Pros and Cons

 
The winners of the first round for the Lilia Rogers Global Talent Search were posted this morning.
I was not on the list. Truthfully I wasn't very confident in my entry. The playground theme for the first elimination round left me less than enthusiastic.
 
The bigger issue with my entry was that my style did not jive with what Lila Rogers' artists create. I was hoping this talent search meant that she was going in another direction.
 I was wrong. 

Here are two examples of work that made it into the second round. Pretty much all fifty winning entries fall under this type of artwork. They are typical of Lilia Rogers' artist. I wish all the artist who made it into the second round good luck!


                                                By artist Maria Bogade.
                                                    By artist Wendy Bentley.

As you can plainly see my artwork is a world away from what the talent search had in mind. Okay, so I'm knocked out of the competition. Let's face it, I wasn't even in the running. That being said I am not sorry I entered. The breakdown goes like this:

Pros

1. Knowing Lila and her team were going to visit blogs caused me to get off my butt and make improvements here on my blog. I know, it still has bugs, but it is better than it was two months ago.

2.  I opened an Etsy shop because of the possibility of Lilia looking at my blog.

3. Self published an e-book on Kindle and promoted it on my blog, again because I knew my blog would be visited.

4. Learned to resize photos in Photo Shop. Lilia had requirements on size and pixel numbers for entries. Which made it possible for me to order large size prints of my photos. ( I hope to have three of them in a gallery soon)

5. My entry lead me to make this rocking ICAD.


 Cons  --of entering the talent search?
              I spent $29.00 on entry fees and I didn't make it past the first round.

The lesson here? Even if you don't win the contest, you can still come out ahead. I was very motivated by this talent search and feel it caused me to make some very positive changes.

So, don't be afraid of contests or challenges. Even if you don't win, they still take you place you might not have visited on your own.

I wish you all well on your next project. Cheers!

Comments

  1. I think the Pros you listed definitely outweigh the cons. The contest was subjective, and you can't please everyone...you've got to please yourself with your own authentic style. (By the way, I liked your entry better than either of the other 2 you posted that made it into the 2nd round.) Stick with your originality! xo Jane

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  2. Thanks Jane! I am finding I need the "carrot" to make me stay on track. This contest was a great carrot. And thank you for the postcard. My mail lady thought to was great, as do I.

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  3. I'm having trouble thinking of it as a "talent search." It sounds more like a "specific style search".
    But, your silver lining is huge.
    Well done! Stay true to yourself.

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  4. fantastic perspective on the experience and very good advice.

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  5. Okay, well, I know you probably have heard this many times already, but your playground piece is SO much cooler and inventive and inspirational that the others. Apparently, that's not what they wanted, but your pros tell the whole story. You made huge strides.

    I love you playground. And your icad. Really cool.

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