Well, ok. I didn't realize I would be asked to suggest a May challenge, but here goes. :)

Since "April showers bring May flowers", I would like to see something floral celebrating May in all her glory. I have seen some very impressive works in the main gallery with wonderful flowers, made with many of the different programs, as well as some wonderful flowers and textures available for free and for sale here.

Since the recent hail storm has dessimated my trees and flowers, how about anything that has "May Flowers" as it's theme for this month??

Wonderful idea! I'm looking forward to seeing the results bloom forth. :)

So sorry to hear about the hail damage :( But it did inspire an interesting challenge! Now to see how many plants/flowers I can get into one scene without crashing my computer ;) PS (OT, unless you're a gardener in the Real World, too) The good news is that your garden's recovery will be quicker than at any other time of the year, due to the spring-early summer rate of growth. You might try supplying some extra 'nutrition' to any bulbs that suffered foliage damage...even if the flowers were shredded, that foliage will be struggling to make next year's leaves and blooms right now.

Oh, sure, the garden will recover, but I will enjoy seeing all the digital wonders that bloom here this month. My flowers will come back later. At least we still have a home and a garden, others in tornado areas were not so lucky. Will enjoy seeing all your digital blossoms! :)

Oh, what a good idea CL! Can I assume that fractal-type and abstract flowers are ok?

Why not, Tres... I was thinking anything and everything, bryce, vue, fractals, photography, any of the sub categories found here at Renderosity. Have fun! :)

Yup, the challenge arena is not software related. Almost every forum has it's own monthly challenge. The idea in here is to give us a place to all go head-to-head. No matter if you do your work in MS Paint or Maya. Sounds like a great challenge 'lady. :) Have an idea already myself, we'll see if the time gods are kind enough to grant me enough to work it out. ;)

In truth, that's the reason this is my favorite challenge. I like to see how people with different abilities approach the same challenge. Sometimes the results are very thought provoking.

A beautiful start, indeed. My mother loved California poppies...in the spring time we used to have a yard glowing with their bright colors. Lovely!

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=398050&Start=1&Artist=CavalierLady&ByArtist=Yes

Ok, here's my entry for the challenge.

Link to the gallery is fine. Lovely tulips. Thank you for posting. Three very beautiful entries. :) Nice to see flowers bloom in this challenge.

Dialyn, Where is your entry??? Mine is nearly ready, just waiting for yours to go up! Tres :)

Mine is very slowly rendering on Poser 5 as we speak (I'm at work...it's at my house and I hope will be finished by the time I get back). I'm afraid it isn't as pretty as these....my flower power pooped out. :( But I intend to join in one way or the other. :)

When is this challenge's deadline?? Can't find it to save my life :P And my pic is at least a couple of days from finished...!

the challenges run from the first few days of the month, until the end of the month. We fudge on the exact start/finish time a little, to give those with projects 90% finished the extra day or two. While this sometimes shortens the next challenge a bit, we've all worked through it so far. :)

Wonderful--I'll put that image on the front burner tomorrow. Thank you for the quick answer :)

Mine's on the back burmer. Poser 5 blew up on me. :( Well, didn't blow up so much as it came to a dead stop and took my flowers with it.

Doh!. Sorry to hear that dialyn. :( Hate it when your app blows up and takes hours of render/models with it. :(

Thanks. I'll try again after I pick all the petals out of my screen.

Attached Link: Gallery version

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=405908&Start=1&Sectionid=30&filter_genre_id=0&WhatsN

Beautiful choices, indeed. It will be another hard choice. Which is always a sign that it's a good contest. :)

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=406796&Start=1&Artist=dtwelves&ByArtist=Yes

:) It's lovely to see a photography entry. Thank you for posting!

Just a reminder that the challenge will be ending next week... so this is the last weekend to work on this challenge... some great entries. Also great to see a photo entry! We don't often get a chance to have the folks from the photography forum here.. and that's a shame, because they do great work!! Anyway... good luck everyone... more to follow next week. :)

Do you have a date you are aiming for closing the challenge?

aiming toward may 28/29th. Then use the 29 > 2nd for voting.

Thanks! I think we have some quality selections to choose from. :)

Final call for entries for the "May Flower" challenge. If you need an extra day or two, now is the time to speak up, otherwise we'll get things started (voting) tomorrow morning.

Ok... no new entries... and no one yelling for a few more hours... so lets kick this puppy into gear. As always, great entries folks. It's always a thrill for me to see the diverse range of entries we got on a theme. But, alas, there can be only one. I have to place my vote on dtwelves. Just a wonderful picture no matter how I look at it.

I'm going to be computerless over the weekend, so I need to get my vote in now. The graphics are awesome. I want desperately to vote for more than one. dtwelves's photograph has such brilliant color, LadyCavalier's flowers are magnificent, Dave-So's tulips are so lifelike I want to pick them, and chohole's poppies are captured in all their fragile beauty. I am going to be completely irrational because I want to vote for them all, but I will choose tresamie's lovely, flowing fractal that reminds me of some latana (?) that are currently in full bloom over my patio and underneath which a feral cat plays hide and seek. So, tresamie for me. :)

I'll cast my vote for chohole's image, I like the style - kind of reminds me of Vincent van Gogh :) PS - Thanks for the vote and nice comment, RimRunner!

I loved them all. What a wonderful collection of flowers! I have been back here 5 times trying to make up my mind. I love chohole's colors and mood, and CavalierLady's flame fractal image is astonishing! DAve-So's tulips are lovely, and dtwelves photograph is wonderful. But I have finally chosen the one that reminds me of why we grow flowers, to delight in their sight and scent, to enjoy them and to enhance our lives with their beauty. Dialynn's "Spring Day" is my choice

Like Tres said, all of the entries are lovely, and it would be nice to be able to vote for all of them. I'm probably somewhat influenced by a special we saw on tv last night about the relationship between VanGogh and Gaugin. And I think that chohole's poppies have that wonderful impressionistic flair to them, with VanGogh's bright colors and daubs of color in streaks like Vincent used. All the flowers are great, but my vote goes to the: Poppies.

I vote for tresamie.

I would vote for tresamie. Your fractal fooled my eyes at first into thinking there were flowers superimposed into a fractal. I also dig how the bottom half of your picture uses what is basically negative space, but still contains a form and flow to it. Your work seems to move on it's own, there's a life to it. Color me impressed, really love it. AgentSmith

all good ones indeed, but i am partial to the poppy's..

I go for CavalierLady, so delicate.

Tresamie gets my vote (although dtwelves nearly snatched it from you :-) Shanna Loved all the pictures.

Loved all... Well, give me flowers and it'll be happiness! After a lot of time (very undecided, I really love more tha one) my vote'll go to dave_so's tulips...

Final call for Votes... we'll tally things up tomorrow, then announce the winner. Congrats to all, everyone did an outstanding job.

They're all great but I'd like to vote for The Poppies

Well, by the count here in the forum, we had a tie. So I called a couple of the other mods over to take a look... and here is the final tally: Tresamie: 6 votes Chohole: 4 votes All others got at least 1 vote :) So Tresamie, contrats. Please start a new thread with June's challenge. Great job everyone, very difficult choices.

Congratulations, Tresamie and Chohole!!! It was lovely to see so many great variations on the theme. :)

Thanks, everyone, for your votes, but more for all the fun we had with this challenge. I am amazed at the number of different artistic disciplines that were able to join in on this challenge, and I will try to think of something that will be appropriate for a similarly wide range. I will have a challenge up tomorrow! Tres

Hoping I can join in next time... Congratulations to Tresamie, Chohole and everyone else who entered. All the pictures were a refreshing change from the majority of the gallery :-) Shanna :-)