adminaqs: I'm not sure how other people in the community make friends and gather people to critique each others work... but I can tell you how I did it... I started out as a member of the various online gaming communities this time arounds, one who also had an avid interest in CG. About two years ago I was hunting for downloads for bryce and I ran across a site owned by FastTraxx [KenS] that had tons of bryce stuff. I downloaded everything he had, signed his guestbook, and sent him an email thanking him for making that stuff available. He sent me an email back, and we each went our own ways. I met Stormrage the same way via her Coldfyre site, about a year before I discovered Renderosity... I think I'd been here 4 months before she realised that "Ironbear" was the "Sherman Barnes" she'd exchanged a few emails with - if she even remembered the emails. I remembered them and they made an impression on me that someone with the talent of FastTraxx and Stormrage would take the time to write someone they'd never met. When I joined here... I made comments on other people's images, met people in chat, exchanged IM's with the people like Hawkfyre and others I'd met in the forums... and gradually we began showing each others works in progress and exchanging ideas and Icq #'s. I also posted to the various forums, and when someone made a comment on a gallery image of mine, I sent them an IM thanking them for the comment. I met both DarrenChapman and Pinhead that way... and tons of other people: my address book and Icq list looks like the SWBell white pages nowadays. I met three of my best friends, Wizzard, Jackie and Wynter in the forums. There's no secret to it: be yourself, be friendly, and always try to put back more than we take and we just tend to attract good people to us. Sometimes I make good friends by arguing with them, like PJF, februus, and Godzilla, but I don't reccommend it as a way to meet people grin I'm working on a graphic novel myself [amonst other things], so I'm happy to see your post on that. The net needs more quality adult comics. ;]

"I am a good person now and it feels... well, pretty much the same as I felt before (except that the headaches have gone away now that I'm not wearing control top pantyhose on my head anymore)"

• Monkeysmell