Annual Sketch Contest 2014/2015 - Winners ANNOUNCED!!!

[Jadeduo]

Thanks Kaona! Yes, there is a lot of work that goes into this, and past runners will tell you the same thing... Although I think I am not doing both in the future, the sketch contest for 2016 I will NOT be doing so someone else will have to take the reins, there is plenty of time before 2016 though so I am hopeful that someone will volunteer as the time gets closer. I am also provisionally volunteering to run the Cel Awards 2015 at the end of this year again, as I am bored stupid at work over the holidays in my job the holidays are the worst time of the year for what I do so that is an easy time of year for me to run the awards.

Lack of drama that spills over into the forums is VERY important to keeping the contests and Beta alive. There is a lot of work that goes into it, and your personal life is not always going to mesh with what is going on. Dates sometimes get pushed back, people get stressed and snap at each other. So it is important that the core team can snap at each other and get cranky, and after apologize and work it out, without it spilling over into the forum. I've learned a lot about my fellow team members in this process and definitely count them as friends now and in the future! *snuggles team*

You should definitely thank Milestogo for the actual awards it was her idea to make the awards super customized so your piece was featured in the award. She also thought it would be cool to make it look like your piece was on an animator's board that the animators use to draw on. She also I don't know if you guys know this but she slammed out the awards in TWO days! @_@ I would absolutely DIE!

Jadeduo

[GuyvarIII]

I’m kinda late…
But, thank you, Jadeduo, Sensei, Milestogo, and Majinuub, for a great contest.
The more personalized awards are an awesome addition to this year’s sketch contest!

And, thank you to everyone who voted for my entries.
I just squeaked by because of one vote in both Hanken and Muscles.

[Yuri-chan]

Oh, wow! I won a gold and a silver. I don't think I even voted for my own piece in Villainy. I haven't had the chance in the last couple years to be as active as I'd like on here, but I still love seeing the awards every year. I'm so happy to just participate. Thank you so much to everyone who voted for my pieces! Also, thank you to Jadeduo and everyone else who helped with the awards. The award design is so unique. Congrats to all the other winners!

[theultimatebrucelee]

Gotten a total of 10 awards this year...none more glorious than the hentai trophy! Was thinking about some kind of caution sign for my upload, who would have thought that the beautiful trophy would be self explanatory

Thanks to Jadeduo, sensei, Majinuub and MTG for this great contest! It was even more competitive than I thought with so many beautiful entries...my favor entry goes to 1st place Funny, it really made me

[cutiebunny]

Just wanted to thank everyone for voting on my artwork, and a big thanks for those that helped organize the contest. As always, there was a lot of nice artwork. It's always interesting to see which categories are the popular ones as it seems to vary every year.

[Jadeduo]

You're Welcome GuyvarIII, you aren't late, we announced early! ^_^ Don't forget to vote for Best in Show and also congratulations on your squeak by wins! I don't know if you can tell I am also a fan of the very personalized awards... that way no one down the line can be unscrupulous and poach ^_^

Congrats Yuri-chan! I was sad when you didn't get anything in the cel contest! But super pumped when you cleared two awards in the sketch contest! ^_^ It's always weird to me who votes for what and what turns out to be the most popular, of course some categories it's a lock and you can tell from the start like Furries and Group this year. But categories like Shocked, Hanken, and Bishonen were super competitive and some people lost out by placing at all by only one vote... So c'est la vie. We are glad you participated and would welcome more help down the line in future contests!

Congrats theultimatebrucelee! I was wondering what happened to your RS... I've been trying to go check it out to see how you are going to do your awards... ??? Cause that hentai piece... *coughs* Anywho you are very welcome! LOL I haven't seen that anime so the piece that won 1st place I did not get, but I was over the Piccolo driving... great episode if no one has seen it! ^_^

Congrats Cutiebunny! You are always a tough competitor! I was super pumped our Bishies tied! I agree the categories that are super popular in one contest barely blip in the other. ie there NO entries for Itadakimasu! in the sketch contest and enough in the Cel contest that it was super competitive... Go figure!

Anywho, everyone, don't forget to vote for Best in Show! And I will be giving that the full alotted time to see if we can generate more votes than we did for the cel contest!

Thanks,
JD

[Punkxprince]

Sorry for my late response but thanks to everyone who had a hand in organizing and doing all the behind the scenes stuff for this contest! I had fun even though I didn't manage to score any awards this time. I want to congratulate all the winners as well for giving me some great pieces to drool over haha. Now I'm going to go and stare at that MARVELOUS Apple Seed Hanken for a while.

[Quacker]

A Big *High Five* to J-Duo, Sensei, Maji & MTG for their fantastic efforts & a job well-done; bringing to us a smooth, well-run and dare I say hassle-free "contest" in which each of us could enjoy.

I do hope that everyone who did end up entering was able to walk away with a placing.
The sheer quality on display, all across the board & not just concentrated in a single category or two, made it a tough competition to attract the viewer's single vote - but even with two votes I doubt the choice would have been easier as some categories contained three/four standout pieces!

Thank-you to everyone who voted for my artworks. Pleasantly surprised to say the least, out of the six entries I put forward, four scored a placing, including a first!

[sensei]

@ Punx and other underachievers in the contest: keep trying! I think it took me 3-4 contests before I picked up more than the random "third," and it bothered me at first because I thought people were looking down on what I collected. And there were a couple of actual modest gripe-wars (they never really burst into flame) led by people who KNEW they had good cels/sketches and were irritated that awards were going to items from two-bit series not worth collecting.

But in the end the awards aren't about how collectable your cels/sketches are in any absolute sense. It's (as I see it) mostly about sharing what you have and looking at art that you might not have seen outside of the contest. More like going to the museum and talking afterwards about which painting you liked the most, which might not at all be the megabucks Monet or Picasso, but some work by an artist that you'd never heard of, but for some reason it stopped you cold in the gallery.

The puppet/robot Palme, unlike Pinocchio, decided not to become a real little boy after all -- but only after seeing his quest through to the very depths of the underworld, not by giving up.

[Jadeduo]

@PxP no worries you aren't late we posted early ! ^_^ LOL There were some great pieces this year and please don't forget to go vote for Best in Show! LOL unfortunately we can't win them all, however there is always next year! Keep trying!

@Quacker *returns high five* BAM! Congrats on your wins, there were some tough categories and it was rough especially in Shocked, Bishonen, and Hanken. Ultimately people if they can't decide between the top two pieces they are going to vote for the show that is most familiar with. I think I lost a placing in Hanken because me and Star-Phoenix were splitting the FMA vote lol... Maybe next year! You are very welcome!

@Sensei! Good point! And anyone that did not have the results they are looking for it is always good to take a page out of the persistence book, sometimes you have to wait for something to get the recognition you think it is due. That gorgeous Palme should have placed long ago, and I am personally aghast this is the first award it has won!

Thanks All!
JD

PS Dont forget to vote in Best in Show!

[90sKid]

Wow the trophies are out already haha, you guys do work fast! I'm actually amazed at how fast these last two contests flew by.

A huge thank you to whoever voted for my pieces. Things have been busy around here so I rushed and only managed to scrounge up 4 entries in time for the contest and was shocked (as shocked as Bulma was!) when 3 of them had placed for first. I really did not expect that at all, so that was quite the nice surprise.

I also want to give Milestogo major kudos for the trophies. I think the personalized design of our artwork being on an animator's board was a really fun and creative idea. They'll look great when displaying them in our galleries!

Lastly, I'm still amazed at how smoothly (and drama-free!) these contests went with Jadeduo at the forefront. A huge thanks of gratitude for once again taking the bull by the horns and stirring up a lot of excitement on AB! From the uploads to the voting system, I don't think we could have asked for a more smoothly run contest.

And a huge thanks to her team of Sensei, Milestogo, and Majinuub for slapping this all together! I think my favorite part of these contests is seeing all of these great pieces of art together in the same spot and knowing that they are being loved and protected by their owners. =)

[JWR]

@ Punx and other underachievers in the contest: keep trying! I think it took me 3-4 contests before I picked up more than the random "third," and it bothered me at first because I thought people were looking down on what I collected. And there were a couple of actual modest gripe-wars (they never really burst into flame) led by people who KNEW they had good cels/sketches and were irritated that awards were going to items from two-bit series not worth collecting.

But in the end the awards aren't about how collectable your cels/sketches are in any absolute sense. It's (as I see it) mostly about sharing what you have and looking at art that you might not have seen outside of the contest. More like going to the museum and talking afterwards about which painting you liked the most, which might not at all be the megabucks Monet or Picasso, but some work by an artist that you'd never heard of, but for some reason it stopped you cold in the gallery.

The puppet/robot Palme, unlike Pinocchio, decided not to become a real little boy after all -- but only after seeing his quest through to the very depths of the underworld, not by giving up.

Yes I agree for I remember my 1st several contests I entered I came away with Zilch even though I thought I had some very good chances with several entries but not from Dragonball Z which at the time was the most popular series among the collectors on Beta.
Even this contest when viewing what others had entered I reasoned that only one had a small chance due to the outstanding entries (2nd place in Funny "who does not love a good skirt flip shot")

The key is these "contests" are for fun and that it. I still love all the shots I entered even if they did not win.

[majinuub]

I want to congratulate the winners and want to again state that I love seeing the diversity of art these contests provide .

I'd also like to address something that has been bothering me over the years and I really wish I was vocal about this subject sooner.

I would prefer the Hentai/Yaoi/Yuri section to be revised and separated into their own categories in the future as the most probable winners of this category is, for the most part, the explicit art. I understand that people are somewhat finicky when it comes to yaoi/yuri, but I thought it unfair that Kathpatty's entry(which I think could've been a lovely contender for the love or shock categories) was placed into a sexually explicit section when another yaoi series was entered into(and won) in another category(I didn't say anything as I didn't have any problems with the entry being from a yaoi series and I didn't want to see it DQ'd over something like this). I also think the hentai section should also be more elaborate to only include sexually explicit art with the non-explicit ones being able to enter other categories as well(since there were no objections for them being entered in other categories in the past).

Again I'm not trying to stir up anything just making a few suggestions for future contest .

[JWR]

I want to congratulate the winners and want to again state that I love seeing the diversity of art these contests provide .

I'd also like to address something that has been bothering me over the years and I really wish I was vocal about this subject sooner.

I would prefer the Hentai/Yaoi/Yuri section to be revised and separated into their own categories in the future as the most probable winners of this category is, for the most part, the explicit art. I understand that people are somewhat finicky when it comes to yaoi/yuri, but I thought it unfair that Kathpatty's entry(which I think could've been a lovely contender for the love or shock categories) was placed into a sexually explicit section when another yaoi series was entered into(and won) in another category(I didn't say anything as I didn't have any problems with the entry being from a yaoi series and I didn't want to see it DQ'd over something like this). I also think the hentai section should also be more elaborate to only include sexually explicit art with the non-explicit ones being able to enter other categories as well(since there were no objections for them being entered in other categories in the past).

Again I'm not trying to stir up anything just making a few suggestions for future contest .

For the most part it has been up to the person entering the image to pick what category they want it to compete in. There has been no prohibition to placing cels/sketches from hentai series in other categorys so long as they do not contain any nudity or explicit images. Even this year there was some Yaoi series sketches in the Love section.

[Jadeduo]

@90skid You are very welcome, and well said enjoy your well deserved win!

@JWR Great attitude! Keep it up and congratulations on your wins this year! ^_^

@JWR and @ Majinuub, JWR is correct that was how I was viewing it as well, when I titled it Hentai, Yaoi, Yuri my thoughts were explicit in nature... I wanted to make it plain that Hentai could include alternate pairing instead of the traditional Male/Female pairing in the category. As I myself won several awards from the Shonen-ai series Loveless, a silver and a gold. I also believe that Kathpatty also entered some yaoi leaning pieces in other categories as well. If you think it needs to be laid out explicitly we can do that, but I think part of what has caused the decline in the contest is the over complication of the rules over the years, they are VERY intimidating for people new to Beta. In fact I have been a member of Beta since 2004 and I have never entered the contest until last year. Unless something is blatantly explicit I will not now nor in the future disqualify anyone from entering in other categories.

Thanks,
JD