The Other Side - Twisted animations by Mata - Suggested for mature viewers

DRAWING COMPETITION WINNERS!

Back in December 2004 I asked people to add their idea of what this girl was running away from to this picture:

There were four Little Goth Girl bags to be won, and given that I usually only have a couple of dozen entries for my competitions I was thinking that people had a good chance of winning if they joined in. What I wasn't expecting was that there would be hundreds of entries!

It wasn't easy to judge, so on this page there is first of all the winning four entries then a few of the others that I really liked. My thanks to everyone who took part, I've really enjoyed seeing just how disturbed you all are. No, really, you lot are really very strange...

So, here's the entry that gets first choice of the bags:

I love this one. The artwork is great, but more importantly the idea is really good too. The giant girl by herself would have been good, but the girls in the jar trying to escape made this the winner. This entry comes from Suz, so well done to her!

Number two:

The theme of unrequited love was quite strong in many of the entries, but I felt that this one from Catri really was my favourite. What I really liked about this was the way that it instantly creates a whole story in your head. This is obviously not the first time that the octopus has seen the girl, he's put a lot of effort into getting ready. I have an image in my head of him putting on the top-hat, looking at himself in the mirror, and thinking to himself 'Mmm, suave.' Nice one Catri.

In third place:

Again, it's the idea of unrequited love, this time he only wants a hug. Jess S. did a simple drawing, but the line of the mouth captures perfectly the optimism turning to disappointment just as the teddy bear realises 'It's the fork isn't it... Damn it!' I think that of all the entries into the competition, this was the one that made me giggle the most.

And in fourth place:

Lindsay D. did this picture, and it caught my eye for two main reasons. Firstly, no-one else had submitted anything at all like it, and secondly the style of the picture is great. I've always been a fan of very minimalist work, and I think that being able to create an image with the most basic of contrasts is great. The detail on the faces of the chariot drivers gives them a lot of character and really brings it to life.

Congratulations to all of the winners, I'll be contacting you by email so you can pick which of the following bags you would like:


LGG bowling-style handbag	LGG shoulder bag

LGG A4 size school bag	LGG mini-rucksack

So, those are the winners, but there were loads of entries that I liked. I can't put everything on here, so instead here's the finalists that I chose the four winners from:

Rebecca W. did this bright entry. Naturally, Bush was a theme that a lot of people used. Frankly he scares the hell out of me. Anyway, this was one of the most bizarre Bush entries, and I liked it all the more because of that.

Pab sent this one in, and I think you'll agree, it really is a pretty terrifying prospect.

Another theme of the competition was 'small things'. These ranged from mice, through spiders, and even mysterious boxes. Nathan J.'s chicken beat them all with the simpe surreal exclamation of 'moo'. Let's face it, a chicken saying 'moo' really would be very freaky.

Mitch C.'s picture gives me the creeps. I don't really know why; is it the pointed feet, the teeth, the shiney eyes? I don't know, but I found it disturbing so it made the short-list.

The Bush entries came in two main categories, the silly, like the dino-Bush, and the serious. Lindi's 'ship of fools' entry has a great style and a huge amount of detail. In terms of artistry, this is definitely one of my favourite entries.

Another of the major themes was the girl running away from herself. I'm not sure if this is some sort of psychological insight, suggesting that in fact we are terrified of ourselves, of our potential for destruction, or that we fear losing ourselves to something that we see as alien in mass-culture... Well, anyway, out of all of these entries I liked J. Danol's the most. It took the simple visual idea of repeating the girl, and then put the comic twist of response to scale... And that description just goes to show that often a joke is far better looked at then read about. I'll just stop writing about this one now...

I had a few Pacman (and Mrs Pacman) entries, which just goes to show how brilliant a piece of design the Pacman character is. Over twenty years later he's still an instantly recognisable character. Hobbes sent this one in, and I liked it for the expression on the ghost's face.

While I'm here, let's have the other Pacman shortlisted entry:

This one was from Greeneyes, and I wanted to include it because it was one of the two entries that used animation. I hadn't really expected any animated .gif files, so it was a nice surprise to see it a couple of times.

I had a few entries that put the running girl into my animations, but this one from Feyliya was my favourite. I like the way that she sampled different sections of the animation and added new bits to link it all together to create a new scene.

A person calling themself Feannag sent in this one. I had a few on this theme, but the half-erased body on the right gave this the most comedy value for me.

Beverly's entry is just plain spooky. The trail of blood along the floor, the floating woman, the scary face... It all adds up to something very sinister. If I saw this coming towards me I would run like hell, and I think it's the simplicity of that fact that made me like this one so much.

Aria went in completely the opposite direction. Rather than simplicity, this image is as visually indulgent as you get. Aria gives this explanation:

'She was attacked by aliens, and was desperately
trying to get away. Naturally, she failed. The aliens are a
lot smarter than people think, you know.'

Well, that settles that then.

Lastly, Andrew R.'s picture of a daemon. He sent in a couple like this. To be honest, I was very impressed by the amount of work that went into creating these pictures and so I decided to short-list it for the ability to follow through his vision. Let's face it, if you saw that then you'd run away too.

So that's it! Thanks to everyone who took part. It's been really fun watching all the entries roll in over the last month. I hope to do another of these again sometime, so if you didn't win this time there will always be another chance!

Mata 27th January 2005