paigeg wrote:I have to point out things I imagine the average wooter isn't going to care about, just because I'm recently Adder-deprived, I think (imagine the Adder with a family and holiday obligations...) 
I do like this idea, and I think you're brave to use heather, since it has such a bad rep. But the drop shadows are totally wonky - random. There are no shadows at all on the bear itself. The various evidence markers and evidence - all seem to have their own planes and perspective.
I WANT to like this. I do, as WiP. Not as a finished shirt, I'm afraid.
The problem being, people vote on wanting to like something, and don't take the time to say "is this a complete/good piece". It's an "I like cats, so I vote cats" mentality. That cat could be (usually is?) drawn horrendously. It could (usually does?) make no sense thematically. It could (probably will?) look identical to a thousand other cats in previous derbies. But people vote cat, not quality-of-cat.
With a piece like this, people voted, probably, because they think, like a tween emogoth, that being "dark and twisted" (which this isn't actually) is hilarious, and their childhood was full of this counter-culture rebellion and unhappiness (which it actually wasn't), ergo meaning the destruction of innocent symbols is somehow "dark humor" (which it could be, with humor added). They're voting for what they believe it to represent, and not paying attention to the lack of wearability. The bear sewing buttons on a human's face is similar: it's not actually -wearable-, but people for some reason find it funny as an idea, and ignore the execution.
Not to say this piece is the worst in the derby: far from it. But it is to say that we need more people to pick up on what you picked up on. this isn't about a quick chuckle. this is about something people would wear for maybe more than a month. There is an element of quality that should be taken into account. Some (many?) people here literally have never considered quality a more important element than making a grand, and their work shows it time and again. And people are simply too cowardly to say "uh, hey, this is terribly done, and here are some damn hard to argue reasons." Part of fixing a problem is being blunt. People get upset when they're shown they're wrong. Too bad. They won't improve until they can't run from it any longer. And since it's obvious people will vote for anything in some amount, it should be the primary purpose of all people who give a damn to point out that things just aren't that good. We don't have to convince a majority. We just have to convince enough people enough times that eventually someone at the top starts understanding.
