New Contest - Dogs!

For this contest I'm going to give a general topic and let you individually decide where you want to go with it. The subject is...dogs. I have a short story idea that centers around man's canine friend and I wanted to offer a challenge to the group as well as to myself. I just may let everyone look over my shoulder on this one and see what I've been up to.

Thank you everyone for your continued participation. Our deadline is set for two weeks out (remember that this doesn't need to be a final piece of art but a sketch or simple demonstration of ideas, composition, etc).

July 22nd, 2011 (7/22/11)

Send in your submissions to the blog's email. Good luck.

Best of the Shoebox - 2010 Nominations

Announcing the 2010 Nominations for the Best of the Shoebox. Sorry for the delay but I had to do my best and extend the deadline for nominations to break some ties as best I could but for each contributor there was a clear first place submission. Announced below are the winners in alphabetical order:

Kristi G

#1 - Mermaid yoga
#2 - Girl pulling friend from the aquarium
#3 - Blue and Pink Cover

Liezl G

#1 - Eiffel Tower
#2 (Tie) - Popsicle friends AND Ballerina


Nate S

#1 - Viking Interview
#2 - No clear second or third place (it was between girl with large monster, monster in PJ's, girl with wishbone, and peacock)


Quincy G

#1 - Silly Clown
#2 (Tie) - Patsy the hairy monster AND Veggie robot


Scott W

#1 - Monster Brush (Auguste)
#2 - Bubble girl work
#3 - European background


Also included in nominations are two other contributors that received nominations. Although they didn't have 3 or more submissions throughout the year I thought it was important to include the votes and invite them to continue contributing, maybe even more than last year.

Aubrey S

#1 - Nellybug character/costume design


Becca W

#1 - Story backgrounds

Great work everyone! Thanks for all your submissions and work in 2010; and for following us into 2011. Your final objective with this exercise, should you wish to, is to take your number one, people's choice as well as one of your choosing and make a final version, a polished version that represents your best work of 2010. You may also resubmit the same piece without changing anything to it if that is what you wish but I challenge you to work a little harder on this challenge. Also should you wish you can submit up a third should you wish. My main objective with all of this work is to showcase what each person has done throughout the year and you will then have something you can save in your portfolio.

I will give a little extra time for this contest because I want you to submit your best work, really dig into this contest and work out those muscles. Originally I had in mind that I would make these available in a printed format for any interested, making it easier to save in a tangible way. I still am interested in doing just that should no one object.

Deadline for polished work:  March 31st, 2011

New Year, New Contests

Welcome back everyone to a new year in the pursuit of dreams and aspirations. Thank you everyone that contributed to the blog, you made 2010 a great year and hopefully you can see the progress in your work that I have noticed. Let's get into it, I've gotten so behind in graduate school that it isn't funny, literally. Anyways, I got a sinus infection that forced me to slow down for a few moments so here I am and I'm ready to make 2011 a year that the ball starts rolling. Here's what I have for you:

A double contest. First I want to do a normal quick draw contest so do your best in the time you've got and send it in on time. This contest is to do a piece that shows relationship between two (or more) characters. You need to be able to convey relationship, emotion, in other words the two need to have eachother in the picture for it to work. Make it something that reads well. Do your best you have until February 6th at midnight. (Beware though, that only gives you little over a week so work quickly and just submit whatever you have done, this isn't going to be hung in a museum.)

Second, I want your feedback. We're going to put together a highlight of 2010 submissions. For every artist that has submitted at least 3 times last year, I want you to submit what you think/feel is their best piece from the whole year and also, what you think/feel is your best piece of the year. So send in the nominations to the blog's email and I'll tally them up and anounce the winners of each contributor. Best part is that everyone wins in the end and you'll find out a lot about your work hopefully through this contest. Remember that means for every contributor that has made at least 3 contributions through the year, you will nominate one piece that highlights their work (as well as one of your own). Email them to me at shoeboxofdreamsentries@gmail.com. Same deadline as the contest above, Feb. 6th.

Illustration Contest: Final Book Cover Design

Alright team. This next contest will consist of making a finalized rendering of the book cover you submitted for the last contest. Keep in mind it doesn't have to be one of your submitted drawings with color. Start from where you left off and really push towards producing a final draft of a book cover. Think about all the details you want to include. Make sure the proportions are true to the proposed final dimensions of the book. Ask for input by leaving comments. If you have a version you want to put past people before the deadline, email me your submission and I'll add it to this post for others to see while you work out the details. (I'll do my best to post it the same day.) Let's see what you can come up with. Keep up the hard work!

Deadline: Midnight, Saturday, October 30th, 2010.

Change Contest Entries

This contest was centered around the various types of change that we encounter, good or bad. It can affect us in many different ways. Thank you everyone for participating and sharing your talents and ideas. Great work! Here's this contest's entries:

Kristi G. - New Shoes - "With school coming up, this topic has been on all of our minds. I love how new shoes can turn worries into confidence."

Liezl G. - Buddies - "Liezl wanted to show the physical change that happens when something frozen melts, but when she put cute faces on her popsicles, she could not bring herself to melt them."

Nate S. - Little Texter - "I wanted to show with an illustration how quickly little kids change and how baffled it leaves you sometimes to see how quickly they move ahead on you to different things. I didn't get too far along in the development but I hope you can see the general idea."

Scott W. - Tie Dye Girl - "So I saw this girl with a tie dye shirt at Wal-Mart and she looked so sad - like few people understand or appreciate her - and so interesting...I could tell she had done her makeup extra and could imagine her having the desire to be beautiful...I also thought a character who looks like her and thinks she is beautiful would be very intriguing...."

Moving! Illustration Contest

Sorry everyone for taking so long to post again. I just got back from a family trip two weeks ago, moved my family last week and started graduate school this week. I've been busy but we all are, lousy excuse. I wanted to jump on here between studying to challenge you guys out there to a contest.

Moving means change, and (setting political platitudes aside) change can be hard to deal with sometimes. Illustrate a quick picture that somehow narrates that conflict. You've got 2 weeks; deadline is:

July 21st, 2010

(Also worth note is that I don't currently have Internet activity at my house, so connection time will be slow for right now. I'll do my best though. You guys are great.)

How to train your dragon

For this next contest I was inspired by the movie "How to train your dragon". I loved the show. The look of the show was beautiful and for me the story was captivating and fun. It may have been scary for little ones as the dragons could have been scary for a child. Anyways, for this next contest I want everyone to come up with some childhood relationship, a child who has some type of friend that falls on a the fictitious side of existence. It could be a dragon and you could just focus on illustrating the friend. It's up to your interpretation, just make it fun.

Also very important, it doesn't have to represent final work. A quick sketch to get across the idea would work great. Just get working.

Deadline: April 30th at midnight.

Quick, quick. Get working!

Logo Contest

Hey friends of the story cyberworld. I am so busy it's not even funny, applying for Pharmacy School is such a dog show (that would be funny to illustrate!). I wanted to challenge you all to a contest, a real contest. Let's have your ideas come out and really take root. Design a logo I could put on the top of our blog that would somehow incorporate the idea of the blog; a shoebox full of dreams, pursuing dreams, something with the blog's name, etc. I was going to just do something myself for this one but I changed my mind and decided to open it up to everyone since this is a group project. I just need idea sketches this time...no time to develop it all the way down as I'm going to set the deadline for midnight March 7th. We'll vote on our favorite then work out the details of how to incorporate it. For now, just use your imagination.

Deadline: March 7th.

Old Europe Contest

Happy New Year everyone!

Thank you for participating in 2009. I hope 2010 brings many more opportunities to grow for each of us...moving closer to our dreams. To start of the new year I want to go back in time. This contest is one of setting for those who are interested in illustration/drawing applications. Make a background for a children's book with a setting of old Europe: Germany, England, Spain, France, etc. Try to stylize it to make it yours. The background could be for an existing story, if you were asked to visualize it. A good example to check out would be the link on the right, check out the work of Alexandra Boiger. Her backgrounds help set the mood for the story work.

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If you are interested in story, make up a short story that takes place in old Europe. Find something unique and interesting. I believe in you guys, you've already submitted some great work. Thank you for your continued participation.

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Due date: Midnight, February 28th, 2010

'MONSTERS!' Contest

I had a fun book idea that I think we will work on as a group. (Thanks to my talented, beautiful, and creative wife Aubrey who had the idea.) The story is all about monsters. So as a quick contest I want you to design your very own monster. What would one look like if you saw one? I want them all to look different, like in Monsters, Inc. Come up with your own monsters; actually, come up with as many as you want.

We will all take these ideas and make a book together with group illustrations at a later date but lets see what we get from this. The submissions can be a simple sketch or you could color it, maybe you even take it to a full rendered drawing. Just have fun with it, I'm not looking for anything complex, also don't be intimidated if drawing isn't your thing. This contest is more about creativity. The book will be for little kids so don't go freakishly scary, more on the end of fun and light.

Lets have these in by December 30th, 2009; 11:59 PM.

2009 Christmas Story Contest

Alright, our second contest will now begin. We want story centered around the big December holiday or winter in general (while it's still pleasant in our minds - before January and February come around). Make up a story on your own based on your own imagination or you could make one based on characters from your favorite Christmas stories in a new situation. Other possibilities would be illustrating a favorite story or one of your own. This contest is pretty wide open, the stories can be from other cultures, etc. I'm excited to see where we go with this contest. Remember, these can be down to simple sketches if that's all you end up doing; what's important is that you do something today in favor of pursuing your dreams. Pull that shoebox off the shelf, blow the dust off and do something simple; BUT make sure you submit it.

"Someday is not a day of the week." -Author Unknown

Contest deadline: December 15th, 2009; 11:59 PM

First Contest: Aesop's Fables

For our first contest lets make it bold. Submit an entry that addresses one your favorite Aesop's fables. If your interested in illustrating, try and capture one of your favorites or write a short story using the moral of one of his fables. Really stretch your imagination but lets keep it in the realm of Aesop for this challenge. Make sure your email has your name clearly spelled and the name of the challenge for which it is intended; also give it a relevant title.

This website may help if you're looking for some of his fables: http://www.holyebooks.org/authors/aesops/fables_rev/aesop_fables_rev.html

Submissions will be due at the end of the day, November 15th, 2009.