Come one, come all! Welcome to the first E4 Art and illustration Contest! Any and all are welcome, and we have formulated 4 diverse categories from which interested contestants can submit to. Anyone from any range of skill or talent can find one to enjoy. Please do not let a lack of artistic skill or experience discourage you from entering. See the categories! It is free to join and will be great fun! If interested, please take a few minutes to read the rules below, should you wish to enter. Contestants must understand and follow the rules.
WE ARE CURRENTLY IN: SIGNUP PERIOD / SUBMISSION PERIOD / VOTING PERIOD
**ENJOY ALL THE VICTORS AT LATEST POST! CONGRATS EVERYONE!**You can find the link to the results HERE.
RULES
1.) To enter, you MUST have an account that is at LEAST 2 MONTHS old at the time of the creation of this thread. (We have eliminated 25 post requirement. The account age is a strict requirement and no exceptions will be made.)
2.) You enter by posting in this thread, stating your category(s)! (example: “I’m in—recreation category”) The signup will be open for 2 WEEKS—it ends APRIL 4th, 2021 at 10PM Eastern Time Zone U.S. Begin your art once your name appears on the signup below!
3.) From the end time of signup, you will have 1 additional week to finish and submit your works. This submission period will end Sunday APRIL 11th at 10PM Eastern U.S. We will then have 1 FINAL WEEK for a voting period, ending APRIL 20th at 10 PM Eastern U.S. Winners are announced the following day. Prizes will be awarded shortly after the announcements.
4.) You are allowed to submit to a MAXIMUM of 2 separate categories. Yes, you are allowed to submit 2 art pieces, provided they are in separate categories. This is optional—only 1 submission is needed for contestants.
5.) To submit your art piece, simply post it in this thread once it is ready for viewing. Please wait until the end of the sign up period to do so. You MUST NAME YOUR ART PIECE. This doesn’t need to be creative. You can just name it the name of the Pokemon. For the many hand drawn entries, please take clear, well-lit photos, or scans. We can assist with technical issues.
6.) You are allowed to include multiple Pokemon in your drawing/design. The sky is the limit! However, you MUST make a “main” Pokemon the focal point of your work.
7.) We are aiming for 10 entries per category, for healthy competition. There is NO MAXIMUM, but the minimum is 3 (for each placing). As signup deadline approaches, this will be addressed if it becomes necessary.
8.) Your design must include an actual Pokemon. Trainer card concepts are allowed, but must obey this rule. Your design does not require a background, but we encourage a background of some sort—it will surely do better in competition, and some judging criteria includes background consideration. Use the ballots as assistance in your composition. Imagine your card within an art box. For those who wish to submit a “full art” concept, please feel free to do so. If it wins, we will accommodate it to “illustrator” winner card, should it win.
9.) Submission dimensions. 1st place art will be fitted onto an old back Japanese Trainer card template, with the exception of full arts, which also must abide by the dimensions of an official Pokemon card. Original file size must be at least 1775x1000 (average smartphone takes horizontal photos of 4000x3000). The dimensions of your “art box” must have as close to a proportion of 4 width to 2.25 height as possible. If your dimensions deviate far from this, you MUST cut out or be prepared for us to cut out a 4 x 2.25 art box from that art piece, if it wins. We will not take the file you upload to the thread if it is compressed. When winners are declared, we will reach out to them to obtain the original uncompressed file. So don’t worry about file size in this thread—just make sure people can view it well!
VOTING
1.) Voting will be done anonymously, through Private Message. All contestants MUST rank the top 3 artworks of each category, and CANNOT RANK THEIR OWN ENTRY, and ALL OF E4, including those who are not participating, are allowed to vote; AND IS ENCOURAGED. All lurkers that qualify, please vote once voting commences!
2.) To vote, you MUST also have an account that is at LEAST 2 MONTHS old at the time of the creation of this thread. Any ballots submitted in disregard of this rule will be ignored.
3.) To submit ballots, please PM @azulryu , @kingboo64 , and @brendantheclayboy TOGETHER. This is for transparency, accountability, and organization. We will notify you if you submit them in error, and have you submit again so that all of us obtain them together in one message. If contestants submit ballots with their own pieces ranked, we will require you to re-submit. Under these rules, everyone will be voted on an equal number of times by their fellow contestants.
4.) Voting is easy! See the link below to see voting criteria descriptions. You will rank with art critique criteria in mind for each submission category. The organizers will tally all ballot totals for each category. If in the event a tie is reached for 1st PLACE ONLY, we will host a tie-breaker. For runner ups, there will be no tie-breaker. Should there be a tie between 2 contestants (among 2nd, 3rd, and 4th), we will award a dual trophy card to the 4th place tying winner, either a 2nd or 3rd place award, depending on their score. Ex: 2 tie for 2nd place, we award two 2nd place winners, and one 3rd.
PRIZES!
1.) The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place contestant in EVERY category will be awarded a DIGITAL trophy card. See our lovely banner for the cards you can obtain!
2.) The 1st place winner of each category will have their winning entry art piece placed into a DIGITAL illustrator card and given to the winner! Due to copyright issues, we cannot distribute physical prints. We encourage showing off the digital prizes in collection threads, profile signature, and the like!
3.) The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place contestant in EVERY category will be awarded a corresponding place badge, courtesy of @gareth ! You can view those lovely pieces in the banner below the title.
4.) Finally, the 1st Place contestant of each category will also be awarded a gift card for a certain popular websiteof a modest amount. This amount will be undisclosed. It is a small amount. Please do not join the contest with this as your main motivation. We want a little cherry on top, but want enthusiastic art enjoyers, appreciators, and creators alike! We’ll just say this: It is less than $50.
Additional note: A certain special someone has offered their talents and powers to make an E4 site banner, post-contest. We’ve no idea what they have in mind, but surely it will be a pretty sight. We can only speculate, but it might just include the winning pieces of art…
AND WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, HERE ARE THE CATEGORIES!
1.) Child Drawing Category. Inspired by the wonderful, historic illustration contest submissions. This is for all kinds of artwork, hand drawn or digital creation, that embody a child-like quality to them. Look at the far left artwork on the banner for examples. Any style, anything goes! Low skill level? This is the category for you! Technical skill is not a criterion. We want to see many submissions here!!!
2.) Recreation Category. This is for those who want to recreate any preexisting Pokemon design or entire Pokemon illustration. You can either recreate a whole artwork from the TCG and wider non-TCG, or you can recreate a preexisting Pokemon design with an original or altered background. You are allowed to expand on it in any way, including use of color or detail, but if the basis from which you are building already exists, it falls in this category. Your work qualifies for this category if your Pokemon design exists somewhere in the Poke-verse on cardboard, or is an official work by an official artist. For this category, you MUST submit an original art from which you are recreating or expanding on. Either post a picture of the card, or name the card by name, set, and number, along with your post of your artwork. EDIT: This is intended to be done from scratch, YOUR OWN work, but you may recycle things from official artists. It will likely dock you points in judging, and if you do use official artists work via copy paste, you MUST provide all the sources. Unsourced means plagiarism.
3. 3D Virtual Category. Use photoshop, image capture, or a similar program to use imagery from the wide, official video game franchise (and spin-offs), creatively, to make your own art with them. This is for any kind of submission that uses Video Game Pokemon media that you image capture manipulate artistically. This might be a good category for you to make use of pastiche or collage style, or simply make use of video game images, but would like to alter in ways you enjoy. NO POKEMON SNAP, new or old, will be allowed. Look forward to a snap contest from @charizandrew for that. Need a list of available games / properties to choose from to stir the senses? We got you covered! See below for a list of all games besides Snap. Example: Using a bunch of imagery from Pokemon Stadium and reworking it for a new composition, or simply capture an image that has a good composition! This is a computer only category. EDIT: TO CLARIFY, you MUST be using official, pre-existing Pokemon media and assets from the Pokemon video game franchise. However, if you want to create an original computer-made background (or alter/add to a video game background with original assets created by you), you may do this ONLY IF you are pasting featured Pokemon from any of the games. Please ask questions if this is unclear. Whether you do this to the background or opt to use only video game backgrounds, you MUST be using video game images of the Pokemon featured itself. Click HERE for detail about as specific as we can possibly get!
4.) Original Creation Category. This is any original creation of any kind that does not fall within the above category parameters. Hand drawn or computer/photoshop made, doesn’t matter. It just has to be from scratch. This is intended for higher caliber work, but anyone is allowed to submit here. If you are intending to do CGI, but it is your own work, this is still your category. 3D category is explicitly preexisting visual material from video games, real or digital.
Also, in case this needs clarification, this does not mean invent a new Pokemon. It means create an original artwork of an existing Pokemon, duh! You can also do sculpture or 3D printing in this category. Anything original, period. You want to go as wild as Morii style, but your own invention? Go for it! Technical proficiency is a criterion for this category. That does not mean simplicity is not great, though! Don’t be discouraged!
**A quick note: If you are uncertain of what category your art may fall under, worry not, we will help you place it correctly. All art is welcome, and has a place amongst the 4 categories. While you must declare your categories, if your intended piece is in perceived gray area, let us know and we will assist. If you have any questions at all, post your question here, or message any of the three of us: @azulryu , @kingboo64 , @brendantheclayboy .
We are excited to bring this to the forum, in both the spirit of Pokemon, and the spirit in which they are created for us fans to enjoy–the very illustrations/designs themselves. In the spirit of neutrality, transparency, and sportsmanship, us organizers have opted to not participate. But we of course got our art urges out in our designing the trophies! We will, however, not miss out on judging, as we will be casting our own ballots before counting the forum’s!
Many thanks to all who helped, and especially to @anon92205803 (without whom this would not be possible), and all the mods/admins/founder for allowing this to take place! If this contest gets healthy participation, we look forward to the possibility of further annual contests!
A description of voting criteria is HERE. Just send your rankings to the 3 organizers together in a group PM. See our latest post for the details, which can be found here.
3D category list of games you can use to incorporate your art is HERE
CONTESTANTS SIGNUP LIST
CHILD: (Submissions ended–this is the final list)
- admiral
- liron +
- lamplamp
- khairis +
- imakunizauntie +
- defluo +
- Smokemon +
- Miracle Gro +
- muk +
- gareth +
- pancakestak +
- Karl
- jaredschallenge +
- jworth2017 (moved by request as per artwork)
- qwachansey +
- odds
- totodile_in_pursuit
- raichuforyou +
- Reina Sierpe +
- caughtatpoint +
- Pokemans
RECREATION: (Submissions ended–this is the final list)
- liron +
- lamplamp
- andrewvt36 +
- nikhil
- lyleberr +
- PidgeySyndicate +
- pokesoap +
- thatpikachuguy +
- Fazool +
- burnedos +
- Fiery +
- PokeNastic +
- neos +
- Quuador +
- fate +
- pancakestak
- jaredschallenge +
- raichuforyou +
- Reina Sierpe +
- kurtblakeinfini +
- Rayquaza_cards
- ProChaos +
3D VIRTUAL: (Submissions ended–this is the final list)
- Fazool +
- fourthstartcg +
- Fiery +
- Miracle Gro +
- pokekuma13 +
- qwachansey
- DizzyLochs +
ORIGINAL: (Submissions ended–this is the final list)
- RayquazaTCG
- PkmnFlyingMaster **+**3. Luke Clough +
- nikhil +
- lyleberr +
- PidgeySyndicate +
- pokesoap +
- thatpikachuguy +
- TheBackRoom_Collectibles +
- imakunizauntie +
- defluo +
- Smokemon
- HumanForScale +
- burnedos +
- Galalyth +
- PokeNastic +
- CoolTrainerTony +
- muk +
- Quuador +
- chrisundrum +
- ferny +
- pokekuma13
- gareth +
- six +
- fate +
- apfish225 +
- odds
- totodile_in_pursuit +
- DizzyLochs +
- MOREDOOM +
- kurtblakeinfini +
- Rayquaza_cards
- dunsparce0p +
- vyzhr +
- Lemon
+ - jworth2017 +
)
This sounded like fun. Maybe I can enter but not be up for any prizes?
