And it's what an artist must do to succeed. Put out little tendrils of hope - blog, enter a competition, update your website, give a workshop, join a great art group, give lessons, design a new business card, try a new technique, send out a press release, write an article, and: keep a running list of all these "ingredients." [...]

I have worked with dozens of online art competition jurors over the last seven years -- I'm speaking from experience when I say that some jurors can be sticklers concerning the lack of supporting details. [...]

In this edition of the series I will stress the fact that submitted images should focus on the artwork itself -- anything more is a distraction... and distractions rarely win online art competitions. [...]

Lighting can make or break your online art competition submission. [...]

This is one reason why art competition jurors, in general, don't provide written statements about their decisions. There is always the chance that specific details will infuriate an artist – he or she won't be happy no matter what direction the feedback goes. [...]

Needless to say, the above scenario is simply not an option for most art competition organizers... unless entry fees are raised. A $14 entry fee would end up being a $64+ entry fee to make up for the added expense of paying jurors for submission feedback. [...]

In this FineArtViews series I will tackle three reasons (in my opinion) why art competition jurors rarely write in detail about their selections – and why they don't contact artists who did not make their 'cut'. Part 1 deals with time constraints. [...]

We at FineArtViews are pleased to announce that artist Chet Zar is the October 2012 judge for FASO's BoldBrush Painting Competition. [...]

I think the prestige of the art societies was a casualty of the new culture of personal branding. In the past, there were a limited number of these groups and they had a lot of power. It meant immediate exposure and sales if your art won an award. However, with the emergence of social media it became very easy to start your own group or just ignore the art societies and promote yourself. Suddenly there were a lot more voices in the room and it became very difficult to distingush one from the other. [...]

Online art competition jurors (and other online art viewers) don't want to be distracted by watermarks when viewing art online. [...]