With my entry into the contest I just could not get into the background and at the last minute decided to go with an abstract background. Playing off of the diamond shapes on Harley Quinn's outfit and the white diamonds representing the Joker's smile. Lesson that I take away from this contest is even though a contest says all skill levels, you better make your piece stand out.
So I await the judging of another piece for Style Noir Magazine: http://angela-way.deviantart.com/art/Time-Keeper-400355008 I wish I had found a model that could schedule in time to make this piece look better however, I think I will be branching off of this idea for another piece later.
But I didn't stop there, in fact I entered Imagine FX's Rising Stars Competition, for which you had to enter 5 pieces that best represented you, I chose one new piece, and 4 others that I've shared on here. Roses are Red, which I edited to have a black background:
Diana Bathing, Green Milky Way, and Ascension were the pieces that I shared previously on here. Now as to the new piece this is where I was torn I made a Spacescape and I had been critiqued as focusing my art too much to the center of the page/canvas/screen to me this spacescape looked like I was still focusing to the center, but I couldn't let this piece just sit around. I liked it this way, and this is what I sent in to Imagine FX's contest:
But I also liked it this way:
So I sent this one into The Artist's Magazine's All Media Art Competition. Now I know there are a few out there that would argue not to enter a competition if they charge a fee, which I highly recommend that you don't enter if there is a fee, so why did I spend the money on this competition? In the past I had entered poetry into a contest that targeted poets and schemed them out of money, which I am still infuriated with myself about because I didn't research before I entered, as Stephen King pointed out in his novel/memoir ON WRITING anyone can advertise in a magazine so long as they pay for the ad. I fell victim to this particular scheme of send us your poetry we'll publish it and you could win $$$. Sounded harmless so I entered no up front fee, just send in your poem, well here's where the scheme part rolled in. We liked your poem but in order for us to publish it please send us another and if you want a copy of the book we published your poem in, send us $$$. I became a semi-finalist and three poems later I realized if my poetry is so good and you keep asking for more why don't you just offer to publish me? Answer is short and simple, it was a vanity press. Why did I use the word scheme instead of scam in this described situation? Because when being schemed you don't have to pay anything you can just let the items they entice you with go. A scam they demand money be sent and that is why many people will tell you not to enter contests that ask for money up front. I will tell you from experience don't send money up front unless you have researched, researched, and researched until your butt cannot take any more sitting. In my case for entering The Artist's Magazine's contest and paying the fee, it was because I held the actual magazine in my hand at Barnes & Noble and inside the very issue in my hand was the contest rules and terms and the information matched the newsletter that I was sent via e-mail, and I haven't seen any bad press about this competition so I've sent in my entry and I will await the results.
