// The Winner's Circle
GraveSongs
Winners Circle
The Winner's Circle is intended to serve as an archive of past Grave Song (challenges) and Contest winners.
Here you will find the Winner's Pages which contain the winning image(s), as well as the judges' tally and related content to the challenge/contest.
Judge's Tally cards below winning entries are best suited for desktop or mobile landscape view.
✧ Christine Black
✧ Grave Songs I: Memories Winner
✧ Grave Song Challenge Winners ✧
Challenge Theme
❝ Memories ❞
Genre:
No RestrictionsJudge Criteria:
Non-specific
Grave Songs I
WINNER
Christine Black
❝ [...] held an air of melancholy without even necessitating any facial features being visible. The main focus laying on the item in the character's hands and the box it rested in, both of which are colors that pop within the more muted overall piece, properly drawing your eye. The lighting is almost hazy, especially with the cigarette smoke adding to the sort of memory-sequence vibe. Even without knowing exactly what item they hold, there are clearly heavy memories attached.❞❝ The lighting is beautiful! I love how the lights outline the character and leads the eye to the main focus, this jade trinket the character has taken out of the box. Then it leads the eye to the cigarette smoke, as if they put it down mid smoke, enthralled with the past. Wonderful work!❞❝ I really adore how coherent the flow of the piece is. Instead of giving you one, big thing to focus on, your eye naturally follows a path through the image and lands where it needs to while still giving you small details which help further establish the story within it.
The lighting is stunning, also. It's soft, yet clear and those warm tones really tie everything together so nicely.❞
Judges: 3
Highest # possible per section: 15
Judges' Tally
| Theme Interpretation | Creativity/Originality | Composition/Framing | Color and Tone | Lighting | Overall/Emotional Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | 11 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 14 |
82
Judges' Tally
Zicon
68
| Theme Interpretation | Creativity/Originality | Composition/Framing | Color and Tone | Lighting | Overall/Emotional Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 15 | 14 | 10 | 7 | 13 |
❝ While less impactful with lighting and overall composition than Christine's, the way this piece gives the viewer a glimpse into the character's memories of the landscape around them is very fun and done in such a way that the memory in question as well as the contrast to the present is very clear. The most important factors of this piece have colors that pop well and draw your eye.❞❝ This one is very unique!
My favorite part is how the alive trees align with the dead ones!The colors are good! I just feel as if things are a bit too bright and take away from the main focus. ❞❝ The idea behind this is fantastic. The portal glimpse into a memory works really well to give that nice pop of contrast between desert and forest, but I do find myself wishing there’s been more literal contrast between the two. The alignments on the trees are a very nice touch, though. ❞
Judges' Tally
Zennicai
55
| Theme Interpretation | Creativity/Originality | Composition/Framing | Color and Tone | Lighting | Overall/Emotional Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
❝ Zennicai's piece is framed and posed very well, and the filter lending to the image to appear like a worn polaroid - as if the very viewer is viewing a keepsake, a memory of a time past. That there is a polaroid within the piece, a memory within a memory, is a very fun way to double down on the theme. Big props for making such a small thing as a filter feel so integral to the piece's functionality within the theme. ❞❝ I like the theme! I can see how it's represented here. I feel like there could've been more, though, an expression of the face?I love the bloom effects! I just don't like how it's all squished in one corner here. The old photo/splotching effect is a nice touch, especially with the scratched. Good work! I just wish there was a little more.❞❝ A photograph in a photograph is super fun and the artist’s aesthetics are on full display. I only wish there was a little more emotion going on. I can’t quite tell what is being conveyed, overall, or if the look is intended to be purposefully blank as part of the story. ❞
✧ Strange Angels Winners ✧
Genre:
Cosmic horror. Scif-fi. Supernatural. Fantasy [modern or otherwise]Judge Criteria:
Composition, lighting, and theme interpretation
1st Place
WINNER
animsakari
❝ This piece is genuinely phenomenal and the slight mirroring in the poses for the two figures? The lighting for the scene originating from the direction of this distant but clearly colossal figure? The bodyhorror of the ruined wings? All together this is a very original and well-made interpretation for the themes of salvation, light, and peace in a wonderfully grim way. ❞❝ Great framing and composition to show a sense of scale while not losing focus of the wonderful details on the angel! Adding those flying vehicles in the background was the small detail needed to sell a "living city" and the fog was used well to fade out the horizon. The aggressive color grading does a great job for setting the mood while avoiding a "washed out" look. Having the bottle, deck of cards, and the tips of those broken wings stand out color-wise was a nice complement to that! ❞❝ While I had issues with the whole guardian theme with this, and I don't know if it fits the theme 100%, I do LOVE the cosmic entity vibes. I love the scrawlings on the skin and the background really brings me in. ❞
Judges: 5
Highest # possible per section: 25
Green denotes primary criteria. Secondary points do not contribute to score total.
Judges' Tally
| Theme Interpretation | Creativity/Originality | Composition/Framing | Color and Tone | Lighting | Overall/Emotional Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | 22 | 24 | 20 | 23 | 19 |
69
2nd Place
Zicon
❝ The presented sword, the over the top armor, the spectral wings, the HALO OF SWORDS? Something is happening here. And I'm not sure if I like what that sword will do or not. And that hits the nail right on the head for me. The framing and composition do need to be centered and "simple" to pull such vivid imagery off, and it does it well, with an interesting use of colors and symbolism. ❞❝ Zicon's entry is stunning! The colors are gorgeous, and lighting the hair to allude to a halo was so smart. The details making the holy fire almost seem to be burning from within is so well done adds so much. The lighting and color on the hair and holy fire, as well as the sword contrasting in a golden glow vs. the sword's shadowy purple is gorgeously done. ❞❝ Lovely use of lighting for the hair! Giving the wings a translucent effect so that it has that starry night come through really added to the cosmic look. ❞❝ The HAIR LIGHT! I am in love with hair physics and movement in video games so seeing the light coming through the hair in this is * chefs kiss *. ❞
Genre:
Cosmic horror. Scif-fi. Supernatural. Fantasy [modern or otherwise]Judge Criteria:
Composition, lighting, and theme interpretation
Judges: 5
Highest # possible per section: 25
Green denotes primary criteria. Secondary points do not contribute to score total.
Judges' Tally
| Theme Interpretation | Creativity/Originality | Composition/Framing | Color and Tone | Lighting | Overall/Emotional Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | 21 | 20 | 23 | 19 | 19 |
61
Genre:
Cosmic horror. Scif-fi. Supernatural. Fantasy [modern or otherwise]Judge Criteria:
Composition, lighting, and theme interpretation
3rd Place
zennicai
❝ I find that this submission really took the concept of "strange angel" and ran with it the best, and I won't get into detail because it's the third time I rewrite this completely, but between the color, the fashion, the makeup, and the pose that feels almost like a dance move? This could be the one frame trippy picture in someone's mind while falling in love with a dancer at the club. ❞
Judges: 5
Highest # possible per section: 25
Green denotes primary criteria. Secondary points do not contribute to score total.
Judges' Tally
| Theme Interpretation | Creativity/Originality | Composition/Framing | Color and Tone | Lighting | Overall/Emotional Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 | 18 | 21 | 20 | 19 | 13 |
58
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Strange Angels
Closed: 16th September [2026] 23:00 EST
Judging Period: 17th - 20th Sept
Winners Announcement: 20th Sept
Guidelines
Genre(s): Cosmic horror. Scif-fi. Supernatural. Fantasy [modern or otherwise].Judging Criteria: Composition, lighting, and theme interpretation.
Contest Host: [G]lichSponsor: 3DShards - Sade3D
Prizes:
: ̀➛1st Place:
A copy of ‘Strange Angels Makeup System’, any 1 item from Lich’s 3D asset catalog, and 1 item from Sade3D's* store.: ̀➛2nd Place:
Any item 20$ usd or under from Lich’s 3D asset catalog and any 1 item from 3DShards' Gift Pool*.: ̀➛3rd Place:
Any 2 items from 3DShards' Gift Pool.*Requires an active 3DShards account.
Something shifts at the corners of your vision.
Something off; something wrong.You were always told angels were ethereal – Beings of light and peace who watched over the poor, unsuspecting souls in their care.
Who knew there actually was a very good reason for the greeting of, “be not afraid”?
You’re still not sure it’s a reasonable command.
The contest is looking for works featuring beings that fall into the category of guardians and messengers with a twist...or perhaps are just biblically accurate...With optional themes of:
Salvation (or is it?)
Light (do we have different definitions?)
Peace (at what cost?)Benevolent, malevolent, or hovering on the thin, grey line of morality, exactly what type of Strange Angel is entirely up to you.
Grave Songs I
Closed: 1st September [2026] 23:00 EST
Judging Period: 2nd Sept
Winners Announcement: 2nd Sept
Genre: No Restrictions
We all carry fragments of ghosts with us.
How do they manifest?Is it an illusion on the other side of the kitchen table or a dream that’s gone hazy around the edges after waking?Are they accurate or warped?Was that day really sunshine and smiles like the blurry photos hidden in your phone shows or was it too hot and exhausting trying to navigate in a strange place with only pocket change?Did he really smile like that or did your subconscious add that little crooked turn to the corner of his lips to make it sting less?A missing pet, a loved one who has passed, or a former friend who's number has been disconnected; whether good, bad, or somewhere in between, Grave Songs I's theme is Memories.
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WINNER
1st Place
Judges' Tally
| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ |
Contestant Name:
Title of Image (if applicable):
Contestant's Site Link
Why the judges picked this one and maybe a few quotes about specific features that were liked.❝ quote spot ❞