Drawball

About

Drawball is a website with two large circular canvases and simple drawing tools for visitors to doodle with. The art on Drawball One is protected and artists must apply for access to draw. Drawball Two can be drawn on by anyone. Artists work on their own or collaboratively. Drawball Two is often vandalized and taken over by various forums with large followings, such as the /b/ (random) board on 4chan. The site also limits the amount of ink users are allowed; the first time a user logs onto the site they are given 75% ink. Returning users are allowed "Over 9000%" ink when they start drawing.

History

Drawball^[1] originally started out in 2005 as a website intended to be an art community project where users could share their talent and skills with the world. As the site drew more attention, it was quickly discovered by several online communities, such as 4chan and France's 15-18 community. Because of the limited space on the ball, and the fact that users were anonymous, it quickly turned from an art project to what was essentially an internet graffiti warzone, where online communities would compete for space on the ball. The drawball admins regularly would search the ball to find any exceptional art so it could be preserved from vandalism.

Search Interest

Drawball 2

Eventually, it was clear that in order to satisfy both parties, a second drawball had to be made. The first drawball is now locked and only users that have applied for access can draw on the first board. The second is open to the public, and anyone can draw on it. Some of the recurring themes include display of national pride, references to internet memes, fandoms and community logos among others.

Hall of Fame

Drawball provides a hall of fame^[2] for the best artwork, including some of the best drawings from both drawballs, and a flash file attached to each showing the progress of each image under construction. In addition, the playback^[3] feature allows the viewer to browse the time-lapse progression of changes made to the Drawball canvas over the timespan of one year.

External References

^[1] Drawball – Drawball.com

^[2] Drawball – Hall of Fame

^[3] Drawball – Playback – One Year at 40 hours Per Second