The exultant return and new theme of Trial by Comics!
Good day, Steemit! I’m really excited to make this blog post and announcement. I’ve been seeing […and feeling] pessimism in our community lately. There are so any moving parts to this content engine that is Steemit. I can’t do much in regards to Steemit Inc., but I can certainly do a lot as an author. I’ve been on this platform for almost two years. I’ve made close relationships with so many of the artists and authors here. I can offer perspective as someone that’s made the biggest gains of my Steemit contributions when STEEM was at $0.08. We all have a role in helping Steemit thrive, even during the downturns, and this is what I’m doing about it.
So, with that, this is the return of Trial by Comics! The contest for and by the comic illustrators, writers, inkers and creators. Trial by Comics fell of the radar just before my book release party and the LA/Viva Las Vegas trip, and for good reason. The entire month of April […and weeks leading up to it] consumed my life, time, thoughts and emotions. I didn’t want to half-ass my way through new contest themes, especially considering that I pride myself on drawing the theme example each week.
If you need a reminder, the last Trial by Comics theme was “Writing”. Winners were decided but haven’t been announced, until now. First place for “Writing” was the incredibly talented @drwatson for “Trial by Comics - City of Dis”. I’ve been immersed in @drwatson and @la-fumettista’s Ithaqa comic, so having his entry in Trial by Comics was an absolute honor. 25.000 SBD’s coming to you.
Second place for “Writing” is @jpgaltmiller’s entry “Trail by Comics - Contest Entry”, chronicling the pages of his comic, Polis. “The Trial of Socrates”. I mean, it has “trial” right in the title and I’m a big history nerd. Thank you so much @jpgaltmiller. I loved reading and learning about Polis. 10.000 SBD’s to you.
Third place for “Writing” goes to @eliu for his entry “MR. BRAYAN”. I really loved the dialog and exchange between characters in this story […enough so that I took pointers for my own stories]. I also appreciate the effort in sharing a Spanish version and an English version. Congratulations @eliu. 5.000 SBD’s to you. I hope you’ll continue to participate in Trial by Comics.
Before I make the big announcement for the new theme, I have to remind everyone that we do have a Discord channel specific to Trail by Comics! New theme announcements, a channel for theme suggestions, post-promotion, general conversation and a great community of comic artists and enthusiasts. Join our Discord and share your work. We’d love to have you!
Trial by Comics new theme is “Inspirational Steemit Artists”
This is a cross pollination initiative. There are so many incredible artists here on our corner of the internet, I want you all to decide on a Steemit artist that you admire and attempt to create an entry influenced by their style. For me, this was an easy one. I’ve been a fan of @gric since he first joined Steemit. Going back even further, I grew up loving H.R. Giger [….whom I’d assume had some level of influence on @gric]. Thus, this web of artists that inspire us to pick up a pencil, or brush to create our own interpretations of art, seemed like a perfect theme for Trail by Comics.
Deadline for “Inspirational Steemit Artists” is Sunday, June 24th 5:00UTC 12:00a.m. CTS
Rules
• Up to three entries per trial round [weekly]
• Original artwork only [process documentation strongly encouraged]
• Winners will be chosen based on quality of work, submitted before deadline and ability to adhere to the weekly trial theme
• Must resteem the contest post you’re participating in
• Must include #trialbycomics hashtag
40.000SBD in prizes for the three winners. If you’d like to contribute to the prize or match my own, please contact me as a sponsor for future Trial by Comics contests, but note that sponsors cannot participate in that week’s #trialbycomics!
That’s it! Start drawing and get those entries in by next Sunday. Thank you again, all of you, for making Trial by Comics such a success. Join our Discord channel and keep the conversation going. Share your contest entries and WIP’s. Give this post a resteem! For more comics, art and photography, follow me here @kommienezuspadt!
Ohhh! TBC is back! :D
Awesome,, this week will be tough for me.. but if you can get a steemmonster challenge for next.. i will simply have to ditch other work to join in on that one ;))))
Thanks , and weclome back hah!
Any pessimism I see, I find baffling. I see nothing but opportunity on here. I can reach a pool of people who have never seen my work before, make some of them fans...maybe make money, maybe make money by them buying physical copies off my website, maybe they see me at a convention, maybe they tell someone else.
If there are "whales" or the platform isn't an entirely level playing field who cares? There's no such thing anyway. Steem goes up or down...so what, so does everything. There's opportunity here, and I intend to seize it.
That's absolutely true, @arseniclullaby. There is a tremendous opportunity. When I first joined Steemit, my first post made $1600. At that point, I was all in [...whether that would happen again or not, which it didn't]. I did learn about decentralized networks and as an alternative to Facebook and Instagram, this was a place I could share my work, still own the content and get rewarded for it [...regardless of how much or how little]. The majority of my gains and position on Steemit came during a four month dark period when STEEM was at $0.08 in 2016. The pessimism comes more from a place that I've committed much of my life and career to Steemit and cryptocurrency, so it's not as easy to say "So what", when you've become increasingly more dependent on what you make here or trading. I'll be just fine, but I will have to start booking shoots throughout the summer months, which means I have to travel again, and I've kind of mentally checked out of that in hopes of spending more time on my own comic.
I didn’t know this, but I sympathise with you, traveling for work is not as fun as it sounds. And getting your biggest reward in the beginning of your Steemit life, that’s pretty hard also for the mind to accept, because we’re taught to expect a progress of improvement in our life. I deeply admire your and foxxie’s stamina and constitution for consistently making quality posts since 2016. I hope I can do the same :).
Yeah, @scrawly. During the times when STEEM, and crypto in general are high, it's tough to not allow it to become more and more of your dependent income. During HF19, rewards were insane! Posts were earning $200 - $400/ea. It would take a really disciplined person to not allow yourself to believe this was a viable revenue stream. Even artists I love and respect like @vermillionfox and @eveuncovered have quit their regular jobs to pursue Steemit. There are a lot of benefits, like having the freedom to work on whatever you're inspired to do, and an incredible community of feedback and support, but when a volatile market crashes, it can scare the shit out of you. I'm find with weathering the storm, but this recent storm, I feel, has lasted about six months.
love your attitude and positivity, arsenic :>
Let's see how long it endures XD
Hi @arseniclullaby, you have just got yourself another fan! I love your positive attitude and I will definitely be telling other people about your work. If you want to come and join the IFC Discord group and set up a shop at the marketplace so more people on Steemit can see your work. If you are interested let me know and I will provide more details :)
Hey glad to hear it! I am defiantly interested, I have a lot of trouble navigating discord for some reason, but I will try to find this group, if you don't see me tomorrow (Saturday) it means I couldn't figure how to find it, so just in case- my discord name is ArsenicLullaby#2207 and thanks again!
Sounds like a great contest! really curious what people going to create :) So many great artists at Steemit.
...I wish I wasn't so busy cause I would like to give it a try. Also blame my slowness and perfectionism not getting art finished...
Great drawing I like the art of Peter Gric and Giger :)
First off, a heartfelt thank you for posting an uplifting steemit post. I agree so much on the pessimism that feels so prevalent on this platform. I was actually having a moment of needing to find a new focus away from all the negativity, and then I caught your post! We really need more established creators like you to generate enthusiasm and to inspire. ❤️
I’ve been looking for a quality comics contest for a while now and have actually asked for one to be created, but this is perfect! So this contest is firmly on my radar to put a submission in. I’m not sure I have the bandwidth for this theme given the time frame, because it is a challenging one. I don’t have much exposure to the steemit art community, and as I’ve told you previously, your comics post and the art I saw in that was my inspiration to practice drawing again. ;)
SO, I’m not exactly sure how I’ll even be able to recreate anything to your standards! Lol
Anyway, I’ve so much appreciation for this relaunch of your comics contest. I’ll certainly think on a possible entry, but even if I’m not able to participate, I’ll make sure to upvote and comment on some entries in support. Resteeming as well! Hope you get heaps of great submissions!
wowowowow return of Trial by Comics ! WELCOME BACK!
and what a theme !!! :D I look forward to seeing a lot of steemit artists' styles being appreciated <3 amazing theme, @kommienezuspadt !!!
I'm so glad to have it back! I hope you can find the time to participate @veryspider. I'd love to see you do another artists' style. My decision for the theme artwork this week was between you and @gric.
:sweatdrops: :sweatdrops: :sweatdrops:
im glad you went with gric, @kommienezuspadt! you're the most nicest fabbest person to have thought of me that way, though!!
I definitely will try to find time to enter!!!
: D
Oh fuck, this is a damn cool Trial.
And thank god you made this post! No joke I have a bootleg Trial By Comics post in a text file I started the other night (Steem Monsters theme, 1 week only, prize was going to just be some booster packs). So lame compared to this idea, I already have some Steemit artists in mind I might want to have fun with their style.
I'm trying to talk to the @steemmonsters folks about allowing us to do a STEEMMonsters #trialbycomics theme for an upcoming week. If there's anything I love drawing, it's monsters and dragons. I'm excited about this week's theme a lot, though. I wish I had more time. I'd love to try and emulate @veryspider, @bryan-imhoff or @stahlberg. Congratulations on the 67 level up, too @cryplectibles!
Check out @reseller on here on Steemit or on Twitter https://twitter.com/ThriftShopDude he is now doing social stuff for @SteemMonsters . He is super good dude online at least, have interacted with him multiple times before he just got this gig doing the SteemMonsters stuff so it's cool to see him do this for them. Tell him I pointed you in his direction and let him look over your previous #TrialByComics posts, no doubt they would Resteem and help ad any contest you do (as long as they don't have their own currently going). Actually after I hit post on this comment I'm going to send him this link.
It’s funny... I don’t even know how I would draw my own style!!! I can’t really see a style or overall look to my stuff... it’s kind of like how people can’t really hear their own accent most of the time.
Oh well, time to go do some drawing... but wait! How do I draw like me!?! Dammit, I’m screwed...
Not sure if it's required or not to write my entry here, but here it is
https://steemit.com/trialbycomics/@scrawly/iron-maidens-morning-star
Thank you Kommienezuspadt for setting up such a fun challenge. It forces me to go out of my comfort zone which is always good since I learn new things :).
Awesome, @scrawly! Such a great entry. Thank you for making the time to participate! Yeah. Working on that @gric style drawing I did was way outside of my usual approach.
I did another one... I hope you like it ^^.
https://steemit.com/trialbycomics/@scrawly/medusa
Oh! I'm glad it's back! it's good to go back to where so many Steemit artists come together! Thanks @kommienezuspadt for wanting to help the community!
I'm glad it's back, too @yanes94! I only had to take a break because VLV and the work I was doing leading up to the book release was far too much.
I'm not a comic artist per se, but I do like to draw. Mostly I like the positive spirit of this post. I am always amazed when others complain about steemit as well, as I still can't believe it exists.
I have made such great connections and dicovered some wonderful artists, authors, photographers etc on the platform and to think we also earn as well, it's amazing. True, I don't earn much but it sure seems a joy to earn even a bit from just sharing your ideas and your sketches for your work.
I'm not sure if I'll enter, as I said not a comicbook artist per se, but I do love to draw a half human bot in my current painting series, so maybe I'll do a new sketch and enter that just for fun.
Again, great positive post :)
You do such great art @donnadavisart. Really "comic art" implies superheroes and that's not really the case. Any art can be comic art. I love your style. You should Google "Aria comic". It's a book from the 90's that I used to love that is very detailed and looks fully watercolored over pencils and sometimes inks. It's beautiful. Another artist I loved is Simon Bisley. He mostly did cover art but is SO incredible. All paintings, and then, of course there was Frank Frazetta. There are a few artists on here I'm sure you're already following, but they would regularly participate in Trial by Comics [...won several of them] and are digital painters. @joxus, @justmousepixels and @beekart are all outstanding. If you find the time, I'd love to see what you come up with!
My entry for contest Trial by comics:
LINK:
https://steemit.com/trialbycomics/@alexandracruz/trial-by-comics-frightening-hope