World of WarCrafts: Travels Through Azeroth art winner
by Lisa Poisso 
May 10th 2010 at 9:00AM
We have a winner for our art contest for Travels Through Azeroth and Outland, Destron's amazing fan-fic serial. The author selected this piece sent by submitter Mitch Death to appear in the fan-fic blog. Travels Through Azeroth transports readers to Azeroth and Outland as seen through the eyes of itinerant traveller Destron the mage. This ongoing, lore-based tale is deep -- deep enough in quantity to have accumulated years' worth of entries, and deep enough in content to be recommended by TVTropes.com.
We've included large versions of both of Mitch's submissions, plus my own personal favorite (from reader Raymond Liang), in the mini-gallery below.
More creative tidbits from our talented readers, after the break.
The next, a birthday cake, comes to us from reader Mooseman. We know you'll get the obvious reference. Continuing with the cute, we have a nice little gallery of cuteness from Cynisca of US Arathor-A, who made the amigurumis below based on her family's WoW characters. "I like to call them WoWgurumis," she explains. She uses the "Tiny Ami" pattern found in Amigurumi World by Ana Paula Rimoli as her foundation, modified to make them slightly larger. Then she adds her own WoW touches: draenei or imp horns, night elf ears and so on. She hand embroiders the faces, based on sketches she creates beforehand. Armor is made from felt and fabric paint. "I like to craft these because they are quick, portable and I can work on them between pulls," she says. Looks like a productive use of time, to us!
And finally, we confess to being completely and utterly in love with this next submission from reader Lin -- if only we knew what they were. Yes, they're little Yoggs ... But Yogg whats? They are coming for you...
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself by e-mailing lisa (at) wow (dot) com with your not-for-profit WoW-inspired creations. Filed under: World of WarCrafts, Arts and Crafts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Nathanael May 10th 2010 9:47AM
Several people may see the results of this contest and think something, but not post it:
There is a notable simplicity in the winning entry. Something seems... lacking. In a contest for art, one expects (perhaps naively) that the winner will be an impressive exercise in skill, which does not appear to be the case here.
I was looking forward very much to a showcase of the talented artists hiding amongst the WoW fanbase out there, perhaps even hoping that Samwise might see them and someone might get a job nod from Blizzard, but I see that this is not the case.
This is the most professional, appropriate way I can conjure up to express my disappointment without scathing the winning artist too badly. At the end of the day, he put in the effort to enter, and I... did not.
Nevertheless, I hope that the judge(s) of this contest will take it under advisement.
Thanks for creating these opportunities for exposure anyway!
Kylenne May 10th 2010 3:42PM
I don't really want to comment on the quality of the art, but it doesn't really seem WoW-ish to me. It looks more like Ugly Americans fan art, and I'm not sure that's a good thing in this case.
Destron May 10th 2010 1:49PM
Thanks to everyone who participated! I want to say again it's really an honor to get this amount of attention for what's really just a hobby. I've put the winning entry up on the travelogue's introduction. I also created a fan art gallery that currently has all the entries for this contest.
By the way, I'll gladly accept new pieces of fan art for the gallery, so if you have any, feel free to send them. Visit http://destron.blogspot.com/p/fan-art-gallery.html for contact information.
Ametrine May 10th 2010 3:59PM
For what it's worth, in my opinion, I think Raymond's pic works better. Considering the fact that Destron, despite being undead, is able to pass as human with only minimal effort (and a bit of makeup), I think Mr. Liang's version seems more accurate to how Destron might actually look. Mitch's version, while definitely marking Destron as undead, makes the "human disguise" a bit harder to manage, on account of the sunken eyes, missing nose, etc. All Raymond's version really needs to pass is a bit of fleshtone makeup and some gloves/boots to hide his bony extremities.
Nex May 10th 2010 9:37PM
Thank you WoW.com and thank you Destron for writing such a compelling travelogue. It was a pleasure to enter into the contest.
Thanks for your kind words too, Ametrine. What you said about Destro being able to pass as human and looking the part of Destro was very important to me to capture, as well as the stark feeling of the landscape. When I read Travels through Azeroth and Outland the places felt just as full of personality as the characters and I wanted to pull some of that into what I painted.
I wish I could have shown my best work, but real life got in the way as it often does. If anyone out there wants to see more of what I can do you are welcome to look me up on facebook :D
-Raymond Liang
Destron May 10th 2010 10:26PM
Thank you, Raymond Liang, for reading and for participating.
Choosing one was a really close call for me, and I still liked yours
a great deal, which is why I put it in the fan art section. I hope
that's some consolation.
PS Keep at it! I know how frustrating it can be to work on something
while rushed, but you show a lot of talent.
Tokkar May 10th 2010 4:25PM
Orange cake. Spiked with Red Bull. Well, leave out the Red Bull and replace it with Monster Khaos...oh yeah.
Awesome Sarth is AWESOME! I wonder how long it took?
And...and...and...LITTLE YOGGIES!!! ME WANTS!!!
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
*ahem*
Sorry...
(Tries to reclaim dignity)
Raeenith May 10th 2010 11:20PM
I had too much on my plate to finish my piece, but congratulations to the winner and good job to all that entered!