Art Doll Design Contest

Hello Everyone,

As a few of you may know, I am attending my first convention on the 31st August, and not only will it be the first convention I’ve ever attended, I will also be selling my art there too.

Now, I am working through a whole range of items, some more expensive than others, and within that I have a couple of art dolls planned out. However, I would like to add one more art doll to that list.

This is where the contest comes into play.

I want you guys to design me an art doll for the convention. The winner will receive a number of cool prizes, as well as getting to see their concept developed into an art doll.

I am looking for a design for a floppy style Art Doll, although you can design it with posability in mind. The Doll should be animal related in some way, real or fantasy or even hybrid. Birds, amphibians, reptiles are all allowed under animal. I will consider designs that have human elements, such as a sphynx. Preferably, the doll should be able to be created for under £100 and it should be able to be recoloured many different way. The head and feet should be cast plastic pieces and the body made from fur. I am happy to create up to 3 different casts for the doll, so the feet will have to ideally be able to be sculpted once and replicated four times to create the feet. However, different front and back feet are allowed.

Here are more detailed rules:

1. The Art Doll can have up to three separate pieces to cast. For example, 1 for the head, 1 for all four feet, 1 for a tail or 1 for the head, 1 for the front feet and 1 for the back feet. Be creative in how you do this, and remember, you don’t have to design the doll to need all three pieces. You may like to design it with just two,1 for the head, 1 for the feet.
2. The Art Doll cannot be any copyrighted characters, either famous or your own. It should be generic enough that I can create more than one of the doll, in different colours/design schemes.
3. Having said that it needs to be generic, it doesn’t stop it from being creative. You could stick to one animal (real or fantasy), create a hybrid or even a new species.
4. You don’t have to even stick to having 4 legs, you could have 2, or 6 or even none; it’s up to you to be adventurous.
5. Remember, it needs to be actually able to be reproduced as an Art Doll. Its fantastic if you design something with cobweb shaped antlers, but it may need to be simplified in order to turn it into a doll that will retail for around £75-£100.
6. You must use the design sheet provided, so I can properly judge the different entries. Some of the sections on the design sheet are optional, however, and these will be marked with a *. You are allowed to change the titles of each box to better suit your design.
7. Judging is based on a combination of creativity, effort and the ease of which it can be translated into an Art Doll for casting. Having a beautifully illustrated design is nice, but it may not be practical as an Art Doll; conversely, a simply drawn design that is creative and easy to produce, may well be easier to create as an Art Doll.
8. The deadline will be the 31st July, with judging finishing within a week of the deadline.
9. Hit the download button to get the full size image of design sheet. You can print it out or open it up in whatever program you like. Traditional and digital works are accepted.
10. You may enter up to two entries, but try to make them creative and different from each other, rather than simple variations of each other.


Now for the prizes!

First Place
1st place will see their design actually turned into a real Art Doll. The expected size for this is around 10 inches in its longest length, but it will be longer if the winning design is something like a snake, or an eel.

You will receive your design made up in the colour scheme of your choosing, depending on availability of fur fabric.

You will also receive an A4 fully rendered illustration in watercolours of your design, in the colours of your choosing.

You will also receive a gift certificate entitling you to purchase a second Art Doll of your design for half of the final cost. The maximum the Doll will cost without your discount will be £100 so if you will you will be able to get one at a maximum £50 plus postage.

And you will also receive a 20% discount code for use in my etsy shop.

And finally, if you live in the UK, and you are able to get to it, I am offering a free ticket to the convention I will be attending. It is called CAMCON and located in the historical city of Cambridge. Its accessible by train, car, bus etc. In fact, if you come by train, it is only 45 minutes from London. I cannot offer accommodation or travel expenses however. If you attend the convention, you will receive your artwork in person, and get to see your design in the flesh. The discount and gift certificate will also work at the convention, should you wish you buy anything from my table. Here is the website for the convention for more details. www.thecamcon.com/index.php In the unlikely event that someone overseas wishes to come over to the convention, they will receive the free ticket too.

Second Place
You will receive an A5 fully rendered illustration in watercolours of your design, in the colours of your choosing.

And you will also receive a 20% discount code for use in my etsy shop.

Third Place
You will receive an A5 flat coloured illustration of your design, in the colours of your choosing.

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You can use the design sheet to design your own art dolls too if you like, just don't remove my website or logo.