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FAQs
Q: I am not a member of the Official Lord of the Rings fan club. May I still enter the contest?
A: If you are a member of Decipher’s Lord of the Rings message board, you may still enter. If you are entering as a Youth and your parent or guardian is a member of either the Fan Club or the message board, you may enter if you provide their information. If you are not a member of either the Fan Club or the Decipher message board, you may not enter the contest. Yes, we do check all entrants for eligibility!
Q: If I join the Fan Club or the message board before the contest ends, may I enter the contest?
A: Yes.
Q: I am a member of the Fan Club, but I have never registered on the message boards. What should I include as my ‘user handle’?
A: You can register a handle on the message boards at any time. Go to the Fan Club’s registration page and follow the Registration instructions. If you do not want to register a handle, provide your membership number, your real name (for confirmation of membership) and the name you wish to appear on the Gallery in lieu of a user handle.
Q: I live in Australia/Japan/Poland/other country. May I enter the contest?
A: Anyone who is a member of the Fan Club or Decipher message board may enter the contest, regardless of where they live.
Q: I am 13. I would like to enter, but I’m not as good as the adults. What do I do?
A: We have a Youth category for under-16 artists. Indicate in your e-mail that you wish to enter in the Youth category, include your age (so the judges can properly assess your work) and your entry will compete against entries from other young artists.
Q: Why does my work have to be an image file and in a particular format?
A: So we can open the file and edit the image for the web site. Non-image files are extremely difficult and sometimes impossible to open; some image formats are also troublesome.
Q: Why do I have to limit file size?
A: Many e-mail accounts limit the total size of the mailbox, and large files can disable these accounts. Large files also cause trouble when downloading using dial-up (yes, we’re old-fashioned) and are harder to edit.
Q: How will I know you received my entry?
A: One of the contest coordinators will e-mail you to confirm receipt and successful opening of your image within 72 hours of submission. If you don’t hear from us in that time, e-mail us again.
Q: I’d like my e-mail address to appear with my entry. What do I do?
A: Indicate in your entry e-mail that you want your e-mail to appear.
Q: All of my artwork is posted on my personal site. Can I promote this site?
A: If you have artwork posted on a personal or other site, you may have this site’s name and URL appear in your entry. Include the site’s name and URL in your entry e-mail.
Q: I photographed my watercolor painting, and used my computer to crop the picture and remove smudges. The contest rules say no computer art is eligible. Can I still enter this piece?
A: Yes. Completely computer/digital art is not eligible link, but using a computer for standard formatting (cropping, resizing), appearance (contrast, brightness) and repair (dust/scratch removal, etc) is perfectly legal. The original piece must be a traditional art or craft, however.
Q: I can’t figure out how to resize my photo. What do I do?
A: E-mail
and ask for help. (Please include the program you’re using, it’ll help us help you!) We’ll do what we can to help you fix it.
Q: Can I see the entries from previous contests?
A: 2002 LotR Fan Club Art Contest and 2003 LotR Fan Club Art Contest
Q: How will the entries be judged?
A: There will be a five or seven judge panel, which will select winners based on originality, technique, color and other artistic criteria.
Q: How do I know if I’ve won?
A: We’ll e-mail you. You can also check the contest site for winners.
Q: Why do I have to provide a valid e-mail address?
A: So we can let you know if you won! Also, if there’s any problems with your entry, we’ll try to contact you and resolve the problem before the contest ends.
Q: I would like to submit artwork for display after the contest closes. May I?
A: Any work submitted after March 31, 2004 is ineligible for the contest; however, we do intend to keep this gallery open for display purposes for the foreseeable future. We will post the instructions for posting artwork for display after the closing of the contest.
Q: Does the Fan Club or Decipher own the copyright to my art if I submit it?
A: Absolutely not. All copyrights to the art belong to the artist, and, if applicable, to Tolkien and New Line. By submitting your entry, you grant the Fan Club the right to display your art on this site, and if you’re a winner, the Fan Club has the right to display your name and entry on the site and in the Fan Club Magazine. That’s it. You retain all other rights to your work.
Q: I want to submit more than three entries. Why can’t I?
A: We’re trying to keep this as fair as possible for all entrants, so we’re limiting the number of entries. Additionally, the more pieces you enter, the more likely your entries are to ‘split’ votes.
Q: What is the Official Lord of the Rings Fan Club?
A: The Official Lord of the Rings Fan Club is a paid membership club sanctioned by New Line Cinema/Tolkien Enterprises and run by Decipher, providing a community and other benefits for Lord of the Rings fans. For more information, see their web site at http://www.lotrfanclub.com.
Q: What is LotR Fan Art?
A: LotR Fan Art is a fan-run organization dedicated to promoting the arts and creativity among Tolkien fans. Visit their archive site or their Yahoo discussion group for more information.
COMPUTER ART
You may be wondering why we don’t accept digital art in this contest. Hey, we like digital art too, and some of us create it! There are two reasons we don’t accept digital art:
First, while it takes a high level of expertise and knowledge to create a good digital work and some people may spend hours on creating a piece of art with their computer...a lot of other people will take someone else's photograph/image, take 5 minutes to run it through a filter, and declare the result to be their hard work. And it's difficult-to-impossible to tell who worked for hours and who cheated. It's an awful lot harder to cheat with oils, wood or charcoal than with a computer. If we hold the contest to traditional arts/crafts, we know the work submitted required considerable time and effort.
Second, digital art and traditional art…apples and oranges come to mind. It’s tough for the judges to compare artistic forms that are so completely different. Digital requires a different set of criteria than traditional art. Perhaps at some point we’ll be able to have a contest for digital art, but in the meantime, we feel digital and traditional art belong in separate categories. We apologize to the digital artists.
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