Andy, there’s something you need to know about contests and the art field. I don’t know how many years you’ve been into art, but I definitely have more years than you and even many of the artists of this game to tell you the shitty things you’ll encounter in the art field. This is not to offend nor anything, just something I want you to know for your future in case you decide to keep growing as an artist.
Art Contests, at least the formal/professional ones, are meant to choose the best artists in terms skill level. Skilled Artists compete among others to win. And the best are chosen by a group of judges, who are usually art critics or veteran artists, that qualify the entries throughout Technique, Aesthetic and Style, which are the three main foundations of art. Art Contests are aiming to veteran artists, who worked at least all their life to become skilled enough to compete against others.
In a professional way, it is not fair to allow beginners win over veterans, because to be a veteran artist you need +10 years of practice, work and investigation, while a beginner artist is estimated to have only 2-3 years in art. As a veteran being beaten by a begginer would feel like all the years of hard work were wasted. Its like having two employees, one of them works extra hours and the other is irresponsible but gets paid more than the responsible employee. This doesn’t mean you should never enter contests; it means that you need to keep working and practicing to reach a high level to compete in these kind of contests. You need to be patient and encourage yourself to improve. Art is one of the most difficult fields to be in, because it requires discipline and patience, and years of training. If it was easy and quick, there wouldn’t exist artists, because everyone would be one and nobody would stand out.
Now speaking on IMC contests. As thanked as I am with their hard job on the game development, they’re bad at holding art contests because their judgement bases on subjectiveness, in other words, they choose what they “like” instead of analyzing the content of the drawing. And worst thing is, they allow winners by votes, which professionally speaking, its incorrect. Popularity doesn’t equal Quality. Look how well done entries lost.
Andy, I want you to take this as a lesson and a reason for you to not give up on art. If you love drawing, keep doing it. If you want to be a professional or veteran, keep drawing, investigate, learn, experience. The path of the artist is very difficult but not impossible. You’ll find a lot of unfairness within the art field and bussiness (especially), you’ll encounter elitism and enemies, but that isn’t a reason to stop doing what you love. Part of being an artist is to lose and taking risks. You cannot know if something good or bad will happen; but only know that something will happen. So, keep drawing and put aside the contests and bussiness. Focus on your development, and when you’re ready to come back, do it. Losing a contest isn’t the end of your path, much less of the world. You still have a long way to go, to learn and experience. By the time you become a veteran, there will be more contests you can try out. I tell you this because I have 19 years of my life functioning as an artist (and I’m 24 years old); I basically dedicated my life to art; I’ve lost every contest and got rejected from every project until I won the last summer ToS contest. And here I am still creating art.
Contests are not everything in the life of an artist. Even if you win or lose, what will matter in the end is how you’ve improved and how you never stop drawing.
