1st Winter Art Contest – Results

Judges: Karo Sensei, Lily and RikoDLC

• Winner: ddeo

Author’s comment: ryuou vs ryuma with a haiku for context.

A few words about it from the judges:

Karo Sensei: Ddeo he said it was open to interpretation. I like his 2nd submission with poem to accompany the picture. Makes my imagination jump forward.

Deo’s art and poem makes me feel and imagine the most epic fight between the dragons in the heart of winter. I want to look at it, analyze it and know the story behind. I think art should move heart and this is the best example for me.

Riko: I like both of ddeo’s but I especially LOVE their second one. The background does an amazing job of pulling the eyes into the subjects, and the composition of the horse and the dragon can come together to form an infinity symbol, with the sun in the middle emphasizing the power both of them have. It’s incredible art, and gives the feeling of ying and yang.

Lily: Ooh! I didn’t see this shape in it. I totally overlooked this. Great point!

• 2nd Place: nightsparrow (song)

Link to the song: https://youtu.be/pOskdYH_F2I

“The Demon Killer Song”

A few words about it from the judges:

Lily: Nightsparrow’s song I have unironically listened to multiple times and laughed myself halfway to suffocating each time. Also I like the parody of ridiculous opening videos which always show the trap line working. But in the end of this, it shows the win being for the opponent.

Karo Sensei: Shogi songs are my favourite and the song here is a christmas song. There is art to accompany actual joseki.

Riko: High effort to both write and sing it. I was impressed the other day with it. I know it’s a parody of a christmas song but I wish a lot of these entries would focus on the winter aspect rather than doing one reference to winter and then doing everything else disconnected.

• 3rd Place: jackuhlantern

Painted GoroGoro Shogi board

Humphreys Peak

A few words about it from the judges:

Lily: Jack made a fully usable Goro Goro board with a wintery theme in its background image. Not only is this piece within the theme, it’s a creative use of the theme too. Visually, it succeeds quite much for me, and it was even displayed in a real gaming store. I think a piece actually helping with shogi promotion is a huge success

Riko: Agreed. It also satisfies some of the requirements of being a doubutsu shogi board, having a clear distinction between each player’s camp and the middle of the board. Of the ones we’ve looked at this is not only the most skillful, but also has the most thought and intent put into it.

Karo Sensei: I love Jack’s boards. They add some much to a boring repetitive shogi board idea (usually it is wood and not colored). Although I could argue it is destroying the original board. (please don’t do it to real wooden shogi boards!)

• Honorable Mention: omi and Rainbau

“Anaguma Storybook”

Author’s comment: The storyboard for a WIP children’s book about Anaguma hibernating with the help of Golds and Silvers (themed as other Japanese forest animals), to gain victory over the evil Gangi 😛 Only a storyboard and a draft of the text but thought I might as well submit because I think its cool :>

A few words about it from the judges:

Lily: The Anaguma storybook is unforgivably adorable.

Karo Sensei: Omi’s manga is cute, but I don’t see winter part. I like the incense mention in the cave (lance), but I don’t understand the story. In my childhood stories had morals at the end, here I don’t see one.

Riko: I think omi is trying to invoke a bear hibernating for winter but it’s not quite clear from how it’s presented. But doing a whole book storyboard is so impressive. I think it would be my choice if the winter theme was more clear.

Karo Sensei: I was looking for christmas, skiing, etc.

Lily: Yeah same. There is more to winter than snow.

Karo Sensei: But those guys are from Australia so lmao their winter is different KINDA

Lily: Though I find it more special since I’m from LA where snow is totally special and magical. Since it doesn’t naturally snow there. It feels less special living in a snowy place now.

Judge’s Favorites:

• Karo Sensei: praseodymiumspike

File download link from Discord: https://discord.com/channels/653255438904590372/1314193262935937035/1318051773319090208

Author’s comment: lyrics from the perspective of a shogi pawn taking part in the first game of modern shogi

A few words from Karo Sensei:

I loved the idea of seeing the perspective of a pawn in the middle of a shogi board. It showed a new perspective, it has many possible interpretations and was, to me, quite… full of emotion and required a lot of imagination to write. But the theme connection felt weak. I decided to pick it as my favourite instead.

• Lily: omi and Rainbau

“Anaguma Storybook”

Author’s comment: The storyboard for a WIP children’s book about Anaguma hibernating with the help of Golds and Silvers (themed as other Japanese forest animals), to gain victory over the evil Gangi 😛 Only a storyboard and a draft of the text but thought I might as well submit because I think its cool :>

A few words from Lily:

I think I am just a sucker for the storybook style. The writing is engaging for a storybook, and the way each of the different characters is an element of a shogi game is very creative. The effort to make a fully illustrated storybook is very easy to understate. It’s easy to look at it with me also being inherently drawn to writing. In some ways, there are elements of the illustrations that I think would be more clear fully colored in, but while analyzing the story with other judges, parts of the artistic theming that would have otherwise eluded me became more clear and fit well within the bounds of the contest.

• Riko: ddeo

Author’s comment: ryuou vs ryuma with a haiku for context.

A few words from Riko:

The cool colors and composition make the piece exciting to look at, with the eyes constantly being drawn back to the focal point. The horse and dragon even form the symbol of infinity, matching the attached poem perfectly.

Look out for more contests on: Shogi Harbour Discord