Art Competition - The "art" Of An Art Competition

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Art Competition – An Art Competition should be about your art, right? Well, unfortunately many times takes a back seat because entries are not being submitted properly. Make sure you are not making some of these common mistakes when entering an Art Competition.
Make sure you read the Art Competition rules thoroughly.
Then do it again. Take your time and make sure you understand what you are reading. We know this sounds like common sense but it is often over looked.

The company that is putting on the Art Competition has developed their competition rules in a certain order to administer, process and judge the art in a thorough and systematic manner. They will have specific instructions how they want the submitted artwork to be labeled, sized and named. Understand exactly what they want will make or break if you win or not even if your work is the best thing on the planet.
Know the Art Competition deadlines.
The company who is managing the Art Competition will always have a deadlines that you must adhere too. Everything from advertising, materials and judge schedules revolves around deadlines. ...
... It is unfair for an artist to expect the company to change their schedule in order to help the artist with their scheduling issues. It is not fair to all of the other artists as well who got their submissions to the organization on time.

The Art Competition Theme and Media - Understand what the company who is putting on the Art Competition wants from the artist. If it says 2 dimensional art, do not submit your jewelry, sculpture or crafts. If it says no photo's, then do not submit any photo's with your entry.

If you have any questions or issues about the theme Art Competition or what is acceptable, you can contact and discuss this with the companies event staff. You can save everyone a lot of trouble, wasted time and effort by asking or having the theme and media questions clarified.

Label the Entries in the requested format and not one of your choosing. The company who is conducting the Art Competition wants the entries in a certain form for identifying, administering and for judging purposes. If you do not label your entries properly, your art may not be judged .

Always enter the maximum amount of entries allowed for an Art Competition. This is a definite and must they should never be over looked. If a Art Competition is asking for 6 images, give them 9 images. Many times judges have stated they only receive a couple of images when they are asking for example 6 images. Judges want to see that the artist has a consistent style and technique. Images/visuals will always help a judge to evaluate your art more closely.

Getting to know you and your art. Provide a biography if it is asked for or not stated at all for every Art Competition. Many judges have said they do not receive a biography with the artist’s submissions. They tend to look at it as either the artist is too busy or in a hurry. They are just plain lazy or embarrassed to provide a biography. This sounds ridiculous to think they would assume that but some do. A brief biography could possibly help you in getting accepted into that Art Competition and winning. The last thing you would hate to hear after submitting to an Art Competition is that it has not been accepted due to not provided a biography. Thus, leading to the artwork being withdrawn from the Art Competition. Have several different sized bios already made and available.

The Art Competition will most certainly have size requirements. If the group is asking for certain size submissions in terms of pixels or inches make sure you follow it. There really is no excuse to not have the proper sizes as there are many free art editing programs online. To start follow the size, resolution and quality settings that they are asking for. The reason for this is that they want to have a set standard size for everyone to follow. If all of the entries are the same size and resolution it will help the judges to make a better decision about your entry.

Provide good quality Images. Use images only with no frames. Many submissions do not stand a chance of winning because many times because the quality of the image/entry was poorly presented. For an Art Competition for paintings that have been reproduced by being photographed or scanned for presentation purposes. When submitted they are poorly cropped where you see part of the mat or frame, the image is too dark or is too light and overall the colors and contrast are out of balance. Your presentation to everyone and the judges should be as if they were trying to sell your art to them. You only get one chance to impress the judges so the first impression is everything.

There is a reason why they call it a “Art Competition” specifically “Competition” as you are competing with other artists for a limited amount of places in a exhibition and to win. Make sure your art is being prepared and submitted to the “T” which that company has specified it wants presented. Do not give them a reason to reject your work by not having followed the rules or by not providing them with art that is not up to par.

Good Luck,
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