CK i want to advertise your competition in my quest thread D: it can take the earth day thingies place D: >> can i? x3

Oh my goodness - sorry for the delay in replies you guys! I thought I'd subscribed to this thread and I guess I hadn't. D: I just thought no one was interested in the contest. LOL. >_>;; But I am subscribed now so it shouldn't happen again! D:

Originally Posted by xuvrette

Rares are only call rares IF! they are more than 10k! O_O

it is value that matters, CK, not their rank. lol.

Oh - I see. XD; I thought that any item that was not a common was, by its nature, a "rare". XD;

I always called anything not a common that was worth over 5,000 gold an "uber-rare" or something like that. XD

Originally Posted by sweetly25

CK: umm I think I should start planning what to draw xD I always enter entry in the last min

I know what you mean. XD I'm forever entering things last minute. :3

Originally Posted by Navi

*peers in* Interesting! Perhaps I'll enter if I can find time. <3

I hope you do! I love your work. X3

Originally Posted by Paprika

;o Yay i fainally made it to your contest! But its not a contest its a con >> because t-e-s-t turns into a red X XD;; Anywho good luck CK! I'll ask sweetly if she would join in ;o shes a really good artist and i know shes in need of clothing! XD

Yeah - I hated that bug for "test" turning into a broken... thing! XD (Though it never showed up as red Xes for me - it was just the word "con" instead of "contest".)

I let sweetly know about it, anyway. :3 I'll just have to make sure she doesn't forget when it gets closer to the deadline. X3 <3

Originally Posted by aeriise

Oh, I should enter! Cute characters!

Yes! You should enter! X3 And thank you! <33

Originally Posted by Paprika

CK i want to advertise your competition in my quest thread D: it can take the earth day thingies place D: >> can i? x3

Yes - I would appreciate that very much! And I'll link back to you in one of my Reserved posts. X3

--------

Prize Update
I just purchased an extra set of April Contribution Items (the Staff of Healing and Horns of Nature) and four full sets of May Contribution Items (the Spirit of the Phoenix and the Spirit of Atlantis.)

Currently, if you don't like the top prize for the category you enter (ie: You don't like the Raven and/or Dove headwings) you can exchange them for your choice of the May Contribution Items. (So, for example, you have a pair of Raven Headwings already, and you want to have the Spirit of Atlantis instead, you can get the Spirit of Atlantis + the Dove Headwings. Or switch out the headwings for the May CIs... Whatever combination you want!)

If entries for the contest start getting really impressive, I might just add the May CIs to the prizes entirely. XD

If my rambling is confusing, please feel free to ask me for clarification. XD I don't mind. :3


EDIT:
By the way, I forgot that I accidentally deleted Rule #5 when the software changed. (I'd originally written this thread on the new software, but got antsy waiting for the software to go live, so I went ahead and posted it on the old version of the site that didn't have the fancy coding I wanted. So when we went live with the new software, I copy and pasted that version back into the spots - forgetting that I'd added a rule.)

Rule #5 is back in place. All the rule is is, "Don't bash the artwork." So if you had no intentions of bashing your artwork or someone else's artwork, there's no need to read it. XD

Bashing? does it means saying bad comments to art?

Yep! Bashing would be talking bad/down about it. :3

Hmm.... This sounds rather interesting. I think I may join, and I have a few friends who MIGHT be interested as well. :squee:

That would be awesome! :3 I'm glad you're interested and I hope you can convince some friends to check it out too. :3

\o/

Yay for far away deadlines!
I'm thinking I'm going to have to give this one a shot, since you're being awesome and giving us the summer to work in this! :D
(I just love the silly story line too xD )

XD Yes! I like long-away deadlines. It gives people time to think about joining, forget about it, find it again and then go, "Oh - yeah, I wanted to enter that! Oh my gosh, the items are now worth so much more than when the contest started!" Hahahaa. XD

XD And I'm glad you enjoy the storyline. XD Silliness is win. :3 And it can fairly easily be twisted towards 'serious', just depending on what someone wants to draw. :3

Hehe, it's true. An artist can do so much more with a upbeat storyline.

XD Yes.

I know I'd have more of a problem trying to get a 'feel' for characters if the storyline were serious. I'd be afraid I'd get them too much out of character and a character that is akin to Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights is accidentally reduced to... oh... some kid... Yeah. >_>

*ramble*

Haha... Heathcliff...
Never was fond of that guy >>

I know how you feel though. I'm very intimidated by those that have 15-paragraph descriptions of their characters. Too much pressure! D:

I'm glad that you have piccies of avatars to go off of. Usually from what I've seen, people usually have only a piece of fanart or two of their NPC; I find it difficult to draw anything from that. (My only exception to that rule was about a year ago--and even then, it was based off of an avi, and the art was fantastically done.)

I'll enter, maybe? :? Everytime that I SAY I'll do some kind of art, I don't. (I start it, get some preliminary work done.... Then get distracted. Then I find it again the day after it ends. XP) But the contest sounds fun. (Blade sounds... Entertaining to yank around.)

I mostly like the kitty thing. -hopes to enter-

I hope you get good art, too. <3

Originally Posted by Lilith the Ill

Haha... Heathcliff...
Never was fond of that guy >>

I know how you feel though. I'm very intimidated by those that have 15-paragraph descriptions of their characters. Too much pressure! D:

I haven't even read the book. XD; I've tried, but I never got very far. I might have to watch a movie or read the Cliff's Notes version so I understand what's going on before I get into it. <_<; But Heathcliff and what's-her-name (Catherine?) sound like total crazypantses. >_>;

That's a lot of why I didn't bother pulling out my original characters for this contest... The ones I'd really like art of, I'd have so much background in personality and history that it'd be terribly intimidating! And I wouldn't be as happy with artwork that didn't take it into account. >_> Maybe some day I'll do an original character contest, but not until I've had some experience running one. XD

When I'm drawing for others, I always look at the characters I find most visually appealing and then read into them to see if I have ideas for them. XD But the more 'serious' the character, the more I feel intimidated with getting them wrong. @_@;

Originally Posted by Wordstreamer

I'm glad that you have piccies of avatars to go off of. Usually from what I've seen, people usually have only a piece of fanart or two of their NPC; I find it difficult to draw anything from that. (My only exception to that rule was about a year ago--and even then, it was based off of an avi, and the art was fantastically done.)

I'll enter, maybe? :? Everytime that I SAY I'll do some kind of art, I don't. (I start it, get some preliminary work done.... Then get distracted. Then I find it again the day after it ends. XP) But the contest sounds fun. (Blade sounds... Entertaining to yank around.)

I mostly like the kitty thing. -hopes to enter-

I hope you get good art, too. <3

Yeah - I prefer good references. The more of them, the better, as far as I'm concerned! If they're a character with only one or two outfits, I want to make sure I've taken everything into account. XD; And if they don't have a specific outfit, I at least want to have a good idea of the range of their style.... >_> *ramble*

The only artwork I have of "Cee Kaye" depicts her as a catgirl, and I don't really want pictures of her in her catgirl form (not counting the Menewsha cat-ears-and-tail outfits - that's different!).

I understand what you mean about intending on submitting to an art contest and not doing it. XD; I probably have a dozen art contest threads subscribed on Gaia. I'm sure their due dates are long past. XD

And Blade is fun to yank around. X3 I almost created a slash pairing option for him (for those who don't care to pair him with Cee Kaye but like doing couples art), but I can't be bothered to at the moment. I might before the contest ends, though. XD; Blade seems to vehemently object to being slashed with anyone - which I think is really funny. >_>

Fortuno is cute too. X3 I'm glad you like him! :3

And, thank you. XD I hope so too. :3

Just wanted to note that I went ahead and answered a question for the Frequently Asked Questions section!

[?] Is it okay if I render [an item] differently than how Menewsha does?
[A] Yes, of course. :) Your interpretation of Menewsha's pixels is totally fine!
For example... If you wanted to make, say, the Balloon from Hell (the black wing balloon) into an actual little feathery wing or even a huge set of black wings - that's fine with me! I don't generally render the balloon as a balloon myself. XD

If it's not clear - you're free to reinterpret the items. Consider the avatars closer to a suggestion, not something set in stone. :3 Feel free to be creative!

Someone actually asked me if adding a leash to Blade's collar was okay - but I figured this question would cover my bases better. XD

If you're still unclear, please don't be afraid to ask! I'd be happy to show examples. :3

...I actually like to get all the details correct. I would take no matter what kind of references. VIsual, real life item references, art from others and words.

That's up to you. XD I've no objection to you getting as many details as are there correct. :3

Some characters are more difficult than others to get 'right', depending on what's available, is all. :3

Could I just ask- is Blade more muscled or more wiry, in body type?

I see him as having more of a wiry body type - like a fencer. :3 So I guess I'd err on the "slender" side, though not "feminine". XD

:heart:

Cool, will have to see if I can find the time to do something for this! Probably more a portrait style, as I am not that good with dynamics or foreshortening yet. Now, to juggle my various schedules to fit in some drawing time...

Whoa! August 2008? that's three months from now! I wanna join!

Question: Can we choose to draw any of the avatars in your photobucket Album or should we stick to the image you've posted?

Awesome Arkeyla! I love portraits too. :3

Lady - Feel free to draw any of the avatar outfits in the Photobucket galleries I linked to directly. XD (I have more "Cee Kaye" avatars in a different folder in Photobucket, so as long as the album folder is /Cee_Kaye/ or /Blade/ it's cool!)

CK, would it be okay if I got creative with the clothing as well? I have a neat little outfit in mind, but it's not really like anything in the album at the moment...

Hmm... What do you think of me creating an entry category of, "Best Original Outfit"?

I really love original clothing, but it seems to me there's a difference between, "interesting interpretation of what is there" and creating something different entirely. XD

Hmm. I don't know if my outfit idea is good enough to win a category like that! It's certainly my taste, but everyone else's? Probably not. Perhaps having that as a sub-category - with perhaps a pick of the pool, and that way you can pick the outfit that you like best from all the categories, if people choose to do original stuff. Also, if you made a whole new category, I get the feeling that most entries would want to go for that so you wouldn't really get what you wanted from the album... okay, stopping rambling now. Maybe I will just interpret what is there slightly instead... maybe similar style, same sort of colours, but with my own twist. Less organising for you too!

We'll see how it goes, Arkeyla. :3 I'm really interested to see what you do! And that will probably help me figure out what I would want to do with such entries. ::laughs:: :3 I don't mind the organization, and I have extra prizes. XD We'll just see how it goes. :3