And now... the commission contest winner!

And there you have it!  The winning artwork, by the one John Rose!  First off, to give John the proper credit where credit is due, here is his professional site, and here is his deviantArt site.  To all potential clients of John: Hire this guy!  You won't be disappointed!  :-D

I want to start out my review by linking this artwork.  Check it out real quick, because it's related to what I'm going to say below.  John makes awesome pin-up style artworks, and it shows in the artwork of me above.  (You know, it'd be fun one day to see how I would look in the classic martini glass artwork!  LOL).

What I really, really love about this artwork is it's retro-esque style.  In fact, the semi-1940s look is the first thing the boss mentioned when I got the finished artwork from him.  I love the retro-looking robot with those "dryer hose" arms!  If this artwork was from an actual story, then I would imagine the robot's designer being an "old school robotics" type of guy who dreams of taking over the world with these kinds of robots.  Fortunately, he didn't take into account of just how strong I am!  That happens a lot, by the way - my opponents not knowing how strong I really am - and I take full advantage of that underestimation! 

Anyway, let's go ahead and check out some of the details here, because this is where it gets more fun!  Along with the retro-looking robot, notice how I'm drawn.  The outfit, especially that long, billowy skirt, conveys John's "1940s pin-up" style of art.  You see it in the face and in the style that the hair is drawn.  Of course, the coloring adds to this retro look even more.  This could easily be the dramatic conclusion in a 1940s comic book. 

On top of that, check out the composition.  You have one line of action in my right arm, pointing to the top right side of the artwork.  Down at the bottom of my skirt, you have my left knee pointing to the bottom right side of the artwork.  My other leg is pointing to the bottom left side.  And to complete these diagonal lines, the robot's torso is aligned in such a way that it points to the upper left side.  All four corners: covered!

Encircling these four diagonal lines is the robot's arms, both wrapped around the center of the page, and thus drawing your eyes there in the center of the action. The robot's arms are reaching for me, but they're actually grabbing your attention to the focus of the artwork: My furious punch!  Note that the immense impact of the punch is emphasized by the robot's backward and opposite motion from my punch, and further emphasized by his head coming clean off!  Adding to this even more is the robot's feet, one of which we can see the bottom of!  And last, the billowing skirt further focuses your eye in the center of the page, and adds one more final touch of emphasis of the thunderous punch I've thrown at the killer robot!

Bam! Boom!  POW!!!   

Awesome!!!  ^.^

Thanks, John, for one stupendous work!  I love it love it love it!  Whoohoo!!

You are now officially added to my Cool Links List!  --------------->

Well now, that was one fun commission contest!  Coming next month is going to be another call for commissions, but this time not in the form of a contest, because I hope to have more than one submission.  Details to come later this month.

Thanks for joining me on this wild and fun ride, my friends, and a special thanks to the artists who participated, and a congratulations to John Rose!  You rock!

See you all on Facebook!  :-)

Happy 4th! Why I love the USA

A happy 4th of July to you all!  I hope you have tons of fun, hot dogs, and fireworks!  Have a great time, and be safe!  :-)

For today's blog entry, I thought I'd hit a little bit on why I love the USA.

*  For our freedoms - freedom of the press, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of peaceful assembly, and so forth.  No other country on Earth promises in their founding documents the freedoms that we all enjoy with our Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. 

* For our ability to have debates and discussions, and yet still get along.  Heck, I'm a living example of that.  I was born and raised to be a Marxist liberal like my parents, but somewhere along the way, I saw things differently and instead became a Tea Party-loving, free enterprise supporting conservative capitalist.  And while my parents aren't certainly pleased with how I turned out, we still get along.  Certainly, discussions at the dinner table can get a bit - animated - but when the chips are down, what matters most is that we all love each other.  I can honestly say that I would not be who I am today without the influence of my parents. 

* For our customs and traditions that help make us who we are as Americans.  For example, our traditional spirit of volunteering. You see this particularly during trying times like natural disasters.  You will always hear about ordinary Americans quickly planning how to ship food, medicine, and other supplies to the areas of the country that have been hit by some disaster, and many times you will see those who are even willing to volunteer time to help them rebuild. 

* For our ability to learn from our mistakes.  In the past, we had slavery, but thanks to the persistence of anti-slavery abolitionists, our country finally rid itself of this ugly sin.  It took a civil war to do it, but it goes to show the extent that Americans will go to correct its mistakes.   There's plenty still to fix in this great nation of ours, but I have faith that we'll do it, because that's what we do the best; even if we don't always do it in a timely fashion. 

Like many Americans, I am greatly concerned for the direction that our country is headed, but if we take an honest glance at our nation's history, we've always been concerned about the direction our country was headed.  And it is exactly that concern that has helped shape and mold our country very much like steel is heated and tempered in a fire to make it stronger.  It's also that great concern which demonstrates our love for this country, for if we didn't love our country, then we wouldn't worry in what direction it was headed. 

If you're a regular reader to my blog or FB wall, then you know where my concerns lie.  However, I have faith that we will eventually put ourselves on the right path, because that's what we do as Americans.  We may have to be pushed and prodded and even fought against to be put on the right path, but we do it eventually.  I have faith that we will continue to demonstrate that we are the proverbial "shining city on the hill"  because our hopes are greater than our fears.  Much greater. 

So have a great time out there today, and God bless you all.  And God bless America.  May Americans always strive to do the Lord proud.

Commission contest results!

Before I announce the winner, let me fill you in on what the boss had to sort through.  A total of 10 rough drafts were submitted, which included the initial submissions, followed by additional submissions based on my suggestions for "tweaking" the art just a touch so that it would be more to the liking of the boss. 

Well, it turns out that my tweaking suggestions really did the trick, because the boss had a difficult time choosing the rough draft that would go on to its completed form of finished art in glorious color!  I submitted the rough drafts on Saturday morning, and it wasn't until last night that the boss made his final decision! 

So thanks to the artists for their hard work, and for taking my tweaking suggestions to heart, because it really made a difference in making the boss' job in selecting the winning rough draft a lot harder - and that's just what we wanted!

I know the artists are anxious for me to just get down to it, so here we go: 

The winning artist is John Rose! 

John wins the $125 commission to make the completed work based on his rough draft, plus he will get a gushing review from me once I get the finished work in my greedy little hands!  I, for one, can't wait to see the finished work!  Take the time you need John - but hurry!  LOL  ;-)

BUT......

Mr Sabastian Van Esch, don't you go anywhere! 

You made the boss' job of picking a winner so difficult that he would like to offer you a $100 commission to make a finished work of one of your rough drafts simply because he wants to see how it turns out.  And of course, you also will get a gushing review from me once the finished work arrives in my eager hands!

So congratulations to you both, and thanks again for your hard work.  I'll be e-mailing you later today to get things rolling.

As for the rest of you, you are in for a real treat once you see the completed work.  Man, I had such fun with this contest!  So much fun that we are already planning the next one in August!  Stay tuned!  Whoohoo!!

LAST CALL for entries for my commission contest!

Attention, attention!

For all of you artists out there who are interested in participating in my commission contest, but for whatever reason haven't submitted your rough drafts (and at this stage, all I'm asking is for the rough drafts, not completed works!), then you have only TWO DAYS to submit them to me! 

And then this will be my

LAST 


COMMISSION  


CONTEST, 

EVER!













Well, at least until the next one in August.  LOL  >.<

Had you going there for a second though, didn't I?  ;-)

Here's a link to the initial annoucement of my contest.

Here's a link to a couple of rule changes.

And here's a link to a couple of questions that were asked the first weekend after I made my commission contest announcement.

Come Saturday morning, I will be e-mailing the boss all of the rough drafts that I've received so far, and once I do that, then the first phase of this contest will be over, and the second one begins, in which the boss looks over the entries and makes his decision on who will be the winner of my very first commission contest.  The third and last phase will be when he's made his decision, and I will notify the artist, and then announce it here on my blog.  And then soon after that, you will see the winning entry in glorious color, along with my gushing praise!  :-)

So there you go, true believers!  Stay tuned!  Good luck to all of you!

Weekly commission contest update - June 14, 2013

One week to go!  If you're an artist wanting to participate in this contest, then you better hurry up, bucko!  I'm dying to hand the rough drafts to the boss so that he can pick one, and I can be one step closer to having new art in my greedy little hands!

My precioussssss......!!!!

The way we have it planned so far is that come Saturday, June 22nd, I'll hand off all the rough drafts to the boss, and he'll look at them over the weekend.  Come Monday June 24th, he'll contact me on whether or not he has made his decision.  He has promised to not take any longer than Wednesday, June 26th, so it will be on that day at the latest when I make my special announcement of the winner of my first commission contest.  I'm so excited!  :-D

Anyway, after that, then the winning artist will GET FREAKIN' STARTED on making the art!

Oh, by the way, a note to the artists - be sure to let me know if you are on PayPal, because that's how the boss will pay you.  Very important!  If you have some other means besides PayPal, then we will need to know pronto!  That means, "right away!"

See you next week!

Weekly commission contest update - Friday June 7, 2013

I will be making these weekly updates on Friday afternoons, just to get you all caught up on the goings-on in my little commission contest.

First, here's a link to the initial announcement, along with the details.

Next are a couple of questions that I answered.

And last, here's a link to a couple of rule changes for the contest.

The main rule change, however, is that the due dates for the rough drafts has been moved up to June 21st, which is two weeks from today.  I'll make an exception if there's artists needing more time, but June 28th will be the final dates for submissions.

But again, the new due date is June 21st, 2013.

So far, I've had several submissions from two artists, and I'm enjoying this very much! Thank you to the artists who've submitted so far.  You guys rock!  :-D

Unless something comes up that I need to address right away, I'll try to save any future commentary about the commission contest to my regular Friday updates.  And now back to your regularly scheduled Internet surfing! 

Thanks all, and have a great weekend!  

BSC patch 2.2.2: Rule changes

I've made a couple of small but significant rule changes to my commission contest.

Last time, if you remember, I only answered a couple of questions that I got over the weekend.  This time, however, there's going to be a couple of changes that should help the artists to put their best foot forward when it comes to the boss selecting the rough draft that will get the commission and go on to completing the finished work based on the rough draft. 

* The due date for submitting the rough drafts is now moved up to Friday, June 21.  However, if we are still getting artists who wish for more time, then we will then go back to the original Friday, June 28th date.  June 28th will be the final, hard date to submit your rough drafts.  And dudes, seriously - this due date is for rough drafts, not the finished work, so you can put pencil to paper easy!

Anyway, come Wednesday, June 19th, I'll be putting out the "last call" for rough draft submissions for artists who are interested in participating in my contest, but for whatever reason, haven't submitted yet.  I'll be putting out this call both on my blog and on FB, and you can contact me via FB or my e-mail (bustyherochick@yahoo.com) to let me know that you are still interested in participating in my contest and will be submitting your rough draft very soon.  If I get enough responses to my "last call", then we'll move the due date from the 21st to the 28th. 

Now on to the next rule change!

* Initially, both the boss and I were going to look over all the rough drafts and then make the choice of which artist wins and gets the $125 commission.  However, I talked him into letting me make one small change, and that is this: He won't be seeing the rough drafts until AFTER the due date (whether it's the 21st or the 28th).  That's to allow me time to look over the drafts myself, and then to make comments to the artists on suggested small changes or tweaks to the rough draft to look its very best to the boss when it's time for him to look at them.

In other words I'm helping you to make it hard for the boss to pass you over and pick someone else!  I know the boss' thinking, and I can see into his mind (just think of Toon Town from the movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", and you'll get an idea of what it's like in the boss' head).

Now, I know what you're going to say:  Your finished work is going to be awesome, and it will put your rough draft to shame.  While I don't doubt that, at the same time, you will still need to impress the boss with the rough draft.  That's because with all but one of you, the rough draft is all that the boss is going to see from you, so you can't afford to look past this stage! 

Do remember, though, that it is a ROUGH draft, so it's supposed to be quick and messy and without a lot of detail.  However, it's still very important, because it's meant to be a guide to how the final work will look; in other words, it will be how you "sell" what you plan to do.  So when I send my comments about your rough drafts, please take my suggestions to heart, because again, I am trying to help you make the best impression possible with the boss.

 Anyway, those are the changes.  Feel free to ask me anything else related to this contest, and good luck to everyone!  :-)

Update on commission contest

Yep, the commission contest is officially up and running!

Today I am going to answer a couple of questions that I got over the weekend in regards to the contest.

1.) Can I collaborate with others to make the art?

Yes, you may!  There is great fun in working as a team on something like this!  However, be aware that no matter how many of you collaborate in making your awesome artwork, there will still be only one $125 prize.  That is, if there is more than one of you making this artwork, then you will have to split the prize money among your associates. 

2.) Who owns the art after it's done? 

Well, you own the physical artwork.  That is, if you put pen and ink to paper, then that's yours to put to your physical portfolio and show off to others and display in a gallery if you wish.  Some artists are quite willing to send me the physical copies of their work, and I'm quite willing to accept them! ^.^

That's up to you though, if you want to send us the physical artworks themselves.  I cherish each and every one that I happen to get, but I will totally understand if you want to hold on to them.

However, because we are paying you for your services, once you've sent the completed work to us, then we will own the finished piece.  What this means is that we reserve the right to display it on my blog, on FB, and whatever means we have available to us later.  That is, if I get an official website or even a comic book, then we may use it in those as well. 

But understand this one very important note:  No matter where we display it, we will always, ALWAYS give you credit for it.  That's why I ask you for the URL to whatever site you keep your artworks, if it be deviantArt, Tumblr, or whatever.  I'm a big believer in giving credit where credit is due in regards to artists, so know that I will always give you credit for your hard work. 

In turn, wherever you display the finished work on your own sites (such as deviantArt), we likewise ask that you note something like "This is a commissioned artwork for a blogger named Andromeda.  Her blog can be found at: http://bustysuperherochick.blogspot.com/".  It's doing little things like this that will help you get future commissions.  :-)

As I get more questions in regards to my contest, I will post them here.  Thanks for the interest!