No more contests.I've entered like 5 contests over the past several months. Only 2 out of those 5 have actually ended when they should have, the rest keep saying they intend to end it but life has gotten in the way. I'm not falling for it anymore.
Contests are a great way for someone to scam people out of free art and give them nothing in return. All you have to do is set up a contest, advertise it, make sure it all sounds legit and even pretend to have prizes, and then just make excuses and close out the contest when you're satisfied, because people will usually give up. Or, of course, you can have your friends enter and just "give" them the prizes.
This is going to sound like I'm just a sore, bitter loser, but people will choose to take it that way no matter how I approach the subject, so I'm just going to be honest and if you decide to judge that that's the reasoning behind my words, well, so be it, I'll ignore your replies, because it'll be obvious you don't know me and didn't really pay attention to what's been said.
A trend that bothers me with contests I've both entered and not entered is people specifically saying outright that they want you to be creative. They almost always say something to the effect of, "Draw my character in whatever you want, doing whatever you want, be creative! All I ask is that the character themselves looks the same!". Well, great! Right? No. That's not what they mean at all.
What they mean is, "Draw my female slave/goddess/prostitute/whatever character in a slutty and as generic a pose as possible, and also in one of the outfits everyone else draws her in, because I don't REALLY like original outfits even though that's what I said I wanted!". I didn't even get 3rd place in any of the contests I entered and worked hard on. I'm not so much upset about winning, but I can't help feeling offended when I look at the winners and they're incredibly generic and plain, not creative at all, not even in a different outfit or anything. But if I go, "Why did these people win?", people will attack me for being "jealous", even though it's a perfectly valid question.
Of course, I politely avoided the temptation of commenting on both of the contests in question, even though it felt shady at best. In one of the contests, I felt the person who won first place did indeed deserve it, but the person who won second or third (can't remember which one) just drew the girl sitting there with a blank look, the outfit that was described in the contest for people who didn't want to draw their own, and a filtered background. It wasn't even well done, and I just can't understand why it would win when better pieces OTHER than my own were ignored.
The OTHER contest also claimed they wanted you to be original, and even said at one point that if you drew their character in original outfits, your chances of winning were higher. But guess what? I think every single winner had the SAME OUTFIT that was on the girl's character sheet. And they ALSO had completely generic poses, for the most part.
I know. It's their contest and they can dictate whoever wins however they like. I'm not arguing with that. I'm not even saying I should have won any place in either of those contests. But I certainly believe a lot of the pieces that won shouldn't have. Judgemental of me? Perhaps. But I kept my opinion to myself so they can all be blissfully unaware. I'm only human, after all, I'm not always going to be able to avoid feeling ripped off or dissappointed, especially when one of the pieces I did took like TWO WEEKS and the person I did it for actually complained because they apparently don't know what a real face of the animal they wanted drawn looks like. Everything they picked were anime versions of the animals.
What's made worse is that both of these people personally noted or asked me to enter their contest. I know that doesn't mean INSTA-WIN, but why the holy hell would you do that if you didn't even like my art style to begin with? Oh yeah, for free art.
Unless I know you and can trust you, don't even bother asking me to enter your stupid contest. I don't go out of my way to draw everything as plain and whory as possible, so you wouldn't like what I came up with for you, anyway. So don't waste my time.
Again, I know it sounds like I'm just bitter. But I've kept this to myself for a while now and hey, it's my journal, so I may as well rant and get a new rule out of the way.
To recap:
People who say they want you to be creative don't mean it. They really just want you to make their character look sexy, like something out of Playboy. Draw them like that and in a generic outfit, and you're a shoe-in to win. For heaven's sake. If you're going to hold a contest, have some sort of public poll to determine the winners. It's unfair to hold a contest and have as many people draw for you when you're going to be judging on your own, because you'll gravitate towards one style and taste. Why is this unfair, you ask? Why the hell would you have people you didn't like the art of join a contest unless you were specifically setting them up to give you free art that you didn't like enough to COMMISSION them for like decent people? Don't be stupid, you know exactly why it's unfair. If you hold a contest, try to avoid making the second and third place prizes TOO far below the first place prize. That's just dumb. I don't think I made this point in the original post, but there you go. Try to keep to your deadline. It's understandable if something happens and you have to go out of town or something, as long as you warn everyone. I'm talking about these contests that don't even BOTHER to give a deadline at all and just end when they feel like it. That's pretty inconsiderate. I also hate you fuckers who start a contest and don't bother to end it at all. Have some common sense. Some people will get their feelings hurt. I'm not bothered that my art didn't win so much as I am by the false info the host's gave and the totally uncreative crap they DID pick. Yes yes, I know, "HOW DARE YOU JUDGE THEIR STUFF, IT'S NOT YOUR RIGHT, YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS A9ORFAPOJF30TPAS". I don't care. You're not fooling anybody. Anyway, the point was that someone will get their feelings hurt when the host tries to be nice and tell them the piece is awesome, and then they don't win. Don't do that. Thank them for entering and be on your way, do that with EVERYONE so it's even and you don't give people false hope.I think that's it. I'm irritated in general right now over various things, so I might just edit this later if I have more to add. I'm just sick and tired of people holding contests and pretending they want creativity when they only want one thing. Have the balls to STATE that you want them to draw your character in some naughty pose in a stupid outfit, at least. It'll save the rest of us who like to try to draw different things some time.
Let me make it clear, though. I like drawing pinup style stuff. I just assume when people ask you to be creative that that's what they actually mean!
So no more contests for me, unless you're a friend and I know you can hold a contest fairly and professionally. On that note, maybe I myself will try to save up some money and hold my own contest. That'd be fun if I prepared it right...
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Relax and take care of yourselves. All of you, even those of you who hate me.
Much love!
Dani
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Devious Comments
I just can't understand how if you have a contest, you have one judge who decides. How is that fair? All of our contests have had voting pages/polls for members and non-members alike to vote for who they think should win. At the end of the contest, I post the jpg of the result of the poll in our journal and name a winner, and the winner gets the prize that was pre-defined. All prizes have been either fronted by myself or the co-admin ~commiealex or arrangements have been made with other deviants to provide artwork for prizes. That's how we've done them, and we've had absolutely no complaints. I feel that it's a fair way of donig a contest. You could pop over to
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The secret to my happiness is I have the heart of a 12 year old child. I keep it in a jar over there. Want to see it? - Old Vaudeville.
Go see May I Help You? . You know you want to..
I've had nothing but bad experiences with contests lately. I'm extremely wary of them. One of the contests I entered were judged by the holder, and another one was judged by the holder and her FRIENDS.
I just don't think these people understand how contests should work. The whole point is to get as many different kinds of people to judge what they think is best. If these people want very specific art and very specific situations of very specific styles from very specific artists (try saying THAT ten times fast!), they should just commission that artist!
Thanks for the comment, it made me feel a little better.
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Want to view clean anthro art? ~PureFurs!
Agreed, it's pretty nefarious to go and NOTE someone to enter your contest. I mean, yeesh, if they really wanted to enter, they would.
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Seriously, a humungous mecha design has more realistic potential for use than a dirigible. - ~Mclandis
I glad it made you feel better.. It's my own little personal soapbox as well..
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The secret to my happiness is I have the heart of a 12 year old child. I keep it in a jar over there. Want to see it? - Old Vaudeville.
Go see May I Help You? . You know you want to..
Now that i've read this journal i suppose it's easier for me to address the concerns about my contest.
First off, i'll give you names of a couple people who've won contests of mine last year. I've never done cash prizes before, this'll be my first time with that fun experience, i usually do commissions.
winners of my 20k pageveiw:
*FoxOfTheNight
21st birthday contest:
*skardash
I like to think that i'm a fair enough person that i can judge the contest on my own. I don't trust public polls because of the possibility of artists e-mailing their friends to come vote for their picture.
but yeah yeah yeah. I've entered about 4 contests in the last few months, and share in your feeling that a lot of personal contests on DA are ment as just a cheap alternative to commissioning people. So if you don't enter my contest I totally understand, but i must say i'm feeling a little honored that you even asked about my contest after such a difficult time with others. ^_^
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2. People are stupid.
3. Were these furries or just people who wanted animals drawn?
Admittedly, it's nice when a commissioner tells you to be creative, but at the same time, it's a double-edged sword. If they aren't specific, they might not like the piece you come up with and may even want a refund and never deal with you again, even though they're the ones that told you to be creative with the piece in the first place. For commissions, it's usually best to get as specific and detailed as possible so the commissioner has no right to complain, as long as the artist follows the guidelines.
On that note, I think I might start over completely on your piece. I don't really like the way the one you saw is turning out.. it's not horrible in itself, but I just don't like it. So it may be a bit before you get yours because she's difficult (being a human and all) and I don't want to rush it. But you'll get it, so no worries. I get all commissions and trades done usually within the month.
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Want to view clean anthro art? ~PureFurs!
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