SA: Challenge 1- Space Race (vote for 3) (K.O. Dr. Baltar)

[Captain All That]

As I sit here in awe of all the designs, I see that I am indeed at the bottom and one of the people some comments may be directed towards. I will say that my design leaves a lot to be desired however I was thinking practically given the assignment.

We were told to construct vehicles made from the spare parts in the junkyard.

I took it from a standpoint that we (or our characters) were dropped in a galactic junkyard and told to get to the arena using that stuff we found there. My design was made using pieced together stuff I thought I would find in a Junkyard.

So compared to the other vehicles... it may look half assed... but compared to some of the other more polished designs I was well within the spirit of the competition. So I understand why some of you came to the conclusions you did about the 'lesser' polished entries however to infer that we didnt' work as hard is harsh (in some instances.) Could I have done a better job? Probably... but given my time constraints and my interpretation of the instructions... it is what it is.

Thanks to the 1 person who took pity on me and voted. To the people that have thumbs up their anus', This forum and contest was open to everyone regardless of skill level. All your bitching is taking the fun out of it. If you make it to the next round... worry about that... but don't sit on a high horse and talk down about the people who may not be as good or have AS MUCH TIME as you do to devote to the contest totally discourages people from participating and has never been what this site has been about, at least the 8 years I've been here.

Seriously... Check yourselves.

[Archerion]

Captain, seriously you give this long speech, how long did you spend on your drawing? How long did you spend coloring it must have tooking a long time two dump two colors and throw a filter on. Looks like a 5 year old drew it.
The description of the contest and since you been around for 8 years know these tournaments draw competition from some of the big hitters.
Giving some bs about time, Everyone has time constraints i work, have a 1 year old baby and a wife. I found the time.
Are you seriously telling everyone here you tried your hardest on that.
These competitions are about pushing your self, striving to be better. So all these ppl with finished or polished pieces should be god damn proud of themselves.
These forums are not about half assing. Its about ppl growing in there passion for art.

[ScottEwen]

I don't know if anyone was talking about you, Captain All That; I know personally I was talking about Andre-G and mentioned him by name. There's nothing wrong with entering a competition with people that are far better than you, and frankly I think it's fine to half-ass a picture in a draw-off and put in something you spent ten minutes on. I've done it myself.

My incredulity was directed at the fact that Andre-G, who clearly spent ten minutes on his piece and didn't care about the tourney, is winning over other people who took their time and did their best. I'm not putting Andre-G down at all, just saying it's unfair that people who clearly cared about this are being eliminated when someone who didn't give a shit is moving on to the next round.

But right now with the votes it looks like he might not be moving on after all so the point is moot.

[Captain All That]

No. I'm not telling you that I tried my hardest. But I did the best that I can do with the time that I had given my individual life circumstances. I'm not making excuses about anything... and I'm glad you were able to find the time. I have a wife, 3 kids, 3 sports teams I play on and I'm on call 24 hours a day... I used the little time I had to crank out what you saw and while it's not the best I could have done... i"m happy with it. No excuses here.

My whole point was cutting down the entries that don't stack up to the others deviate from the spirit of the forum. I agree this forum is about people growing in their passion for art... but it's also about respecting your fellow artist and not discouraging them from continuing to participate in contest like this.

As far my color pallette... yeah.. I suck at coloring. I'm sure given time, I'll get better.

I'll post a picture later this week showing what could have been... I'm preparing to travel for a funeral. My Wife's Grandmother died this Wednesday.

[Captain All That]

My incredulity was directed at the fact that Andre-G, who clearly spent ten minutes on his piece and didn't care about the tourney, is winning over other people who took their time and did their best. I'm not putting Andre-G down at all, just saying it's unfair that people who clearly cared about this are being eliminated when someone who didn't give a shit is moving on to the next round..

I look at it like Baseball. I'm a Cubs and Whitesox fan... just a fan of Chicago teams in general because that's my home town. But this year... we had the Cubs who had an awesome season and got knocked out once they got in the playoffs. The Whitesox had an awesome season and just got into the playoffs... and lost. Everything will correct itself in the end.

[Chris Major]

I don't advocate deciding arbritarily who moves on and who stays. In this case however, two different polls featuring the same broad skill range could have wielded better, less biased or "influenced" results.

I want this thing to move forward. If that means another, ultra-fast vote or an arbitrary decision from our judges, so be it. One thing I won't do, though, is knock another's art, as minimalist, half-assed or rushed as its creator or critics may say it is.

Andre, Captain A-T and everyone's art for that matter is what they could come up with on their own time. So did I, and I don't even think I came up with my best work. That's fine by me.

I personally crit draw-off pieces based on two factors:
1) How appealing it is to me in terms of artistic skill presentation and composition, and;
2) Does it subscribe to the rules of the challenge? In this case, is it a pinup? Is it inked? Is it on-topic?

Then there are persons who vote in a preferential manner, based on likeability, closeness in real life, faith in skills, desire for recognition, whatever that may be, well guess what? That happens all the time here and elsewhere. Goes with the territory.

Spidey, it's all yours.


EDIT: I know my decision not to color my Nûr piece hurt me, especially compared to all those wonderfully colored pieces. But know what: I'm colorblind. So I find other means to render a piece with a good visual impact, and here I played with snow and negative space. Am I sore to have gotten zero votes? Take a guess. But if you think that's going to stop me, you've got another thing coming.

[Beastie]

I went for cadaversodomy (i still hate that name though), brokenhill (and I bet he could explain exactly how every element of his vehicle works) and Dr Baltar (cos its awesome).

I'm not sure about the andre-g issue.

It's clearly not a piece that has taken much thought or effort - and I presume that people have only voted for it to be 'cute' - but what can you do?

If andre gets through to the next round and produces another 30 second piece of linework - and gets votes again - it would be a bit of a joke........

[Taro Mochi]

poor Gutav! I was also thinking about using everyone's favorite residential mechanical customization droid for a vehicle, but I figured my character wouldn't really do that and thought someone else would probably use him anyways too. Hmmm perhaps Gutav will get his revenge a little later on

Fun challenge so far. Hope to see you guys on the battlefield!

[krikkit13]

Hey Spidey, what's the word on Round 2? Is that PM going around soon?

[NickRocks]

I look at it like Baseball. Everything will correct itself in the end.

I agree with this statement, and heres why...

Everyone on here knows what is good and what isnt. If i put up a stick figure, I wont win. So no one has their "thumbs up their anuses", we just know what we like.

but to the sports analogy...

Id compare an ongoing draw-off like this to baseball. Someone may have a good run, they might advance farther than someone else, but eventually, if they arent the most talented (or in some cases putting out the most quality work) they will not get voted for and lose.

Id compare the one shot draw-offs to football. You only get one chance to prove youre the best. Like the star wars color draw off. personally, I thought manji's was the best. it was colored excellently and had a background. But i think babycakes ended up winning that one. No offense to cakes, cuz i do enjoy the art, but i think that if that draw-off had extended another round and manji had done another piece with full bg and cakes hadnt, then manji mightve won it out in the end. who knows. popularity plays a VERY small factor when i vote, since i like pretty much everyone here, and i think alot of the other members on this board do too. so that isnt a liable excuse either.

and captain, Im not "attacking" you with this post, I just quoted you because i agree with what you said.