Artwork contest 2019, with $5000 prize money!

This is the contest you’ve been waiting for, the super special 10th anniversary Sandra and Woo and Gaia artwork contest 2019! It comes with a total prize money of a whopping $5000! The winner will receive $1000! Here is the distribution of the prize money in detail:

  • 1st place: $1000
  • 2nd place: $750
  • 3rd place: $550
  • 4th place: $450
  • 5th place: $350
  • 6th place: $300
  • 7th place: $250
  • 8th place: $200
  • 9th place: $150
  • 10th place: $100
  • 11th place: $95
  • 12th place: $90
  • 13th place: $85
  • 14th place: $80
  • 15th place: $75
  • 16th place: $70
  • 17th place: $65
  • 18th place: $60
  • 19th place: $55
  • 20th place: $50
  • 21st place: $45
  • 22nd place: $40
  • 23rd place: $35
  • 24th place: $30
  • 25th place: $25

If your drawing skills are just average, you will still have the chance to become one of the winners by drawing something funny, clever or innovative. Of course your artwork must reference Sandra and Woo or Gaia in some way. You can submit any type of art such as drawings, comics, 3D models, animations, games, poems, …, or photos of action figures and cosplay costumes. There is one exception: fanfiction, i.e. prose in the style of a novel, cannot be submitted this time. The high prize money may lead to submissions with the length of a full novel and I just don’t have the time to read all of that.

Comic info and character references

You can find a short description of the comics, including the best pages and a rough timeline of the events in Gaia on the following page:

You can find information and reference pics for all characters appearing in Sandra and Woo and Gaia on the following page:

How to submit your entry

Please send your entry in an e-mail with the subject “Artwork contest 2019” to novil@gmx.de. You can attach the file to the e-mail or put a link to it in the e-mail’s text body. You must submit your entry until (including) Friday, 18 October 2019. Please use the following template for the content of your e-mail:

Artist: YOUR_NAME (as it should appear on this website)

PayPal: YOUR_ACCOUNT_NAME (other payment methods can be discussed, can also be provided after the contest)

Website: YOUR_WEBSITE (optional)

Description: DESCRIPTION_OF_YOUR_ENTRY (optional)

I will put your name, website and description (in shortened form) below the thumbnail of your submission when publishing all received submissions in multiple blog posts.

How to improve your chances of winning / Image quality

The technical quality of the image file is very important to me! Digital images should be sent in their original size in a lossless image format, typically PNG with full color depth. If you draw the image on paper, you should send me a large, clean scan of it in a lossless image format. You can send me files up to a file size of 100 MB by e-mail.

I cannot stress this requirement enough since I constantly received submissions in the past years that did not meet these standards:

  • I do not want JPEGs!
  • I want the images in their original size!

Photos of physical objects

If you submit a photo of a physical object, make sure that the photo is of the highest quality. This means your photo should have the following qualities:

  • The object is perfectly staged.
  • The lighting conditions are optimal.
  • The photo is therefore sharp.
  • The photo has a large total size.
  • The photo has minimal image compression artifacts.

It’s also a good idea to take multiple photos from different angles. But make sure that there is one photo that gives a particularly good overview of the object.

Inclusion in art books and comic anthologies

If I decide to use your piece of art in an upcoming art book, like the recently published The Art of Sandra and Woo, or a comic anthology, like the upcoming The Complete Gaia, you will receive an additional compensation of $10 + (artwork size / printable page size) * $20. That means if your drawing covers a whole page, you will get $30 after the successful publication of the book.

Additional information

  • You can submit several drawings or other types of art, but you can win at most two prizes.
  • Please do not publish your artwork on other websites before the end of the contest. After that, you’re encouraged to post it anywhere you want.
  • You can sign your work. But a large, ugly watermark will reduce your chance of winning.

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