Critique me... Why did EQD decline my art submission?

[Pix3M 607]

 

http://fav.me/d5d185j

 

Video of process:

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1MtkwTYWvk

 

Kind of amazing how I went from a simplistic style of this (which got featured in a drawfriend):

 

 

 

 

Then I improved to be able to make something so detailed, even got front-paged on deviantART and reddit (or so I was told). Kinda funny to email them with this, receive no response, and see the next drawfriend not feature this.

 

Before people give a critique or give up trying to think of stuff to say and just leave a word of praise, I am aware that my tree isn't really that natural as you're not gonna find leaves form perfect round blobs (and this tree will not make any sense one you start imagining what its branches look like), and some of the leaves are badly arranged to create visible columns, which is even more unnatural. However, even those issues are things that some people I've mentioned to don't really see, and lots of people love it anyways.

 

Meh. The art community can be very cruel sometimes.

 

Also, I'm normally a very aloof person. If anyone misses me, I'm sorry. I got caught up in my own ambitions (above tree is made for a pony game which doesn't even have an alpha version yet), and didn't give myself much time to see what people are up to.

Edited August 31, 2012 by Pix3M

[Motion Spark 7,806]

they obviously have their eyeballs stuck up their ass holes. I really can't find a reason why you can't be featured at equestria daily, your pixel art is stunning and impressive, If I have to choose a reson why they declined your submition, probably it would because the Fluttershy GIF is too small and maybe not too many ponies would appreciate it, other than that, I really don't know what is wrong.

 

if this makes you feel better, let me tell you that I'm a fan of your work

[Pix3M 607]

if this makes you feel better, let me tell you that I'm a fan of your work

 

Thanks. I'm more stupefied than insulted though.

 

My older stuff that got into drawfriends were probably featured because they were a creative interpretation. This piece was mainly more about technical skill than anything.

[DashPony 359]

I agree with Motion Spark. I don't see a reason why it wouldn't be featured. Maybe they haven't gotten around to it yet? I imagine they have a ton of submissions to sort through.

 

I have noticed that EQD can be pretty biased sometimes though

[Pix3M 607]

If you guys think it deserves to be a drawfriend, I don't see how submitting it in your own time could hurt. Even I have done it. (e.g. I once submitted this to EQD behind the artist's back, heheheh: http://fav.me/d5bjwqw)

[Ashbad 969]

I'd say it's because the focus of the piece is mostly on the tree, with the pony off on its own to the side. The piece is complete without the pony; you could take it away and people would say, "nice tree!" Every drawfriend entry has a focus primarily on the pony, and not the landscaping -- I can see why they'd decline it. It's also rather small; a 2x zoom might make them say, "ooh, that's large enough for us to post," but it'd also ruin some of the finer details and pixel-level polish's effects.

[Page Turner 607]

maybe because it's so awesome they are saving it for a cover image for another post? that's the only reason I can think of, unless they don't like that it's animated...

 

Edit: or maybe they are checking to make sure there's nothing naughty hidden in the branches.

Edited August 31, 2012 by Page Turner

[мσℓт 40]

Ooh.

 

Things just got serious.

 

They should not have done that.

 

That's like good art you did there.

 

Oh well.

 

You don't need them to accept your art anyway.

 

We accept it here anyway.

 

But you can still try again or something.

[Pix3M 607]

I'd say it's because the focus of the piece is mostly on the tree, with the pony off on its own to the side. The piece is complete without the pony; you could take it away and people would say, "nice tree!" Every drawfriend entry has a focus primarily on the pony, and not the landscaping -- I can see why they'd decline it. It's also rather small; a 2x zoom might make them say, "ooh, that's large enough for us to post," but it'd also ruin some of the finer details and pixel-level polish's effects.

 

I believe the piece would actually be incomplete without Fluttershy. Without fluttershy, it's just a tree, plus a random butterfly that's only there to distract. Here, there's Fluttershy, chilling out observing a butterfly. There's a lot more happening because I decided to add a character there.

 

I also didn't wanna blow it up in size as I discovered that it starts looking stupid at 2x (can't unsee how stupid it looks in the center D=)

 

 

Kind of amazing that I just pixelled something that makes no sense at the very zoom level I'm working at.

Edited August 31, 2012 by Pix3M

[ajalaniz 52]

That's awesome!

[Pix3M 607]

I'd say it's because the focus of the piece is mostly on the tree, with the pony off on its own to the side. The piece is complete without the pony; you could take it away and people would say, "nice tree!" Every drawfriend entry has a focus primarily on the pony, and not the landscaping -- I can see why they'd decline it. It's also rather small; a 2x zoom might make them say, "ooh, that's large enough for us to post," but it'd also ruin some of the finer details and pixel-level polish's effects.

 

By the way, I just remembered about this this empirical test of the rules of composition which might be interesting: http://gurneyjourney...ion-part-1.html

 

With what I learned from that read in mind, I pretty much set up this composition not according to fancy mathematical rules (though they can still be useful for other compositions) but instead just creating a story with one piece.

 

I can see how you say the focus on the tree, but the way I see things, both trees and the butterfly are important. The tree might take most of the space, but since there's a person (technically a pony, but she's functionally the same as a person in this case) right there next to the side, the eye will very easily be drawn to that. People like people. I've seen some composition tutorials here and there all mentioning the fact that people like people. We tend to be interested in them. Just sticking a person somewhere makes something happen instead of scenery being just boring old scenery.

Edited August 31, 2012 by Pix3M

[Sampolo 18]

Well i have to say its really good, no idea how its not on EQD let alone a cover pic for one their posts. Keep up the good work and art

[Demiurge 108]

I sent them some of my wallpapers that have gotten good critiques and they didn't feature them anywhere.

My guess is that so many people send their stuff and I imagine a lot of them are amazing that they have to make cuts.

 

Wait, did they send you a message telling you that it was declined?

Because if they didn't, there's still a chance of it being featured (yes I know that they don't answer everyone to say that their art has been declined. I'm just saying..)

 

EDIT: Oops. Forgot. Your pixel art is stunning, btw.

Edited August 31, 2012 by Demiurge

[lardbobobo 1,591]

I read somewhere on DA in response to a guy having his fanfic rejected from EQD that "Sethisto's a faggot and doesn't know a good fanfic when he sees it."

 

While I wouldn't quite go as far to call the people faggots, I myself really dislike the way things go when things are put up. Don't get me wrong, there are great things on there, but then there's also the absolute crap that gets on there, more recently IMO would be that Ponys Sing Call Me Maybe video, which is a decent concept but needs oh so much work done to it. Of course then again, in other people's eyes I'm sure the things I like can be considered gutter trash sooo to each his own, I guess.

 

By the way nice job on your picture.

[Planty 1,052]

I believe the piece would actually be incomplete without Fluttershy. Without fluttershy, it's just a tree, plus a random butterfly that's only there to distract. Here, there's Fluttershy, chilling out observing a butterfly. There's a lot more happening because I decided to add a character there.

 

I also didn't wanna blow it up in size as I discovered that it starts looking stupid at 2x (can't unsee how stupid it looks in the center D=)

 

 

Kind of amazing that I just pixelled something that makes no sense at the very zoom level I'm working at.

 

I originally thought this, but a quick question.

 

Did you submit the video along with it? The video for me would be the main post and the picture would be something secondary. It certainly is impressive and give a good insight into how it's done.

 

Just like with the new mane6 pony picture's they used, maybe if you had submitted both it would have been received more graciously?

 

I also think that EQD probably has 100's of submissions every day, it's not surprising that some great art will be missed.

 

There not saying your art is "bad" or "not as good as others art" just that they didn't have room for it. You really shouldn't take it so personally.

 

To get to the front page on Reddit and deviant art is amazing and most people would kill for that

[K3WRO 79]

EQD has no idea on how to combine logic with submissions, and don't forget, it's a private blog, if sethisto doesn't like it, it goes into the drain, period.

 

No worries! Your art is amazing, like REALLY amazing, I can't even draw a stick figure walking!

 

Forget Sethiesto, and his EQD, people only find the significance in it so you can get thousands of fanfic views or youtube veiws, the truth is, it means nothing, if you want to be in EQD however, try again next time, everyone got submissions rejected at least once right?

 

I speak from experience

[Enigma 200]

Dang, that is gorgeous! Not a thing wrong with it as far as I can see :3

Equestria Daily's like that really (same with PoniesPlus now and then). I've seen a LOT of Drawfriend stuff that just doesn't belong there. It seems to be, as long as it's kyoot it'll get in.

Also, it seems the the more work and time you put in to something, the less appreciation it gets e.g. I spent well over 20 hours on a detailed painting of Pinkie (with a few extras in it too) and it just managed to scrape 1K views (yet I think it's one of my best works), and I spent 5-10 hours on a really crappy painting of Luna and it gets about 7K views >->

[Pix3M 607]

I originally thought this, but a quick question.

 

Did you submit the video along with it? The video for me would be the main post and the picture would be something secondary. It certainly is impressive and give a good insight into how it's done.

 

Just like with the new mane6 pony picture's they used, maybe if you had submitted both it would have been received more graciously?

 

I also think that EQD probably has 100's of submissions every day, it's not surprising that some great art will be missed.

 

There not saying your art is "bad" or "not as good as others art" just that they didn't have room for it. You really shouldn't take it so personally.

 

To get to the front page on Reddit and deviant art is amazing and most people would kill for that

 

The link to the video was in the artwork's description, so I didn't think that it was necessary to show the video.

 

It's just weird. Like I said before, it's just weird to see myself actually improving, yet my luck with EQD submissions went down.... how does that even work? It's like seeing a noob artist who's hardly knowledgeable in the same medium you work with get a lot more praise than they really deserve as there's plenty of areas which can be improved on. I'm probably gonna go with what Ashbad brought up and say it's most likely the small size for a piece of fine art that itself makes it a very unusual submission.

 

Then again, my most popular deviation (before this one I just made) didn't make it to EQD either. Ah well. Not that I'm complaining as I see that thing as pretty old.

 

 

Dang, that is gorgeous! Not a thing wrong with it as far as I can see :3

Equestria Daily's like that really (same with PoniesPlus now and then). I've seen a LOT of Drawfriend stuff that just doesn't belong there. It seems to be, as long as it's kyoot it'll get in.

Also, it seems the the more work and time you put in to something, the less appreciation it gets e.g. I spent well over 20 hours on a detailed painting of Pinkie (with a few extras in it too) and it just managed to scrape 1K views (yet I think it's one of my best works), and I spent 5-10 hours on a really crappy painting of Luna and it gets about 7K views >->

LOL ponies plus. I know what you mean. The sweetie belle thing may have been unusually good for pixel art at the time as there were very few pony pixel art that was able to leave an impression, but after I picked up some new pixel tricks that's helping me compare to the real masters out there, it's now a highly unpolished work. I was a little stupefied when I notice that somebody requested to include that into ponies plus long after spending time with a style I had to come up with almost overnight as I realize that I had to move on and improve. I was told that the person who requested to add it there saw it in somebody's faves though, so that explained quite a bit. (geez, I'd be a little insulted if they saw it through my gallery instead, scrolling down the much more polished works).

 

I think this has less to do with how much time you spend, but more to do with how you make use of the time. More minimalistic styles that aims for cuteness isn't something to overlook.

Edited August 31, 2012 by Pix3M

[Planty 1,052]

Dang, that is gorgeous! Not a thing wrong with it as far as I can see :3

Equestria Daily's like that really (same with PoniesPlus now and then). I've seen a LOT of Drawfriend stuff that just doesn't belong there. It seems to be, as long as it's kyoot it'll get in.

Also, it seems the the more work and time you put in to something, the less appreciation it gets e.g. I spent well over 20 hours on a detailed painting of Pinkie (with a few extras in it too) and it just managed to scrape 1K views (yet I think it's one of my best works), and I spent 5-10 hours on a really crappy painting of Luna and it gets about 7K views >->

This is the same on reddit, if you get lucky then your stuff goes to the front page.

 

It all depends on when people log on and if people are in a mood for that particular picture or pony. For instance, twilight submissions and rainbow dash submissions always seem to get more upvotes then the other man6.

[Dark Qiviut 22,177]

Your GIF is really nice, and the detail is very beautiful. The video gives a very nice demonstration of how it was done.

 

As for how you never got a response, my question is did you write "ART" as a prefix in your subject? If you did, and they didn't reply, it might mean they possibly didn't see it. If you didn't write "ART" in your prefix, chances are EqD will ignore it because they'll consider it spam.

[thegoodhen 698]

That's incredible... The attention to detail... Just... Really incredible!

Also, @@Ashbad has point, I believe, although I haven't thought of it like that myself. The main subject surely is the tree.

[Pix3M 607]

Your GIF is really nice, and the detail is very beautiful. The video gives a very nice demonstration of how it was done.

 

As for how you never got a response, my question is did you write "ART" as a prefix in your subject? If you did, and they didn't reply, it might mean they possibly didn't see it. If you didn't write "ART" in your prefix, chances are EqD will ignore it because they'll consider it spam.

 

Yes, I did.