This month’s package called for Spring flavored clip art, and our Community answered with some dynamic and elegant work that can be downloaded in it’s entirety or individually, using the key term spring2010.

The images found peppering this article are all works created by me, specifically to be included in this awesome set of work. My Open Clip Art Library username is pianoBrad. I’ll be creating around 10 new images each month for these themed releases, so check my OCAL account often, if you like the work, to see what’s new!

As always, The Open Clip Art Library is reaching for higher ground with a new release targeted in one month. Any artists interested in contributing to a summer package release should register and upload their work tagged with “summer2010.” The Librarians send out a special thanks to all involved in this incredible Spring 2010 Release and look forward to the fun and creative new work underway for the next one!

For more information, please have a look at the official press release.

On March 8th, 2010, the web graphics community was pleasantly surprised with the announcement of Open Clip Art Library, Version 2.0. Following the release, OCAL experienced a creative Renaissance, posting some of it’s best numbers ever, including 1300 new registered users and nearly 1000 new clip art submissions!

Building off of the success of the new format, The Open Clip Art Librarians have quickly followed up with The Announcement of The Open Clip Art Library, Version 2.1!

The increased user base and a community focus on bug reporting has helped the next iteration make necessary improvements. Open Clip Art Library 2.1 increases usability and functionality in a few key ways.

The ability for users to delete existing work allows artists to improve on their existing work without creating duplicates as the image iterates. Password recovery options now exist for those who’ve forgotten how to access their user accounts. Multiple simultaneous uploads are now possible with OCAL’s new Multi-Upload feature. Also worth noting, a Remix button has been added to the details page of all submitted work that creates a convenient gateway for users to build off of existing work!

As a member of Fabricatorz, I was able to work with the Librarians directly, while contributing to the growing library of images; a collection that boasts over 30,000 clip arts! I would like to extend my thanks to everyone involved in this project, including the awesome OCAL artists and supporters. Head over to the Open Clip Art Wiki to read the official press release.

“Clip Art of the Month” for March 2010 is now up on WorldLabel’s Blog. Drawing inspiration from the new Open Clip Art Library Release, this new blog takes a look at Web 2.0 Design and what it means for clip art users.

The Web 2.0 aesthetic leaves a very distinct calling card on modern websites, and it’s important to examine why these elements can improve the internet landscape. The WorldLabel post fully explores these new features. Readers are encouraged to share their thoughts!

Visit Open Clip Art Library to sign up and learn how you can contribute!

During the last few months, I have been actively involved in promoting the Open Clip Art Library through work behind the scenes, as well as “Clip Art of the Month” posts celebrating the contributed works for WorldLabel.

Fellow Fabricator, Jon Phillips co-developed The Open Clip Art Library in early 2004. From there, it has quickly grown into a massive collection sporting over 24,000 scalable vector images, all created by 1200+ artists from around the world.

Because all work uploaded to the site is licensed to the public through Creative Commons’ “Public Domain Dedicated” license, anyone can download and use the entire SVG library for any purpose, including both free and commercial works!

thumbnail previews of user-created content now enrich the site’s visual presence. It has now become much easier to search and download clip art that suits any situation. The new site layout includes an updated theme that emphasizes user interaction by placing more importance on the portal to upload created work, as well as displaying selections from the ever-growing collection.

Behind the scenes, members of Fabricatorz, including, among others, Bassel Safadi, Michi, Ronaldo Barbachano, and Brad Phillips, have helped push The Open Clip Art Library onto the Aiki Framework. This new PHP + MYSQL platform allows programmers to easily create and work with content management systems from the web.

I am super excited about this release, and I encourage everyone to help support Open Clip Art version 2.0 by registering (if you haven’t already) and uploading artwork of your own!.

Read the entire Announcement 2.0 here and at the Fabricatorz post.

A few days passed, and I decided I wanted to try and come up with a semi-organic way to create hatching similar to the above idea on a computer. I’m currently developing using processing. If it turns out, I’ll port it to multiple applications.

You can take a look at a small practice file I’ve been working on the past few days here.