Help support anipan, a new art community!

It's been a while, hello!

Lots of things have been happening recently. I visited the sunshine state for a week with my boyfriend, and just got back over a week ago. It was lovely, we caught 4 days of straight sunshine, no clouds. Perfect beachy weather! Some time earlier in April, we had lots of family over to celebrate my great grandmother's 90th birthday I am so proud of her, you have no idea. To be in perfectly good health, mobile, and still as alert as she was since I've known her is a real blessing indeed.

In other news, I'll be in the artists' area at Otakuthon again this year! The convention runs from the 3rd to the 5th of August, and I will be there all three days, sharing the table with a friend. I'll have more info closer to the date of the con, but I'm looking forward to seeing all the artists I met again <3

And now for the most exciting part of this journal ...

What is anipan?

anipan is a community that puts the emphasis back on displaying your artwork beautifully.

anipan aims to:
put the emphasis back on presenting your artwork beautifully;
reduce copyright infringement of high resolution works;
make your artwork more accessible to a larger global audience;
and to revolutionise the sharing of your artwork with your friends and followers all around the web.
_{The above was taken from anipan's Indigogo campaign page}

Some of anipan's exciting features include:
simple drag and drop upload, with the ability to share to popular sites like Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and deviantART with the click of a button
re-imagined way to view artwork via a magnifying glass-like tool
ability to chat and draw together with others (think paintchat!)
push notifications, allowing you to receive messages in real-time without refreshing (similar to Tumblr!)

anipan has the potential to be absolutely amazing, but in order to do so, it needs help! I've pledged a decent amount, and have given a lot of my time to both this project and MangaBullet. I know it will be worth it, but we're not there yet. We've reached the first quarter of our funding goal today, with 13 days left in the campaign to go!

We can do this. But we can't do it without you.
Please help us reach our goal!

How to help:

Pledge to support us!
We're offering some really cool perks for pledgers who choose to help fund us! Check them out! Some of the cool goodies you could get depending on your pledge: invitation to test anipan when it launches in alpha stage, anipan buttons, official anipan "backer" t-shirt, exclusive prints from famed artists, and even a trip to Japan! Wow! And everyone who pledges, little or big, is entered into a draw to win a batch of homemade cupcakes, baked specially for you by Megan (anipan's co-creator).

Spread the word!
Sign up to Indiegogo, and tell people about anipan's Indiegogo campaign by using your personal link to gain referrals! If you land in the top 3 for referrals, you can win a chance to become anipan's lead mascot! More details about this on the Indiegogo campaign page.

Participate in Kaze-Hime's Tumblr contest!
Reblog this post for a chance to win some lovely artwork! There are six chances to win, check the post for more detail!

Anything else you can think of!
If you can think of anything to help spread the word, we'd be most appreciative! Create your own contest, maybe even some anipan-inspired artwork! A few artists have done that already, here are some you can find on dA:
:thumb299459050: :thumb299985216:

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A bit of background, for those who are interested
anipan is a new art community, brought to you by the people who created MangaBullet. If you're unfamiliar with MangaBullet, it's a small online community made up of artists, gamers, and enthusiasts of Asian culture and entertainment. The community first launched to the public in June of 2008.

MB did a few things differently than other art sites; it currently offers some unique features never before seen on other similar communities:
• members can find artists available for commission onsite
• artists can customise their commissions page and sell custom art through the site
• artists can easily find other artists to trade art with, using the Art Trade feature

MB also introduced hand-writing/drawing comments before any other art community of its kind (yes; before deviantART's muro!) and a personal Oekaki BBS for all its members. These features have been taken down since then due to incompatibility issues and server limitations, but while they were functional, they were quite popular.

The community's moderators—all volunteers!—work very hard to make MangaBullet as enjoyable as possible for its members. MB has also been known to be very receptive to member feedback, and will continue to do the same with anipan.

Please support us!!