Phoenixsong
beep beep coming through
- Pronoun
- she/they/any
(five year old picture is five years old and the addition of the text is crap to boot, but shut up it was all I could find in a hurry D:)
ATTN: Voting has started. See this post for details.
ZOMGWTF TCoD ART CONTEST? (wait where is the "sprite" part I CAN'T FIND IT)
ATTN: Voting has started. See this post for details.
ZOMGWTF TCoD ART CONTEST? (wait where is the "sprite" part I CAN'T FIND IT)
No, my little fudgy lumpkins, your eyes do not deceive you. An ARTWORK contest. Not a sprite contest, an artwork contest. (Yes, sprites are technically art, but obviously there are actual sprite contests for that.) In the two years I've been here at TCoD I don't think I've ever seen a contest for non-pixel artwork, and it's high time you non-pixellers got a chance to strut your stuff and maybe win yourselves a little somethin'-somethin'. So! I am going to hold TCoD's first-ever (?) art contest.
I'm not just holding a contest for the sake of holding a contest, however. I'm doing it so that everyone who gets involved will have a chance to better themselves art-wise. When I judge the entries I will include some constructive criticism about each one, yes, but there's more to it than that. When all of the entries are in there will be another round before my final judging; in that round, you, the entrants and other assembled viewers, will vote for who gets to move on. In your vote you'll need to include a constructive comment about the picture you're voting for. This way, everyone benefits: the artists get a few pointers and some publicity (and a prize if they place!), and everyone gets a little practice giving helpful criticism (something that some people desperately need, if my observations are correct).
Sounds like fun, yes? Of course it does. Enter, dammit. >|
Yes, the following is lengthy. Yes, I am a strict little nitpicky jerk. And yes, I know that constructive criticism scares some of you. But trust me, it isn't as hard or complex as it seems. Bear with me, and this should turn out to be great.
CONTEST RULES
This is how the contest will work:
1. The contest theme is "Holidays"; the deadline is December 15th, 2008. You've got just about a month to come up with an idea and create it, so that should be plenty of time.
To elaborate on the theme, I mean any holiday that comes between now and the end of the calendar year. No, I am not trying to be politically correct, I'm just being open. I seriously don't care what holiday it is, how obscure it is, whether it's religious or secular. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Diwali, Boxing Day, go for it. In fact, you can combine them all if you feel up for a nice challenge. Just be sure that it's an actual holiday and that we have some way of telling what it's supposed to be (a link to information about a more obscure holiday would be nice). The subject of the artwork can be whatever you like as long as you can force it to fit within the theme, so go crazy.
2. You submit a pretty picture, following the theme and guidelines, before the entry deadline. I'll add the link to your image to the first post. There is no limit on the number of entries other than however many people enter before the deadline, and any type of art is allowed: traditional or digital, lineart or colored, MSPaint or Photoshop, crayon or colored pencil, heck, even 3D crafts like sculptures or banners/avatars/whatever. Absolutely anything, that is, except for sprites/pixel art; you spriters already have a whole mess of proper sprite contests to enter, durr, so you have no business here. I will not have you and your little pixelly demons stealing the spotlight in *my* art contest, and so any and all pixel entries WILL be shot on sight. You can only enter one picture, but you may change your entry as many times as you like before the deadline as long as you make it clear that that's what you're doing. You cannot change your entry once the deadline has passed.
3. When the deadline is reached I will open the thread up for voting until a certain date. Anyone may vote, not just the entrants. To vote, post the name of the entrant you are voting for and leave a comment about their entry. It should explain why you think the entry deserves to move on to the next round, but it should also contain a little constructive criticism so that you can help the artist improve. Votes that are not constructive will not be counted, so if you want your favorite picture to win you're going to have to work for it! You can only vote for one entrant, but you may change your vote as many times as you like as long as you make it very clear that that's what you're doing and give constructive comments about the relevant picture each time. And lastly, entrants may NOT vote for their own artwork. Come now, that's just silly.
4. When the voting deadline is reached I will count the valid votes and the X people with the most votes will move on, with X being a number I will determine after I see how many entries there are (you will know before the voting starts). If X is a relatively small number the contest will go straight into the final judging round; if it's larger, there will be a second voting round identical to the first. Then Y people with the most votes out of group X will move on to the final round.
5. I will judge the remaining entries based on the criteria I mention below, and the first, second and third place winners will receive the prizes detailed further down. After I post my judging of the three winning entries I will post the scores for all the other entries, just so everyone gets the complete constructive comment package.
(Note: I am giving you all a chance to vote for your favorite pictures and work on your constructive criticism skills. If, when the voting deadline approaches, I get the impression that a large number of you are having real hangups with this, I'll just jump straight to the final round and make my decisions then.)
Scores will be based on creativity, adherence to the theme and technical skill, in that order. I understand that the members here all have greatly varying degrees of skill and wildly different styles, but I am doing my best to make sure that it does not count against you too much if you are not Michelangelo. Regardless of your actual score, though, I am going to criticize the tar out of all aspects of your picture anyway. Remember, this isn't just about the prizes, it's about helping everyone improve. Hopefully, you the people will use similar criteria when you look at the entries and cast your vote.
PRIZES
Yes, prizes. First place gets two pictures from me, one sketch and one colored in Photoshop, of almost anything* they want; second place gets one Photoshop-colored picture; third place gets one sketch. (If anyone else wants to offer any other prizes they are welcome to do so.) And, of course, everyone gets their constructive comment giving-and-receiving practice, which is obviously the most important part. Yes. Yes it is.
...I promise your prizes will look better than that crappy and ancient banner up there. D:
*details on the artwork prizes will be explained to the winners after the contest is over
I'M ALMOST DONE, I SWEAR
And lastly, a few guidelines:
-You do not need to reserve a space, as there is no limit to the number of entrants. If you're going to enter, just post your entry and be done with it.
-No images that wouldn't be allowed under the forum rules, obviously. Other than that I honestly do not care what it is.
-Make a new post for your entry, please. Otherwise I will have absolutely no idea that you've gone ahead and entered (remember: there's no notification given when all you do is edit a post), as my inclination is not to go back and read over all the old posts every single time I open a thread.
-Please try to present the best quality image you can. I'm not just talking about your skill level: I mean things like not saving as a .gif if it looks better as a .jpeg and vice versa, scanning any traditional artwork properly, and if you don't have a scanner/can't scan your entry then taking the best quality photograph you can manage. You can draw the prettiest picture in the universe and it won't matter if it's blurry as all get-out. You are guaranteed at least one point in technical skill if you can show me a clean image.
-Do not enter anything that is not your own work, and give credit if credit is necessary. So, for example, if you use a Raikou image from Suta-Raito in your banner, give credit to Suta-Raito somewhere in your image or in your post.
-asdfghjkl; do not put the picture directly into your post when you submit your entry. After you've uploaded it to someplace like deviantART, Photobucket, Imageshack, wherever, just link to it. I do not know how many people will be entering this contest but I do know that some of you are fond of absolutely massive pictures that you do not resize/optimize, and if the thread ends up taking forever to load or if people need to scroll back and forth to view all the pictures... no. Bandwidth and screen real estate don't grow on trees, dagnabbit! *waves cane* If you post the image directly then I will beat you with my oldpersoncane until you make it hide behind a link like I asked you to.
(hint hint if you feel comfortable doing it without causing a drop in quality then try to resize/optimize your images anyway, it will make me very happy)
-Do not vote for someone just because they are your friend or whatever. This is not about friends or popularity, it's about artistic improvement. This is why I require an actual constructive comment about the artwork when you are posting your vote. If you can really justify voting for your friend's entry then by all means, go ahead. "Vote for me and I'll vote for you" is also stupid, so don't do it. I am trying to LEARN you things here, people, and nonsense like favoritism and bribery does not help me learn you things. Your vote will not count if I do not think you are trying to be helpful.
-If you cannot take constructive criticism without bitching about it, GTFO. I'm not kidding. Go away and don't come back. You don't have to agree with the criticism, you don't have to implement it in your next picture/fix your entry, but if you respond to any criticism given then you'd better be civil about it. I cannot stand people who can't take constructive criticism, and if you start complaining left and right then I'm disqualifying your entry--even if you've already technically won something. No mercy for whiners.
-Similarly, if you are going to participate then you need to be willing and able to give constructive criticism. First of all, "It looks funny" is not constructive criticism. Be specific, point out details; "the right eye doesn't line up with the left eye" is much more helpful than "the eyes are jacked up". I understand that some people feel that they aren't good at giving criticism; I also understand that some people have a tendency to be struck dumb when they see a piece of artwork that they think is really good. But guess what? Just because it's really good doesn't mean that it's flawless. No one here is God or Mother Nature or Leonardo da Vinci or whoever the hell you think is the known universe's most perfect artist. We're all just a bunch of teenagers on a Pokémon forum. Trust me, there will be something to criticize, so please try to find at least one thing to comment on. You're only helping the entrants if you do. ;)
And second of all, you need to be civil as well. You can be harsh if you feel you need to (damn straight you can I sure will be), but don't be rude. "Hey, you suuuuuck" does not fly with the Kratos.
If you honestly cannot think of anything to criticize, at least give constructive praise. "I really like the way you colored the sky; the clouds look so realistic" is better than "OwO prettyfuls 10/10". Once again, if I think you are being unhelpful I will not count your vote.
-You are more than welcome to comment (constructively) on the entries you are not voting for, but please make sure that you are clear about which picture you are voting for. Doing something like adding the phrase "I am voting for Artist A's picture" in boldface would probably help.
-No, I do not need your help judging the final round.
That's about everything, so get cracking! Remember, the theme is "Holidays" and the deadline is December 15th. Show those spriters that you can produce contest-winning art, too!
ENTRANTS
-Tropiking
-EeveeSkitty
-Charizard Morph
-Kai
-PichuK
-Mewtwo
-Blastoise428
-Dannichu
-Kinova
-Vladimir Putin's LJ
-Tropiking
-EeveeSkitty
-Charizard Morph
-Kai
-PichuK
-Mewtwo
-Blastoise428
-Dannichu
-Kinova
-Vladimir Putin's LJ
(As a final note to those who are reading this and thinking "Hey! Art contests sound like fun! I want to run one!": WAIT. Think about it before you try anything. First of all, if you only want to run a contest "because it's cool" or "because someone else is doing it", go away. That is what caused the massive headache in the spriting forum and I refuse to be held responsible for a repeat occurrence. Get yourself an actual, unique and substantial idea first and make sure it isn't simple, boring, a tiny variation on a theme someone else already used or otherwise stupid. Really, if this takes off I don't see any reason not to make it into a regular thing like the General Sprite Contest thread is supposed to be, and then people can just take turns running it or whatever. Um so yeah WHATEVER YOU DO JUST DON'T BE AN IDIOT AND INCUR THE WRATH OF SURSKITTY OR WHOEVER.)
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