"Guide to being a good GFX artist"?

@BF2525
Ah man, don't even mention that graphic trade. I'm such an ass for making you wait that much time. *sweats* >D

So, I don't know about you guys, but for me, for a long time now I just don't feel like doing set contests anymore. Unless I was personally invited then I would feel obligated to take a look and see if I'd enter something. But yeah, set contests now are too frequent and ya don't really get much out of it :/ And then when I did participate some time ago, almost half of them would go awol so yeah, I don't know. Contest just took a downhill for me.

I can relate to that. Especially when people have too many unworn sets on their hands. It's amazing how many auctions and set contests are being held...while people still want to obtain more and more sets. Which is a good thing if you are a set-maker but otherwise it gets boring and as you said not worthy enough. :\ Tough situation.

I mean I enjoy making sets/profiles and I love seeing others' joy/excitement when they love the creatures but the possibilities here can be overwhelming and frightening. D:

I really only enter contests so I can collect points b/c I have many characters that I want to see being born as AF cards here. Or if the provided pictures peak my interest.

@BF2525 & @ritar

So, I don't know about you guys, but for me, for a long time now I just don't feel like doing set contests anymore. Unless I was personally invited then I would feel obligated to take a look and see if I'd enter something. But yeah, set contests now are too frequent and ya don't really get much out of it :/ And then when I did participate some time ago, almost half of them would go awol so yeah, I don't know. Contest just took a downhill for me.

I can relate to that. Especially when people have too many unworn sets on their hands. It's amazing how many auctions and set contests are being held...while people still want to obtain more and more sets. Which is a good thing if you are a set-maker but otherwise it gets boring and as you said not worthy enough. :\ Tough situation.

I mean I enjoy making sets/profiles and I love seeing others' joy/excitement when they love the creatures but the possibilities here can be overwhelming and frightening. D:

Both good points, and this is why I have a concern about opening a set contest right now. I know as a set maker (myself personally) I rarely use sets made by anyone but me (I have like...2? or 3 sets that weren't made by me that I won at auctions). But after a while, I lose inspiration or it gets repetitive to make so many sets for contests you know? I mean I love making them, but after a while when I'm trying to make them for myself I just can't sit there and do it sometimes. It's been on my mind to do a set contest, but with specifics in it so that I don't end up with 100+ sets or something. So mind giving me your opinions on this? (Anyone else is welcome to that as well).

I'd like to open a set contest where each submitter is limited to a number of sets they can submit. I've mentioned before that I am picky with sets, but I want this set contest to be something new comers (who have just started or have a bit of experience in making sets) can come in and give it a try. I don't like that sometimes in set contests a person keeps all the sets just to not hurt someone's feelings (or whatever the reason) and I'm probably going to end up making little comments like "I'm not fond of this or that font" or "Try sharpen, the set looks blurry" and I don't want to come off as an ass about it. If there are sets that are submitted that I'm doubtful about wearing, I'd like to still send points for trying, but not waste the submitter's time with keeping something I might never wear (and they can either use it for themselves or auction it away).

Does that sound fair?

@crisis - True about that. It's enjoyable making graphics but it can get boring doing the same thing over and over again.
Yeah, I think capping the submission entries is not a bad idea. I haven't seen anyone do that. They always take as much as they can, lol. But yeah, if you do cap it, maybe an option like changing out the entries could be useful to those who wants to create more. For example, if you capped the entries at 3 per person and I already submitted 3 to you but I keep on playing around in ps and wanted to submit another one, I'd just change out one of the ones I already submitted to you. (If that made any sense.) But it could get messy, so I don't really know either

Even if you're super specific on what you want and nitpicky, there will still be people who will participate I have seen that happen before.

oh you should be fine capping submissions, I've seen it may times before, though if you are crit'ing them and asking them to make changes during the contest, then that doesn't seem much like a contest? but more suitable for a request? cuz if you tell them to change things, and they change them, they would probably be upset if you didnt pick them to keep in the end or if they didn't win and the made the set to all your specifications?

How about something like this? Everyone submits a predetermined number of sigs. You then classify them as either: (a) reject, (b) accept with revisions (and you can decide how major or minor the revisions can be), or (c) accept as is. People who have entries in category (b) have one chance to resubmit, and of course it's totally up to them if they want to try. You can either accept revised (b) or reject. All the ones who made it to this point (revised (b) that you accept + (a)) go into the final round, and you pick the winner(s) from them. Just a thought.

I would love a chance to fix sigs, but on the other hand I would hate to spend a lot of time trying to revise something that has 0% chance of ever being accepted.

my advice to be a good gfx artist. for you lowly infidels. ♥ xoxo
-be a baddass and don't let anyone step all over you
-be a strong independent homo sapiens and do whatever the eff you want
-don't ever let some hoe in a badly rendered sig tell you what's sup
-don't be a peasant