A dragon stands behind the table to the left of the room, painting with a paintbrush held firmly in his tail. Seeing you, he turns his canvas with his nose so that you can't see it.

A musical sound comes out of his mouth, which you can somehow understand in human language. "Here for the art contest, are you?"

He motions with his head to a paper on the table. You pull it toward you and read it.

Dragon Rider Colouring Contest

Objective: To colour this dragon-rider picture

Details: Entries will be judged based on originality, creativity, neatness, and execution. There is no limit to the number of entries. Entries should be posted to the art gallery with a link to the webpage and then embedded in this thread.

Deadline: Saturday, September 21 at midnight PDT

Judges: Mistress Rwebhu Kidh and AzlynRose

Prize: A custom wallpaper or avatar made by Fairfeet the Seer

You look up, and the dragon gestures with its head to a stack of colouring pages.

I would love to join in with the art contest! However sadly both of our printers are broken at the moment.

It will be fun to be an onlooker though, and see what awesome creativity you guys come up with.

It will! * waits eagerly for the awesomeness *

I would love to join but I'm on vacation and I have no printer.

Hmm... I think I might go ahead and join in. I'm horrible at any sort of art, including coloring contests (as the last Steampunk one I entered proves), but I might give it a go if I can find the time.

Do! Please!

*smiles* Now that you've asked me to, I can hardly refuse. Okay, I'll give it my best shot, dearie.

WOOT! ART!!! ... Now if I can only get the page to load... *pokes error message*...

I added a file of the picture at the bottom of my original post, so you don't have to rely on the page, which seems fitful today.

Thankee!

Well... I'm sorry to say it, but I can't enter. My dumb printer is having issues, and when I tell it to print the picture in black and white, it keeps printing it in pink.

Sorry about that. I'd have entered if my printer wasn't being mean.

You can print it in pink if you want, Renna. I'm sure the judges will be understanding of printer difficulties.

It'll look weird though...

You could go over the lines with a black marker and then wait for it to dry before you colour. But it's up to you.

Note: I edited the rules to say that you should upload your piece to the art gallery with a link to the original page.

Okay, I'll give it a shot, I suppose. *smiles*

Ooooh! *Grins dragonishly* *Plots how she might find the time to do this*

Pardon me, but can one use digital art means instead of printing, coloring, and scanning finished piece?

I've never done these art contests before... But there's a dragon in this one, so I guess I'll give it a go.

If you have any black ink that should fix the issue

*Pokes people to submit entries*

See, Aodhan, that's what's so strange. *frowns* There is black ink in it.

Lady Elanor: I have a coloring all finished, but I'm unsure of how to upload it to the art gallery.

You either need to scan it in, and then upload it to the art gallery; or you can take a photo of it with a camera and upload it to the art gallery. You just need to click on the Upload button then in the Art Gallery, and add files.

I'm sorry Crystluna, but digital colouring is not allowed. The reason being is that it alters the field. Not everyone can digital colour, but everyone can colour between the lines with pencils. And we want the contest to be something everyone can participate in.

...

It says I uploaded it, but I'm not finding it anywhere in the gallery.

You can just go ahead and upload a file then, Renna.

Black Hawk, does the no digital rule mess you up? If so, maybe the judges can choose a best natural media and a best digital media, because it is my fault that it wasn't in there before.

I think it has to be approved by a moderator. I'll wait for a little while longer.

Yeah. I've been working almost non-stop for hours today and yesterday on mine.

Okay. We'll do that then. The judges will pick the best digital and best natural media.

That means you can go ahead and do digital as well, Crystluna. I hope it's not too late. I'm willing to extend the deadline due to this issue if necessary.

Ooh, thank you so much!! *scurries off to finish it up real quick*

My entry. I uploaded it to the Art Gallery, not sure what you mean by embed it though...

I edited it for ya, Rob.

It looks amazing!

Man, that's beautiful.

I'm still waiting for my picture to show up in the gallery... if it doesn't by the time dinner's over, I might be stuck just uploading it as a file...

Thank you, Saph! Thanks, Twinny!

Well, I have no choice but to upload a file here. I'm sorry about that.

Yes, please~!
Some extended time into at least tomorrow would be wonderful!

The deadline has been extended until midnight (PDT) Monday.

I've just approved all the art work awaiting approval.

I'm sorry, guys. I found out some things that are still on major "to-do" list, so I don't have time for the art contest.
Thank you again for generously extending the time and also allowing digital art entries. Perhaps someone else will have used your gracious generosity more effectively than I did..

Look forward to seeing everyone's beautiful pieces entered!

On the edge of the deadline, my apologies. I was always touching up, and we were gone a lot. But I have it now!



Oh, and here is a transcript of the poem in the smoke, since it is quite hard to read (I had just wanted words, it was rather an extra thing that it is a real poem).

Breathing the breath of a mountain of death,
through its hard form the proud worm threading.

Below the horn of its crest sleeps the nest
by immortality worn.

Flown from this hold blood sown and cold
the authority of wrath lays a long, fay path
from the fear laid in waiting
to the gates of mad malediction
laid on all.

Under all lies the ashen humility riding the soul,
fierce as the first and founded in the constant vow.

*stares in utter shock* My goodness, Patrick. That's amazing.

... Sooo... When does judging happen..?

Right now. We are pondering as I type.

I don't know when it will be announced. Next Sunday, was it? * can't remember *

Ah, ok.

I want to apologize to all the participants for not having results out yet. They will be posted by the end of next Sunday at the latest.

A scribe comes running and hands the lady, who is still on the platform, another scroll.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" she says, scanning the parchment, "we have the results of the art contest!" She looks up, meeting your eyes. "The title of Runner-Up goes to Tsahraf Chahsid Mimetes for his piece, "Gray, gold dragon, face of malediction, and smoke poem!"

She waits for the applause to quiet. "As the only digital entry, Black Hawk's "Dragon Sunset" receives honourable mention!"

She waits for silence again. "And the announcement you have all been waiting for: the winner of the contest is Dragon Entry 1 by," she pauses, "Lady Eruwaedhiel! Congratulations, and thank you, everyone, for participating!"

She nails the parchment on a nearby wooden column before disappearing in the crowds.

Lady Eruwaedhiel, please contact Fairfeet the Seer to claim your prize!

Judges' comments:


AzlynRose: Very creative idea! The see through wings, face in the background, and smoke truly makes it look 3D. The colours are not quite as eye-catching as Lady E's, but it still is a remarkable piece of art. Watch your strokes just a bit on the background particularly in the sky above the face.

Mistress Rwebhu Kidh:The ideas are stunning, and the transparency of the dragon is done very skillfully. Everything is done skillfully, really. However, the reason I didn't think it was best was because of the overall impression. It left me muddled, without enough contrast of emphasis. When I look at it I find myself trying to figure out what this part is because it is unclear, and then something else will catch my eye that doesn't seem to fit, and so on. There are so many things to look at that the picture isn't as good as it could have been.

Celestria: This piece is off the chart when it comes to creativity with that smoke poem, those see through wings, and that totally creepy face. The only reason I chose it as the runner up and not the winner was that it almost seemed overboard on detail work, distracting rather than adding to the original picture.



AzlynRose: A splendid piece of digital art. I do not have much in the way of critique, because I don't have experience with digital art, but I can tell you what I liked about it! The idea and the colour scheme blend together beautifully, and match the lighting on the dragon. I love the detail on the dragon's wings and the shading on the people and the dragon make this picture look real.

Mistress Rwebhu Kidh:The 3D effect is wonderful. There is more shading on this dragon than any of the others, and it makes the dragon seem very real. The dramatic upward lighting gives it a feeling of being in midair, and of doing something really awesome, whatever it's doing. However that effect in particular is dampened by the lack of cohesiveness with the background, in my opinion. If the sky matched the style of the dragon more and had a little more detail, the dragon would still stand out as the obvious centerpiece but would actually seem like it was flying. Also, I think the dragon would be better with a tiny bit more color variety.

Celestria: Our first ever digital entry in a coloring contest. I would have loved to see more competition in this category. Toothless did a great job with his picture. The texture he gave the dragon wings and body, the shading, the coloring… all were done well and give the picture a vivid 3D appearance. If anything, I feel like he played it safe and would have loved to see a little more creativity especially with the colors.



AzlynRose: The golden wings are the first thing you notice on this dragon, and they instantly caught my eye and drew me into the picture. Your unique idea and the ability to carry it out tells the story of this legendary creature well. The only critique I have is that a little more shading on the dragon and people could make it look more 3D, and to watch the strokes of your pencil while doing the background so that they are not obvious straight strokes.

Mistress Rwebhu Kidh: I love the colors and the way they work together. The picture felt very cohesive and just plain pretty every time I looked at it. I think that the only thing you could have done to make it better would be to add more detail in places, give people something to look at even deeper and further after the overall scheme catches their eye. Putting some light, contrast color veining on the wings, maybe, giving the eyes a little touch so they look glowing-er, deepening some of the shading, doing something a bit different on the scales (like Gretchen did with her soft spots), something like that.

Celestria: I love this piece! The love the colors of the sky, the soft hues, the touch of gold which gives the dragon a scaly otherworldly feel. Overall she did a great job coloring the picture and blending the background colors to a soft hazy sunrise/sunset feel. Whenever I look at it, I can almost hear “Forbidden Friendship” from the How to Train Your Dragon Soundtrack playing in my head.

I'm sure your sister's picture was judged with the others, but only the winners got comments. Maybe some of our judges would be willing to take a few minutes and make a couple comments...