Well! Finally the time has come to announce the three winners of the K.J.Taylor.com Design Your Own Griffin Contest, here at KJTaylor.com! And let me tell you, this was not an easy contest to judge. We had some absolutely fantastic entries for this contest, and some amazing artwork as well. I confess I was pleasantly surprised, since I had deliberately designed the contest rules so that entries would be as easy as possible to put together, and I half expected to get some lazy entries as a result. Au contraire! Every entry, whether it came with artwork or not, showed signs that its creator had put some proper thought into what they were doing, and the number of half-arsed entries stands at zero! I’m both impressed and flattered that so many people were prepared to put work into something for which they would not be paid, and might not win with either!

Anyway, thanks to that and the large number of entries I had to call in a friend to help with the judging – the friend in question shall remain nameless, but I know she’ll be reading this, so I’ll take the opportunity to thank here here in public. Her input was invaluable, and without it I would not have been able to get the winners up before I leave for my holiday on Thursday. So if you could, please do take a moment to thank her, either in a comment here or in the privacy of your own head. After all, it is the thought that counts – sometimes literally!

Anyway, without further ado, it’s time to announce the winners. I will be posting up their entries below, and later – tomorrow, probably – I will post up the other entries as well. As mentioned in the contest rules, if you didn’t want your entry to go up here you were asked to say so when you submitted it, but nobody did. If you don’t want it to go up here but just haven’t said so yet, drop me a line and let me know.

In the meantime, here are the winners!

Winner Number One

Pip the Finch Griffin
A wonderfully original idea, with an extremely cute picture! If the creator of this one chooses the plushie prize, this will be the first time I’ve sewn a griffin to be larger than life-size rather than smaller! I’m afraid I simply can’t sew something as small as this little guy; I’m not a miracle worker!

Name bestowed by his human: Pip

Age: 7 years old

Gender: Male

Magic: Unlike the bigger griffin breeds, Pip’s race all have the same magic. Their magic is their songs. Singing makes the energy from any living being from plant, ground, water to living being glow/sparkle, the colors changing with the moods of the living beings.

For example; the little griffin would hum a song to a pear and it would shimmer showing the griffin its alive and give on the color would also show if the fruit is good to eat or not. Singing at the edge of a river/lake and seeing if it is good water or stagnant and/or if any creatures that prey on their small forms was nearby.

Origin: Fruitsheart; North

Bio:  Pip’s breed was discovered in the pear orchards in Fruitsheart by the Northerners after the conquest of the north. They range no bigger than a common house finch and unlike all the larger griffin breeds they all hold the same magic. Seeing this ability the northerners used them as poison detectors; also helping out with the crops during harvest making sure all or at least most of their crop was matured enough to gather up. Though with how small they are most viewed them as a nuisance or common pest seeing their intelligence was not near as abundant as the bigger griffins, they could speak fractured griffish but cannot learn any other tongues. Though if a human were to partner with a small griffin, they were still a griffiner but with reduced stats thus most stayed to their farms or simple lives seeing most would laugh at the small griffin.

The griffins all look alike. The females are all gray with a white belly, orange beak as well as forearms and black/white stripes on their tail feathers.

Males are gray with a brown patch of feathers on their sides with white spots, their belly is white as their beak and forearms are a much brighter orange than the females. There is a redish orange circle on their cheeks as well.

Their main diet consists of fruit and insects mostly, though if offered or easy to get to they do consume seed and fish.

The griffins tend to nest in the pear trees that they eat the most of.

The life span of these little griffins range 20 – 30 years

Pip’s history: He was the runt of his family and his nest mates like common finches rejected him, fighting off his chance to eat like the rest of them. Near the final days in his nest when he was just beginning to get his adult feathers, there was a scuffle with his siblings that shoved him out of the nest into a gathering pear basket of a northerner. Having discovered him, the girl who was no older than 10yrs old took him to her home and tended his wounds, raising him to his adult form.

Having not been use to the kindness she showed he attached himself to her. For five years of his life he stayed with her, having a simple life and helping her with the daily chores on the orchards and farm lands. When she got older though the other griffiners acknowledged her being one of them and gave her a job of being a scout and messenger, from then on she would roam the lands on foot with Pip, testing new water/food sources for possible new locations for a village and passing messages between the different villages and cities.

Winner Number Two

Takora, the Plant Growing Griffin
Since this entry did not come with a picture, I took the liberty of drawing one myself from the description the entrant sent in. I hope she doesn’t mind!
My fellow judge and I particularly liked this griffin’s power, feeling that it fit in very well with the universe, and I like her physical design as well. We also both liked her backstory, and felt it worked nicely and was well thought-out.

Name: Tarkora
Physical appearance: All over grey, in all different shades. Starting at the head, she is a lighter grey, and it progressively darkens through the feathers until the fur becomes a mid-tone grey, looking almost blue in some lights. Her wings are mottled grey and black. Her tail and underbelly are such a light grey they are almost white. Her eyes are blue.
Power: Unknown for quite a long time – almost as if she didn’t have a power. Then, as she was eating one day, the food in front of her started to grow a type of fungus. Starving, she kept eating and didn’t react badly, so she thought nothing more of it. Some days later, after a long flight she hit the ground hard, puffing and out of breath, and flopped down amongst some trees to rest in the shade. Her huffing breath hit the grass below her and flowers grew at an accelerated speed around her. So, it seems, her power is to assist with the growth of flora and fauna.
Other: Quite cautious and has lost food to other griffins because of this. She likes to look around, think, evaluate, and then act.
Territories: I have only read the first book (it’s hard to find the second and third where I live…) and so I’m not too sure where would be sensible. Wylam Lands looks nice to me 🙂
Nature: She is wild, though if caught would settle into the lifestyle easier than most. She’s quiet (whilst still being undeniably wild) and would eventually enjoy a life of being warm and fed without having to fight and struggle for it each and every day.
Human: None, as of yet, but again, would take to one with more ease than other wild griffin’s would – if they matched, of course.

And finally…

Winner Number Three

Hakree, the Griffin With a Facebook Page!
I must confess that this was the first entry, and when it arrived I took one look at it and immediately decided that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, this one was going to be a winner. My fellow judge concurred, and so it is my great pleasure to announce Hakree and his partner Red Jones as the third winners of the contest!

Where do I even begin? First of all, the level of work this entrant put in is astounding; rather than send me the entry straight off, she has continually updated and expanded it from the beginning of the contest up until quite recently. Initially she said she was going to take the page down once the contest was over, but I personally emailed her and asked her not to on the grounds that I didn’t think anyone would want to see it go! I certainly didn’t. This entry is funny, creative, and clever. This page has everything, from album covers to Plants Vs Kraeae Kran Ae and Angry Griffins.
Congratulations, Hakree and Red!

(Click the picture to see Hakree’s Facebook page for yourself!).

And that’s that! Congratulations to all our winners, and I hope you’ll join me in saying so. I’ve had a great time with this contest, and hope that you all have as well. As I said, tomorrow I’ll be posting up the other entries, so if you don’t want yours to go up, let me know. If you’re one of our three lucky winners, then contact me at beachcombe – homepage @ yahoo . com . au (remove the spaces of course) whenever it’s convenient for you. I’ll need a postal address, and you’ll have to tell me which of our two fabulous prizes you would like which are, in case you’ve forgotten:

An IOU for the next three books in the series, which shall be personally autographed and mailed to you once they’re published,

OR

A plushie of your winning griffin, designed and hand-sewn by me, which I will mail to you as soon as it’s finished.

Choose wisely!