Erin’s drawing is probably a little better than the entries placed on 49 and 50, but since she submitted it several days too late, I decided to let them keep their positions. I love Viviana’s cute smile and the interaction between Viviana and Ilias. But Erin’s choice of frames for her drawings remains questionable. Those flowers look lovely, but the drawing of the characters, the frame and the ornaments just don’t work together that well.

[Artist’s comment: Summer with Sandra and Woo. I wanted to portray their friendship through a warm color palette and casual interaction one summer morning.]

Despite Woo’s bad hair day, this is a drawing that I would put into an art book without a second thought. However, I decided to reserve a few spots in the top 50 for drawings that are not drawn as well, but that had a lot of creativity going into them. Otherwise the following excerpt of the contest announcement would just be a lie: “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.”

Chiyuko also submitted another drawing that made it into the top 50.

I have to say that with so many great illustrations, only truly exceptional poems would have had a chance to make it into the top 50 this year.

Not a bad idea and not a bad painting, but just not enough for the top 50 this year.

A nicely colored watercolor painting. I think Ars turned out particularly well, but the composition is a bit random.

Confusing comic number 3 that I received this year. My mother also wasn’t able to make much sense of them.

[Artist’s comment: Cloud and Sandra all dressed up and excited to go on their date.]

[Artist’s comment: I certainly put all my rage into this one, and also found another style (that I used once a very long time ago). Anyway, this one depicts Woo being lost in Gaia and discovering some strange new – dark – powers while he holds a dark sword.]

Mr_Dessin also submitted another drawing that made it into the top 50.

[Artist’s comment: Lady with Raccoon – Based on Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting Lady with Weasel.]

Navaeil submitted another drawing in a similar style that made it into the top 50.

[Artist’s comment: A Wild Goddess Appears! – A figure of the raccoon goddess.]

Navaeil provided the following additional photographs of this nice statue of Seeoahtlahmakaskay: [2], [3], [4], [5].

[Artist’s comment: I was thinking of combining a small comic with an illustration. Personally, I think the relationship between Sandra and Woo is really beautiful, because I’m a great friend of friendships between humans and animals! With the comic I drew, I simply wanted to depict a simple everyday situation. Sandra wasn’t even away that long, but Woo really missed her and he’s always happy when she comes home.]

Only one comic made it into the top 50 this year. As a cartoonist, I’m certainly willing to give comics a little bonus, but the illustrations were just better.

[Artist’s comment: The alternative version of the story of the raccoon painting.]

The art style reminds me a bit of the Vicky the Viking cartoons.

[Artist’s comment: This poster of Viviana is a complementary piece to the Lilith poster I have also submitted. I have intended the posters to be polar opposites of each other in terms of shapes, details, and atmosphere.]

The original version contained the drawing below in front of Viviana. But I thought that didn’t work at all and asked for a version without it.

[Artist’s comment: This poster of Lilith is a complementary piece to the Viviana poster I have also submitted. As the Viviana poster is a colorful piece with simple shapes, this Lilith poster is dark and filled with sharp and angular shapes.]

The falling blocks are the highlight of this piece. But Lilith is also drawn well. The original version contained the drawing below in front of Lilith. But I thought that didn’t work at all and asked for a version without it.

This scene is clearly inspired by The Tower in the Sky 48.

This is a recreation of the scene shown in Breaking All Barriers 71.

[Artist’s comment: Chibi Sandra and Chibi Woo go on an adventure.]

[Artist’s comment: These are like little profile things of the four main Sandra and Woo characters.]

I found this submission quite creative, but the drawings of the characters would have needed to be a bit better to make it into the top 50.

[Artist’s comment: I wrote this little poem about how I read Sandra and Woo and Gaia. You will notice that I like the math references in both comics.]

I particularly like the line “And, now with ferocity she also wields the arctan sword of the Killing Fields” in this funny poem.

Woo really needs to go on a diet! I like the text effect in the background. Great lettering!

[Artist’s comment: I decided to draw Vivi and Ilias recreating the classic upside-down Spiderman kiss (naturally with the Avaril, rather than spider webs.) I tried hard to mimic the true style of Gaia and it was a really enjoyable challenge!]

This cute comic almost made it into the top 50.

[Artist’s comment: As a huge fan of Eldor, I found the comic strip about him getting trapped hilarious. This is what led me to doing a portrait of him in “space.”]

This is the 51th best submission in my opinion. It was a very close call between this drawing and another one that may not be drawn as well, but is a bit more creative. This portrait really has something haunting to it with Eldor’s emotionless stare right at the viewer. The quality of some submissions that didn’t even make it into the top 50 is astonishing.

[Artist’s comment: This picture is intended to be both an impression of, and recreation of Larisa’s painting from the contest announcement page, posted on August 9th, panel four. A portrait of Ilias Oter and the first Queen of Gaia, Jael Bara (Viviana), exploring a cave together. It is 19″ by 24″, on 300 Bristol, done with ink from Copic marker.]

[Artist’s comment: Just a girl and her raccoon!]

A cute submission from my good pal Scotty Arsenault, creator of the great, but defunct webcomic Commander Kitty.

[Artist’s comment: Zoey and Michelle are two of my favorites and I wanted to draw them taking a little vacation together.]

I expected more submissions featuring Zoey with respect to how often she appeared in the last year. At least this one turned out well and should please Zoey fans.

[Artist’s comment: Gaia poster in Avengers: Endgame style. In the middle is Korahan, in the lower left corner is Ira Catao, and in the lower right corner is Xis, the imp. Eldor is wearing a frightening mask.]

[Artist’s comment: Portrait of Eldor Olenvis – An illustration of Gaia’s character Eldor Olenvis, in a way that would try to resemble one of those great oil portraits.]

I’m fond of the concept, but the drawing is a bit too shiny to really work and Eldor has a rather unintelligent facial expression.

[Artist’s comment: For my entry to the contest, I decided to go with a symbolic illustration depicting Lilith, from Gaia, during the Shadowdancers arc. Titled The Framing of Lilith Caillean, it’s a bit of a literal pun referencing the frame of the drawing being a cut off portion of her cell bars. Her bangs/ fringe fade into the Bluestream, representing her innate connection to Gaia and her tears collect into a ring and form the shape of a key, representing her innocence and wish for freedom. I chose the leave the Bluestream a lot more faded in appearance than what the comic depicted it as, because otherwise it might’ve drawn too much attention away from her face and the key.]

This is a very well drawn submission and I particularly like the liquid key, but Lilith’s face didn’t turn out that well in comparison.

I think the coloration of watercolor paintings turns out noticeably better in average than that of digital drawings. However, digital drawings can shine with complicated setups and flashy effects that are very hard to do in traditional media. And watercolor is a particularly unforgiving medium.

[Artist’s comment: Sandra and Woo go on a jungle adventure.

Sandra turned out well, but the various styles seen in this mixed-media piece clash too much for the top 50.

[Artist’s comment: This one is more cartoon-like. I struggled with Vivi, because I still cannot draw human poses correctly or if I can, then it will take weeks. I really, badly wanted to make it an animated picture, but I neither have the skills nor the time for that.]

The strong point of this drawing is the impressive landscape. Viviana also turned out okay. But I’m not as fond of the Tower in the Sky. It looks kinda sloppy. Maybe the drawing would even look better completely without it, but then the depicted scene would no longer make much sense.

Thamuz (aka Martin Kikkas from last year’s contest) also submitted another drawing that made it into the top 50. And it’s a fantastic one!

[Artist’s comment: I couldn’t help but imagine Eldor as Kars from JoJo after he got “yeeted” into space. Everything else just came together. Finger drawing on Adobe Sketch.]

The coloration of this piece is nice, but Lilith’s hip is much too narrow.

XealXephnosse also submitted another drawing that made it into the top 50.

Vincent’s armour looks great, but I’m not particularly fond of the dialog.

Yenrou also submitted another drawing that made it into the top 50.

[Artist’s comment: After reading that Vivi has a crush I had to draw some SFW ship art. I only want good things for her!]

SANDRA SMASH!

That’s a very free interpretation of Sandra’s character design. But it fits the 60’s comic style.