Most years, when I can spare a little extra money, I try to enter a couple of competitions. First on the list is always the annual Spectrum competition, for the best of the current year’s fantasy/genre art.

I was lucky enough to have been chosen for Spectrum 9 many years ago, and I’ve always wanted to get back into the published book. To that end, each year I look back through my work and try to decide which one or two pieces I might send off in the hopes of being chosen.

Whether it’s my lack of a given style, or my general indecisiveness, it’s always a bit of a chore to pick the art to send. Different people like different works of mine, and it becomes difficult for me to decide which is the best one. Myself, I tend to look at the small pieces of each work, the little bits that I have improved on over the years, versus the whole.

So, gentle reader, here’s where I pop the question. No, not that question, the wife might be a bit upset.No, the question is this: will you give me your opinion of the eligible pieces below?

To be upfront, there are four pieces I can’t show you, as they haven’t been published just yet. Of those, maybe only one would be in the running anyway. The rules are that the art had to be created in 2010, and below are many of those works that I completed. There are a handful of works that I wouldn’t send anyway, but any of these below might at least get a passing thought.

I’m sending them in around January 12, so if anyone out there could pick maybe two of the ones they like best, that would be perfect. They just have to be the very best pieces, be it your favorite ones or the ones that are the best works (which may not, in reality, be the same thing).

Gracias.

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Russell Dickerson

Russell Dickerson has been a lot of things over many years. Author, artist, designer, winner of awards and recognition, pursuer of the truth, leader of the earth after armageddon.