It’s time! Time to post the top 10 of the Sandra and Woo and Gaia artwork contest 2015! If you haven’t done so already, also check out the submissions placed between position #11 and #25 and the other submissions we received.

With 9 pieces out of 10, the top 10 are dominated by Sandra and Woo related pieces of artwork this year. Although Gaia is almost as popular as Sandra and Woo among our readers, the best and most creative artists overwhelmingly decided to draw Sandra and Woo characters this year. And all of these 9 entries feature Woo! While I would have liked to see more Gaia related work in the top 10, I had to rate the quality of each entry independently from the nature of the other entries. Anything else would have been unfair in one way or the other.

To our gold and diamond patrons: I will offer a convenient download archive containing all submissions in their original size in a week or so.

The submissions are ordered from place 10 to 1. Since they were completely equal in quality in my eyes, I decided to place two submissions on position #3 as well as on #5. The artists on #3 will receive a prize money of ($150 + $125) / 2 = $137.50 and the artists on #5 will receive ($100 + $75) / 2 = $87.50.

Please show your support by visiting the artists’ websites and/or by writing a comment in the comment section of this blog post!

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Place 10 goes to BreakingBen 78

Now, if isn’t this the perfect opening of this top 10 list for American patriots, then what is? The colorful coloration secured Ben’s drawing a spot in the top 10. But I also love the expressive facial expressions of the characters. It’s also nice to see Butterfly in action again.

[Artist’s comment: When I first saw the two terrific Larisa propaganda posters, I was amazed. Fast forward to the contest, I knew I had to make my version of “America – Land of the Free” but slightly altered with more friends and a different setting.]

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Place 9 goes to Aile D’Ciel

If there’s an artist deserving a prize, then it’s Aile D’Ciel! He/She already submitted two very nice drawings of Sandra and Woo for the contests in 2013 and 2014. The strongest point of this year’s piece is the restricted color pallet with the bright orange parts in my eyes.

[Artist’s comment: It looks like the North household has a contest of their own, and one of them is in some hot water… Or at least in some lukewarm water.]

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Place 8 goes to Giulia Beck (website)

Giulia once again made it into the top 10, the fourth time in a row! So don’t forget to check out her submissions from 2012, 2013 (which reached 2nd place) and 2014. Her submissions are always among the most creative ones, and this one is no exception. Please take your time and have a look at all the photos in the drawing, in particular the one Larisa is currently burning. Sandra turned out a little plump, though.

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Place 7 goes to Ádám Bedrossian

I really like the composition and the lighting of this 3D scene rendered by Ádám. It looks very impressive, but I had to mentally exclude the environment from the contest since the tree and meadow were certainly not created specifically for it. Ádám also submitted the following 3D scene of Woo and two of his kits, for which even a version for 3D glasses is available. I really like the composition of the scene, but it also turned out very dark in parts. You can barely make out the faces of the kits.

[Artist’s comment: I decided to add a little depth to your characters :P]

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Joint place 5 goes to Banu Andaru Adhimuka

Please let’s take a few second to appreciate how carefully Banu put the Sandra and Woo strips into the book Sandra is holding. I know what a terrible work it is to make it look that good. Woo’s fur is also very fluffy and Sandra looks beautiful as a teenager. Cloud is really a lucky boy. 😉

[Artist’s comment: My entry for the contest [is] titled “Warm Summer Days with Woo”.]

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Joint place 5 goes to Robin Dassen (website)

Robin is another artist who made it into the top 10 in 2014. This year’s entry featuring Sandra and Woo’s family turned out even better than last year’s drawing of Larisa and Landon. It shines with a detailed background and equally well-drawn characters. Sandra looks particularly great with a face that is perfectly on-model and super realistic clothing. Although this version is vastly superior to the first version Robin provided with respect to the coloration of Lily, she’s still the weak point of the drawing. By the way, there have been only three artists so far who have correctly drawn the cut in Lily’s left (seen from the front) ear: Willie O’ Brien, Eliza Mária Sándor and Giulia Beck.

[Artist’s comment: The entry is inspired from the Jurassic World movie poster that has Owen on a bike and the raptor squad running with him. So I give you Sandra riding a bicycle through the woods with Woo and his four kits. Lily is worried about her kits of course.]

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Joint place 3 goes to Siloy Fredy

Siloy submitted the cutest drawing of the whole contest. Woo’s kits have never looked so adorable and I particularly like Lily’s face. The overall composition, lighting and attention to detail are also strong points of this flawless drawing.

[Artist’s comment: This is one of my favorite part in the Sandra and Woo story. The illustration is about Woo and his lovely little family in their home.]

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Joint place 3 goes to Oliver Barber (website)

I’m very fond of the highly detailed objects in the foreground, in particular the candle and the book. But what really sells Oliver’s drawing is, of course, the blackboard in the background. If you don’t check out Yuna’s script, you miss out on many good jokes. This is the kind of creativity I love to see in contest entries.

[Artist’s comment: This is my interperetation of Yuna, it’s the first time I drew something like this and I wanted to capture her “evil experimentation” side.]

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Place 2 goes to Kirsten Moody (website)

Kirsten submitted this outstanding drawing of Sandra, Cloud and Woo. It would have been a more than worthy winner of this year’s competition if it wasn’t for Kenny’s even more impressive submission. The characters look absolutely adorable and the background can only be called beautiful. I also love all the little details, like the scared mice and the funny facial expression of the green bird. I also uploaded the original version of this drawing which looked overexposed and too green in my eyes. But maybe you like it that way.

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Place 1 goes to Kenny Tracy

After all these Sandra and Woo related submissions in the top 10, the winner of this year’s contest is actually a Gaia related submission! We already had a Gaia related winner in 2013 with Omi’s fantastic drawing of Gaia’s main characters. Kenny’s entry is unusual in that it doesn’t feature a character from our comic. Instead, he recreated the Academy of Cania in Minecraft. And it’s not just the outside of the main building. The whole academy is fully modeled and can be explored by the player! It features well-known locations from the comic such as the Red Hall and Ars’ room from the magical exam. It’s a mind-blowing piece of work created with extreme attention to detail. You won’t find a single wrong building block anywhere! I have uploaded a ZIP file of the location that all Minecraft players can use to explore the academy themselves. If you do that, I advise you to skip the following screenshots to not spoil your exploration experience:

1. Main building: The main building of the academy from the front.
2. Fountain: A closer look at the fountain in front of the academy’s entrance door.
3. Amphitheater: The amphitheater partially visible behind the main building in The Red Hall #1.
4. Inner courtyard #1: The inner courtyard at night shown in The Red Hall #6 and The Red Hall #12.
5. Inner courtyard #2: Another look at the inner courtyard and the outbuilding shown in The Red Hall #1.
6. The Red Hall #1: The Red Hall, shown in The Red Hall #16 and between The Red Hall # and The Red Hall #, with an added staircase to the first floor.
7. The Red Hall #2: A look at the stage of the Red Hall from the first floor.
8. Ars’ room #1: The room where Ars’ cooked his lunch during the magic exams in The Red Hall #23.
9. Ars’ room #2: The impressive ceiling of Ars’ room.
10. Chimeny room: A cozy meeting room with a chimney in the center.
11. Library #1: The academy’s library.
12. Library #1: The second floor of the library.
13. Training room #1: A training room.
14. Training room #2: Another look at the training room.
15. Small training room: Another training room in another building on the campus.
16. Tower #1: The staircase of one of the two high tower’s of the main building, shown in The Tower in the Sky #5.
17. Tower #1: The small room at the top of the tower.
18. Canteen: The canteen of the academy.
19. Kitchen: The adjacent kitchen.
20. Student’s room: The academy is full of small student rooms like this one.

[Artist’s comment: I’m not terribly good at drawing or painting, so I went with something a little less conventional, and I hope you’ll give it a real look. See… I built the Academy of Cania in Minecraft.]