Possible Forum Sketch Comp…?

[Jim_Campbell]

Per my inappropriate musings over on the film thread, here's an actual thread to test the water on a new art comp for the forum.

To reiterate my reasoning for a 'Sketch Competition' from the original post, for those who missed it:

Two reasons for the "Sketch" thing — 1) I don't want to steal any of the official comp's thunder, and 2) with the old forum comps, the long deadline ended up with perfect being the enemy of, well, finishing anything for a lot of people… so I wondered if there'd be any interest in an informal competition with a short deadline and a time limit on the actual work so people (well, me, for a start) wouldn't perpetually blow the deadline.

My thoughts so far are: maybe do one a month, based around a theme or character as always — people have a week to post their entries, followed by a week of voting, but the entries have to be completed within a time limit. Multiple entries are allowed, if you warm to the theme, but you can only spend X amount of time on each drawing.

So the first big question is: how long would be a good maximum time limit? You don't have to spend the full amount of time on it, and there will be a certain amount of good faith required from the participants — I'm going back and forth between 30min and an hour, but I have a little voice in the back of my head that says "No — make it fifteen minutes!"

If we can't come to a consensus, I'll probably split the difference at 30min, but if a clear preference emerges then we'll do that instead. There'll probably be a few odd details to thrash out on top of that, but this will give us a good starting point.

The floor is yours!

[Bolt-01]

30 min to an hour sounds fair to me. A decent doodle can take anything up to half an hour so give some extra to work it into something nice.

If you want to keep it monthly (and why not) then maybe Days 01-20 to submit, rest of the month to vote before counting up on the last day. Winner chooses next character?

[pictsy]

This reminds me of a Daily Sketch Challenge thing I sometimes participated in back in the day.  It has its advantages and disadvantages.  The advantage is you don't have time to worry about what you are doing and you just get it done.  It's a good art exercise.  The disadvantage is that you could easily still end up with a lot of incomplete work and we'd have to police ourselves.

I wonder whether multiple entries is appropriate for a quick sketch challenge like this.  One entry per person may be better so we just pick our favourite sketch to use as an entry.

The time frame could be flexible, so it's part of the "theme" rather than a steadfast rule.  For instance month one it's a 30 minute sketch challenge and month two you have a week to work on it/them.

I like winner chooses next theme/character.

For me, the most important aspects of a new comp is it needs to be fun and casual.

Looking forward to seeing everyone else's thoughts.  I like the idea of deciding the ins and outs collectively so thanks Jim for creating the thread

Alternatively, we could extend it to be bi-monthly.  It gives people more time to explore their ideas and get pieces finished to the level they are happy with.

[Jim_Campbell]

Alternatively, we could extend it to be bi-monthly.  It gives people more time to explore their ideas and get pieces finished to the level they are happy with.

My thought behind the short deadline was to focus the mind. With the old one, we'd lose multiple entries every month to people's boundless capacity to procrastinate (not least me). I think a daily challenge would be too tight, because we have a lot of forum members who don't necessarily check in daily, but my thought was most people could find thirty minutes somewhere in a week.

Really, I just wanted a comp where people needed to bang something down on paper/tablet/phone/whatever and get it in without worrying too much about polish — often that spontaneity is more interesting than something that's been laboured over, no matter how lovingly.

I'm wondering now about having a one-week submission period, but maybe announcing the theme a week ahead of opening the comp submission thread, so people can mull it over and maybe have a few attempts, but retaining the focus of only having seven days to actually get an entry in.

I can see the idea behind one entry per person, although that would probably lead to a flurry of entries at the last minute as people do several, then umm and ahh over which one to enter…

[Colin YNWA]

For me, the most important aspects of a new comp is it needs to be fun and casual.

Yeah defo this and I think what Jim is aiming at will support this. I think 30 minutes sounds good as that is a sketch and really drives to that loose - fun we can all take part (I have some new grey tone pens this will be the perfect excuse to try out!) and stops things getting too worked up.

We should ask Buttonman how long he needs to work up his MS Paint masterpieces and use that as the benchmark!

Thanks so much for approaching this Jim I really miss the Art Comp and this is a great way to get it back here without treading into the Art Stars Comp territory ...

[Colin YNWA]

... having said that 15 minutes is the kinda absolute max you'd see someone drawing at a con - we're not pros so maybe that is a good limit?

[Link Prime]

Thanks so much for approaching this Jim I really miss the Art Comp and this is a great way to get it back here without treading into the Art Stars Comp territory ...

It's a gaping hole in the Forum.

Looking forward to what this could bring.

[Bolt-01]

I'm liking the ideas of announcing the theme on day 1.
Submissions from Day 8 till ?? then voting till the last day of the month?

[pictsy]

I can see the idea behind one entry per person, although that would probably lead to a flurry of entries at the last minute as people do several, then umm and ahh over which one to enter…

This might not be so much a problem depending on how voting is dealt with.  If a new thread is opened for voting I don't see this being much of an issue.

I'm liking the ideas of announcing the theme on day 1.
Submissions from Day 8 till ?? then voting till the last day of the month?

I think this idea of waiting until we can start submitting might help mitigate the problem as well.  I really like this idea, anyway.

... having said that 15 minutes is the kinda absolute max you'd see someone drawing at a con - we're not pros so maybe that is a good limit?

Personally, I can't do 15 minutes.  30 minute sketches are hard enough for me.

Again, personally, I would like enough time that I don't have to worry about time.  If we're doing a time limit per sketch, then I'd prefer it at the 1 hour limit.  I've found that's a comfortable place for me... personally.

A different time limit each month is an idea I think could be a compromise if we can't nail down an agreed time.

Also, we could have time categories.  The problem with that is it starts to become unwieldy as a comp, so probably not.  Just throwing out ideas.

[Colin YNWA]

A different time limit each month is an idea I think could be a compromise if we can't nail down an agreed time.

We have a winner - this a great idea and allows folks to flex different muscles...

... or I could set up a tourney so we can vote on it over innumerable rounds... okay, okay it was just a suggestion.

[Jim_Campbell]

We have a winner - this a great idea and allows folks to flex different muscles..

Not going to happen, I'm afraid. I need to be able to (mentally at least) fix a slot in my schedule to deal with this each month. It's not a huge amount of work, but it's enough to need managing.

[pictsy]

We have a winner - this a great idea and allows folks to flex different muscles..

Not going to happen, I'm afraid. I need to be able to (mentally at least) fix a slot in my schedule to deal with this each month. It's not a huge amount of work, but it's enough to need managing.

When I say different time limit, I mean for doing the sketches themselves.  So the first months comp it is a 30 min sketch, the second month it's an hour sketch, the third it's 15 min etc. etc.  The winner for each month could decide on what the sketch time limit is, or it could randomly determined.

If it were an option we'd need a set range of time limits.  Something like 15min, 30min, 45min, 1 hour, 1 hour 30 min, 2 hours.

[Jim_Campbell]

When I say different time limit, I mean for doing the sketches themselves.  So the first months comp it is a 30 min sketch, the second month it's an hour sketch, the third it's 15 min etc. etc.  The winner for each month could decide on what the sketch time limit is, or it could randomly determined.

Again, not keen. Over-complicated, IMO.

[Jim_Campbell]

Right! So here’s how I think it’s gonna go… we can always tweak down the line if need be.

We’ll split the difference on time and call it 45 minutes. No one’s standing over you with a stopwatch, but try to keep it to about that, please…?

Theme will go up first Saturday of every month, the actual entries thread will go up the following Saturday. That will be open for one week, until the following Saturday.

Post as many sketches as you want, but nominate the one you like best (of your own!) to go forward to the voting thread. Voting will also be open for one week, leaving a bit of breathing room to tally the votes, announce the winner, and settle on a new theme for the next comp, the choice of which will be down to the winner of the current comp.

First competition will be a few days early — look out for it this Saturday, Thrill-fans! :-)

[Bolt-01]

Like.