5 Mistakes to Avoid in the Landscape International Art Competition

Landscape art competitions are one of the most popular international art competitions that you can come across. Participating in such competitions can be a major career boost for any artist. These competitions not only offer big cash prizes but you can also get a lot of exposure to media, critics, and the entire art world as a whole. However, most participating artists are often so worried about winning these competitions, that they end up making small but damaging mistakes. These mistakes often affect their submissions and can also hurt the results. Here are the major 5 mistakes you must avoid when participating in a landscape art competition. 

1. Submitting an Inappropriate Theme

When we say landscape, it means art inspired by nature. It could be tall mountains, never-ending valleys, river bodies, a lush green field, an enigmatic forest, or anything where the subject matter is nature. A landscape artwork may or may not have any human elements in it. Even if it is an abstract landscape art, you must make sure you stick to the theme. 

Submitting an artwork loosely revolving around the landscape theme won’t improve your chances of winning. Instead, it gives the jury the impression that you don’t understand your own artwork. So before making your submission, ensure that your artwork meets the theme of the competition. 

1. Skipping Guidelines

While this is important for a landscape art competition, this advice is very crucial for every art competition you participate in. Every competition has a set of guidelines that they expect their participating artists to follow. 

Go through the guidelines properly to understand what is expected of you. For example, if they want a link to your own website, don’t send the link to your Instagram. This clearly tells the organizers that you didn’t read the rules, and thus you are not very serious. Following guidelines properly, will not only save you time and effort but also prevent you from getting disqualified. If you can’t understand something, ask.

1. Sending Poor Quality Images

This is a common mistake in an online art contest. Most art contests that take place virtually, expect artists to submit pictures of their artwork. When your artwork is to be judged on the basis of its picture, it becomes imperative to use a high-quality photograph. 

Especially when it is landscape art, the lighting can make a huge difference. It can change the color tone of your elements and thus the entire perspective and mood to look at the artwork. Always capture pictures of your artwork in good and even lighting so that it can convey the message you originally wanted to convey through that piece. 

1. Sending Artworks of Various Styles

Landscape theme is a very vast genre and you can incorporate different styles and mediums to make an artwork around this theme. However, when it comes to international art competitions, judges prefer choosing artists who have found their niche and have been working on a specific style over someone who is dabbling into all of them with mastery over none. 

For example, if you are a landscape photographer who also paints landscapes, do not send both. If you want to send multiple submissions, make sure they are all of the same medium and style. This reflects your understanding of a particular style and can create a more lasting impression on the minds of the judges. 

1. Sending Common Artworks

What is the first thing you think of when we say landscape? A mountain range? Or maybe a water body in the lap of nature with a wooden cabin next to it? The first drawing lesson for most of us as children was to draw sceneries consisting of a few mountains, the sun, and a river with a few trees next to it. This speaks enough about how widely popular landscape art is. 

Hence, do not send artwork that will get lost in the crowd. To leave your mark in international art competitions, especially with a landscape theme, you need to stand apart from other artists. Choose an artwork that tells a unique story to draw the attention of the judges and the critics. Let it communicate something that is unique from all the other artists out there. 

Victory Lies in the Details of an International Art Competition

How an artist represents themselves in international art competitions plays a key role in the final decision. Starting right from your artist statement, to a description of your artwork and every other detail you submit, judges take note of it all. It gives them a clearer understanding of how serious you are about taking art professionally and how much you understand your work. Especially when it comes to landscape art, finding similar artworks can be quite common, in such cases, judges often move to comparing minute details and technicalities before giving their verdict. So, the final advice is to never skip details when entering a landscape competition.