“roses r red, violets r blu. my pet is pretty and i r 2.” You don’t see poems like that in the poetry contest do you? Of course not, perish the thought. It’s all about poetic words that flow off the tip of our tongue. They have meaning and rhyme, as well as grammar. Now if the poetry contest doesn’t allow such cheap poems, why should the beauty contest and allow such cheap pictures?

Ah yes, the kiddies and the “average” talentless Joes. Know them, love them, fear them. When someone doesn’t have artistic skill, they “cutpaste”; take a Neopets image as a base and edit it. Or perhaps they just take 5 seconds of their oh-so-busy lives to sloppily scribble a stick figure and enter that. It’s allowed by the Neopets rules. Well, is this really fair?

We all know there are guilds; they support their members. More often than not, it is the guild supported images which win. That, or perhaps a famous person is advertising them. There is nothing to be done about that, but wouldn’t it be better if they were advertising a work of art rather than a doodle? Perhaps the doodles and cutpastes should be banned?

Sure, it might seem unfair to ban those oh-so-easy to do quick scribbles and cutpastes. The poor little kiddies and talentless Joes will no longer have a quick Neopoint-making scheme to get rich off of! Well, tough cookies. Have they ever thought of who they were hurting by doing so?

There are many an artist, myself included, who actually put a lot of effort into their pictures. How much effort are we talking here? 5 seconds? Maybe a whole 5 minutes? Hmm, try 5 hours. Or more. There are Neopians who take art classes, are in art college, or are just really good at it. Yet they are bumped down by those with no talent whatsoever, who spam their way into first place. So if the writers get the poetry and story-telling contests, why can’t we have the drawing contests?

The art gallery used to be chock-full of professionally done Neopets images. What is it now? There are stolen images, traced images, images taken from the site and not edited in any way whatsoever, pencil doodles, and more unspeakable horrors. Why is this, you ask? I have no idea.

The only people who know are the ones running the site. Perhaps they will one day give us an answer, perhaps not. Until then, I encourage all of you; put effort into your drawings. Don’t trace, don’t plagiarize, and don’t take the easy way out. Just imagine what the Mona Lisa would look like as a stick figure with a smiley face!

Ah, the countless amount of excuses. Well, let’s see how many we can kill off here.

“I don’t have enough money for a good program!”
There are many programs available as free trials, take advantage of that. There are even many people who can do wonderfully amazing things with Microsoft Paint! If not, find an Oekaki; it’s a free online drawing program.

“I can’t draw as well as those professional people!”
Many of us can’t. I’m not a professional myself, nor do I claim to be. I do, however, put a lot of effort into my drawings; and have improved a lot over the past year. Just keep trying; no one will blame you if you can’t draw as well as Da Vinci.

“Cutpasting is allowed!”
Yes, perhaps. But it is still either tracing or copying someone else’s picture, which is a fancy term for art theft. I say it’s morally wrong, but it seems to be allowed despite my opinion. Even if it’s allowed, you can’t get results by doing so even close to those you would get if you drew the picture yourself.

“The beauty contest is the only thing I can win; I’m bad at flash games!”
Neopets isn’t all about the Beauty contest and Flash games. There’s pageloads of other things you can try. Try making a gallery, reading books to your pets, feeding those poor little Kadoaties, or try to convert other cutpasters. Hey, it’d make my job a whole lot easier with help ;)

“I don’t have the time to draw a lot!”
Well, neither do most of us. You can work on the picture little by little until you finish. I’m in high school; I know how you feel. There’s finals, there’s exams, and there’s days when a teacher just wakes up and says to herself “I think I’ll be evil today! Muhahahaha!” Sometimes, it takes me a week to finish a picture because of this.

“I can’t draw well!”
That is probably because it is your first time drawing, or you are not taking time to hone your skills. practice, Practice, PRACTICE! You think you can run a 5 minute mile on your first try? Umm... NO!

“I don’t even like drawing!”
Then why are you entering a DRAWING contest?

“Why can’t I just trace a picture someone else drew and color it in?”
Whoa! Hold it right there! We have you surrounded! Perish the thought, put your hands behind your head, and no one will get hurt! Maybe tracing a Neopets image is allowed, but trace a picture from someone else and prepare to taste their (and my) wrath! Why is this? Basically, it is the same reason you don’t find an essay online, print it out and turn it in as your final paper. It’s plagiarism, art theft, violation of copyright, and an unspeakable evil. Even the scribbles are a step above this.

“You’re mean!”
No, I’m just honest. I’m sorry if you can’t face the truth, but that is what this is. This rant has been brought to you by a savage temperamental artist who wishes to gnaw upon those who steal art and make a mockery of artists.

Thanks for reading this; I hope it affected you in some way. In the immortal words of my literature teacher, “Questions? Comments? Feedback or praise?” Feel free to contact me via Neomail, I’ll look forward to hearing from you.