Okay, I finally got around to posting the thumbnails in the journal!

If you've sent us a CONTEST ENTRY and you don't see it listed here, then please send it again! Things have been a little hectic for us, and we want to make sure we haven't missed anything!

Also, anyone who still hasn't submitted, remember that there's only a little more than a month left before the contest ends! The same reminder goes for anyone who's considering a second or third contest entry

~Seitou, January 22, 2009
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All the contest information is listed below, so read everything carefully. If you have any additional questions, don't hesitate to ask

~Seitou

Contest I: Winter Contest

Task:

Part I

Before you do anything, you should read through the following three poems; they're not long, I promise

<sub>1) “Christmas Roses” by Francis William Bourdillon
[link]

2) “The First Snowfall” by James Russell Lowell
[link]

3) “The Snow Bird's Song” by F. C. Woodworth
[link]</sub>

Part II:

Draw an original character in winter clothing, from any historical era before 1950, and connect your image to any of the three poems listed above.

You can connect your picture to any of the poems in any way possible. For example, you can illustrate a scene from the poem, pull from a single image (such as the snow or the roses, etc.), depict the feeling/mood of the poem, borrow the title, etc.

You can connect your image to the poem in any way at all that you wish, just as long as it makes sense and it's one of the three listed above.

Rules:

No more than three (3) entries per participant! Take your time with each entry, though, if you decide to draw more than one.
No fan art! No characters from anime, cartoons, films, series, comics, games, books, etc. Any characters that you draw must be of your own creation/design.
Costume designs must be original in order to be accepted. Do not directly copy designs from paintings, fashion plates, extant clothing, etc.
Costume designs should also be as historically accurate as possible. Please note that “historically inspired” costumes are different from “historically accurate” costumes.

Submitting Entries:

If you are interested in participating, then you MUST say so here in this journal. SIGN UP here to enter. Please note that signing up does not obligate you submit anything; it’s just a way for you to show that you’re interested in taking part. So, even if you’re not certain that you’ll be able to draw anything, sign up anyway and we'll add you to the participant list.

All contest submissions should be sent in via Note and clearly labeled as a “Contest Submission.”
When you submit your entries, please include the following: 1) a link to your entry; 2) the era or style of fashion depicted in your entry; 3) the poem you chose to work with for inspiration; and 4) a brief description of how your entry connects to the poem.
We’ll start accepting entries just before Christmas (so you can start sending stuff in around the 21st).

Duration:

The contest officially starts today, December 1st, and it will end March 1st!

Judging:

Your judges are:

All entries will be judged according to a point system. There are several categories and a certain number of points that can be won in each category. Each judge will award points for every piece independently (so every piece will be judged four separate times). Then, we'll tally up the points each entry received and see who got the most in the end

Categories and Points are as follows:

Sticking to the Theme... 10 pts maximum
Historical Accuracy........ 10 pts maximum
Creativity...................... 10 pts maximum
Neatness & Effort......... 10 pts maximum
Bonus*........................... 5 pts maximum

* _{Bonus points can be awarded to participants who decide to include more than necessary, providing that their extra work is relevant to the theme and enhances the overall piece (i.e. additional characters, multiple views of a costume, a background, a character engaged in an appropriate activity, etc.)}

In the event of a tie, we'll resort to a popularity poll.

Prizes:

1st Place:

1 full body, inked and colored, original character illustration from ~Seitou
1 bust/head shot original character illustration from *suburbanbeatnik
5 month front page feature

2nd Place:

1 full body original character illustration from *suburbanbeatnik
3 month front page feature

3rd Place:

1 inked and colored original character bust from ~Seitou
1 female character drawing from *KingAndrewI
1 month front page feature

Tips & Resources:

Normally, the other mods and I are more than happy to offer feedback on costuming work, but since this is a contest, we can’t really answer any costume-related questions. The most we can do is give everyone a list of tips and reference material.

There are a million links to sites with good reference material right in our Historical Fashion Reference Material journal, so I advise looking through there first.

Other tips!

Costume design goes beyond designing pretty dresses; it includes hairstyles, hats, jewelry, shoes, and any other accessories a person might wear.
What your character wears should reflect that character’s social standing!
Also, think about how a character’s costume affects the way that characters stands, moves, and goes about daily activities. Some costumes are more restrictive than others.
Consider which colors were more common during different eras and which colors were more popular during certain seasons.
Taking liberties is fun, but realize that there’s a certain point when taking too many liberties decreases the historical accuracy of a costume. There’s a big difference between “historically accurate” and “historically inspired.”

Best of luck, everyone

Participants:



Entries:

by by
by by

Hey, everyone! Sorry about the drama of the last journal update. As I said before, the mods and I decided to scrap the Christmas Contest in favor a Winter Contest, which I will be announcing earlier than planned

On December 1st, I will post the contest information and rules, and members will be able to sign up.

Members will have until December 21st to sign up for the contest-- yes, you must formally sign up for it (I'm sorry I didn't make that clear the last time). By signing up, it's easier for us to gage how many people are interested and how many entries we will recieve.

Signing up does not mean that you must submit something; it's just a way for you to express your interest in the contest. So, even if you're not certain that you'll be able to draw something, but you're interested in participating, then please do sign up!

~Seitou

Hello, everyone. I have some bad news. As you can tell from the title, the mods and I have decided to cancel the Christmas Contest. We realize that canceling a contest in this manner is very unprofessional and very careless on our parts, but we have a number of reasons for why we're ending it and we hope you'll be understanding.

<sub>1) Lack of Interest. We announced this contest over a month and a half ago, and we haven't managed to secure even 10 participants. Needless to say, you can't have a contest without competition, so it seems pointless to hold a contest when so few people are interested in taking part.

2) Poor Planning. This was supposed to be a Christmas contest, but do to poor planning on my part, I didn't start the contest early enough, and it seems downright silly to me, and the rest of the mods, to have a Christmas contest go on after Christmas.

3) Outside Interferences. Your mods, myself included, have been rather busy with school and work... so we haven't had much time to keep up with the club, let alone manage a contest.</sub>

So, for these 3 reasons, we're canceling the Christmas contest. But we have by no means given up!!!

On December 21st, I'll announce our Winter Celebration contest, which will hopefully generate much more interest. We realize that the Christmas contest was too restrictive (in terms of what you could and couldn't draw), so we're going to loosen things up a bit! The contest will go from December 21st until the start of spring-- so you have all winter to work on it!

Rules and contest information will be posted on December 21st, so check back then!

~Seitou

Contest I: A Dickens’ Christmas Carol Contest

Theme:

A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas (commonly known as A Christmas Carol) is a novella by Charles Dickens first published on December 19, 1843 with illustrations by John Leech. The first of the author's five "Christmas books", the story was an instant success, selling over six thousand copies in one week, and the tale has become one of the most popular and enduring Christmas stories of all time.

A Christmas Carol is a Victorian morality tale of an old and bitter miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, who undergoes a profound experience of redemption over the course of one night. Mr. Scrooge is a financier/money-changer who has devoted his life to the accumulation of wealth. He holds anything other than money in contempt, including friendship, love and the Christmas season.

- from wiki

More information: [link]

Mission:

Your task is to illustrate a character from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol as that character would’ve appeared in the 1840s when the novella was first published. If you're drawing one of the 3 ghosts, then feel free to be creative with the costume (just try to work in some historical elements)! However, if you're unfamiliar with the story or don’t want to illustrate a character from the novella, then you may draw your own character, so long as the character is wearing 1840s clothing that is appropriate for the winter or has a “Christmas theme.” But the costume that you illustrate must be from the 1840s.

This is primarily a fashion design contest. You only need to draw one character; if you’d like to draw additional characters, that is okay as well. Backgrounds are not necessary since we’re only interested in the costume, but feel free to draw them anyway.

Rules:

One (1) entry per participant! So please take your time and put as much effort as possible into your contest submission.
Character(s) must be either from A Christmas Carol or your own. Do not draw other people’s characters or other fan-based characters.
Costume designs must be original in order to be accepted. Do not directly copy designs from paintings, fashion plates, extant clothing, etc.
Costume designs should also be as historically accurate as possible. Please note that “historically inspired” costumes are different from “historically accurate” costumes and will not be accepted. The only exception to this is if you choose to draw one of the three Christmas spirits and you can find descriptive information on them at wikipedia (but you must still work in some elements of historical costuming- be creative )

Submitting Entries:

If you want to participate, then say so here in this journal and we’ll add you to the participant list
All contest submissions should be sent in via Note and clearly labeled as a “Contest Submission.” (Also, make sure you say which character you’ve chosen to draw or whether the character is original!)
Do NOT send in submissions until December 10th! You may upload them to your galleries, but do not send them to us until December 10th… otherwise we may run the risk of losing stuff .__.;;
A deadline for submissions will be posted here as soon as we have enough participants.

Duration:

The contest officially begins today, October 1st, 2008. Because a lot of people have work, school, and a number of other obligations, we want to keep this as stress-free as possible; therefore, we've decided to get rid of the deadline until enough people signed up for the contest. When we reach 10-15 participants, we'll start thinking about deadlines

Judging:

Your judges are:

All entries will be judged according to a point system. There are several categories and a certain number of points that can be won in each category. Each judge will award points for every piece independently (so every piece will be judged four separate times). Then, we’ll tally up the points each entry received and see who got the most in the end

Categories and Points are as follows:

Sticking to the Theme... 10 pts maximum
Historical Accuracy........ 10 pts maximum
Creativity...................... 10 pts maximum
Neatness & Effort......... 10 pts maximum
Bonus*........................... 5 pts maximum

* _{Bonus points can be awarded to participants who decide to include more than necessary, providing that their extra work is relevant to the theme and enhances the overall piece (i.e. additional characters, multiple views of a costume, a background, a character engaged in an appropriate activity, etc.)}

In the event of a tie, we’ll resort to a popularity poll.

Prizes:

1st Place:

1 full body, inked and colored, original character illustration from ~Seitou
1 bust/head shot original character illustration from *suburbanbeatnik
5 month front page feature

2nd Place:

1 full body original character illustration from *suburbanbeatnik
3 month front page feature

3rd Place:

1 inked and colored original character bust from ~Seitou
1 month front page feature

Tips & Resources:

Normally, the other mods and I are more than happy to offer feedback on costuming work, but since this is a contest, we can’t really answer any costume-related questions. The most we can do is give everyone a list of tips and reference material.

There are a million links to sites with good reference material right in our Historical Fashion Reference Material journal, so I advise looking through there first. Some of the most useful sites include:

1840s in Fashion: [link]
La Couturière Parisienne: 1800s: [link] (look only for the 1840s stuff, please)
The Village Hat Shop Gallery: [link] (look only for the 1840s stuff, please)
Demode: Real Women's Clothing Directory - 1840-1869 (only use 1840's!) [link]

Other tips!

Costume design goes beyond designing pretty dresses; it includes hairstyles, hats, jewelry, shoes, and any other accessories a person might wear.
What your character wears should reflect that character’s social standing!
Also, think about how a character’s costume affects the way that characters stands, moves, and goes about daily activities. Some costumes are more restrictive than others.
Consider which colors were more common during different eras and which colors were more popular during certain seasons.
Taking liberties is fun, but realize that there’s a certain point when taking too many liberties decreases the historical accuracy of a costume. There’s a big difference between “historically accurate” and “historically inspired.”

Best of luck, everyone

Participants