I think I should be rolling my sleeves as well. It's been 4-5 art contest that I have missed but I did them intentionally because in my artwork they were not perfect fit. Initially I also thought that judges are getting bored about the Pencil Carving type of arts and hence none of them were getting selected. But now its time to change the art category. I think I should really try my luck with other categories. Since that is going to be the new experience and also as good taste of artwork it may happen I end up creating astounding artowkr for everyone to see. The painting is monotonous for me and many peeps already do it so that's definitely going to be very congested and competitive. I think I am going to spend more time on crafted art where actual theme to be made. Let us see what happens to the new contest. Good luck to everyone who will participate in it.
I believe that you are going to at least get "something" if you participate, not that there are ton of people who participate anyway and the ones who do may have some good quality but the number is few so that means whenever you decide to join, your return should be good enough to have a potential to win it. Doesn't guarantee anything at all, but it also means that we are going to end up with something that will be as profitable as it gets.
We should be considering it more fun than we can assume and should be a profitable thing if you put some hours into it. I know that making art for free and then hoping that it would earn something with a risk of not getting anything in return of putting that much effort into it makes some artists feel terrible.
However, the return if you win is way more than what it usually worths, so putting that time for either more than what it worths or nothing is a type of gambling you are doing so to speak and should be considered relevant to the business.