Improve Yourself Round 2 - Call for Participants

blackandwhiteclub is taking participants for the second round of the Improve Yourself Challenge!

Enter the challenge until 1st of November! Submit you best work! You have 6 months to learn new techniques, find your own art style or improve it. Amaze us by 1st of May with a better art-work than your best!
You can submit to the challenge every month or you can submit at the beginning and at the end!

This is an extended challenge for members of blackandwhiteclub who wish to improve their artwork in a goal-oriented way.  It is open to all black and white media, all styles, and all skill levels.  Participants will submit artwork for the challenge periodically, and at the conclusion of the challenge will be featured in a news article.

The challenge officially begins on June 1, 2011 and officially concludes on December 31, 2012.



Joining the Challenge

Members have until June 1 to join the challenge.  New and old members of blackandwhiteclub are welcome.  To join the challenge, you will need to submit an introductory deviation to the "Improve Yourself Challenge Round 2" folder.  In the artist comments should be a written statement of intent, and the deviation should be of your best artwork in this area to date.  If your art piece is already in the group Galleries, add the statement of intent to the artist comments section and then comment on this journal with a link to the deviation.  A group admin will manually move the deviation to the challenge folder

The written statement of what you wish to improve in your own artwork does not need to be specific, but it does need to indicate a sense of direction. For example, it can be as simple as "overall improvement of technique" or as specific as "gain a better understanding of and competence with the use of aperture speed in the composition of lighting in macro photography". It doesn't even matter if by the end of the challenge you are working on a different aspect of your art. The point is to encourage participants to put genuine thought into their art and where they want to take it, regardless of where that is.

Choose one piece of artwork which exemplifies your best work in that area to date. This does not need to be a new deviation. It can be years old as long as it is your best work to date in the area in which you wish to improve. Either submit this deviation directly to the "Improve Yourself Challenge Round 2" gallery, or link to it here so one of the admins can add it manually.

If you wish to improve more than one area of your artwork, just submit another deviation with statement.  There is no limit on the number of aspects a single artist may work on during the challenge, but each statement will require an initial and final submission.  Examples of this would be someone who is both a photographer and graphite pencil artis, or a photographer who wants to work separately on portraits and landscapes.



During the Challenge

After the challenge is officially started (closed to new entrants), the "Improve Yourself Challenge Round 2" gallery will be closed to automatic submissions. Each month during the run of the challenge a blog entry will be posted calling for submissions from the participants. At any time during that month participants may post a link to their best work created during the prior month for inclusion in the challenge. An admin will then manually submit the deviations to the challenge gallery.  It is being done manually to prevent any confusion from non-participant members accidentally submitting to the challenge gallery.

Monthly calls for submissions are planned for July 1, August 1, September 1, October 1, and November 1.

Participants are encouraged to submit every month, but not required to submit every month. Some mediums are time-intensive (like oil paint), and a monthly submission may not be practical. Other participants may find that they have not created a work they feel is better than their prior submission.

Participants are also encouraged to post to the group blog if they have questions about how to improve their skills, or to journal their artistic progress, share insights, share resources, etc.

Participants who write and submit tutorials to the group will also be featured during the challenge.



The Conclusion of the Challenge

The call for final submissions is planned for December 1, 2012.

At the conclusion of the challenge, each participant is required to submit a final deviation showing their improvement, and a statement regarding their progress during the challenge. Participants who do not submit a final statement and final deviation by the end of the day on December 31, 2012 will be removed from the challenge.

When the challenge is over, there will be a news article featuring the participants in the challenge.



Want to Help?

Please feel free to promote the challenge.  New members are welcome to join the challenge.

This is a challenge, so we are not promising any lavish prizes.  However, if you would like to offer features or other benefits to the participants, please send the group a note and let us know.

The biggest help we could have is donations towards a group subscription.  That will allow us to more easily feature members, ask polls of our members, create special user groups like the participants of this challenge, more easily conduct contests, and provide many other benefits to all our members.

Favorite this blog entry!

These wonderful people have helped promote the challenge.  If you promote the challenge, comment with a link and we'll thank you as well!
News Article by sidneyeileen.
Journal Entry by ErinM31
Affiliate Contest Page by ParadiseOfArtists



Any Questions?

Please comment and ask.