to the site were managed directly by Abrahamsson, with the individual users e-mailing Abrahamsson with their requested submissions or changes.
As the Lothlorien membership and gallery expanded, Abrahamsson developed the site's extranet
Extranet
An extranet is a computer network that allows controlled access from the outside, for specific business or educational purposes. An extranet can be viewed as an extension of a company's intranet that is extended to users outside the company, usually partners, vendors, and suppliers...
in August 1997, allowing Elfwood members to manage their own individual art galleries and account information directly, without requiring webmaster assistance.
After a while, "Zone 47" was created for sci-fi and modern fantasy art, and two years later the "Wyvern's Library" was created for written science fiction and fantasy submissions. A few months later, FARP (Fantasy Art Resource Project) was created.
In April 2000 the ERB (Elfwood Review Board) was founded; it is responsible for maintaining the rules on Elfwood.
Temporary closing
In June 2001, Elfwood was closed due to death threats and reopened a month later. In July the FanQuarter area was opened. At the end of 2001 changes to Elfwood were put on hold so a more manageable system could be created. Elfwood was reopened in February 2002 with a new moderating system. After that, every update has had to go through the Elfwood moderators. Along with the new moderating system came Mod's Choice awards. These awards are designated by a star on the thumbnail and an icon of a phoenix feather on the page of the artwork. Each day's Mod's Choice awards can be found on the Elfwood homepage.In January 2004 the sections known as Zone 47 and Lothlorien followed suit with the Wyvern's Library, merging to create the current SF&F Art area. Along with the change came a new layout for the whole site, as well as revisions to the rules. In November of that year, Elfwood artist Paul Cameron Bennett was charged in League City, Texas
League City, Texas
League City is a city in Galveston County and Harris County in the U.S. state of Texas, within the metropolitan area. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the city population was 45,444; in the 2006 census estimate, the population was listed as 67,200. The 2010 Census places the population of League City...
for kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
a 14-year-old girl, Margaret “Katy” Catherine Wilkerson, who he met through a chat-room linked through Elfwood.
Elfwood had a major crash, dubbed "the infamous April Fool's Day Elfwood crash," on the first of April in 2005. All data was lost and the last backup was from February. The site came back with a timewarp to February and the rules were again revised and rewritten. Archived copies of the Elfwood statistics counter from the Wayback Machine
Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine is a digital time capsule created by the Internet Archive non-profit organization, based in San Francisco, California. It is maintained with content from Alexa Internet. The service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the Archive calls a "three...
show 8000 fewer images and 200 fewer stories between the 1st and 10th of April 2005.
Elfwood celebrated its 10th anniversary in May 2006, and to commemorate this anniversary, the Opus Fantasy Arts Festival held the very first Elfwood summit in conjunction with the festival. A guest writer and guest artist was featured at the summit.
Commercialization and afterwards
After 11 years as an amateurAmateur
An amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without pay and often without formal training....
website, Elfwood was transformed into a commercial community in September 2007, adding new features for creating user profiles also for visiting users, tagging of favorite members and works and much more. Founder Thomas Abrahamsson said, "Cost for hosting and servers had become too high to handle as a hobby project." With this came the move of the servers from Linköping University. Before the move, Abrahamsson was frequently physically unable to access the servers to maintain the site due to their former location at the university grounds, which were locked down during the holidays.
In April 2009, Elfwood was re-launched in a new look and feel, with several important improvements at the site.
In May 2009, Elfwood launched a completely revised set of simplified rules, accepting a much wider range of works and even out-of-genre items under a special 'Other Works' tab. The Extranet was taken down its functions fully transferred to the main site, replaced by a more user friendly upload interface and simpler moderation process.
Artistic Display Areas
Elfwood has three main display areas for creative work:- SciFi & Fantasy Art is the main section (it was formerly divided in two sections, "Lothlorien" for high fantasyHigh fantasyHigh fantasy or epic fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy that is set in invented or parallel worlds. High fantasy was brought to fruition through the work of authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, whose major fantasy works were published in the 1950s...
art and "Zone 47" for science fiction and modern/futuristic fantasy art). - Wyvern's Library is for sci-fi and fantasy themed storiesStoriesStories may refer to:* Height of more than one Storey * Stories , a greatest hits compilation album by Randy Stonehill...
and poetryPoetryPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, including short stories as well as longer novels broken up by chapters. - FanQuarter is devoted to fan artFan artFan art or fanart is artwork that is based on a character, costume, collage, item, or story that was created by someone other than the artist, such as a fan, from which the word is derived from. The term, while it can apply to art done by fans of characters from books, is usually used to refer to...
based on sci-fi or fantasy themed visual media such as games, movies, cartoons or TV-shows.
As of August 16, 2010, there were 941 separate galleries in SciFi & Fantasy Art and 148 galleries in FanQuarter.
Art and Writing Tutorials
Elfwood currently host a sub section, called the "FARP" (Fantasy Art Resource Project), dedicated to articles on the creation of Fantasy and Science Fiction art and stories. It is a free guide to the techniques used by artists and writers of Elfwood in the creation of their work. The name is slightly misleading since the section also contain articles on writing and world creation in general, and includes art, writing, business, and other guides which may be useful to the amateur artist. It also features the history of art, tricks & tips, and so much more.Community
The Twilight Tavern, released in February 2008, is the official forum of Elfwood.Two other notable community projects of Elfwood were Elftown and Woodworks.
Elftown
ElftownElftown
Elftown is an Internet community or social networking site for people interested in fantasy and science fiction. It was started as the official Elfwood social networking site in February 2002 by Henrik Wallin...
started out as the official Elfwood social networking site in February 2002 by Henrik Wallin. Later on the projects became more like sister projects and the projects got physically split in 2007 when Elfwood's servers moved.
Woodworks
The Elfwood ezine Woodworks was started in January 2002 by Georgette Tan, which featured articles, reviews, artwork and tutorials by Elfwood members. Tan later retired as Editor and Megan Larson took the position, leading Woodworks to its final issue in December 2004. It is now hosted in an inactive state at the main Elfwood site after the domain was finally shut down in late 2006.Statistics
In 2003, Elfwood had 6700 artists and 1300 writers. It logged 14500 sessions per day, each averaging 35 minutes in length. Sixty percent of the users were in the USA and most of the rest in Canada and Europe.| Date | Number of Members who Publish | Non-publishing Members | Total | Comments Written | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SciFi Fantasy (# of Images) | Fiction (# of Stories) | FanArt (# of Images) | ||||
| 2003 | 6700 artists and 1300 writers | - | - | - | ||
| 5 Jun 2004 | 22417 (383239) | 4822 (30947) | 3508 (32467) | - | - | 9183329¤ |
| 1 Apr 2005◊ | 24984 (434163) | 5406 (34431) | 3943 (37210) | - | - | 11286593¤ |
| 10 Apr 2005◊ | 24523 (426700) | 5338 (34228) | 3879 (36668) | - | - | 11002115¤ |
| Dec 2006 | 26285 (451312) | 5771 (36182) | 3836 (36740) | - | - | 11002115¤ |
| May 2008 | 25867 (441332) | 5773 (36055) | 3595 (33830) | 35451 | 70686 | 4014119 |
| 25 Feb 2009 | 25685 (434637) | 5767 (35853) | 3472 (32479) | 48622 | 83345 | 4165282 |
| 20 August 2010 | 28841 (488826†) | 6419 (37056) | 3810 (-) | 61580 | 100650 | 4134721 |
| 29 March 2011 | 29436 (494174†) | 6463 (37296) | 3843 (-) | 66463 | 106205 | 4063941 |
| * Notes where data may have been left unchanged from previous recording in Wikipedia in error. ◊ A major Elfwood server crash on the first of April in 2005 wiped out 2 months of data. ¤ This number may include posts from Elftown Elftown Elftown is an Internet community or social networking site for people interested in fantasy and science fiction. It was started as the official Elfwood social networking site in February 2002 by Henrik Wallin... before the project split from Elfwood. Also, it did not appear to change after mid April 2005 until late 2007. † This number, from the ticker on the top right corner of the Elfwood site, may be counting SciFi Fantasy and FanArt together. |
||||||
The Elfwood claims that it currently gets around 3,500,000 pageviews a day and around 3,000,000 million unique IP numbers (visitors) every month. In December 2006, these numbers were around 80000 daily unique visitors and around 2000000 web pages daily.
Reception
Elfwood has been praised as an outlet for alternative beliefs. The community has been described as a "very interactive place where people are very supportive," in a quote from the San Jose Mercury NewsSan Jose Mercury News
The San Jose Mercury News is a daily newspaper in San Jose, California. On its web site, however, it calls itself Silicon Valley Mercury News. The paper is owned by MediaNews Group...
.
The FARP section of the site has been frequently recommended as a free resource for tutorials in a wide variety of creative topics. For example, TeachEngineering.org cited two of FARP's tutorials as "excellent guides" for figure drawing
Figure drawing
In art, a figure drawing is a study of the human form in its various shapes and body postures - sitting, standing or even sleeping. It is a study or stylized depiction of the human form, with the line and form of the human figure as the primary objective, rather than the subject person. It is a...
and writing about action, Figure Drawing: Basic Pose and Construction by William Li and Writing Action by S. B. "Kinko" Hulsey.
Criticism
Some regard Elfwood's restrictions regarding the theme and quality of the submitted material as too strict – for instance, a piece cannot usually be on lined paper, poorly cropped or in the case of writing, have faulty HTML.Each piece is reviewed by moderators before being displayed in a gallery, and profanity and provocative language is not allowed. Some Elfwood fans consider the rules necessary to ensure a certain level of quality in the art they find there, while others criticize these rules for restricting artistic freedom. As of August 31, 2005 the rules were simplified, and in May 2009 they were further streamlined allowing also Non-Genre contents under a new "Other Works" tab.
Notable artists
The following are some notable artists from all over the world who contributed to Elfwood at some point in time:- Alena Lazareva — is a RussiaRussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n digital artist who specializes in digital paintingDigital paintingDigital painting is an emerging art form in which traditional painting techniques such as watercolor, oils, impasto, etc. are applied using digital tools by means of a computer, a digitizing tablet and stylus, and software. Traditional painting is painting with a physical medium as opposed to a...
. - Natalia Pierandrei — better known as "Nati", is an ItalianItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
traditional illustratorIllustratorAn Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
. - Andreas Rocha — is a PortuguesePortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
2D digital illustrator and 3DComputer-aided designComputer-aided design , also known as computer-aided design and drafting , is the use of computer technology for the process of design and design-documentation. Computer Aided Drafting describes the process of drafting with a computer...
architectural designerArchitectural designerAn architectural designer is an architect that is primarily involved in the design of buildings or urban landscapes, as opposed to the construction documents and management required to construct it. Architectural designers have good creative skills, imagination and artistic talent...
.