I almost never enter a contest more than a day or two ahead of time.Usually one day because I don't have the patience to wait for the results. How far ahead do you chop???

I've got chops coming up sometime in the next couple years.

I plan WAY far ahead.

WAY far.

I almost never enter a contest more than few minutes or few hours ahead of time. I think I need some pressure...
I'm usually chopping in the last 12 hours before contests start.

ahah! i'm worse, i start chopping usually a couple hours before opening, i'm always late! sometimes i don't finish it in time because 1.30pm-2.pm is lunch time here

i guess i need that pressure too, especially for ideas

I force myself to chop a source in the same week, but lately I've been chopping closer and closer to the contest's day..

oh, i just start chopping when i get hungry. i get all the stuff out of the fridge, clean the veggies and the meat, get a good knife and...uhh...



what?

wait... wha... hey...

i think i need to start working mine a day or 2 ahead, no pressure means im not creating.. lol

6 months.

It doesn't matter how far in advance I start the project, I don't usually have it finished until just before the contest opens, as pressure takes over.

My last chop almost didn't get done. I started it with the intention of taking the two women from the museum painting and bringing both of them to life, full bodied, and all source. I started on one girl all source and quickly discovered that I would not have time to do an all source chop. So I decided to bring in externals to speed up the process. As the deadline got to be a day away, I was still working on her head, and nothing else. So scratch the full bodied idea, crop her to a closeup and leave the other girl in the painting as the background.

End result: Not the spectacular result I had planned.

I could have started this contest 2 weeks earlier, but to be honest, I probably wouldn't get much more done with it. I just can't seem to get anything going until the last minute. I'm a procrastinating fool. I don't buy Christmas or birthday gifts until an hour before I deliver it, and you'll get your gift in a shopping bag.

I'm usually chopping a week or two ahead, because my ideas are so slow in coming that I chop whatever in the next month gives me an idea. So I'm often first in the contest that I enter, but I'd rather not be for strategic reasons.

Seelcraft the Clueless

I still have a lovely chop in my files, that I made with an entry in the votequeue... sadly that photo never came back in the votequeue and all I have left is the lovely chop that I made, and I made this chop.... two years ago. So perhaps ...... say....... years in advance????

Seriously though, if I like an entry in the votequeue I may start chopping right away when I see it got many votes, it's just an inpiration thing realy

Wow.... That's scary.

I posted about 7 hrs late in the last contest!
How does Advantage work again? I think I'm doing it wrong!!

I start chopping as soon as its open to us broke types (stupid strip clubs) who haven't gone advantage yet. Of course by then everyone with advantage has already voted etc so my speed post is late with 2 days left in the contest. Oh well, maybe ill win that xmas thing and try this whole advantage thing out. Are there ever others contests that have advantage as a prize (for us broke types that spend all their money on strippers cause she said I had nice eyes and laughed at my jokes)? Who would be in charge of that or should I make it a poll to gauge interest?

I was wondering the same thing..... I usually chop for 2-3 hours the night before the contest opens... I have been going about 4 days out lately though, so I can spend more time on details... It makes a big difference in my portfolio...