And so the famous "Moonlight contest" held by was officially closed as of October 18 and we judges then got to face that hardest part - the voting. Difficult as it was, the experience was, I daresay, rather refreshing, as almost every entry in the contest held a charm of its own. So I hereby take this opportunity to congratulate each and every single individual artist who took time to participate in the contest. For me, in a way, you are all winners, cliche as that may sound.
Still, as the voting system rarely allows for everyone to win, a few works had to stand out and win three places as well as honorable mentions. As promised, I feature the best of the best here.

1st place
[link]
"Waiting for my prince" by *Lillucyka

This was undeniable - the work is absolutely breath-taking. First and foremost - the amount of amazingly blent details brought together to create such magical atmosphere. The story behind the piece did not lack either and the wide range of different shades of violet only added to the dreamyness of the piece. I highly doubt I could pinpoint a single fault of this artwork and therefore I say with not an ounce of second thoughts that the 1st place for this piece was more than well-deserved.

2nd place
[link]
"Dream House" by ~Viscuswalor

One thing spoke for itself - I loved this piece; my mother loved this piece; and my niece loved this piece. What was the reason behind this ability to bring down age boundaries and create an all-time art piece? For me, the answer is quite simple: wit and imagination of the artist brought together to help create something original, timeless and absolutely different. The splendid technique only helped to get this wonderful idea across to viewers. And the 2nd place is just as well-deserved.

3rd place
[link]
"Moonstone" by *Kuoma

Fought like a lion to get this piece its proper place among the winners. (Well not literally but you get the drill) What fascinated me beyond all rational belief was that this was done with gouache, pencil and watercolor! With idea and composition better than most of the photo-manipulations I ran across, this could only be so much harder to make, as I believe most are well-aware of. It would be a crime against art for this talent to go by unnoticed and I am therefore more than happy to be able to announce it as our third place choice. Congratulations, dear.

But wait - there's more! "Buy this product for 9,99$ and we shall give you an EXTRA one free of charge!"
(No, just kidding. Had to insert that there. That's the sentence that always follows the "Wait, there's more" one in commercials. Couldn't resist. Anyway, back to the topic...)

As I mentioned in the very beginning, it was excrutiating to have to choose only three places when there were so much more than three wonderful entries in the contest. So we agreed upon several honorable mentions as well. Here I feature the works we all agreed upon as well as few I voted for myself which didn't get the official honorable mention place. Special congratulations to each of these as well. Amazing job, guys!

[link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link]

And another honorable mention:
For two most wonderful parents in the whole world - my own, of course - my mom for giving birth to me on this very day around two decades ago and my dad for always being there, for all the support and for being there in the good and the bad. Thank you for everything, I love you both endlessly.
And happy birthday to me!