... when you're entering a contest?

It's always a struggle, personally, having to choose between the style I would LIKE to use, and the style I think the judges are going to be looking for. So I keep going, and keep going, and keep flip-flopping, and flip-flopping, until ... I realize I've changed around the style of the picture so much that it no longer looks cohesive.

There's always that compromise between what you think would make a good picture... and what you know (or at least, what you guess) the judges are looking for. Deviate too far from either, and there's no way you're going to win. That's just the way things are.

I guess I'm really just thinking about that Okami contest. I've always wanted to experiment with the style, but, at the same time, it really wouldn't match with the light-streaming-down-from-through-the-boughs-of-the-trees concept I was working on. Or, at least, I haven't thought of a way to pull it off so that it looks good.


... Either way, I'm still here, debating whether or not the judges really ARE looking for art done in the Okami style, or whether they're looking for our own interpretations of the game. There's reasons to go either way, so there's honestly no obvious answer. So. With that: I leave the decision up to you guys. What would YOU look for, if you were judging the Okami contest?

EDIT: Maybe I should explain a bit:

I think the main crux of this issue isn't really that it's a contest, but that the people sponsoring the contest are looking for high resolution pictures to possibly use commercially -- how does that change what they're looking for? How might that change the criteria that they use for judging? And how might we anticipate how to draw our images?