Colouring contest!

Time for another contest, yayay!

For this contest I've got 2 black'n'white pictures participants can choose between and do their best at trying to make a full colour version of that picture.

First of all, I'll just introduce the 2 pictures and reference screenshots of the characters:

The first picture is a sketch by Babaroga featuring Sanra and Sarah:

Highquality version: http://www.tzarsectus.com/contest/mesmers.jpg

Reference screenshots of Sanra:
http://img87.imageshack.us/my.php?im...rzick10bs4.jpg
-Sanra's hair is completely different in babaroga's drawing, but otherwise she looks the same.

Reference screenshots of Sarah:
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/2...ahwhiteap4.jpg
http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/3...loseupsrv2.jpg (ignore the dark blue outfit in this screenshot, it's supposed to be white as in the above screenshot)

The second picture is a lineart by arcanux featuring Mara and Shania:

High quality version: http://www.tzarsectus.com/contest/ritualists.jpg

Reference screenshots of Mara:
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/7974/maragf5.jpg
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/4...loseupsck7.jpg
-Note that Mara's black tattoos are not included in the lineart (for good reason as they don't look pretty :P )

Reference screenshots of Shania:
http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/159/shania2ud6.jpg
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/4...loseupsas4.jpg
-Note there's a good deal of changes to Shania's armor in the lineart. And that Shania's ponytail is resting around her shoulder.

-------------------

Righto, here's the rules:

Participants can choose either picture to colour or even both. You can have as many entries as you'd like to the contest but only one of your entries will be elligible for winning a prize.

I'd like to encourage participants to take as much freedom as you'd like with the pictures. You can choose to only work with a small selection of a picture (for instance, only colour Sanra in the first picture or only colour Shania in the second one), you can add to the background, re-draw the faces, modify the outfits, draw the outfits with completely different colours or add my avater handpuppet randomly into the picture.

The original artists behind the pictures (babaroga and arcanux) are welcome to participate in the contest as well. They might have a "home field" advantage since they're working with their own art, but I'm expecting the entries will be so diverse that they can easily be outdone by others in the community.

Since I kinda became broke after my previous contest it's impossible for me to have as large gold prizes as the last contest, but there's other items in the prize list which hopefully should be tempting.

Here's the prize list:
1: A GW:EN retail key
2: An unopened 2nd year birthday present + 50k
3: An unopened 2nd year birthday present
4: An unopened 1st year birthday present
5: 250 boardwalk prizes
6: 75 boardwalk prizes
7: 100k
8: 75k
9: 50k
10: A Heket Warrior minipet
11: One superior vigor rune

(the GW:EN retail key is an activation key for unlocking the full version of GW:EN on your account. I can't guarantee I get the key the same day as GW:EN is released. So the participant who wins that key will probably have to wait 3-7 days after GW:EN is released before he/she recieves the key)

(boardwalk prizes can contain various sweets, some gold or victory tokens. Victory tokens are unfortunately useless until the next ingame event where the boardwalk is open again. 250 boardwalk prizes are worth ~30k and 75 prizes are worth ~10k)

I'm planning to have the contest last one month (so that it ends before GW:EN is released), although there's a chance the deadline might be changed during the contest if there's a high demand for it. The current deadline is 30th August.

A few people are probably wondering why the prizes may seem a bit unfairly ordered, that's because I'll use a different system for giving out the prizes. There will be 10 winners, and they'll each get to choose which prize they'd like. So, the top winner gets to choose one between the 11 prizes. Then the second winner gets to choose between the remaining 10 prizes, The third winner chooses between the remaining 9 prizes. And so on.

There's one extra prize too. I'll be giving out 50k to anyone who does the best job of including the handpuppet from my avatar. I don't want the entire winning list to be filled with handpuppets though so this will be an individual prize. If you submit a picture with the handpuppet included you'll be elligible to win the extra price but not in the main winning list. But you can submit 2 or more entries to be elligible for both.
Some reference pictures of the Fluffy handpuppet: http://img527.imageshack.us/my.php?i...luffy66ne3.jpg

After the contest is over, me and a few close friends will judge on what pictures we like best and announce the winners a few days later. We'll try to be as fair as possible, so we'll judge entries based on whichever picture the same way. So even though my favourite character is Sanra I'll temporarily force myself to ignore that bias and judge entries with the ritualists the same way.

By the way, the contest is also posted over at GWOnline: http://guildwars.incgamers.com/forum....php?p=5012503

So, anyway, that's all the rules for the contest. If anyone has any questions just ask in this thread and I'll answer when I can. So get working and post your entries in this thread when they're finished! May the best wielder of crayons win!

Someone over at GWOnline asked exactly how much freedom a participant can take when it comes to modifying the original artwork. I think someone people here would be interesting in an answer to that as well so I'll repeat my answer here...

I'll try to specify in detail regarding these rules. First of all, quality is better than quantity in this case. If one person manages to do an excellent job of colouring 1 or 2 characters, while another person does an okay job with colouring and then does an elaborate job of drawing a spectacular background, then the first person is judged higher.

I'll list the kind of modifications I'll allow:
-Tweaking the original artwork (this can range from changing the tattoos on Shania's body, redrawing any of the character's faces or changing the style their hair is drawn... I'll allow these kinds of minor tweaks and similar tweaks, as it isn't a distinct advantage (the original artwork is good, so there's no guarantee a tweak would look better) and it would probably help some artists colour the artwork if some details or style of the artwork were different)
-Removing substantial parts of the artwork. (this can be, for instance, removing Mara from the second picture and only colouring Shania. The quality over quantity rule comes in place here... if you think you can do a better job of colouring one character instead of both, then you have the option of doing that. But in general, having both characters in an entry is ideal)
-Adding to the background (but I really would suggest keeping it simple. For instance: completing the partial background babaroga had made, just pasting a screenshot from GW as background or adding some simple "misty" gradient-esque background elements. An elaborate background doesn't hurt, but it's how the characters looks which will have the biggest impact when it comes to judging)
-Changing the colour scheme for the characters (This is directly related to colouring so there's no limits for this rule. If you dislike any of the colours for the characters, then go ahead and change them to whatever you think looks better)
-Adding my handpuppet in some amusing way. Although note that if you have an entry with the handpuppet that entry is NOT elligible for the main winner list. The handpuppet rule is just a minor aspect for those who wanna get that extra 50k.

I hope that makes the rules regarding modifications more clear. If anyone has any other questions, just go ahead and post them.

I chose to work with the arcanux picture :3

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1185655727

I coloured Babaroga's picture, i've only uploaded a small version of it though:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...nii/mems4t.jpg

Nice entries!

still working on it...so far the furniture, props and the skin and hair on one of the mesmers is done... thank you for giving us a while to work on this, I really wanted to do Babaroga's picture.

This does look fun and I'm always trying to improve my coloring skill. I may have to do something with that "simple" lineart. =3

A major brainfart made me pick up Babaroga's awesome lineart and.. spend an eternity on it x_X but I think my photoxhop skillz leveled up a little!!1


CLICK CLICK for full image
And details

Ahahah and I totally forgot to wh0re in the sockpuppet xD maybe I'll add it lat0rz....zzz i goes sleep bye->

Wow, very impressive!

And yes, you should definitely make a version with the sockpuppet

Noanoa enter the contest?
than its already over....

Quote: Originally Posted by actionjack

Well, to anyone who feels outdone by other participants just remember there's 10 other juicy prizes to win! 11 if you count the prize for adding the sockpuppet in an awesome way.

lol it wouldn't hurt to try

I always wanted to take a try at coloring many of the wonderful artwork in this thread. I am coloring one of Noa's drawings (yes I'm slow because im working on my own drawings inbetween) at the moment and I thank Sectus for these wonderful contests because it just gave me something more to do

And if I dont win, I just love the fact that I was able to do this.

*goes to coloring*

Quote: Originally Posted by Roguish Seraph

Quote: Originally Posted by Roguish Seraph

ya, and you know what a minipet wh0re I am. 10th is perfectly fine by me.

my humble entry... might still tweak it a little before deadline, might as well have a go at the second lineart... we'll see

Quote: Originally Posted by Noanoa

Noanoa...you colouring job just made my jaw hit my desk..now i need surgery. Thanks alot ^.^.

You are very talented though and that made my night/morning.

Hey all, I just thought I'd toss in my little attempt at colouring one of the pictures. This is my first good attempt at photoshop, so please don't kill me because it's rather ucky. >___<;;

Anywho, here it is! =3

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/61342197/