October 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010Why do t-shirt artists spend all this time and effort on their art when, especially if you're relying on contests for your work, you don't have that much chance for a proper return on your time investment? I can think of a few reasons. I put these in a very specific order -- I really believe that, with some slight modifications, most artists would rank these the same way. Cash is on the bottom because it is the necessary evil of staying alive. If you were a trust fund baby or won the lottery, would you care that much about the money?
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Wednesday, October 27, 2010Derby 170's theme was
"Fall Colors". We've had very similar derbies before but this one had the added rule of "no pop culture". It's been quite refreshing. I wouldn't mind seeing that rule often. The theme plus the new rule made for more artistic shirts and less joke shirts which is also a nice change. Here's my favorites and yours. As usual, click on the thumbnail to see the full-size shirt and comments on Shirt.Woot.
The "Entwife" Award
Drakxxx's and CrescentDebris' "Equinox" is a lovely drawing with amazing colors -- it's really surprising what CrescentDebris can do with only 6 colors. My one tiny complaint is I'd like the hair to look a bit more like the trunk -- as it is it feels like a tree with hair instead of all one flowing piece of wood. Fantastic, professional work guys!
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Wednesday, October 27, 2010Parrotworks is an old-timer here -- he's been here for almost 2 years. This is his 2nd print but he's yet another person that I've managed to miss on the first go 'round. Here's more about him.
Shirt.Woot Stats? (first derby / shirts bought / shirts printed)
74 (One Continous Line) / 12 / 2. My two prints are "People on the Bus" and "Shirt 101".
What are your tools of choice?
Most of my work is on a basic Hanvon tablet in
AI but I have to share a story here. I spend a lot of my web design time in Fireworks and occasionally I use it because I like how quick I can draw vector based shapes. Coincidentally both my prints were primarily done in Fireworks even though 95% of my entries are AI or
Photoshop work.
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Tuesday, October 26, 2010Here's your chance to have some influence on the Best Loser Awards. You can now post your image right here in the comment thread. Give me some reason why your favorite shirt is the greatest thing Woot will ever see and I'll include the best ones. Voting closes at midnight!
A few rules:
- Please don't nominate yourself!
- No more than 2 nominations per person.
- Please use the 240x240 design detail image if possible.
- Please include your email address in the appropriate field below.
- Please describe the REASON you like the shirt -- I need more than "I like it".
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Monday, October 25, 2010Happy Squid Monday!
Here's some shirts from the past that are now available to be either submitted to another contest or sold outright via a print-to-order service. To be more specific, it's been over 60 days for these shirts and they're either free of Honorable Mentions or have already made their way through a Do-Over Derby. If you agree that you'd like to see these again, post your comment here to let the artist know!
Only one BLA shirt didn't get an HM so I selected GeekFactor12's beautifully textured "Release Us, Kraken" to round things out.
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Wednesday, October 20, 2010ChumpMagic has been at Woot for 6 months and is already on his 2nd print (I somehow missed interviewing him the first time). Here's more about him.
Shirt.Woot Stats? (first derby / shirts bought / shirts printed)
141 (Classic Comic Style) / 3 / 2. My first derby entry was called
"Attack of the Sea Monkeys".
I've bought only three so far. PatricksPens's "Flower Carrier," Drakxxx and CD's "I Bet It Is Better There," and my "Oh Shiny."
Besides this Halloween design, I got second place in the Cryptozoology derby with my piece
"Oh Shiny".
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Wednesday, October 20, 2010Derby 169's theme was
"Phobias". Not a horrible theme but following right after a Halloween derby it makes it difficult for artists to come up with something appropriate that didn't really belong more in last week's competition. Also, this is one of those themes where it's easy to get caught up in meeting the theme and end up creating a shirt that has to be explained outside the derby. Here's the ones that managed to make something uniquely appealing and understandable. As usual, click on the thumbnail to see the full-size shirt and comments on Shirt.Woot.
The "First I'll Watch 'Willard' -- Both Versions" Award
Tyh's "Elephant's Nightmare" is crisp and charming. I love the simple outlines of the elephant, the wallpaper, and how you won't notice the mouse until you give it a second glance. Seriously though, what is that mouse watching? It looks like a human head on the right and some black things (rats?) being launched at it from the left...
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Tuesday, October 19, 2010Here's your chance to have some influence on the Best Loser Awards. You can now post your image right here in the comment thread. Give me some reason why your favorite shirt is the greatest thing Woot will ever see and I'll include the best ones. Voting closes at midnight!
A few rules:
- Please don't nominate yourself!
- No more than 2 nominations per person.
- Please use the 240x240 design detail image if possible.
- Please include your email address in the appropriate field below.
- Please describe the REASON you like the shirt -- I need more than "I like it".
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Tuesday, October 19, 2010Here's some shirts from the past that are now available to be either submitted to another contest or sold outright via a print-to-order service. To be more specific, it's been over 60 days for these shirts and they're either free of Honorable Mentions or have already made their way through a Do-Over Derby. If you agree that you'd like to see these again, post your comment here to let the artist know!
Derby 161 was the Double-Take derby and all those shirts would already be available to print since they had their own 60 days limits run out before now. But this is a good time to remind everyone about a couple of great shirts that are still unprinted.
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Friday, October 15, 2010StarDamsel has been at Woot less than a year and already has her first print. Here's more about her.
Shirt.Woot Stats? (first derby / shirts bought / shirts printed)
133 (Chinese Zodiac) / 7 / 1. My entry was rejected from my very first derby (#132, Heart), so I consider Derby #133, Chinese Zodiac to be my first real derby. I've bought a grand total of seven; "Say No to Scurvy" was my first.
What are your tools of choice?
Occasionally pencil and paper but usually it's
Photoshop and ArtRage, and my trusty
Wacom tablet.
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Wednesday, October 13, 2010Derby 168's theme was
"Halloween (AKA Hallowoot 2010)". An obvious theme for this time of year and a little earlier this time so maybe people won't have to necessarily overnight the winners. There was a very nice variety of shirts and designs here and I had trouble cutting down the designs to a manageable list. Here's the best of the best. As usual, click on the thumbnail to see the full-size shirt and comments on Shirt.Woot.
The "You're Not My Mummy" Award
MarzipanApple's "Monster Candy" is a beautiful illustration that is subtly horrific. Delicate lines and a limited but powerful use of color give this a lot of impact.
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Tuesday, October 12, 2010Here's your chance to have some influence on the Best Loser Awards. You can now post your image right here in the comment thread. Give me some reason why your favorite shirt is the greatest thing Woot will ever see and I'll include the best ones. Voting closes at midnight!
A few rules:
- Please don't nominate yourself!
- No more than 2 nominations per person.
- Please use the 240x240 design detail image if possible.
- Please include your email address in the appropriate field below.
- Please describe the REASON you like the shirt -- I need more than "I like it".
Continue reading / Comment
Monday, October 11, 2010Here's some shirts from the past that are now available to be either submitted to another contest or sold outright via a print-to-order service. To be more specific, it's been over 60 days for these shirts and they're either free of Honorable Mentions or have already made their way through a Do-Over Derby. If you agree that you'd like to see these again, post your comment here to let the artist know!
So now we enter the "dark ages" -- the time when designs have hit their 60 day mark and are now available to sell but since Woot HM'd the same shirts I picked, I have to go back and find something else. This time, one design from KromeHWI got a BLA but missed an HM. To round things out, I picked a classic Walmazan design.
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Wednesday, October 06, 2010Is it over yet? Derby 167's theme was
"Meme Mashup". A truly awful theme made worse by the fact that they insisted on at least 3 memes per shirt. It's like Woot is trying to beat the creativity out of us. A few designs managed to do something interesting that wasn't just a tired list of the jokes we're all already bored of. Here's those few. As usual, click on the thumbnail to see the full-size shirt and comments on Shirt.Woot.
The "Where's Waldo" Award
Instead of seeing how hard he can punch you in the face with the obviousness of his selected memes, Walmazan takes the subtle approach where you have to study his intricate shirt to see if you can figure out which memes are present. Amazingly refreshing for this derby.
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Tuesday, October 05, 2010FishBiscuit5 has been at Woot less than 9 months and already has her first print. Here's more about her.
Shirt.Woot Stats? (first derby / shirts bought / shirts printed)
132 (Heart) / 30 / 1. My first derby was #132. I submitted two entries, both of which were promptly rejected. I was mortified. The rejections totally motivated me to learn more about derbies and shirt design. This is my very first print. Yay! I have printed elsewhere and do have more coming up, but only once so far with Woot.
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Tuesday, October 05, 2010Here's your chance to have some influence on the Best Loser Awards. You can now post your image right here in the comment thread. Give me some reason why your favorite shirt is the greatest thing Woot will ever see and I'll include the best ones. Voting closes at midnight!
A few rules:
- Please don't nominate yourself!
- No more than 2 nominations per person.
- Please use the 240x240 design detail image if possible.
- Please include your email address in the appropriate field below.
- Please describe the REASON you like the shirt -- I need more than "I like it".
Continue reading / Comment
Monday, October 04, 2010Here's some shirts from the past that are now available to be either submitted to another contest or sold outright via a print-to-order service. To be more specific, it's been over 60 days for these shirts and they're either free of Honorable Mentions or have already made their way through a Do-Over Derby. If you agree that you'd like to see these again, post your comment here to let the artist know!
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