The April / May 2016 topic "Pastry, Cakes and Sweetmeats", the June / July 2016 topic "The Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters", and the July / August 2016 topic "The Professor at the Breakfast Table", are the first three instalments of a new - experimental - series of challenges to be run under the Challenge 2 heading. This new series will consist of four successive instalments in total. The first three, disclosed one at a time, will be considered independent from each other. However, members will be encouraged to use elements from the preceding instalment(s) as the Challenges progress. Somehow, the three first instalments will have to be part of a whole which will be disclosed with the fourth instalment.

The fourth instalment "Confessions of a Beachcomber" of September / October 2016 is supposed to include and combine elements/reminders/hints from all previous instalments into one, encompassing, work within the given topic for the instalment. Failing to do so will cost voting points for the fourth instalment.

There is no obligation for the members to participate in all the instalments of a series but even so they have to follow the rules above.

A special case concerns the participation of the administrators themselves. They can freely participate and be judged by other members, however they are excluded from the final ranking of the instalments as they already know the four topics from the start.

As far as the rating is concerned, voting for 'Artistic' and 'Topic' will be similar to what you are used to. The third category 'Technical' will have a different meaning: it will rate the manner in which the artist has been able to meld successfully the elements from different instalments as the series progresses. The term 'Technical' is under scrutiny at this moment and will be replaced by something more appropriate. Suggestions are welcome of course.

The new Challenge for November 1st / December 31st, 2016 has as theme:


Light and darkness are appropriate themes for the last two months of the year. You can choose between the two, Darkness in Light being possibly more challenging to visualise than Light in Darkness. For you to judge.
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