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San Japan: Art Contest – Info & Rules

Entry form is at the bottom of this page. Please read over all of the rules as there has been plenty of changes.

We are holding three art contests this year. One art contest is strictly for the T-Shirt, one is the Mega Art Contest and a new one this year is the Sketch Art Contest. If you would like to see people wearing your artwork as a badge, be on front cover of the program book or just see your art on our badges then you’ll want to enter the Mega Art Contest. If you would like your graphic artwork to be used to on our shirt then you’ll want to enter the T-Shirt Contest. The sketch art contest will be reproducing the best sketches to be shown to the public. We have made changes to the rules and guidelines so please read over them in detail.

Theme: This year’s theme is Villains. We’re looking for dark, shadow-y, evil looking character(s). It can be with or without a mask. No major restriction on clothing. Henchmen are perfectly acceptable to put in the background.

The setting and background is up to the artist.

Here are the rules & guidelines for the T-Shirt Contest (rules written up by our T-Shirt Printer):

Step One.

  • Create your design using a vector art program like Adobe Illustrator®. Or,
    Create your design using a raster program like Adobe Photoshop®.
  • Hand drawing the sketch on paper then coloring in Photoshop or Illustrator is perfectly allowed.
  • We are looking for artwork with layers to allow us to edit what is necessary.
  • If you are designing with a raster program, make sure your canvas size is 12″ x 15″, and 300 dpi (pixels per inch).
  • Use a minimum line width of 5 pixels.
  • If your design contains gradients, you must convert them to halftones. Make them 1 to 30 LPI (lines per inch).
  • Each dot that makes up your halftone must be one solid color.
  • If you are designing with a vector program, make sure the canvas is at least 5″ x 5″. 
  • Use a minimum line width of 1 point.
  • If your design contains gradients, your gradients must have a minimum 15% dot in all colors. We’ll create the halftones.
  • Your fonts should be expanded or outlined in your final version.
  • Save all final vector files as an eps.

Colors:

Use a maximum of 4 colors. This includes black and white. (If we print on dark shirts, we’ll add an underbase. A base is separate from white, and NOT counted in the artist’s maximum 4 colors.) Note: if you plan to present your design on a black t-shirt, you can use the t-shirt’s color as your black line; therefore it doesn’t count as one of your max 4 colors. Colors should be Pantone Solid Coated. RGB.

T-shirt Color:

Although Black t-shirts are King, you may choose a t-shirt color that best suits your design from the following:
Ash, Black, Deep Forest Green, Deep Red, Deep Royal, Gold, Light Blue, Light Steel, Maroon, Navy, Orange, Purple, White, or Yellow.

Tee Colors

Step Two.
Please save a copy of your design as a GIF, JPG or PNG. We’ll give an option to submit your high resolution artwork but if selected we will ask for it. Please make sure your high resolution artwork has all layers in tact. Do not flatten your image when in the form of .psd, .pdf or .eps.

The winning Artist receives an Artist Alley table with two Artist Alley badges ($160 value).

T-Shirt Entry Example: Right Amount Of Colors

Here are the rules & guidelines for the Mega Art Contest:

  • For the Mega Art Contest, the entry may have as many colors as you’d like and no restriction on the background.
  • Mega Art Entries must be digital; traditional art submissions (i.e hand-drawn art and sketchbooks) will not be accepted. To Clarify: Hand drawing the sketch on paper then coloring in Photoshop or Illustrator is perfectly allowed.
  • Mega Art Entries relate to this year’s theme of Villians.

Mega Art Entry Example:
Too many colors for a T-shirt
but works well for the
Mega Art Contest

Prizes for Mega Art Contest
      • 1st Place: Art used on Program Book Cover. Winning artist will be awarded 1 table in Artist Alley with two Artist badges (good for all 3 days of the convention) for San Japan: Sinister 6 ($160 Value) [WINNER MAY REQUEST SUBSTITUTE PRIZE OF EQUAL VALUE].
      • 2nd Place: Art used on 3-Day Pre-Registration Badge + T-Shirt ($70 Value).
      • 3rd Place: Art used on VIP Gold Pass. Wins a 3-Day Pre-Registration badge ($50 Value).
      • 4th Place: Art used on 3-Day Weekend Registration Badge. Wins a Pre-Registration badge.
      • 5th Place: Art used on Saturday Badge. Wins a convention T-Shirt
      • 6th Place: Art used on Child Badge. Wins a convention T-Shirt.
      • 7th Place: Art used on Friday Badge. Wins a convention T-shirt.
      • 8th Place: Art used on Sunday Badge. Wins a convention T-shirt.
      • All awards received for the 2013 art contest apply only to San Japan: Sinister 6.
      • 2nd-8th place may give their prizes to friends if requested.

Sketch-Art Contest

We’ve gotten requests to have an art contest which allows just non-digital sketch-art, i.e. hand-drawn art. The rules for this are simple: Just draw what you’d like and submit it to us. Be sure it matches our theme and shows a definite influence from the Japanese art-style.

Guidelines

  • It needs to be drawn on a blank white piece of paper.
  • It must be colored, no Black & White drawings.
  • It must be scanned as we can not accept original copies in-person.
  • The sketch art must be at least 5″ x 5″. Bigger is always better.

Prizes

  • One selected drawing will get a free pre-registration and a t-shirt.
  • If we use your drawing for any other parts of the convention, like the Program Book or Badges, we’ll send you a free convention shirt.

    •  

    This is what we request for all entries:

        • Unlike previous contests which we asked for artwork of our female mascot Sana and the chibis, this year we are preferably looking for MALE design artwork but we will still allow female or even non-human original artwork as long as it matches the theme. The design needs to show influence from Japanese art style. We are leaving it up to the artist to come up with the design. If you need some inspiration, be sure to look over previous entries from 2009, 2010, 2011, or 2012 contest. This is a link to our teaser artwork but you do not have to use this character design.
      • We will accept fan art submissions of based on a well-known anime/manga series.
      • Fan submissions may not be a tracing that is directly lifted from an anime or manga scene even if the character design is modified to be original. Any entries discovered to be a tracing will be disqualified and the artist will not be allowed to enter future contests.
      • If you want to submit your own original work, it will be considered as long as it is in an anime/manga style or other non-traditional art style.
      • Artwork must be G or PG rated. Nothing overtly risque or offensive. Clothing must cover key areas. No suggestive posing.
      • The 2013 attendee badge template will be horizontal. Please put this into consideration when drawing for the Mega Art contest.
      • It is highly preferred that all submissions have layers if at all possible. Do not flatten your image. Submitted art needs to be in TIF or PSD/Photoshop format [preferred]. We will also accept JPG/PNG files. If submitting a JPG/PNG file, let us know if you have a EPS/PSD/PDF (Photoshop/Illustrator) file available so that we can ask for it if your entry is selected.
      • Please make sure the picture is high-resolution at 300DPI. Please be at minimum 1365 x 1024 pixels  if at all possible for MEGA Art entries. Bigger is better. The preferred canvas size for T-Shirt entries is 12″ x 15″.
    Upon submitting your entry, the artists agrees on the following:

    • We reserve the right to decide for each entry if it should be in the Mega Art Contest or in the T-Shirt contest. Meaning that if you submit your art to the Mega Art Contest, you could win the T-Shirt contest and vice-versa.

    • We reserve the right to use any art submissions for own promotional and media purposes until the end of San Japan: Sinister 6. After the end of the convention, we will contact the artist to ask for permission for any further use of the artwork.

    • Artists will be credited in our program book and promotional materials if the artwork is used for promotional purposes.

    Submissions for the T-Shirt contest must be made by June 15th, 2013 by 11:59PM. Submissions for the Mega Art and Sketch Art Contest must be made by June 20th, 2013 at 11:59PM. There will not be a limit to the number of entries you may submit to all of the contests. Limit one 1st place winner (we won’t allow one person to win two Artist Alley tables and a pre-reg badge). If the winner of either contest has already purchased an Artist Alley table then they will get a refund of $110 for their table and an additional $35 refund if purchased an additional Artist badge.

    If you have any questions then fill out the form at the bottom of the page.

    You are not required to pre-register for San Japan in order to submit an entry.

     

    San Japan: Sinister 6 (2013) Art Contest Entry Form

    Use this form to submit your San Japan Art Contest entry. This is for the 2013 convention.
      Let us know what type of entry this is.
    • Please enter your legal name.
    • If you prefer to go by another name, enter it here.
    • Use this to upload your entry. A JPG file is preferred but we will accept GIF/PNG/TIF. Please ensure that it matches the file size criteria above. We will accept all file sizes up to 20MB.
    • Use this to upload your digital art entry. Please ensure that the layers are still intact.

      A EPS or PSD file is preferred but we will accept PDF or TIF. Please ensure that it matches the file size criteria above. We will accept all file sizes up to 20MB. We will also accept the file as a .zip file to compress it.
    • If preferred, link to the PSD/PDF/EPS file. You can upload the file on MediaFire or 2Shared.
    • If you would prefer to link to a dA page then you can do so.
    • If you have any additional information that you would like to let us know about your entry then write it in here.

      If you do not want your real name used as a credit, please let us know.
      Before submitting your entry, please read over the rules thoroughly. Be sure you've read over the rules prior to submitting your entry. Traditional hand-drawn art and/or scanned entries will be IMMEDIATELY disqualified.
    If you need a to ask a question about the Art Contest, you can ask here.
    * (denotes required field)