Contest Prize Winners and a little more about mandalas and courage

Although I've won my share of prizes and awards, I always felt like a loser when I didn't so I created a contest where everyone was a winner and because some people had the courage to enter this contest and talk about things that were meaningful for them (fears or challenges around creativity), I made sure that they got even more bonuses. So, I sent hi res pics of some animal mandalas that were incredible fun to make along with instructions on how to make them using traditional materials as well as with Photoshop (more work putting that tutorial together than I expected). Here are some low res pics of some of their pressies/prizes. If you end up posting them please credit me and refer folks either to this blog or my FB page Mira Reisberg Art and Education : )

 

I love these weird funky peacocks and the negative spaces in between them.

This was a bonus worksheet from the Hero's Art Journey e-course teaching about symmetry and balance in composition (one of the foundational elements and principles of art taught in art school, or alternative art schools : ).

And my current favorite of abstracted flamingos that I created for the Photoshop tutorial today. As I wrote in the tutorial - it can be fun to really abstract things and see where they take your brain. This piece is called: "Dance of the Flamingos” or “Eight Birds Merge.”

And now onto the main contest winners. I used Rafflecopter for the first time and it wasn't as easy as I hoped it would be in selecting the winners. I think I confused it by giving everyone prizes. So I chose 2 of the big prizes randomly and 2 by comments.

Drum roll please .....

Julie Hedlund for the Hero's Art Journey e-course where she will learn to draw at last guided by lots of worksheets, video demos, me and the support of a small but super smart group of wonderful people.

Nicole Zoltack because I love her name and it sounds like a great fit for the journey (this is pretty random).

Skype Picture Book manuscript or art critiques:
Jennifer Young and Nadia Roldan - Hooray and congratulations to everyone who entered and still won something and Jennifer - thank you for your flexibility - it paid off.

In my next blog post, I'd like to address some of the really good comments that came up in response to the question about challenges in being creative. Right now I'm pooped and I have a movie to edit : )