This was the first drawing I posted to steemit!
I have received a lot of support and have been well rewarded for my efforts in that time and have also been lucky enough to meet some fantastically talented men and women with a wide range of views and opinions on all matter of subjects but who in my experience, are all friendly and respectful of one another! I have had lots of encouragement and feel that I have progressed in my drawing in my time here while still have much to learn.
There is a true sense of community here that many of us find lacking in the real world and this is something that we should all feel very proud and protective of. We are all building something here that we hope will become a blueprint for the future and I feel we should all do our part to help strengthen the community spirit that clearly already exists here.
With that in mind, for my part I would like to start up my own weekly art contest with a focus on learning to draw. Contests are a great part of the steemit platform and really help make it a fun and interactive place to be and there are already some great art contests available to choose from but one of the main reasons I post my drawings here is to get feedback from the community with a view to improving my skills and this is something I would like everyone to get involved in.
I myself am an amateur artist and want to improve but I am also happy to share any tips and advice that I can with anyone who needs help and this is a big part of what I would like the contest to be about as well. We can all learn from each other so I would encourage anyone who decides to take part to make themselves available to others for help and advice on how to improve their work. There are many talented artists on steemit but drawing is not just for those who have the natural talent, it is a skill like any other and can be learned by anyone who is willing to practice and improve.
I know that there are many artists on Steemit who are happy to give feedback, share advice and support one another so I am hoping that over time we will be able to get a good amount of entries and interest in following the progression of those taking part. Although it will initially be aimed at helping those who are new to drawing it would be very helpful if more experienced artists also took part and gave their support.
I intend to hold a new contest every week with the prize pool being made up of all the sbd rewards from the previous weeks contest. I have 15 SBD in my wallet at the moment and that will constitute the first weeks prize pool but hopefully with enough interest and participation the rewards for the contest will increase and become more attractive but really this is just an added bonus to what will hopefully become a fun and friendly learning and growing experience for all of us.
I haven't held a contest before and am not exactly sure of the best way of going about these things so I would encourage any help and advice on making this a well run and well organised, fair contest. Any input would be greatly appreciated! Whilst I am the one doing the organising I also hope that others get involved if they feel they can make it more helpful and fun for those taking part! I am also learning and growing as I go and need the help of the community to do so, so any and all input is welcome!!
So to get the contest up and running I have chosen two images and all I would like you to do is draw what you see. It is very simple. !! :)
The first image I have chosen is the one below.
This is a classical fruit bowl still life that most artist learn to draw when beginning their journey into the world of drawing. I know it may be a little boring for some but it is definitely a very useful way of learning to draw and developing the required skills to progress to more complex pieces.
The second is a bit more fun!
This is a little bit easier than the fruit bowl and is designed more for those who are picking up a pencil in anger for the first time so to speak. Those who are literally starting out. For a bit of added fun I would like you to include a speech bubble and add a few words of your own choosing. Family friendly please!! :)
So what I would like you to do is choose whatever image you feel comfortable with and have a go at drawing it. You can do both if you would like but only one is required to be eligible to win the contest. As it is the first week I will be judging the entries based simply on those that I feel have taken the most time and effort to produce, not the best quality or best result. This contest is based around learning and improving so what I would like to see happen in the weeks to come is that voting will be done by the community to decide who will receive the rewards from the contest with an emphasis on rewards for those who are making progress and improvement in their work as well as rewards for those who are putting in the most effort to improve.
In order to do this I would like everyone to post their entries in the comments section so that they are visible and can be seen by everyone who visits and votes. I am more than happy for you to make a post of your entry for your own blog and link it in the comments but for now am only accepting entries that can be viewed directly in the comments section of this post! I'm not sure if this is the best way to do things or not and it will be a trial and error process until we get it just right so again, I encourage any and all advice from the community. Please don't hesitate if you feel you can make improvements or have any suggestions at all!
So, the prize pool for the first contest will be 15 SBD and I have decided to break it down in the following way.
FIRST PRIZE - 10 SBD
PLUS 5 MORE PRIZES OF 1 SBD
**PLUS 10 SBD VERY GENEROUSLY DONATED BY 
**PLUS ANOTHER 10 SBD VERY GENEROUSLY DONATED BY 
AND THAT OF
As i said I will be judging based on what I feel are the entries that have given the most effort to produce their best work with the first prize going to the work that I feel best represents this and hopefully the prize pool will grow as the contest itself does.
RULES! :(
I am not a big fan of rules so will try to keep them to a minimum for now.
1. Your drawing must be either of the two images I have provided. If you draw both then both are entered into the contest!
2. You must re-steem this post in order to enter. This will help us raise awareness and support of the contest and to help participation and rewards in future!
3. Your entry must be via the comments section of this post and be visible to all who view it so that they can vote for it. As I said I am happy for you to make your own post and link it in the comments but this will not constitute a valid entry for now. If anyone has a better way of doing it please let me know!
4. All SBD rewards from this post will go towards the prize pool for next weeks contest and I will consult with everyone with an interest in the contest as to how the prize pool should be broken down.
5. Voting on entries by the community will determine who is rewarded from the prize pool with this reflecting which entries received the most votes. This will not be decided by which comment receives the most curation rewards but by the actual number of votes. Again, if this is not the fairest way to decide then please make me aware of it and I will look to make the changes that are required!
The contest will close after the seven day reward period with prizes being distributed based on the number of votes received by each valid entry in the comments section.
If you like this idea and would like to support it but aren't able to take part for whatever reason then please support the contest by resteeming and upvoting this post as well as providing feedback for those who enter and also by voting for the entries that you like and feel deserve to be rewarded.
Also I would really like some suggestions for a proper name for the contest so if you have a suggestion for this please leave it in the comments as well!
I am very new to everything so all the help I can get in making this a positive, fun and value adding learning experience would be well received!
Thank you all so much for your time and I hope you are all having the best day! :)
This is the latest drawing I have posted here and I think it shows a lot of improvement from the first! :)
BANNER CREATED BY @son-of-satire