ZOMBRA'S WASTELAND 2 DRAW MY OCS CONTEST

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Zombra
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Contest over!  Prizes have been announced in the comments below!


WELCOME!


TL;DR


Draw pictures of my characters!  If you don't want to read all this jazz, feel free to skip to the end, look at the pictures, and then draw or paint your own versions!  Entries may be ruled invalid if they don't meet the Submission Guidelines or Entry Requirements.  See "Submitting Your Entry" below to enter.



WHY A CONTEST?

Here's the story. I'm very excited for the rerelease of inXile Entertainment's Wasteland 2 computer role-playing game in October, and I want more art of the four original characters I created for it. (As you can see, my drawing and composition are amazing :| (Blank Stare) but I can only do so much.) I have commissioned a few pieces from friends, but would like to open up participation to the DeviantART community and hope to see the work of as many artists as possible. To this end, I hereby announce this contest, with scaling prizes: the prize amounts will increase with the number of participants!

Please comment below if you are thinking of participating! It will help generate interest.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

  • New original art only; no manipulations or reworks.

  • Any type of visual art is acceptable.

  • Each entry must prominently feature one or more of my four characters: Chance, Dahlia, Daisy, and/or Diego.

  • Additional characters and/or situations of your choice may be added, but must be reasonably appropriate1 to the setting of the Wasteland and Wasteland 2 computer games2. No crossover material to other franchises.

  • In particular, no Fallout references!!

  • Anthro versions, gender bending, or other major changes to my characters are prohibited. Minor changes such as different clothing, hairstyles, or simply "a different take" are no problem.

  • SFW content only. No nudity. Violence and blood are OK (Wasteland wouldn't be Wasteland without it) but let's not do disturbing levels of gore. Cheesecake/beefcake pieces are perfectly acceptable, but Dahlia is the only character of the four who will deliberately "act sexy".

  • Make sure that the characters are wearing their Desert Ranger badges!

  • Note that there are no romantic or sexual entanglements among these four characters. They are all "just friends" and should not be drawn to imply any other relationship amongst the party.

1The Wasteland universe has a lot of room for weird cults, scary technology, and bizarre mutants. If you want to draw a character fighting a huge ½ rhinocerous ½ lizard (¼ chicken), or surrounded by cannibals dressed in ragged Santa Claus costumes, these would absolutely qualify as "reasonably appropriate" for Wasteland even though no such monster or cult exists (yet) in the canon. Just make sure you aren't referencing other franchises and it should be fine.

2Wasteland buffs note: "red herring" paragraph book entries are non-canonical and do not count as part of the setting! Dammit, the Serpioids do not exist!

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS AND LIMITATIONS

  • Only entrants with a DeviantART account of at least 3 months' good standing are eligible to win prizes or increase the prize pool. New accounts are free to submit entries for fun or practice.

  • Entrants I suspect of submitting “quickie” pieces, using multiple accounts, using a friend's account, or committing other such chicanery to artificially inflate the prize total will be ruled invalid at my discretion. There are no loopholes to this.

  • Entrants known to me personally from real life or elsewhere on the web are encouraged to enter for fun, and will increase the prize pool, but to eliminate the possibility of favoritism, they cannot win prizes.

  • Watermarked entries are ineligible to win prizes and will not increase the prize pool.

  • The minimum number of entrants is 8.

  • Each entrant may submit up to five deviations but may only win one prize. An entrant can win based on the strength of multiple entries, but one wonderful piece is more likely to win than a collection of five mediocre ones.


SUBMITTING YOUR ENTRY

To submit your entry, simply post it like any other piece to your Gallery, then link the URL in a reply to this Journal entry. (It is encouraged that you mention the contest and post a link in the piece description, but not required.) All valid submissions will be posted to this Favorites folder.


PRIZES

  • First Prize will be Points25 times the number of valid entrants, up to a maximum of Points3500!

  • Second Prize will be ½ the amount of the First Prize.

  • Third Prize will be ½ the amount of the Second Prize.

Other prizes may be donated to encourage participation! Anyone wishing to donate may reply below with details and I will edit in your prize offerings to this post. You may attach your donation to an existing prize or create a separate prize tier subject to my approval.


JUDGING

Winners will be selected by me based strictly on the subjective question of how much I like submissions and want to reward them.


CRITERIA

What do I like? Well, you can look at my Favorites if you want an idea. I guess I am most likely to reward entries with personality. Technical skill certainly won't hurt, but a cruder work might win if it's hilarious or features astounding action or a brilliant realization of the character.

The more "complete" a piece is, the better it is likely to do: I'll probably like a full color piece better than a line drawing, and a line drawing better than a sketch. Something with a background, even a simple one, will rank better than a character “floating in greyspace”. Also, action shots will probably do better than a lifeless “staring at the camera doing nothing” portrait.3 (See below for descriptions of each character and the kinds of things they might be doing.) But who knows, a great sketch in traditional portrait style with no background could well take first place if it hits me just right. No promises!

3Well, the Chance character stands around a lot doing nothing, so "still lifes" of him would be very appropriate.


TIME FRAME

The contest is open effective immediately! The deadline to enter is midnight (Pacific time) on the day that Wasteland 2: Director's Cut is released for sale to the public, currently slated to be October 13th, 2015. If the game is delayed, the contest will be extended.

Winners will be announced within 7 days of contest end and Points coins gifted in the same sitting.


PROMOTION

Links to this announcement will be posted on the pages of several contest groups, and a post will be made in the forums. If substantial extra prizes are donated during the course, I will likely make fresh announcements in the same places. I may approach individuals whose work I appreciate to ask them to join. Otherwise, it will be up to you to spread the word. Tell your friends! The prize value will increase if more people enter.


OK, that's it for the rules and so forth. On to the characters!


FOR THOSE NOT FAMILIAR WITH WASTELAND


The party is a team of Desert Rangers - long story short, post-apocalyptic cops. The Rangers organization is trying to keep the peace and rebuild civilization. Teams are dispatched to neutralize threats such as mutants and raiders, protect farms and villages, resolve disputes, and generally fix problems. This team is no different.


MELVILLE “SLIM” CHANCE



Chance is the team sharpshooter, survival expert, and de facto group leader.  He is very much the quiet type, but when he does speak, it's usually with great observation and insight.  Physically, he is short, pale, skinny, sickly and weak; his face is usually covered, and when uncovered it is expressionless.  He dresses in cowboy fashions bleached colorless by the desert sands.  Visually, the most important thing about Chance is his bad posture. The slumped shoulders and the wet-noodle spine are critical. Despite his apparent laziness, he is ever alert for danger, and is a quick draw and crack shot with rifle or revolver.

Chance is not a very action-packed guy most of the time, but if you want to draw an "action shot" of him, consider situations like: making an impossible sniper shot on the leader of an army of mutants; quick-drawing his pistol and splattering the hearts of three leaping wolves; leading his team over uncertain ground while his sleepy eyes scan for trouble; slouching around looking like he's asleep on his feet. In a group shot, he is most likely to be hanging out at the back doing nothing, just staring into the distance.



DAHLIA SWAN


Wasteland 2: Dahlia by Zombra

Dahlia is the "bad" twin sister to Daisy (below) and the social specialist of the team. Fascinated with pleasure and pain, Dahlia indulges in sex and torture with equal relish (and sometimes at the same time).  She habitually gets what she wants, sometimes through sweet talk, but more often via gruesome threats, delivered with conviction (she follows through with violence if she doesn't get her way). She can do quiet or loud, but prefers loud. Her intense personality and proclivities naturally make her the center of attention wherever she goes. One might think that her magnetism would make her a better leader than Chance, but she has neither the patience, the perspective, nor the tactical sense to be an effective commander. Although today she works for the Desert Rangers, Dahlia has a history among the raiders and bandit gangs around Arizona and can get along just fine "undercover". Visually, her most important elements are being sexy and dangerous.  She dresses in a scavenged mix of combat gear and lingerie.

Remember that Dahlia and Daisy are twins, so if they both appear in your submission, their features and basic builds should look identical (though their expressions, styles, and posture may be quite different).

If you want to draw an "action shot", consider things like: seducing someone; stabbing someone; intimidating a roomful of bikers; stealing something; smoking cigarettes and looking bad; sabotaging something; sneaking up on someone, knife drawn; firing her submachine gun wildly while filling the air with scary laughter.



DAISY SWAN



Daisy is the "good" twin sister to Dahlia (above) and the team's technical specialist. Brilliant in her many areas of expertise (check out the skill list on the character sheet below), she is sadly ignorant of practical realities and often needs to be protected from the wasteland's many dangers. It's hard to pin down her most important visual elements, but I guess I would say she's best defined by innocence, natural beauty, and a sense of casual competence in technical matters. Her tools are always close at hand; she's always fixing something or taking something apart. Although her survival instincts are terrible, Daisy lives a charmed life and real trouble never quite reaches her.

Remember that Daisy and Dahlia are twins, so if they both appear in your submission, their features and basic builds should look identical (though their expressions, styles, and postures may be quite different).

If you want to draw an "action shot" of Daisy, consider situations like: building a giant robot; rewiring two broken prewar computers together in a dusty bunker; shorting out the lock on an electric fence; washing her post-apocalypse death car; disarming a nuclear bomb; arming a nuclear bomb; doing any of the above while ignoring a violent threat.



DIEGO



Diego is the team's muscle, a great beast of a man (about 9 feet tall and proportioned like Andre the Giant). He is barely able to speak and his origin is shrouded in mystery, but the Desert Rangers knew a useful tool when they saw it and recruited him. With no "skills" to speak of, Diego is nevertheless a highly valued member of the team for his abilities to smash through all obstacles (living or otherwise) and survive under almost any conditions. Obviously, Diego's most important visual elements are his colossal strength and size. He is too large to wear normal clothes; show him either in rags or pieced together junk armor. The one thing he must wear is his fancy black "Amigos" sombrero - it's his trademark. Another note: I enjoyed giving a subtle tinge of green to his skin to imply mutant heritage. Try it!

If you want to draw an "action shot" of Diego, feel free to express his enormous physical power even if it doesn't make sense in the situation. If the team is hanging around in some village and there's no reason at all for Diego to smash a huge boulder into gravel with one mighty blow from his crowbar, show him doing it anyway. Other ideas: any feat of strength or endurance; blocking an avalanche with his body to protect the team; smashing a giant mutant in the kisser; climbing a mountain while carrying the rest of the team on his back; driving off a rabble of puny bandits; hurling a high-tech laser tank over a cliff; shrugging off gunfire (bullets just make him mad); hauling a heavy sunken treasure out of a tar pit; fighting anything and everything bare-handed or with a tremendous improvised club.



That's it!

Questions about the contest, the characters, or the Wasteland setting are welcome in the comments section.
And again, please comment if you are thinking of participating!

Thanks for reading! Good luck and have fun!


© 2015 - 2024 Zombra
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ARTTAiR's avatar
ARTTAiR
Edited
Ah nice, I don't even know what those points are good for, but thanks nonetheless. Woohooooo!
Couldn't finish Diego in time, but I'll send you the link when it's done.