Has anyone some information about how the judging is done for the mixed media/boxed media and photographic competitions?
Are people allowed to enter the same pictures to different competitions and do they not also have to submit original drawing ideas and step by steps to whow how it all came together?
The judging is done blind just like salon nails. When the pieces are entered, usually the head judge adds a number to the entry and also for which competition it is entered (i.e. hand painted novice or master). They they make sure that there are no other identification marks.
So all the judges see the the work and they should have no idea whose it is. Having said that - with hand painting or mixed media each artist tends to have a style which could be recognised by experienced judges - but again their reputation is on the line to judge honestly.
To answer the second part of your question - it depends on the competition. For the competition in question, I read the rules and it's clear that this has to be unique work and never entered in any other competition. This means if the poster can prove that the Academy held an internal competition on the same theme and entered the winning work in the October comp - then that competitor could be barred. Other comps such as Nailympics do allow work to be entered that has been entered in other comps : "All entries must be new to the Nailympics and can only be entered one time at this competition. "
Personally I think no judge should have any close relationship to any competitor. In a perfect world they would all be international judges - but few organizers would pay for the travel etc. In Russia especially there is some cheating as the judges are often the owners of distribution companies and their techs are competitors.
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Yes, the original poster could have been clearer and did manage to raise a few hackles. I have since looked on the Facebook page she refers to and I understand her concerns - several people commented that on Academy appears to have have prior notice of the nail art theme (since April), while the official announcement was made 2 weeks ago. As the comp is on 1st week October - from my perspective that would seem to have given the others an unfair advantage - IF THIS SITUATION IS AS APPEARS.
In any case, announcing a box theme just 2 months ahead seems short notice from what I've seen at other comps. Given a box of tips can take 50 to 150 hours to create (or more) - it can be challenging then to find the time to do good work.
Having said that - even comp organizers are human! ;-) Mistakes happen sometimes as it's a lot of work to organize. We attended a show last year - and sponsored two competitors at quite a cost - only to find out that a) the organizer didn't have a clue what mixed media was so people were entering 6" high dragons on tips and b) the rules in Russian were different to the rules in the other european language. We were seriously unimpressed! (However, one of our sponsored competitors won anyway because her work was outstanding - but the other girl saw her marks penalised by the mistakes in the rules).
