The Basics
Who doesn't need an excuse to buy something new and/or try something they've had forever and not got around to using? Or extol the virtue of their favourite tool? Not artists, that's for damn sure - we love to talk, gloat about what we own, and show off our ability to play with it!
And so, this contest was born. With Nonfiction Week coming up soon at CRLiterature and projecteducate we want to get you thinking about the types of nonfiction writing you encounter in everyday life. A major example of this is the review, an opinion piece grounded in fact and personal experience - you basically try something out, then write about whether you liked or disliked it and why other people should buy/not buy it.
Guidelines
Almost everyone has, at some point, written a review; you probably wrote book reports or critical essays in school, and those are sort of like a review if you squint enough. Gear reviews are similar to book reports or art critiques, just about something you use to make art. People review paints, cameras, lenses, papers and pens, software, art instruction books, even assistants in their studio - so no matter your medium of choice there's definitely something for you to write about. Just pick something art-related that you already own or buy something you've been meaning to try and then keep reading!
A good review has four parts:
- Critique - where you talk about the good and bad elements of the product.
- Demonstration - where you show what the thing can do! This is the fun part, you get to play around with the item and test what it's capable of, and show off your experimentation to the reader.
- Application - where you discuss what specific jobs or projects the thing would be good or bad for.
- Recommendation - where you get to just straight up tell people whether it's worth buying/renting/using or they should leave it off their wishlist.
Get bent, David Duchovny in drag.
We aren't asking for any specific word count, but the review should contain all the information a reader might need to make a decision - so somewhere around 500 words is probably on the low end. Bonus points for images in your demonstrations. Double bonus points for not taking yourself too seriously.
Samples of Reviews
Onsite:
Art Book Review: Digital Painting Techniques: V6 SAI review Lens Review: Sigma 18-50/2.8 New Cosplay Contact Lens Review! (Image-heavy!)Check back later, as we're calling in some favours to get some more samples written up as the contest progresses.
Offsite:
Caran d'Ache Neocolor II Watercolor Crayons Sakura Pigma Micron Pens Masterpiece Odorless Paint Thinner Sony E 16mm f/2.8 Pancake LensVarious Pens on Moleskine PaperJudging
The contest will close for submissions at 11:59PM DeviantArt Time (PST/GMT-8) on Saturday August 22nd, 2015. Entries will be judged based on a few really simple principles:
- Is the review useful? Does it tell a reader why the piece of equipment is[n't] worth buying or does it just tell them what colour it is?
- Is the review engaging? Does it keep the reader interested or is it dry? Bonus points for illustrations of the things you talk about.
- Is the review well-written? We're not looking for Pulitzer-quality material here, just some basics like whether it flows well and isn't one gigantic run-on sentence.
4. How many judges say this in response to your work?
Judges for this contest are, in no particular order: JenFruzz, a wanna-be painter from South Boston; TheMaidenInBlack, who knows a lot about conté crayons and earth pigments because she's Italian; neurotype-on-discord, who totally doesn't like whiskey and strippers; Queen-Kitty, the newest victim of the CR team; and PirateLotus-Stock, the co-Queen of Stock and Resources because reviews are totally sort of like tutorials, right? Right?
This is how neurotype-on-discord wanted to be introduced.
Prizes
First Place
- One year Core Membership (or 4000
) from communityrelations - Print of your choice valued at up to $20USD pre-shipping for you or a friend from shop
- First edition copy of BOOK X by AUTHOR Y from CRLiterature and special sponsor PUBLISHING HOUSE Z (tba)
- adcast Homepage Pack #2 directing to anything you want on your dA account with custom banner design from isthisthingstillon and/or neurotype-on-discord
- 500 from JenFruzz
- Announcement Article about your win through CRLiterature and projecteducate during Nonfiction Week
- Top-secret bonus prizes from the judges - that will be related to your primary art medium
Second Place
- Three month Core Membership (or 1200 ) from communityrelations
- Print of your choice valued at up to $10USD pre-shipping for you or a friend from shop
- First edition copy of BOOK X by AUTHOR Y from CRLiterature and special sponsor PUBLISHING HOUSE Z (tba)
- 250 from JenFruzz
- Announcement Article about your win through CRLiterature and projecteducate during Nonfiction Week
- Top-secret bonus prizes from the judges - that will be related to your primary art medium
Honourable Mentions
The judges are reserving the right to award extra prizes for honourable mentions in case we get lots of good stuff coming through. We've got a pool of 1000 to give away courtesy of moonbeam13 so keep the Chewbacca defenses about paint tubes coming! 
How to Submit
This is the easy part! Put your review in Sta.sh Writer or as an image file in Sta.sh, then send it via note to supersecrethideout before 11:59PM DeviantArt Time (PST/GMT-8) on Saturday August 22nd, 2015 where it will be added to the database of entries! We've decided to use Sta.sh for entry submissions because it allows you your choice of an image-based entry or a text one. Sta.sh: Keeping your options open since a few years ago!
