Mythical Women T-Shirt Contest Submission and Working Guidelines

To submit to the contest, you will need to have 3 images saved for the web available: a 64x64 pixel thumbnail, a 200x150 pixel thumbnail, and a full size image with maximum width of 640 pixels. 

1. To enter, you must be a member of GFX Artist.  Not a member yet?  Registration is free and painless. 
2. Entries will be accepted from approximately 12am PST, October 7th until 12am PST, October 14th. 
3. To upload your entry, log in and simply go to Submit Artwork as you normally would.  Follow the instructions and the prompt. In the category section, choose "Mythical Women Contest".   Note: This category will only be made available from the times stated above.
4. Upload your artwork in the dimensions stated on the upload page.
5. If you believe you will encounter problems with the above guidelines, contact David Hall.

Working Guidelines: Digital 2D & 3D work should attempt to follow these guidelines.  Don't worry if it is not exactly as stated, just try your best...it just makes things easier on this end.

• Required Tee Design Size (Inches) : 19"(W) x 23"(H)
• Required Tee Design Size (Pixels) : 3325(W) x 4025(H)
• Required Tee Design Resolution : 175 d.p.i. (ppi)
• Required Tee Design File Formats : .psd .tif .ai .eps .riff .jpg (no compression) or .gif .
• The files may be compressed using WinZip or StuffIt Expander.
•  If your image is not in CMYK mode (with an embedded profile) your colors will change.
• All files should be available at this measurement regardless of whether the background is full bleed / color or not

tee-template-2003-for-dave.jpg (121.8k)

1. Digital work should adhere to this template template
2. Digital design should be worked on in CMYK (3D converted to when flattened). Remember, this contest is for publishing works on licensed products which are all printed in CMYK. Converting from RGB to CMYK is a nightmare at times.
3. Digital canvas (window) should be 19�Wx23�H @ 175ppi (around a 51meg image, to start). Email me if this is a problem for you because of computer restraints. (artdirector@artguys.org)
4. Color settings in Photoshop: EDIT>COLOR SETTINGS… click the CMYK working space: go to custom CMYK at the top then set up your color space to look like the example below. This will allow us to view all the images at the same profile. If you “don’t get this�, just save your image with an imbedded profile when you save as: file>save as> check the imbed profile box.
   
5. Digital design, whenever possible, should remain layered or masked for an easy transition to Tee-shirt.
6. We are use Macintosh (Apple) computers here, so any file must be saved as a .PSD, .TIF or .GIF
7. All images should be finalized in Photoshop®, Illustrator ® or Painter ® 8. This criteria must be met for publishing reasons. When small files are blown up to T-Shirt size they look horrible. When RGB is converted to CMYK it can get very dull if you work outside of the CMYK gamut. When the ICC Profile is not as stated above or at the very least imbedded it will look completely different on our monitors than it does on yours. The size constraints are Tee-Shirt specifications, if you can’t work within the constraints (link to tee template), you must at the very least work in a 19W�x23�W 175ppi rectangle.

Guidelines for other mediums:  Photo manipulations, paintings, and airbrushed images are acceptable.  Please scan your work in, and submit it as noted in the submission guidelines.  Note: Heavily textured paper translates horribly from finished work to a tee shirt. Canvas is fine but please Gesso it to remove some of the texture, the moiré is horrible once again. Any textured surface that does not lend itself to the art should be avoided art all costs.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. I'm skeptical about the contest. Can you give me more information about the company?
2. I'm a newbie. Is it even worth me entering?
3. Do I have to work in layers, and in how many?
4. Can I submit Poser Art?
5. What falls under the "Miscellaneous" category? Vampires Goddess etc?
6. Can I do some hardcore imagery? What about explicit work?
7. The example has a full figure pose. Are portraits acceptable?
8. .What styles of art are acceptable? Most of the examples on The Mountain follow the same sort of style.
9. I've just visited the mountain site; from what i've seen, most pieces have been more or less modified : adding of borders of butterflies or stars, removal of parts of the background..ect (actually, any piece has a fully painted rectangular format).Are those adaptations to be integrated right on the submitted work (and so included in the judgement) or is it a care we leave to you ?

Answers:

1. The main thing that you need to know is that we are a real company. We have 150 employees. We print over 10,000 shirts per day. We have 50 reps that carry our line world wide. We do everything in house except grow the cotton and assemble the T-Shirts. We work with over 150 artists like yourselves that get a royalty check every month. We are located in New Hampshire, USA and we would be happy to provide email addresses of artists we currently work with that will soothe any reservations you may have.
   
   One main concern amongst artists that I hear and experience quite frequently is that Artists feel that T-Shirts "cheapen" the art. Well I'd agree if you went with a company that treated your art as an image that sits on top of a white t-shirt in a square and felt and looked like it was printed on a laser print transfer paper and ironed on. But if instead you work with a company that treats your work with respect, removes the image from it's frame and transplants it to it's new T-shirt canvas (on computer), carefully matching the shirt color with the background color of the art and making sure it bleeds seamlessly into the shirt, we sit together behind the computer and make sure the color is perfect for your image. When we are sure it's a perfect match we proof it. Now you may begin to feel some respect. Then if you knew the development process where the separation, the dye tests, the printing, viewing and re-testing making sure that the design never sees the light of day until it's a perfect on screen (proof) match, sometimes taking as many as ten tries and thousands of dollars in material and man hours until it is perfect or better than the proof and signed off on. Only then is it scheduled for production.
   
   The only complaints I ever hear from an artist are before they receive their first check and production samples. Never after. T-Shirts are your best advertising. Unlike other products that are stationary (don't move), tee-shirts are always on the go and viewed by thousands of people in their lifetime. They are a walking gallery.
   
   
2. If you are a newbie or just starting out don't get scared off. Your work is just as important as the "Professionals" and sometimes better. I don't always look at finished work, I also look at potential and if you have potential you are bound to remain in my favorites, for the future best digital artist. Also if you visit our site you can see that mythical women isn't our only line. So maybe you are better at drawing animals than people....
   
   
3. Regarding layers, some work is fine the way it is; some needs to be manipulated for better salability, that just the way it is. If you don't work on layers, it's fine most artists don't. Artist's painting on canvases (most of the images The Mountain works with) don't have the layer luxury. We focus on character so the background can be easily mixed with the shirt. It is just a request (to make my life a bit easier) not a demand or even a requirement. This is the first time I've done a contest, so the guidelines or rules may be weird.The only thing you have to worry about truly is if you are working digital, work LARGE. The rest is just mumbo jumbo.
   
   
   
4. If an artist uses Poser they need to make their own skins. On a side note to that... a lot of the Poser art I look at is horrible. Same model different outfit. There are only a few Poser artists whose work is great. Most Poser pictures are so sterile and stiff and those that aren't are done by true artists that know that original skin, texture & post work is what makes an image great.
   
   
5. You are "allowed" to do whatever you wish, the miscellaneous is just a way to include images that don't fall into the other 4 categories (faery, mermaid, goddess and angel). Misc. could be Elves, Priestess, Witches, Paegan Imagery, Tree Spirits, Spirits in general, Goth Women, Celtic, Anime, women of power etc. Actually a Vampire "Goddess" should be entered in the "Goddess" category if she is indeed a goddess.
   
   
6. The main thing to keep in mind when designing, is the public (the end buyer of the T-shirt). The majority of people buying shirts are not into hardcore imagery. That’s such a small percentage of the marketplace and not really our market at all. Our customer is Middle America, and middle America wants nice simple non-offensive (no nudity, death, blatant sexuality or black magic etc.). I’m not saying there isn’t a market for that imagery, because I know there is, I’m just saying that market is not ours and if you design for that market there is a good chance that your image will not be chosen as a finalist.
   
   I want to make a fine distinction here, this is contest is about illustration and not art. Illustration is where you get paid doing something for someone else. Art is what you do for you, that you love and you don't care if anyone else likes it because it's about you and not them. Making that distinction is a key factor here, I don’t want to scare anyone off but it is about selling your “work� and not about selling what you love.
   
   
7. Portraits don't sell as well because they usually obscure what the image is about. In a portrait you may have to say crop wings (angels and faeries) or a tail (mermaids) and then you wouldn't know what the image was.  Still, if you think it can work, by all means...
   
   
8. We are introducing many new looks next year which don't reflect on the website. The contest area of the site when completed will give you a better understanding of what we are looking for. Sometimes I don't even know what I'm looking for until I see it, so this is a great way to get a lot of different takes on some areas that we would like to add many more designs to. The examples you've seen on the site are what they are, examples, not a guideline but just to give an idea of what works for us. The images that seem to sell the best have an in your face character (a full body shot) amongst abackground of some sort. But that is for one aspect of our line, the mass appeal T-shirt. Another aspect is the female scoop, spaghetti and tank line that has a more condensed focus. The target group is girls and women age 12-35. That leaves a lot of room to move and design for. Tees need to be instant recognition of what is going on in the design. There is a 5 second attention span window for a shopper and if they need to really look at it then it probably wont work. We have added some anime this year, some cg a lot of digital art different styles and different looks. We will continue to do so. We are also adding some illustrator based work, simple cartoon style images. So the gamut it wide. Don't be put off by what we have already done....we are looking for new styles and new imagery.
   
   So if that was all too confusing, we are looking for both and more. A fantasy oriented scene may be fine, but if it's too in depth and too confusing to figure out what is going on then it would not be good. I'm planning on writing a description in the "contest area" that gives you the low down of what I look for when I'm looking at artists work for designs. Some times all I need is a character on a white back ground, sometimes the scene is important, it really varies. Target groups vary as well. If I'm trying to get into a 12-18 year old market anime is key and more in your face simplistic instant message style work is good. Stand alone characters etc. If the target group is 40-65 the the work needs to be more reserved and elegant. Focusing on non offensive and clean. If the target group is goth or hardcore crowd, then it needs edge and depth, sexual and dark, but not so over the edge that offense be taken or it hurts the sales of other images just for being in the catalog. There are so many things to take into consideration.
   
   Nothing is required per se. But we seem to be having the most luck with actual people, as opposed to say a cat person representing a goddess. I'm leaving this one in the hands and mind of the artists.
   
   
9. If you put a rectangle on a tee shirt it looks like poop. A tee shirt is my canvas and the art needs to be re-alligned with it's new canvas. Sometimes it's fine the way it is and sometimes it needs more. Any piece of art I receive needs to be modified unless it was designed specifically for a tee shirt. Sometimes only a part of an image is used. Sometimes only the main character of the image. Sometimes the moon is too small but the rest of the image is great so I mask it up and make the moon bigger.
   As to your question though.... If everything I received was designed specifically for a tee shirt on a layer so no masking or modifying was needed, my world would be complete. But that will never happen, so.... the judgement will not be based on that.
   If past works were not involved and it was a specific design for this tee shirt contest with 100% to be followed specs then it would be a different story. We will be judging on the art and salabilty not the fact that a moon is too small or that it's in a rectangular form.
   
   On a side note to that, it is a care that you would leave to me. If it comes to me in a rectangle it will, I repeat will be modified in one way or another. If it comes as a pretty feathered edge that goes right into the shirt, it may still be modified. If you don't want your work modified do not become an illustrator. But you can add a stipulation into your contract that states that you want to see a jpeg or a proof before production begins. Of the 150 artists that I work with 149 trust whatever I do with their work, the other one wants a jpeg