Just submitted my vote !
Had to look over the ballot multiple times to make my decision considering there were so many fantastic elements to all the submissions. Also, thanks to all who have been involved in putting this event together so far. Much admiration
Voting is closing soon, everybody and their grandma should vote now!
The amount of times I scrolled up and down that ballot! Impossible to choose. EverybodysSoCreative.mp3
I have so many comments for all these great entries. However, I am heading out on some remote work and will not be able to comment for a bit. Just wanted to let everyone know how much a appreciate the creativity and fun spirit this event generates!
My speedpaints for both my submissions can be seen below.
I was dead set on recreating the Reshiram because I love the colors and composition of it. I approach digital art with a more painterly style. I like blocking in color and shaping it until I achieve the desired shapes and effects. No tracing was done, all purely observation, trial and error, doing things and then fixing them cuz they look off haha.
As you can see in the Latios Speedpaint, I had a bit of confusion at first about which pokemon I wanted to depict. I had more of an idea of the setting and color palette I wanted to use than which pokemon was going to be in the setting. After some goofing around, I landed on trusty old Latios: a pokemon of which I’ve had a long time obsession with since playing Ruby version on 2003. He’s simple, he’s cool, he’s FAST. I love everything about him! I desired to show him booking it through the skies as usual, and from those who follow my instagram, I had drawn him for another art contest but in a tropical setting just a few months ago. I really wanted a purply-blue icy setting so that’s what you see here in the finished product. I am pleased with how it turned out and I hope everyone here can find some beauty in it. I love participating in this contest every year and it helps me see where I’ve improved and it’s a bit of a milestone for me to check up on my skills. Thanks again to Brendan and Azul for coordinating this contest again and good luck to all!
We’ve wound down to final call — would love to see some final ballots in tonight, these are rookie numbers, somewhere around 20 less than last year. Still a good 7 hours to vote.
And there’s always one, hate to single you out @veks but the chase must commence. Please get your required ballot in! Time’s a tickin’!
Wow! 
These were hard choices! The original category especially is packed with winners.
We have an announcement:
We’ll have no choice but to suspend the conclusion until we have veks’s ballot. Not only is this a serious rule that goes without saying is the foundation for determining the winner, but 1) overlooking even a single participants absence is extremely unfair to all who entered, and 2) there’s an even bigger dramatic reason as to why this is absolutely necessary this time.
This last ballot could potentially impact not one, not even two, but up to three categories in a major way. One category is pretty open and shut in terms of results, but the other 3 are so ridiculously close that they are within 5 points (meaning 1 1st place vote or less) of each other, and one of those categories has even 1st place itself up for grabs. Somehow most categories are super close every year but this year is the most remarkably close down to the last ballot.
This also means for any non contestant, the ballots are still open.
Depending on how late you are @veks, we might have to consider banning you from future contests, as we have dealt with this before in delaying the end of contest and chasing people down, which is not fun. If you make it tonight, we can be lenient, but if we all have to wait a day or more, we might have to make a decision we don’t want to make.
This leads me to my next point, the contest is always evolving and we plan to emphasize a few things for next year, likely addressing this issue. We’d rather not be getting ballots a week later for contestants.
We also have quite a few last minute ballots submitted with errors, voting for same thing twice. People, please. Review ballots before sending.
Ballots remain open until veks’s is submitted, including those who I’ve just reached out to to fix theirs.
I did my part! Amazing entries this year as always!
I would like to accept a win and thank everyone for their votes in this sudden delay and example of Schrodingers winner. I may not be the winner in a few hours but for now I will assume I am, as are each of you.
Holy waiting time Batman! The suspense is killing me!
Deepest apologies for the wait!!
Voted!
RESULTS!
CHILD
3rd place
Slowpoke’s Big Day by slowqueen
2nd place
TM46: The Drift Incident by mrbubbles
1st place
Charmander’s Campfire by khairis
(Major congratulations to a 2nd time 1st place win, khairis!)
RECREATION
3rd place
Rest In Peace by Rattlesnake
2nd place
Shinx from Space-Time Smackdown by chefonaquest
1st place
1952 Cubone Rookie by rtas
3D VIRTUAL
3rd place
Into the Wonderball by niece
2nd place
Unexpected Visitors by bbobrob
1st place
Giga Butterfree by tediorso
ORIGINAL
3rd place
Patience by niece
2nd place
Floaroma Meadow by citriina
1st place
Scroll of Creation by humanforscale
There are some important honorable mentions:
Submissions so close in score that they deserve to be recognized. We must include only those that fell within a few votes of the top 3, but this year had more variation across the board than any other year, with many of those outside of honorable mentions having a great deal of overall votes. This was a joy to see.
CHILD
Eevee Espresso by pikachutcg (Leila)
Sir, there’s a bug on my Southern Islands pizza by decoypalmette
RECREATION
Rowlet’s Bad Day by viridian
Judge’s Pick
Judge’s pick is an incredibly hard ask for Azul and I. It is agony. But we do find there is one above all others that exemplifies the category, nails all the criteria, and crafts an astounding illustration that serves to both amaze its audience and is without any doubt just as good as any official pokemon card. We wish to congratulate this year’s choice for Judge’s Pick:
Patience by niece
Congratulations to niece!
niece’s piece was chosen first and foremost for its adherence to all the criteria we ask submitters to consider. But it isn’t just that, it always requires significantly more. It requires vision, inspiration, and skillful execution. Sure, it is a mastery of the category, but it is also in the end an exquisite piece of creation by its author. This Ariados resonated with so many others in addition to us. The eye is drawn to both the spider and the spiraling web-bridge. The atmosphere is dreary, horrific, and also finely dreamy, sleepy, hypnotic. The sky is dark and evil, the path is downtrodden and somber, but yet there is an undertone of excitement, of thrill, and of storytelling. It fits the personality of the pokemon, expresses an acute style and personality of the artist, it’s a 10/10 in everything we look for in a submission. The detail is refined, the lighting is carefully considered and adeptly executed, the texture is considerate and highly present. Thorough care was taken in every stroke here and it shows. We believe strongly that this piece is very, very deserving of high praise.
With that being said, niece is now invited to create the #1 Trophy Card art for next year’s digital prize card. It was a tough choice and we are still lamenting not being able to provide multiple Judge’s Pick options this year. You all did such a fantastic job and we hope to see all of you participate next year.
Please give us a some time to award prizes – we would like to award trophies all at once rather than stagger them. If you are a 1st place winner and would like to PM us a high res copy for us to craft the trophy, please reach out asap.
As is tradition, we now invite everyone to sing praise to their favorite pieces and of course for the artists to show their creative process if desired!
All the best everyone! CONGRATULATIONS!!!
~ AzulRyu & brendantheclayboy ~
Congratulations to all the winners, Very much well deserved! Thank you @azulryu & @brendantheclayboy for another year. I will be looking forward to the next 
Also congrats to all participants, Every single art piece was brilliant & unique!
Congratulations to all winners!
Outstanding submissions all around, very glad to have been part of another great year!
Congrats to all the winners but also to all the participants! There were so many pieces that I enjoyed, you’re a king (or a queen) even if you didn’t score a podium!
Following the thread was a pleasure, I enjoyed this event a lot!
