Let me preface this whole thing with a quick note from Matt Adelsperger, who explained his methodology with "three important pieces of criteria."
"One: Does this jump into the reader's hands?I love it when an art director makes a rule...and then breaks it 5 minutes later. LOL!!
Two: Overall quality of the rendering.
Three: Does it function or interfere with the type elements?
After finishing up judging, I realized that I totally broke my rules."
Irene Gallo and I are still having communication issues, so her comments will get input later - once we've sorted out the problem.
The Line-Up
1
Alex Dai
DeviantArt
2
Allison Reimold
Website
blog
3
Andrew Porter
blog
Kate Irwin - Third Place Award"This piece is nicely-rendered but it is my number 2 because the artist used each plane of the book well — there is something interesting on the front, back and spine. (a lot of times, the spine is all you’ll see on the shelf so it’s very important.) Most of the text areas have detail but are also somewhat monotone so the text will stand out. The composition nearly cradles the type elements. This wasn’t an accident. "
Irene Gallo - Third Place Award
"Nice way to resolve showing each character face on. Very convincing snow and lighting. Works well as a book cover"
4
Andrew Smith
website
blog
DeviantArt
5
Anna Christenson
website
blog
6
Autumn Rain Turkel
website
DeviantArt
7
Ben Foster
blog
Kate Irwin - "Nice palette and I like how the drow fills the front panel"8
Brian Baum
no website listed
9
Chris Pritchard
website
blog
10
Christopher Dunn
website
11
Claudio Pozas
website
blog
12
Cornelius Cockroft
flickr
CG Society
13
Craig Maher
website
14
Craig Spearing
website
Kate Irwin - "Good all around: composition, anatomy, action..."Matt Adelsperger - Second Place Award
"Great sense of motion and has that epic feel reader's want to see. Love the white capes. Good contrast to the drow and really pushes belief that she's the hero and not some deceptive drow. You can tell the artist really paid attention tot he jacket design. Everything communicates perfectly. One thing to remember is a consistent render over the the whole piece. I feel like the drow in the lower left corner isn't as believable as figures on the front. Maybe more rushed. Plus, he damages the spatial hierarchy. I'd suggest eliminating him and give us more of the advancing troops that are hindered by the barcode."
Irene Gallo - Second Place Award
"great light and color. The action pops. Works very well as a cover. Only drawback is the stalactites could use some variations."
15
Christine Griffin
DeviantArt
Epilogue
16
Dan Helzer
no website listed
17
Dana Henderson
website
blog
18
Daniel Smith
blog
19
Daniel Zhang
website
20
David Crust
no website listed
Kate Irwin - "A very different style which I think is refreshing. All fantasy art doesn’t have to look the same."21
David Miles
website
Kate Irwin - "The lighting draws you in and the composition works well. It seems kind of “young audience” and that might be another reason I’m drawn to it."22
Dede Putra
no website listed
23
Derek Cinalli
blog
DeviantArt
24
Des Hanley
ConceptArt
25
Drew Baker
website
blog
Kate Irwin - Second Place Award"This is my second choice. I loved this for the character and emotion. Gorgeous painting. Sometimes it can be hard to get buy-off on a close image but this is so strong, how could they resist? Again, there are some awkward layout areas. I would have liked to see more of the mind flayer on the front, zooming out just a bit. Maybe using the curve of his cloak to nestle the back copy. "
Matt Adelsperger - Judges Award
"As you can see, I broke my third rule. But this submission is so fierce, I had to make my only exception. And figured that some re-cropping and/or direction at the sketch stage would have solved these problems. This piece is just strong in all kinds of areas. Believable render, intense emotion, and that close-crop is dynamite. Poor type legibility on the back cover and the first line of the title. Also, the Mind Flayer's head is really up in the author's "junk"."
26
Elin Josefsson
website
DeviantArt
27
Eric Belisle
website
28
Gilead
no website listed
29
Grey Thornberry
website
blog
30
GT Neo (Neo Geng Tong)
website
blog
31
Herman Lau
website
blog
Epilogue
32
Ivan Diaz
website
33
J Lonnee
website
34
Jan Pedroietta
CG Society
35
Jan Pospisil
website
DevinatArt
Irene Gallo - "Love the interplay of the characters. Perhaps some variations in color could help bring it to life a bit more."36
Jason Pruett
blog
Matt Adelsperger - Third Place Award"I feel like I'm going out a limb with this one because its not one of the strongest renders and the artist ignored some core Mindlfayer anatomy, but Dammit, its the most unique out of the whole lot. The artist made a great decision in taking us out of the typical drow settings (underdark and snow/Icewind Dale). And… get a load of the movement?! Bammo… Zoom… I'm hearing sound effects when I look at this piece. The environment was well utilized to compliment the action. Good, simple, deliberate palette."
37
Jeremy McHugh
website
blog
38
Joe Acone
no website listed
39
Joe Slucher
website
40
John Dotegowski
website
41
John Moriarty
website
42
Juan Solorzano
no website listed
43
Kaisa Tuulenkari
website
44
Kim Lang
website
45
Kiriko Moth
website
46
Liz Clarke
website
47
Lu Vazquez
blog
48
Matt Aufderheide
Epilogue
49
Melissa Findley
website
DeviantArt
Irene Gallo - "I love the exotic setting and lighting."50
Michal Vondracek
website
Kate Irwin - "Nice details."51
Mike Faille
website
DeviantArt
52
Nathan Furman
blog
53
Nicholas Cloister
no website listed
54
Nick Egberts
website
DeviatArt
55
Noah Bradley
website
ConceptArt
Kate Irwin - "Her anatomy is a little funny and it’s looser than I like my covers, but I love the overall feeling of this with the subtle faces in the rocks. "56
Rafi Adrian Z
website
blog
Kate Irwin - "Very successful within the layout and nicely painted."57
RC Torres
website
58
Richard Aguirre
website
blog
DeviantArt
59
Rob Carlos
website
60
Robert Brown
website
Kate Irwin - Judges Choice! "I love this one based on the style of the painting. Beautifully rendered with great sensitivity to the characters. I would have worked out the composition more within the constraints of the book’s type layout. The action on the front cover could be bigger and fill that area more. (maybe using forced perspective so the front flayer is closer to the camera and the drow’s foot is coming more towards the viewer.) Sadly, all the beautiful detail of the guy in the back will be covered by text. It would break my heart to cover him up but I would have to... In the real world we would have discussed all my concerns at sketch phase and addressed them then though, right?"
Irene Gallo - Judges Choice
"Loose confident drawing. Great action – not stiff at all. I love the mind flayer on the back. Cool costuming. Only draw backs is her back arm is a little “stuck on” and it works a little better as a flat than the front cover does."
61
Robin Chyo
website
blog
62
Samuel Donato
no website listed
Irene Gallo - "Sets the scene well. Consistent rendering. Nice handling of the magical elements. Only draw back is perhaps it’s a bit stiff and the chains look a bit 'digital-repeat'."63
S.C. Watson
website
64
Thom Scott
website
blog
65
Tracy Flynn
website
blog
66
Tyler Walpole
website
67
Zachary Schoenbaum
website
blog
...and don't forget that our judges that are donating some of their precious time:
Irene Gallo, Tor Books
Matt Adelsperger, Wizards of the Coast books
Kate Irwin, Mirrorstone Books, Wizards of the Coast books
Go Forth. Create!
To Be Seen...
Got questions, or want to see a discussion on a particular subject. Drop me a line at ArtDrop Questions.
Don't forget that you can also send your art submissions to Wizards of the Coast at ArtDrop Submissions. Please make sure that your submissions do not total more than 5 Mb, or your email might get bumped.
Posts
14 comments:
Thanks everybody, and congratulations to the winners.
Tracy
It's shocking to me how few of these artists I've heard of. Reminds me of how super crowded the field must be.
Thanks Jon for hosting, and thanks to Kate Irwin for taking the time to comment on my piece (#55, for the curious). Had a great time doing this piece.
Maybe in a couple years I'll be able to work for one of these astute judges. :)
Thanks again for hosting this Jon! And great feedback from the judges (with interesting pics, compared to the first round of comments).
I felt really badly about how unfinished my piece was when I submitted, so for anyone interested there's a whole slew of revisions up on my blog.
Thanks again Jon!
(sorry for reposting, but fixed the issue with thumbnails/full image on my blog)
Congratulations to the winners.
I still like Drew baker's #25 the best myself.
Wish I had given myself more time and gotten illuminated lettering into mine.
I tried to do a medieval illuminated page, results were unsatisfactory.
But fun.
Kim
I just wanted to quickly say thanks to Kate and Matt, Kim, and everyone else who's complimented my piece. All too often it feels like I'm working in a vacuum, and it's nice when people who aren't involved in a project take interest in what I'm doing. Thanks.
Congrats to the winners and everyone who got a mention. Some REALLY good stuff, especially love Robert Browns entry - really deserving winner.
Really happy about third place from Kate to. Thanks very much, its great to get a nod in such a huge number of great pieces.
Thanks for running this one too Jon.
This challenge has been incredibly fun. Many thanks to Jon for hosting, and to Matt and Kate for the comments, It's an honor to be mentioned amongst so many excellent entries. Thanks also to all the readers who made mention of my entry, it means a lot to me.
And to Drew Baker: are you planning on entering future contests? I have some 'associates' who may pay you a visit. Don't mind the shackles and blindfold, they're just there for your 'protection'. (Seriously though, hats off... jaw-dropping stellar work man).
Craig J Spearing
http://cjspearing.blogspot.com/
Thank you judges for taking your time to consider our entries! & congrats to the other artists as well! great work!
rob brown
First to say Happy belated birthday Jon.
Thanks a lot for the Art Directors for judging.
and this challenge was good.
Congratulations to the winners !
I just wanted to say thank you to Jon for doing this, and congrats to the winner. Truly deserved, I think. Some of those just blew me away.
Also, a special thanks to Irene for taking the moment to comment on my piece. It wasn't much, but it brightened my day a bit. :)
I am writing to thank the judges for their taking the time to review all of these most awesome entries.
I am learning much from reading the comments and will apply the lessons garnered here in my future work.
Onwards and many thanks!
---Jeremy McHugh
Great template! Thanx for sharing it with us
I like it! Simple and pretty More templates easy to download
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