A 'FAMILIAR' AFFAIR
"So, are you familiar with yourself?"

Yes, ladies, gentlemen, non-humans, and whatever else resides on dA, my lovely and I, are inviting you to take part in a contest designed to get you in touch with your familiar fantastic side.

The definition of a familiar, (courtesy Wikipedia) is:

A familiar spirit or familiar (from Middle English familiar, related to family) is an animal-shaped spirit who serves for witchery, a demon, or other magician-related subjects.

To put it simply? We want to see your depiction of YOURSELF with a familiar.

WHAT THIS MEANS:

You get to draw yourself. (go go ego!)
Your familiar can be of any sort, as long as it isn't completely human, but animal-shaped. Come on, use your imagination!
You can draw yourself as you'd LIKE yourself to be, if say you were in a different reality. Vampire, Elf, Fairy, Ghost, Drow or Werewolf? Go for it! But it has to be inherently YOU. (Keyword: YOU. Get it?)
You get to be creative AND get prizes for it! You like that! You know you do!
By animalistic familiars we mean animals like cats, horses, butterflies, snakes, bats... etc (with some sort of magical/fantasy touch) in addition to obvious mythological creatures like dragons, phoenixes, unicorns, hydras, and so on!
This is a magical, emotional and fantasy theme. We want YOUR view of a special friendship.

WHAT THIS DOESN'T MEAN:

Drawing Apollo with a fire horse and passing it off as yourself. Come on, who're you kidding?
Picking any character from known mythology, folktales, fairytales or pop culture. Originality people. Very important rule.


Please read the rules and info carefully , and if you have any questions please feel free to ask!   These are our journals  =>[link] [link]<= So you can follow the latest news about the contest.
All the entries will be collected here =>[link]<=.

CONTEST RULES

The contest starts May 22nd 2010. The deadline is September 1st 2010
All entries must be submitted to dA after the official starting date. Your entry must be new, and must be created solely for this contest. Any attempt at passing off an older piece as an entry will result in disqualification of the participant.
Digital Art, Photomanipulation, Traditional art and Literature are allowed, but no photography, sorry!
One entry per deviant is allowed. (Literature OR visual art, take your pick)
Donators can also participate in the contest.
Your work must fit the contest's theme. You can also write your inspiration in the description.
There is no stock limitation!! But you must credit all the stocks you used in description of your deviation. You must also obey the rules of the stocks you used.
All entries must be sent to *PiccolaRia via note with the subject "Contest Entry".
Mention the contest in the description, for example "This is my entry for "A 'Familiar' affair" contest, being held by *PiccolaRia and ~Calyptra" and link back to this news article.
Mild mature content is allowed, but please refrain from making your entry too gory or too sexually explicit. Such entries will be disqualified as well.
The only language admitted for Literature is English.

Any entries which do not follow the above rules will not be accepted.


JUDGING CRITERIAS

The judges are

IMPORTANT: All the images will be judged evenly between 3 different elements:

General Impact: The first impression is very important, because it captures the viewer or reader.

Concept: Originality and creativity give more value to a work.

The story: Let your picture tell a story. It helps paint a clearer, stronger picture of what you're trying to show us.

Each element will be judged individually, with the three scores added together for the picture's total score.



HERE ARE SOME INSPIRING WORKS FOR YOU



:thumb55027936:



CONTEST PRIZES

First Place

<sub>by *PiccolaRia :
- 6 months subscription
- 1 month journal feature
- 1 commission of choice
- 1 fantasy portrait
- 1 pack of 5 customized bookmarks of choice from [link]
- 1 A4 print of any of my works
by *cabepfir :
- 3 months subscription
- journal feature
by  *DoroxDoro :
- 1 complete illustration (max 5 characters)
- 1 lineart with flat colours (1 character)
- 1 chibi
by =NiAnluain :
- a print of choice from =NiAnluain's gallery
- 1 month journal feature
by `Yasny-chan :
- 100 DA Points
- 2 weeks journal feature
by =kanako91 :
- 1 commission of choice
- 1 month journal feature
by *twelveofdecember :
- 1 commission of choice
- 1 week  journal feature
by ~shisleya :
- 1 pencil draw with texture OR a watercolour portrait
- 1 month journal feature
by ~SereneAutumn :
- 1 commission of choice (full colour + background)
- 1 week  journal feature of 4 pieces of work and the entry piece
by :tearsofrisingstar: :
- 1 commission of choice
- 1 month journal feature
Plus:
- 1 commission (max 2 characters) ink + colours  by *raka-raka
- 1 complete traditional or digital commission with simple BG by *GiovyLoCa
- 1 month journal feature by =MCKrauss
- 1 month journal feature by ~Asherah-Seren
- 1 month journal feature by =SeedyDeedee
- 1 month journal feature by *t-R-i-S-h
- 1 month journal feature by ~Calyptra
- journal feature by !CSnyder</sub>


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Second Place

<sub>by *PiccolaRia :
- 3 months subscription
- 1 month journal feature
- 1 commission of choice OR a fantasy portrait
- 1 pack of 5 customized bookmarks of choice from [link]
- 1 A4 print of any of my works
by  *DoroxDoro :
- 1 coloured lineart (max 2 characters)
- 1 simple lineart
- 1 chibi
by =kanako91 :
- 1 half body character commission
- 1 month journal feature
by ~SereneAutumn :
- 1 commission of choice (full colour no background)
- 1 week  journal feature of 3 pieces of work and the entry piece
Plus:
- 1 commission (max 2 characters) ink + colours by *raka-raka
- 1 pencil sketch of a portrait or half body, of a character of choice by *niji707
- 1 month journal feature by =NiAnluain
- 1 month journal feature by =MCKrauss
- 1 month journal feature by ~Asherah-Seren
- 1 month journal feature by ~shisleya
- 1 month journal feature by =SeedyDeedee
- 1 month journal feature by *t-R-i-S-h
- 1 month journal feature by !tearsofrisingstar
- 1 month journal feature by ~Calyptra
- 2 weeks journal feature by `Yasny-chan
- 1 week journal feature by *twelveofdecember
- journal feature by !CSnyder
- journal feature by *cabepfir</sub>

-----------------------------------------
Third Place

<sub>by *PiccolaRia :
- 1 month subscription
- 1 month journal feature
- 1 commission of choice OR a fantasy portrait
- 1 pack of 5 customized bookmarks of choice from [link] OR - 1 A4 print of any of my works
by  *DoroxDoro :
- 1 coloured lineart (max 2 characters)
- 1 chibi
by =kanako91 :
- 1 chibi commission
- 1 month journal feature
by ~SereneAutumn :
- 1 black and white commission of choice
-1 week  journal feature of 2 pieces of work and the entry piece
Plus:
- 1 commission (max 2 characters) ink + colours by *raka-raka
- 1 month journal feature by =NiAnluain
- 1 month journal feature by =MCKrauss
- 1 month journal feature by ~Asherah-Seren
- 1 month journal feature by ~shisleya
- 1 month journal feature by =SeedyDeedee
- 1 month journal feature by *t-R-i-S-h
- 1 month journal feature by !tearsofrisingstar
- 1 month journal feature by ~Calyptra
- 2 weeks journal feature by `Yasny-chan
- 1 week journal feature by *twelveofdecember
- journal feature by !CSnyder
- journal feature by *cabepfir</sub>

-----------------------------------------
Special Literature Prize  <sub>(Assigned only if a piece of Literature won't win the 1st, 2nd or 3rd place. If not assigned, prizes will be redistributed to the other winners at donators' discretion)

by *PiccolaRia :
- 3 months subscription
- 1 month journal  feature
- 1 commission of choice OR a fantasy portrait
- 1 pack of 5 customized bookmarks of choice from [link] OR 1 A4 print of any of my works
by ~Calyptra :
- 50 DA points
- a critique for the literature prize winner, or any literature piece that comes in the top 3
- 1 month journal feature
by =NiAnluain :
- a print of choice from =NiAnluain's gallery
- 1 month journal feature
by =kanako91 :
- 1 illustration inspired by the story or a commission of choice
- 1 month journal feature
by *twelveofdecember :
- 1 commission of choice
- 1 week  journal feature
by ~shisleya :
1 pencil draw with texture OR a watercolour portrait
1 month journal feature
Plus:
- 1 sketch commission by *GiovyLoCa
- 1 coloured lineart (max 2 characters) by *DoroxDoro
- 1 month journal feature by =MCKrauss
- 1 month journal feature by ~Asherah-Seren
- 1 month journal feature by =SeedyDeedee
- 1 month journal feature by *t-R-i-S-h
- 1 month journal feature by !tearsofrisingstar
- 2 weeks journal feature by `Yasny-chan
- 1 week journal feature of the entry piece and one more work by ~SereneAutumn
- journal feature by !CSnyder</sub>

-----------------------------------------
Honorable Mentions

<sub>by *PiccolaRia :
- 1 month journal feature
- 1 sketch commission of choice
by  *DoroxDoro :
- 1 lineart
- 1 character with flat colours
Plus:
- 1 month journal feature by =NiAnluain
- 1 month journal feature by =MCKrauss
- 1 month journal feature by ~Asherah-Seren
- 1 month journal feature by =kanako91
- 1 month journal feature by ~shisleya
- 1 month journal feature by =SeedyDeedee
- 1 month journal feature by *t-R-i-S-h
- 1 month journal feature by !tearsofrisingstar
- 1 month journal feature by ~Calyptra
- 2 weeks journal feature by `Yasny-chan
- 1 week journal feature by *twelveofdecember
- 1 week journal feature by ~SereneAutumn
- journal feature by !CSnyder</sub>

Do you want to donate a prize? Please note me!!

LAST BUT NOT LEAST
A very big THANK YOU to the lovely persons who helped me, making this contest possible!
First of all, thanks to ~Calyptra for her never-ending support, for her beautiful ideas, and for editing the news. Thank you also to the Judges, whom accepted to take part to this “adventure”, offering their experience, their love for arts and their time. Thank you very much also to each donator, for their generosity!