Arts and CraftsThe place to talk about stick figure avatars, graphic design, fan art, or any application of the visual arts and creative writing--or just to show off your latest masterwork!
Introducing
The incredible!
The fantastic!
The glorious...
THE CHALLENGE!
If you haven't joined yet, now's your chance!
The rules are simple:
Each week, starting the week after you accept the CHALLENGE, you are to upload six creative works done by yourself. Sunday is the deadline.
Every week you meet the CHALLENGE, you'll get a week counter. If you fail to meet the CHALLENGE, your counter will reset. At certain intervals, you earn prizes (see the FAQ).
For inspiration, every week a participant picks a theme - going by the list. Feel free to use the theme in your works, but it's not mandatory.
Anyone is free to enter the CHALLENGE, and it continues for as long as there are participants.
Many thanks to Rockbird for starting the CHALLENGE concept! We hope many more will join! Here's a link to the first CHALLENGE thread.
FAQ/Guide
Spoiler
Where can I upload my works?
Anywhere goes, really. DeviantArt, a thread here on gitp, Photobucket, PM the finished works to me, or anything else you'd like (many put their works in this thread from time to time).
The only requirement is that I must be able to find it, so please keep your contributions in one spot, or throw me a PM with links if you need to scatter it.
What is a "creative work"?
The creative work may be drawing, sculpting, writing, anything creative. It needs to be an actual work (no doodles or unfinished pieces), but there are different requirements for different types of works.
If in doubt, ask. We can usually find a way to work something out.
Drawings
The rule of thumb is that one drawing equals one piece. But any work with multiple pieces fit to stand on their own can be counted as multiple submissions. A couple of examples:
Two non-descript generic people playing chess, no background = 1.
Two distinct characters playing chess, no background = 1 each.
-//- playing in a cafeteria = as above +1 for the scene
-//- with a detailed mall/cityscape/other elaborate setting = characters +1 for immediate surroundings +1 for the larger backdrop. Possibly another +1 if there's a notable event or scene in the background.
Writing
For writing, a piece is defined as 250 words. This can stack, so it need not be finished works (a full week would be 1500 words). Please include a word count anytime you submit writing.
A poem (any length) counts as one.
Films
For shortfilms and the like, 30 seconds count as a piece. This can also stack.
Figurines
One figurine counts as one piece.
What is the deal with the themes?
Every week, there's a theme chosen by a CHALLENGE participant. We go through the participant list one by one, and you're are free to pick anything.
A good theme is specific enough to matter, but vague enough to be interpreted in different ways.
The themes are not obligatory, but it's always fun to see how different people use different themes. In the status update, I will give special mention to whatever pieces followed the themes.
What are the prizes?
The first time you pass the 18 week mark, IncoherentEssay will craft and mail you one figurine of your choice*.
For every 8th consecutive week passed, Glass Mouse will draw you a carefully-made drawing**.
For every 5th consecutive week passed, Viera Champion will write a poem for you, and it will be based off a prompt of your choice.
For every 20 weeks (for those who make it that far) of non-stop completion, Viera Champion will write a short story about topic/plot of your choice. Your request for the story can be as specific and detailed as you would like.
For every 4th consecutive week passed AND following the theme (one themed piece will do), Glass Mouse will do one piece's worth of drawing/photo/writing/etc. of your choice**.
* within board rules and reasonable size constraints.
** within legal, SFW and personal limits.
Don't worry about remembering these. The prize crafters will keep an eye out and let you know when you qualify for a prize.
Nice! Welcome, Neoriseisgood!
Can I have a link to your uploading spot of choice as well?
Considering that one participant is doing figurines, I'd say the definition is pretty broad. The CHALLENGE is mostly to force ourselves to be productive, to pimp our stuff, and - if you're the competitive type - prove that you can last longer than everyone else
So, yeah. Anything that counts as a "finished piece" would qualify.
Personally, I'm hoping this can inspire some comments and critique among the participants, as well. Everyone could use a pat on the back or a piece of advice.
Not that it's mandatory or anything, just a little hope from my side
Uploading spot of choice ... Wow, I'll have to think about that one.
I don't really like posting anything I can do within a day on deviantart, so that probably won't be it ... I'd have to consider posting an art thread somewhere, maybe, not sure.
Okay! Sunday is over no matter your time zone, so once again it's time to see if the CHALLENGE has been met!
IncoherentEssay passes the CHALLENGE with assorted, cool figurines (the refined Troll and the masked samurai are my personal favorites).
Concrete has made a yeti girl, a blatantly naked guy, and a slightly unsettling little piece, all with the regular gritty penciling and awesome shading.
Fritzell hasn't uploaded anything new.
Glass Mouse passes with comics, snark art and character designs.
Rockbird, Fraudman and HellfireLover are all on standby.
Thus, it's my unfortunate duty to say...
Concrete and Fritzell, you failed (again)!
I'll send out a PM to find out if you're still interested in participating.
KerfuffleMach2 and Neoriceisgood, I'll need links to your respective galleries/threads/you-name-it if you're still serious about participating. I hope you are
Oh, and Neoriseisgood, you're welcome to use this thread as an uploading spot for your smaller works. It sounded like KerfuffleMach2 was going to do the same.
Oh, and I changed my own gallery to DA instead of the Giantitp thread. That Scrapbook exists for a reason
Edit:
Oops, and it's IncoherentEssay's turn to pick a theme (we're skipping standby'ed people now - unless a standby'ed person shows up and voices a desire to pick. Not trying to exclude anyone )
Alright then, theme is Architecture, as per the wider definition (in a nutshell: anything inanimate and large-scaled, be it buildings or landscaping).
Most Challenge entries so far have been character-focused so i feel a little variation might be in order.
Yeah, I've been sick the last few days so haven't been super internet-active.
Uhh, how about I make an art thread on giantitp where I post stuff, that'd qualify right? I need to gather some stuff I've done this week to put in it, but otherwise I can get that done pretty quickly.
Okay! Badish news. I'm going away for the holidays, and I may not be able to access a computer before the 9th of January.
If I can get to a computer, I'll let you know as soon as possible (probably Saturday), but if I can't, there are three possibilites:
The CHALLENGE goes completely on standby.
Someone else volunteers to keep track and remind people to pick themes and all that jazz (the opening post will just be updated when I get back).
The CHALLENGE continues as usual, but nothing is being counted before the 9th of January - where everyone (who's been keeping up) will get a 3 week counter, of course.
Personally, I'd definitely prefer possibilities number two and three. I'm not that important, after all
So... Thoughts?
PS. I won't be able to upload pictures while I'm away (that's for sure). But I definitely plan on drawing, and if I upload the appropriate amount of pictures when I return, I'm thinking I'll be allowed to keep my streak. Any protests?
#3 get's my vote, with January 9th as the deadline for the three preceding weeks. So, as long as everything for the three weeks is up by then, it counts. No point in penalizing for social obligations and the associated technical difficulties afterall.
I'd also like to suggest that the right to declare a weekly theme is opened to people not in the Challenge if the theme has not been declared by wednesday. Might get some more people interested in the Challenge and hopefully leads to less skipped themes.
Yeah, that was more or less my reasoning (about #3)
Very good idea about the theme picking!
I'd suggest Tuesday as a deadline, though - 24 hours should be enough when you're able to know in advance when your turn is, and it'd leave more time to incorporate the theme into a week's drawings.
Your theme last week was awesome, by the way. It pushed me to draw out of my comfort zone, which is always a good thing. More themes like that, please
Just posting to remind you all to upload your works before this sunday is over. There are 3 week counters on the line, people - it's worth it
Neorice, if you've made an art thread, please throw a link in this thread. I couldn't find one in the "Arts and Crafts" section here, but I may just be a sloppy searcher.
Kefuffle, are you still in?
And everyone else, remember:
The CHALLENGE is always open to new participants!
All you need is somewhere to post 6 drawings a week, and the dedication to do it!
After all, isn't January the perfect time for bettering yourself?
All right, time to restart the CHALLENGE for good! Sunday status ahoy!
KerfuffleMach2 and Neoriceisgood still haven't posted links to their respective galleries. You still there, guys? If you don't show any signs of life, I'm deleting you from the list.
IncoherentEssay has uploaded the appropirate amount every week (there's a lot of tanks) and thus passes.
Concrete hasn't uploaded anything at all.
Glass Mouse passes with regular comics and a bunch of pictures uploaded yesterday.
Fritzell tells me that he's out, and I'm writing to Rockbird, Fraudman and Hellfirelover to hear if they're still interested in re-joining some day.
Apparantly, we're down to two active participants. It's definitely enough to keep the CHALLENGE going, but more people would be nice. Any ideas for advertising?
This week, it's my turn to choose a theme, and I choose: crazy animals.
Um, wow. Quadruple posting. Oh, well, time for sunday!
IncoherentEssay passes with an adventuring party and three... pretty disturbing animals (the turtle is awesome).
Concrete still hasn't uploaded anything. I'm moving him to the standby list.
Glass Mouse passes with comics and assorted, comic-related drawings.
Rockbird and Fraudman are definitely out. As are KerfuffleMach2 and Neoriceisgood, since I haven't heard anything (I'm deleting you guys totally, as you haven't had a single run).
I hope it's okay I didn't fail anyone this time around. It seems pretty clear that Concrete is out, and I don't want to keep punishing him for not telling us
The "down to two participants" is now official. I hope you're still interested in keeping it going, IncoherentEssay. Two is enough for me, and new people might always show up.
In any case, it's your turn to choose a theme.
(the "if nothing has been chosen by Tuesday, anyone can decide" is in effect, yes?).
Sure, it's only 40 rounds or so to a full year, might as well keep going.
I suppose the low participation is due to a few factors, primarily obscurity (GitP A&C isn't exactly a thriving hub of art, in the grander scale of the internets) and a daunting first step (going from ~0-1 to 6/week is a pretty large change no matter how you look at it).
There might also be a degree of implied exclusivity, in that the Challenge is limited to drawing (untrue as it is, Neorice's question shows that the assumption is there). So people who do OotS style, write short stories or do other less common forms of creative works stories don't ask to participate.
So clarifying that the Challenge is open to all forms of creative works, applying a gradually increasing quota (for example week1 = 3, w2 = 4, w3 = 5, w4+ = 6) and/or poking around other sites/GitP subforums for participants could help a bit. Or shameless bribery offering a prize for completing x weeks, a free avatar or something snazzy to add to sig?
The Challenge did start as an 'Ironman' endurance competition of sorts, but there is a secondary theme of practicing and improving ones skills on the way, which would benefit from increased participation.
Anyway, Theme: mecha/robots.
Edit: okaay..., the post is in the thread, but doesn't register on the subforum display? Might be so only on my end, but even if it isn't, i have no idea how to fix it anyway.
Sure, it's only 40 rounds or so to a full year, might as well keep going.
Haha. Ambition defined!
Quote:
Originally Posted by IncoherentEssay
(various ideas and thoughts)
I think you're right about... well, all points.
I'll rewrite the rules to have a broader definition than "drawing".
I really, really like the idea about prizes! I'm not entirely sure how to pull it off, though. Maybe a list of voluntary prize-crafters (among the participants) who could offer costum-drawn/written/sculpted/performance danced/whatever stuff to the winners? That way, every "winner" gets something unique and cool (and the prize-crafting participant has something to add to hirs quota - everyone wins!)
I'd suggest a price after every 4 weeks finished - which amounts to a prize per month. Too much? Too little?
I think the prize idea might be the most effective so far
Poking around, plugging and directly inviting people (on and outside of the playground) could be a great way of getting more participants. I'm not sure we can do this on an organised scale, though.
This is, however, one of the ideas that would greatly benefit from more participants in and off itself.
As for the gradually increasing quota... It could work. I was thinking "week1 = 2, week2 = 4, week3 = 6", but honestly, I've been more-or-less drawing three comic pages a week for two years now, so I don't really have a good feeling for how a 0-to-6 transition should be handled. You be the judge ^^
I was thinking about scratching the whole "announcing in big letters and TF2 voice" for failed runs. It seems rather... demotivating.
Maybe it's just personal philosophy, but I think encouragement (or bribing) tends to work better than humiliation (even when it's sprinkled with TF2 awesomeness).
Quote:
Originally Posted by IncoherentEssay
Edit: okaay..., the post is in the thread, but doesn't register on the subforum display? Might be so only on my end, but even if it isn't, i have no idea how to fix it anyway.
Strange. It didn't show up on my listed subscriptions either, hence why this reply is so late. Huh.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KerfuffleMach2
<_<...>_>...
Hi!
Sorry bout that. Real life kinda kicked me in the face a bit. Didn't have time to draw.
2-4-6 seems fine, 2 is to get going and 4 a good measure of whether one can rise up to the Challenge or not.
I don't have much recruitment options myself, so i'll just grab a copy of the link for my sig. Might help, even if i don't post all that much.
And we can drop the U-tube link from the U-Fail announcements, everyone knows where it is by now if they feel the need to hear it .
On prizes, 4 weeks seems somewhat low to me. I'd set it at 8. It's more of something to look forwards to than something that comes up all the time. Maybe a sig-badge that say "I lasted [X] weeks in the Challenge!" would be good in addition to the request-prize? An increasingly fancier badge for each 4 weeks. Everyone likes shiny things afterall.
I probably won't be cashing in any requests myself tho', already have enough trouble coming up with ideas for stuff to make myself .
An optional "2-4-6" increasing quota and prizes every 8 months are fine by me (I see what you're getting at with the prizes - they should be earned! ).
Any volunteers for prize crafting? (other than me)
Any volunteers for badge design?
Also, Sunday's up!
IncoherentEssay passes with three awesome mechas (of varying shape and size) and assorted military people.
KerfuffleMach2 passes with a bunch of cool-ly detailed and stylised character drawings (including a running auto-transformer-small-helicopter-bot)
Glass Mouse passes with comics and assorted drawings (including a requested character portrait and a friendly mecha-bot).
This means that NO ONE fails this CHALLENGE round!
A special congrats to Kerfuffle for passing your first week!
Technically, it would be my turn to choose a theme, but I vote that we give the turn to Kerfuffle - if nothing else for the variety!
__________________
Love shows itself more in adversity than in prosperity; as light does, which shines most where the place is darkest. ~Leonardo Da Vinci Active Characters:
I think I will try going for the whole thing the first time, would I be joining this week's challenge or do I wait until next week?
Edit: I will be using DA as my link site.
__________________
Love shows itself more in adversity than in prosperity; as light does, which shines most where the place is darkest. ~Leonardo Da Vinci Active Characters:
I will join in this week since it is only Monday, I hope I can keep up!
__________________
Love shows itself more in adversity than in prosperity; as light does, which shines most where the place is darkest. ~Leonardo Da Vinci Active Characters:
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The CHALLENGE continues!
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