To NSU Card Talk Members and Guests:

Hi All. It's time to begin the 2007 NSU Card Talk Sketch Card Contest. This contest is the brainchild of Peter Jambrits (known here on Card Talk as "Slackjawedyokel"). Peter has faithfully been running these competitions for three years and deserves as much praise as we can heap on him. He does just about all the work, contributes many of the prizes himself, does all the legwork with the artists, and much more so I just can not thank him enough!! Anyway, I know you are here to read about the contest so without further ado, let's get to it. The following are Peter's words:


BACKGROUND:

Hi. My name is Peter Jambrits (aka Slackjawedyokel on Card Talk) and I want to personally thank all those contestants who submitted sketch cards for our contest last year. I am pleased to announce that I am continuing the contest this year (although it was a bit of a struggle to keep it going) and hope last years contestants found the contest fun and will continue to support it.

I will now outline the basic elements of the contest beginning with the contest details and concluding with the prizes for the winners in the various age groups:

CONTEST DETAILS:

First and foremost the contest is about having fun. Since none of us are professional artists by trade I would like you to try your hand at creating hand-rendered sketch cards of a character or scene from your favorite TV or movie. I must stress that these cards MUST BE HAND DRAWN as no digital submissions will be accepted. The reason I say this is quite simple - when you open a box/pack of your favorite cards and happen to be lucky enough to pull a sketch card, the card itself has been hand rendered. I would simply like to follow this same premise for the contest.

I leave it up to your imagination as to what you can create. Our only stipulation is that you keep it clean. All entries judged obscene will be disqualified. The sketch cards must be hand-drawn in a media (Pencil, Ink, Colored Pencil, Markers, Paint, etc...) of your choice. Both Color and Black and White submissions will be accepted and be judged as equals by one of the professional artists (more on this later...). Blank sketch cards can be purchased from your local comic book/hobby shop or you may create your sketch by first purchasing a piece of cardstock, paper or similar art medium from a local art/stationary store and cutting it to the dimensions illustrated on the template provided (see below):

SKETCH CARD TEMPLATE:

I am attaching a template of what the dimensions for a typical sketch card need to be. I ask that you only follow 2 simple rules:

First - If you need to cut your card I ask that you be as precise as possible and comply with the 2.5" (65mm) x 3.5" (90mm) measurements. Parents - I ask that you pre-cut sketch cards for your children to sketch on.

Second – Please adhere to the spaces I need for the logos at the top 3/8" (10mm) and bottom 1/8" (3mm) of the portrait card and the space at the top 3/8" (10mm) for the landscape card. These spaces will be used when the winners are determined as I will be placing a digital logo as a means to enhance the winning entries. I want to stress that it is OK to sketch within the logo area, however, if you are selected as one of the winners this portion of your sketch will be covered up.

If you notice on the template below I have provided a "bleed or overflow area". This is an area where you might want to run your sketch beyond the area of the card. You may by all means work on a larger card and trim your sketch to the correct dimensions. In fact, I recommend this. For those who found out last year it is a little difficult to work on sketch cards as they are rather small in size.

If you find the template information below a little confusing and would like more info please e-mail me at the following address pjambrits@hotmail.com. I have available in PDF format the template below and can send it to you if you prefer.





SUBMISSIONS:

The maximum number of entries per contestant has been set at 4. The contest will begin on October 22nd and all submissions shall be postmarked no later than January 31st, 2008.*

* This is a change from years past as I have had the contest end typically at the end of the year. I have made this change to give each contestant sufficient time to complete their sketches and give new contestants adequate time to participate. In addition, due to the late start of this years contest I have added a month in the new year to make up for lost time. I want to apologize to all the contestants for the delay with this years contest and thank each and every one of you for your understanding and support.

Contestants will create their submission(s) and on the back of their submission or on a separate piece of paper will write the following:

Name
Character or Scene they have chosen to draw
Date of birth
Place of Residence
E-mail address

Parents of those entering who are under the age of 13, I ask that you also include your name and e-mail and/or street address. I am requesting this information in the event your son/daughter is chosen as one of the contest winners. All submissions will be mailed to my address and I will take each individual entry and scan and post them on this thread for all of you to see. My address is as follows:

2007 NSU Sketch Card Contest
Attn: Peter Jambrits
P.O. Box 2576
Cypress, CA
90630
USA


AGE GROUPS:

The idea is to have the contest open to Card Talk members, their families, friends and guests. This contest is not open to professional artists, those with aspirations to become a professional artist or those who are creating and selling commissioned works of art. With that said the age breakdown for the contest has been divided into 4 groups:

Group 1 = Ages 5-12
Group 2 = Ages 13-17
Group 3 = Ages 18-39**
Group 4 = Ages 40+


**With last years contest I introduced an added twist to the 18-39 category and I will continue to do so for this years contest. The decision was to subdivide this group into two separate groups and award both Color and Black and White prizes to those aged 18-39. This decision arose out of the number of submissions I received from the contestants in this age group. How the number of submissions affects this age group? Good question, right, well the easiest answer is the contestants will still only be able to submit 4 entries. However, they will be able to submit any combination of Black and White and/or Color sketches totaling 4. So a Group 3 contestant could render 4 sketches in color, or 3 in color and 1 in Black and White, or 2 of each, etc…Remember that this total must not exceed 4.

JUDGING:

As I mentioned previously professional artists will act as the judges for this competition. They are as follows:

Steven Miller ( www.miller777art.com )
Chris Henderson (chart@bellsouth.net)
Jim Kyle ( www.jimkyle.net )
Sean Pence ( www.seanpatrickpence.com )
Jon Ocampo ( www.jonocampo.com )

I must inform you all that the artists selected to judge each of the age groups shall be kept a secret until the winners are announced. Once the contest concludes and I have received all the submissions in each of the age categories I will send them to each of the judges. They will then review the sketches and evaluate them on the following 3 categories:

Creativity, Originality and Use of Medium

Once the artists have chosen the winners, I will post the winners here on NSU Card Talk. Please allow a few weeks for this since your entries will be sent back and forth between myself and the artists. The artists will need time to make their rulings. I expect to post the winner in Early March 2008.

PRIZES:

Now I know that all of you have been waiting to see what the prizes will be (assuming you haven't scrolled down here already, LOL!). The breakdown for the prizes awarded in each of the age groups will be 1 "Grand Prize Winner" followed by 2 in the "Honorable Mention" category.

In addition to myself, the artist judges and Harris Toser co-sponsoring the contest, I am pleased to announce that again for this years contest I have received corporate sponsorship from Topps. (I am awaiting word on one additional sponsor. More on this as the information becomes available)

Each artist has kindly agreed to donate their valuable time by creating custom sketch cards to each of the Grand prize and Honorable Mention winners in all Age Groups.

The denominations the winners will receive in each of the 4 age categories is as follows:

Age Group = 4 (Ages 40+)
Grand Prize Winner
1 - Professional Artist Custom Color Sketch Card
1 - $25 Gift Certificate (US) or Amazon.com (Other)
1 - Sealed Hobby Box (US) or B&W Sketch Card (Other)***
1 - NSU subscription or subscription renewal (1 year)

Honorable Mentions
1 - Professional Artist Custom Black and White Sketch Card
1 - $25 Gift Certificate (US) or Amazon.com (Other)
1 - Sealed Hobby Box (US) or B&W Sketch Card (Other)***

Age Group = 3 (Ages 18-39) – For Both Black and White and Color Categories
Grand Prize Winner
1 - Professional Artist Custom Color Sketch Card
1 - $25 Gift Certificate (US) or Amazon.com (Other)
1 - Sealed Hobby Box (US) or B&W Sketch Card (Other)***
1 - NSU subscription or subscription renewal (1 year)

Honorable Mentions
1 - Professional Artist Custom Black and White Sketch Card
1 - $25 Gift Certificate (US) or Amazon.com (Other)
1 - Sealed Hobby Box (US) or B&W Sketch Card (Other)***

Age Group = 2 (Ages 13-17)
Grand Prize Winner
1 - Professional Artist Custom Color Sketch Card
1 - Artist Materials (to be selected by me)

Honorable Mentions
1 - Professional Artist Custom Black and White Sketch Card
1 - Artist Materials (to be selected by me)

Age Group = 1 (Ages 5-12)
Grand Prize Winner
1 - Professional Artist Custom Color Sketch Card
1 - Artist Materials (to be selected by me)

Honorable Mentions
1 - Professional Artist Custom Black and White Sketch Card
1 - Artist Materials (to be selected by me)

For winners outside the United States I use the current exchange rate on the day I purchase and award the gift certificates.

***I have a slight change from last year as Non-US (or Other) winners, such as those from Canada, Australia, UK, EU, etc...will receive an additional B&W sketch cards from the artist judges in lieu of the sealed hobby box. My reason for doing so is due to postal charges to UK, Canada and Australia, as they are outrageous.

The artist who judges their specific age group will provide the custom sketch cards for the winners in that group. The artists have informed me that the winners will be awarded a portrait sketch card of a character of their choice. The Grand Prize Winners will have their sketch drawn in Color and the Honorable Mentions will receive theirs rendered in Black and White. I would like to remind all of you that the artists shall draw the sketches in a medium of their choice. No exceptions.

Assuming we get good participation in this contest, Harris hopes to run the winning entries in a future edition of Non-Sport Update. By entering the contest, you are granting us permission to reproduce your work in the magazine. One final important note, you all will be mailing your entries to me, and in turn they will be posted on the site. The cards will be posted as they come in so you may observe your fellow contestants work first hand. All of your sketch cards will become the property of both NSU Card Talk and myself. So please, I prefer not to hear complaints about not having your card returned when the contest concludes.

Since the cards will be posted as they come in I have decided to create an extra incentive if you turn your cards in early. Most of last year’s entries were turned in within a few weeks of the deadline. This year I will have a random drawing of the submissions I receive in the months of November and December only. Whomever turns in entries in either of those months (Contestants can only win in one month and not both) will have their sketch entered into a random drawing and the winner will receive either a custom sketch card from one of the professional artist judges or a special surprise from me. We thought this would be a fun way to have more of your submissions posted on Card Talk for all to see. Please remember that it is when I receive your sketches and not when you mail/post them. Reason for doing this is when the post puts their stamp on your package/envelope it sometimes is illegible and I am unable to read it when I receive it. Sorry for this but I think my decision is fair.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I would like to remind all of you that this is a fun contest. I understand that by awarding prizes some may think it turns it into a competition. And, to be honest, some of you are right. My intention is only to generate interest amongst you the contestants. I kindly ask that each of you take a few hours out of your busy schedules and participate in something I truly believe is fun. I urge all to participate even if you feel you can only draw stick figures. Heck, you have 3+ months to submit something, so you have plenty of time to practice and get something sketched. If you have any questions concerning this contest please address them in the Question and Answers thread in this section.

I would like to take a moment to personally thank the Toser family, especially Harris, for his tremendous support with this contest. He and I have spent many hours fine tuning this contest and I could not have done it without his support. Many thanks to Steven, Chris, Jim, Sean and Jon for your valuable insight and devotion to a worthy cause. All of your help thus far has been greatly appreciated.

Sincerely – Peter Jambrits

This message has been edited. Last edited by: H_Toser,