Our yearly Sandra and Woo and Gaia artwork contest ended last Saturday. The extension of the submission period paid off: The number of sumissions almost doubled to 67 in total! I really didn’t expect that and am very grateful for it. Today, I’m showing you all the entries that didn’t make it into the top 25. There are some really nice drawings among them, so you should definitely check them out as well. I will create two other news posts for the places 11 to 25 and the top 10 later this week.

The following list of submissions starts with the eight submissions placed on position 26+ which I liked the most, in alphabetical order. The subsequent submissions are then ordered alphabetically again. The artists’ names are colored in red if a link to their personal website is available. Show your support by visiting the artists’ websites and/or writing a comment in the comment section of this blog post!

To our gold and diamond patrons: I will offer a convenient download archive containing all submissions in their original size after the end of the contest.

by Ihuoma Ohanaka I like the cutesy art style. Unfortunately, the lines have noticable aliasing artifacts.	by Matthew May [Artist’s comment: Taken inspiration from classic Noir movie posters.]
by Maximiliano Penna The quality of the individual drawings varies a bit too much in Maximiliano’s entry for a spot in the top 25. [Artist’s comment: I dressed up Cloud, Sandra, Larisa and Woo like characters from the Ace Attorney video games. I thought it would be a fun crossover because I love both franchises!]	by Oliver Barber Oliver’s drawing shows that a good drawing technique doesn’t secure you a spot in the top 25 when the general idea for the picture just doesn’t work with the depicted character(s). Since Oliver’s other great drawing of Sandra and Woo is high up in the top 10, he should be able to get over the low placement of this one fast. There is also an alternative version without blood. [Artist’s comment: I really wanted to help bolster your number of entries in any way I could so I drew this rather upsetting image of Lilith. Lilith is stuck inside a mirror looking on at her friends beng slaughtered. That was the idea, the broken glass is where a spell or a piece of shrapnel broke it. I drew it because It was how I felt when my friend died (like a useless spectator).]
by Philippe Philippe’s nice pencil drawing would have profited from scanning it properly.	by Thomas Sem Frisli Thomas submitted three entries, and this is the best one in my opinion. [Artist’s comment: Combining 2 things I love, Legend of Zelda and Sandra and Woo.]
by Elin Ståhl Another nice traditional drawing that would have profited from scanning it properly. I like the triangle symbol on Viviana’s hand. [Artist’s comment: A picture of a slitghtly older Viviana in all her queenly-glory :). Painted with ProMarkers and watercolours.]	by Sandy Tanudjaja This is a seriously cute drawing. [Artist’s comment: Here’s Sandra and Cloud cosplaying as Final Fanatasy VII: Advent Children Tifa and… Cloud.]

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In the last two years, we received 68 and 82 submissions for our yearly artwork contest. This year, we’ve only received 32 submissions which is not a lot given that the 10 best entries receive prize money. The number of submissions this year is rather comparable to the one in the years 2011 and 2012 when the total prize money was much lower ($200 and $300).

While there are definitely some nice entries this year that deserve to win a prize, I’m nonetheless a bit disappointed by the quantity of this year’s entries, regarding the total number of submissions as well as the number of submissions being worthy of getting into the top 10.

Therefore I have decided to extend the submission period until Saturday. Maybe some artists were put off from submitting something this year by the fierce competition last year. But the competition this year is certainly not as fierce. I need a couple of days to prepare the news entries for the result of the contest anyway.

Once again, it’s time for our yearly Sandra and Woo and Gaia artwork contest! It comes with a total prize money of $1000!

As you can see below, not only the best entry will receive a nice sum of money. 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. Your drawing has to feature at least one regular character from Sandra and Woo or Gaia. You can also submit other types of art such as 3D models, action figures, fanfiction, or even a cosplay costume.

• 1st place: $200
• 2nd place: $175
• 3rd place: $150
• 4th place: $125
• 5th place: $100
• 6th place: $75
• 7th place: $55
• 8th place: $45
• 9th place: $40
• 10th place: $35

Please send your entry in an e-mail with the subject “Artwork contest 2016” 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) Monday, 15 August 2016. If you have a website which I should link, please put its URL into your e-mail as well.

Additional information about the contest:

• You can submit several drawings or other types of art, but you can win at most two prizes. In this case, the first winning entry has to feature characters from Sandra and Woo and the second winning entry has to feature characters from Gaia.
• Please do not publish your artwork on other websites before the end of the contest. After that, you can post it anywhere you want.
• You can sign your work. But a large, ugly watermark will reduce your chance of winning.
• Digital images should be sent in their original size in a lossless format, for example as a PNG file with full color depth. If you draw the image on paper, you should send me a large, clean version in a lossless format, for example as a PNG file with full color depth. However, you can’t send me files larger than 25 MB by e-mail.

My grandmother died today. Despite her worsening physical condition over the last few years, her death came rather sudden. At least she didn’t have to suffer. But it was nonetheless a terrible week for my family. I had a very good relationship to her, especially during my childhood.

From 7 June 2015 to 2 July 2016, the following nine polls ran on the Sandra and Woo website. All of them received over 1,400 votes and now it’s time to present the results.

Poll from 7 Juny 2015:

I also like autumn best. It’s like spring without hay fever.

Poll from 7 Juny 2015:

Unsurprisingly, colored comics received the most votes. But many people also like black and white comics. Only 3% of all voters prefer non-traditional artwork.

Poll from 7 Juny 2015:

Way too many people are still oblivious about the many ways Skub can improve their lives!

Poll from 7 Juny 2015:

People want Zoey and Michelle. Instead I gave them Luna and Ruth. That’s the opposite of selling out, I guess. 😉

Poll from 7 Juny 2015:

No surprise about #1 here, but The West Identity was a solid story arc that was well received so I’m a bit surprised that it got only 6% of all the votes.

Poll from 24 October 2015:

28% of our readers want to be verbally abused by their talking cat. Only 14% want to be able to talk with man’s best friend. Sometimes I don’t understand people. 😉

Poll from 24 October 2015:

Similar polls in the past have shown as well that, for some reason that I don’t understand, the readership of Sandra and Woo consists of bookworms that aren’t into movies.

Poll from 24 October 2015:

I think the only positive thing I can say about this roster is that they’re at least very different from each other.

Poll from 24 October 2015:

I didn’t get the impression that webcomics have become more popular in recent years, so lots of people who read less webcomics than before must not have taken part in the poll.

There are four new polls that appear randomly in the voting widget in the left sidebar:

• Which of the following story arcs did you like the most?
• How many other comedy webcomics do you read regularly?
• Do you also read Gaia?
• Do you go to comic conventions?