Friday, December 03, 2010

Making A Mark: End of Year Review 2010


This is the beginning of my Fifth End of Year Review since my first in December 2006.

I always start with a post which outlines my plan for what happens and when - and, most importantly, how YOU can get involved with nominating and voting for the Making A Mark Awards!

Every year, there are three parts to the end of year review.
  1. The Making A Mark Awards 2010 - which start next week with nominations by you! 
  2. An overall review of what 2010 has meant for blogging and art. 
  3. My own Personal End of Year Review of 2010
This takes quite some planning and current plans for relevant dates are listed below to help keep me on track and for you to note if you want to read and/or participate


The Making A Mark Awards 2010
  • Invites to nominate for the different awards will be posted next week.
  • Voting for the Best Artwork of the Year prizes will close a minute after midnight on 30th December
  • The Making A Mark (MaM) Awards RESULTS will be posted in two posts on the 29th and 30th December.
Like last year, I'm opening open up the process of nominations to readers of Making A Mark.
  • For all of the awards that means you can get to nominate your favourite blog for that award.
  • You also get to VOTE on the awards for the best artwork on a blog to generate the winner for each category and the artist blogger going forward to the grand prize
Both those nominated and those identified as winners in the past have told me that the Making A Mark Awards results in an awful lot of subsequent extra traffic to their blogs.

Plus I always link to the blogs of those who nominate (unless you are a spammy infiltrator when I ignore you and your nomination!)

In 2010, you are INVITED TO NOMINATE artists and blogs for the Making A Mark Awards.  

Next week you will see posts about each of the awards and an invitation to nominate for the awards.
 
So please wait for the specific posts before telling me you want to nominate - via a comment on this blog. However if you want to tweet about the fact that nominations are being sought this week please feel free! (Can I suggest you use #MAM for Twitter)
Below you can see the awards - and also which blogs have won them in the last four years.  There's also a summary here and here with the latter listing all those who nominated blogs for awards.

As you can see it's a pretty impressive line-up!

The Best Art Blog Project Virtual Challenge Cup
The FAQs and Answers Really Useful Medal - for sharing useful information (for free)
The Make Me Think Gong

The previous winners of this 'gong' continue to provide many posts which are both interesting to read and also make me think. They are:
The Travels with a Sketchbook Trophy (which absorbs the 'Get Off Your Blogging Bottom and Sketch' Brass Plate)

Previous winners have been:
  • 2006 - Laura Frankstone (Laurelines) won the “Travels with a Sketchbook Award primarily for blogging her sketches of Paris in October
  • 2006 - Julie Oakley won the “Get off your Blogging Bottom and Sketch”Brass Platefor her One Mile from Home blog).
  • 2007 - Martha (Trumpetvine Travels) won the new combined award
  • 2008 - posthumously awarded to Cindy Woods. (Learning Daily)
  • 2009 - Enrique Flores (Cuatro cosas)
  • 2010 - ?
The Painting a Day Stickability Shield. Previous winners include:
The Painting Plein Air Plus Prize. This award has previously been won by

The Going Greener Gong (artwork about nature / with a green theme)

“The Moose” Award for the best animal in an illustrated blog - named after the first winner of this award - who was a cat!  The animal can be wild or domestic.  Previous winners have been:
The “Tales from the Frontline” Mention in Despatches / The “Amusing Musings” Trophy for keeping me amused / telling tales from the studio frontline.

Previous winners of this prize are:
  • 2006 - Ruth Phillips (Meanwhile, here in France) won The “Tales from the Frontline” Mention in Despatches AND 2006 - Hugh McLeod (Gaping Void) and Maggie Stiefvater (Greywaren Art) won the Amusing Musings Trophy
  • 2007 - Dermott (I am Dog Hear Me Snore) the Australian Old English Sheep Dog who lives in Tuscany with Mr and Mrs We Spent a Long Time Boofing This Dog - won both!
  • 2008 - Tracy Helgeson (Works by Tracy Helgeson) plus Doug and Ginger and all those who helped with the new studio
  • 2009 - Walt Taylor aka Wally Torta and the rest! (Crackskull Bob) 
  • 2010 - ?
The Most Gorgeous Mouthwatering (MGM) Studio of the Year - for the most improved studio in 2010.
The Best Book by an Art Blogger Blue Ribbon - for the most helpful book written/produced by an art blogger
Best Artwork
  • The MaM Prize for best rendition of person or persons (portraiture or figure work)
  • The MaM Prize for the best portrayal of a place (landscape, urban scenes, seascapes, interiors etc)
  • The MaM Prize for best still life (still life, floral, botanical)
  • Shortlisted finalists for the above will also be eligible for......The MaM Prize – for the best artwork completed and posted on an art/illustrated blog in 2010
On Thursday 24th December I will post the final short lists for:
  • The MaM Prize for best rendition of person or persons
  • The MaM Prize for the best portrayal of a place
  • The MaM Prize for best still life
  • the best artwork completed and posted on an art/illustrated blog in 2010


Review of Blogging and Art in 2010

In this part of the review, I comment on the changes in the blogosphere and for art bloggers and art blogging in particular. 

I'll also be seeing how I did with my predictions for 2010, comment on the impact of things nobody expected (now what were they?) and generally try and come up with some predictions for 2011.
  • A review of the blogging practices of artists and illustrators in 2010 - what has stayed the same and what has changed from the perspective of the individual art blogger - to be posted on 22nd December 2010
  • Blogging art within the context of changes in the wider art economy - to be posted on 23rd December 2010

Personal End of Year Review of 2010 and Plans for 2011

The end of the calendar year is a good time for a review. I know I've not been too good at keeping to Making A Mark in 2010 - The Plan and I'll be 'fessing up in My Personal Review of 2010 on 31st December - and review what did I get up to and how did I do on achieving the things I set out to do in 2009.


Which is immediately followed by the Grand Plan for 2009 on 1st January 2010!!!

Yet more optimism about how much I can hope to pack in.......... ;)

Links: The Making A Mark Awards 2010 for blogging about art 

Below are the links for 2009.  These will be replaced by those for 2010 when all are posted.
Posted by Making A Mark on Friday, December 03, 2010
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2 comments:

  1. Meera RaoFriday, December 03, 2010

    Great links - I see I have missed quite a few and so will be busy checking them out! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Making A MarkFriday, December 03, 2010

    That's what really nice about the awards.

    Every year I highlight those have won in the past
    - those that have not come across the winning blogs before start visiting
    - those who have been won (and even those who nominate and were nominated) start getting extra visitors!

    If you check out the posts at the end you can read about all those nominated last year

    ReplyDelete

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