HI there everybody, and a big shout out to all the great artists in the Garuda community.
It’s that time of year again fellow Garudians, we’re about to kick off our annual Garuda Artwork Contest. This year the Garuda Artwork Contest should be bigger and better than ever, as we’ve made some changes that will hopefully make it an even greater success.
As a further enticement for artists to participate in this years contest, I’ve decided to increase this year’s prize money to $200 US. My hope is that the larger purse will help attract new artists to join the Garuda community. Hopefully, this will result in even more outstanding artwork being created this time around for our community to enjoy. So, be sure to let any of your artistically inclined friends know that there’s a good chunk of cash up for grabs in this year’s event.
Another change in this year’s contest will be that artwork created with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) will no longer be eligible to compete for the grand prize. Hopefully, this will encourage more participation from our distro’s traditional artists who felt that allowing AI artwork to compete for prize money was an unfair competitive advantage.
Even though AI artwork no longer qualifies for the grand prize, I still highly encourage community members to post their AI generated artwork on the contest thread. I’m sure many would love to see your AI artwork, so feel free to make your contribution to this thread as well. Please be sure that any artwork created with the assistance of artificial intelligence is identified as “AI Art”.
Good luck to everyone participating, and keep that great artwork coming.
Please see below for further information and full contest details:
The 2026 Garuda Artwork Contest will run for an as yet undetermined duration. The contest will likely continue until just before the disto’s next ISO release date (unknown). Constant inquiries about any upcoming release date on this thread are inappropriate, and may be subject to deletion.
We require that only one individual image be included on each post per contest entry. The reason for this is that as with last year’s contest, the winner of the contest will be determined by the number of “likes” each individual piece of artwork receives. The individual (non AI) piece of artwork that garners the most “likes” during the contest will be declared the contest winner. In the unlikely event that the contest ends in a tie, I will serve as the tiebreaker and cast the deciding vote.
“AI artwork” is defined as any piece of art that was made wholly, or in some part with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Any artwork posted during the contest that was fabricated using AI assistance must be clearly labeled as “AI art”. AI artwork may be posted, however it will no longer be eligible for the grand prize.
All artwork submitted during the contest should be at a minimum 1920 X 1080 in dimension. Including both 1080p and 4K resolution images would be highly appreciated, but is not a requirement. Providing a link to an external image hosting site would be be the best way to include multiple different resolutions of the same image. For voting clarity we only want one image included per each individual post/contest entry.
As you might expect, this being a Garuda artwork contest, submissions with the distro name “Garuda” overlaid on the image would also be greatly appreciated. Once the distro’s release name has been finalized, artists may also choose to incorporate the release name in their artwork as well.
Providing a download link for the original image (in different dimensions) with and without any release name incorporated into it would also be highly appreciated. This way Garudians may continue to use your original image as wallpaper long after the release name has been changed.
Posting images in some way related to a specific Garuda distro edition would be advantageous, (ie dragon images for the dragonized edition). However, images of a general nature are also welcome. Individual Garuda edition maintainers will be posting their guidance on the color palettes or image content they might be looking for, see suggestions below.
The $200 grand prize winning piece of art is not explicitly guaranteed to be selected as the wallpaper for any/all Garuda releases. The Garuda developers may still decide to include pieces of AI artwork as a desktop wallpaper, or in a distro wallpaper pack. The artwork choices for the next Garuda release is completely up to the discretion of the developer of each individual Garuda edition.
Artist’s posting any submission during the duration of the contest are deemed to have given consent for their artwork to be featured as a Garuda desktop wallpaper, or in a Garuda wallpaper pack.
If any individual piece of AI artwork proves to be truly exceptional IMO, I may decide to offer up a smaller secondary prize to its creator. This is by no means a certainty, as any piece of AI generated artwork must truly impress me to qualify.
This does not mean that all colors in each wallpaper must use exactly the same color palette, but if it’s too different it will make the wallpaper fit less well with the edition’s theme.
Respecting the mood, feeling, and the spirit of the theme.
Mokka aims at a smooth, slow, sleepy, subdued, and calming mood, (not retina burning eye strain).
Dr460nized aims at an adrenaline pumping high, shouting loudly in your face, bright and colourful aura.
Does this mean a dragon would not fit Mokka? It could! But you’d have to alter it to fit the proper mood. That is art.
For example, a super cute baby dragon in the Mokka colors, sitting calmly by the Tree inlaid onto our current wallpaper. Now that’s funny!
Don’t hesitate to be adventurous, think outside-the-box, and use your full imagination. Have some fun with it!
Please state which Edition(s) your art is for.
For those unfamiliar with the different editions color palettes and themes, there are examples of each on the Garuda downloads page.
