Portrait Background Contest Jun 2025

🎨 Portrait Background Contest! 🎨

Break out your brushes and show us what you’ve been dreaming up! Whether it’s festive, sunny, spooky, or just plain fun, we can’t wait to see it.

New to the contest or thinking of submitting again? We’d love to see what you create!

Contest Theme: Any holiday, activities, or seasonal themes you fancy!

Deadline: Tuesday, July 1st, 2025, 11:59 pm game time

Winners Announced

Thank you to everyone who entered the contest! With such an incredible variety of styles and seasonal themes, it was a real challenge to choose. After much review by our arrrtistic crew, we're thrilled to reveal the winning portrait backgrounds. These will be added to the game over time, grouped by seasonal vibes. Congratulations to all the winners!

Spring

Adrielle's Revered Egg
Cattrin's Egg Basket
Greylady's Spring At The Castle
Greylady's The Captain's Closet
Jebaited's Aurora Ribbons
Juice's Dandelion Dreams
Mwynn's Pastel Clouds
Purpure's Boarding Action
Zamarantha's Eye See You

Summer

Adrielle's Rainbow Room
Cattrin's Sand Castle For Two
Cloves's Chroma Sunset
Cods's Cods Deep In The Jungle
Cods's Cods Quiet Evening
Galantis's Neon Stardust
Galantis's Vibrant Stained Glass
Greylady's At The Shipyard
Klarebear's Poker2
Klarebear's Purple Summer
Mantid's Mānawatia A Matariki
Nomis's Melee Docks
Shahipaneer's Safari Outpost
Zamarantha's Tangerine Dreams

Autumn

Cattrin's Blood Moon Rising
Mwynn's Crimson Flower Bed
Radway's Misty Pumpkin Monsters
Shahipaneer's Ghoulish Hillside
Zamarantha's Moonlight Flight
Zamarantha's Wanted Pirate

Winter

Adrielle's Icy Abandoned Supply Cave
Adrielle's Lovely Swirls
Cattrin's A Kraken Good Date
Cattrin's Couple O Snowpirates
Cattrin's Shipboard Snow Day
Fable's Dance It Out
Fable's Sky Full Of Love
Galantis's Northern Lights
Galantis's Through Time And Space
Greylady's Lucky At Poker
Radway's Snowstorm
Radway's Winter Theme
Zamarantha's Dream Realm

🎁 Prizes

Each winning entry will receive ①:

Your choice of any clothing or furniture item sold in-game ②
Your choice of a Bluebeard, Fishheadred, Greenbones egg, or doll
Dread Masterpiece trophy if you don’t already have it
Poe and doubloons for your very own copy of your winning background ③

🔍 Small Print

① All prizes must be delivered to pirates on the same account as the credited pirate in your entry. You may choose different oceans or pirates within that account.
② Clothing or furniture must be something that can be ordered in-game from a tailor or furnisher, in any available color. No limited edition colors, no items that require a design to be created, and no items that require a certain reputation to be worn or placed.
③ Poe and doubloons for your free copy will be delivered when your portrait is available in-game. Your copy can only be made while the background is still available, and we can’t bring them back later — be sure to print it while you can!

Prize Delivery Notes

Once winners are announced, please send a petition with the subject "FAO Clotho" including your selection of clothing/furniture and egg/doll.

Each set of prizes is awarded per entry and will be delivered to the pirate and ocean specified. If you have multiple winning entries and wish to allocate them to different pirates or oceans within the same account, please outline that clearly in your petition — or submit one petition per pirate to make it easier to track.

📜 Rules

Your entry should be consistent with the theme and style of the game. The image must look sensible with characters placed on it in any of the orientations possible for its size.

Only original art is accepted.
You may not use generative AI to create your entry. Your submission must be your own original work. AI-generated entries will be disqualified.
No copyrighted references.
Entries in .png format.
A very small signature in the lower right corner is acceptable.
You may use reference materials for your work, but if you base your work substantially on a reference, please acknowledge it in the summary of your entry.
- There is no need to acknowledge any game art used as reference material.
Players may participate with as many backgrounds as they like, and any player may have multiple backgrounds chosen as winners.
Previous work that belongs to you can be submitted for future contests as long as it fits the requirements for the particular contest.

Please avoid crops of past backgrounds that have already had a win and have been seen in the game before. We are looking for new material!

A Note on Submissions

To ensure authenticity, in some cases you may be required to provide your entries in PSD or similar file formats that showcase the actual layers of your image, if asked.

Suggestions

Make it look like it came right out of the game.
Get your line weights down and compare them with existing backgrounds to be sure.
Keep your lighting consistent with the lighting on the pirate portrait art.
Choose a scene that many in the game would like to use.
Take your time and rework if needed, going to others for advice and critique.
Avoid words! If you do use them, use them minimally and only when they are not central to the understanding of the portrait.
The composition of backgrounds related to pirate placement is a major consideration, and sometimes good backgrounds are eliminated because the pirates block the nicest elements once they are in frame.

🖼️ Submission Format

Create original backgrounds consistent with the game's theme and style. Upload your entry to YPPedia in .png format. Remember to use the required file name format:

monthly_yourname_title_the_way_you_want_to_appear_in_game.png.

The tag for this contest is "jun25contest" so that we know which entries to consider when judging starts.

The summary field for the upload should be: {{contesttag|discordname|creditname|Portrait_Title}} where

"contesttag" is replaced by this contest's tag
"discordname" is replaced by your own Discord name (alternatively, you can use your YPPedia name or your pirate name again)
"creditname" is replaced by your pirate name
"Portrait Title" is replaced by your suggested title for the portrait background.

e.g. {{jun25contest|Clotho|Spinner|Loom}} or {{jun25contest|Cassopia|Whitenose|Spindle}}

If the name to credit the portrait with is the same as the name you listed first (your Discord or YPPedia name), it should go in twice. Example:

To make sure your entry is uploaded correctly, check using a jun25contest tag search

Entry Scales

1-pirate backgrounds: 348 x 650
2-pirate backgrounds: 696 x 650
Large backgrounds: 1600 x 1170
Expansive backgrounds: 2000 x 1275

For additional guidance—including background sizes, safe zone masks, and pirate cutouts—see the Entry Specs and Resources in the Portrait Background Contest page.

⚖️ Judging

Entries are reviewed by Grey Havens arrrtists and developers. Winning backgrounds are usually added to the game for a limited time, though some may return in future rotations or be adopted as longer-term or permanent options.

Players may submit multiple entries, and the same artist may be selected more than once. Reworked versions and previous submissions are welcome, as long as they fit the current theme.

If your background didn’t win before but matches this contest’s theme, feel free to enter it again. We’d love to take another look!

All entries eligible for judging will appear in the current portrait background entries category.

Discord images

If you haven't yet, go ahead and join us in Discord!, then check out the contest thread.

You're welcome to upload your image in Discord too, although only the YPPedia entry will be considered for judging. Feel free to share your line art, final version, or progress shots—an in-progress image is a plus! It’s completely optional, but it’s a fun way to show your process and let everyone enjoy your artistic journey. 🎨✨

Important
When posting your art in Discord, be sure to write your pirate name and ocean first, then upload your image. This helps us match entries correctly. Posting in the opposite order can make it hard to tell who submitted what.

Example: If you write Clotho on Emerald, and then hit the plus to add the image, their name/ocean will appear in the same post above the image. It doesn't work in the opposite direction.

🔗 Helpful Links

Feel free to post your questions, entries, and feedback on the Discord channel. Can’t wait to see your entries — let’s fill the seas with color! Good luck, arrrtists! 🎉

Portrait Background Contest Jun 2025

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