Worth1000 is an amazing digital art playground. It’s a site where artists and hobbyists compete in contests to create imaginative photo manipulations, illustrations, and more. The stakes? Internet glory, bragging rights, and the thrill of leveling up your creative skills.

My First Steps on Worth1000

I stumbled across Worth1000 by accident and was in awe with some of those submissions. The talent and skill on this site is stunning. I have a good understanding of Photoshop, but I’m eager to learn more, get better. My first contest theme was “Scenic Locator,” and I had no idea what a scenic locator was. It was just this weird shaped brass plate and the competition was free, meaning you could transform the image in any way you’d like.

I just grabbed a couple of photos from my trip to India and started merging away. The result was not half bad. Here is a WIP run through:

I even made 2nd place! I was immediately hooked. I took part in a few other competitions. Every piece I worked on was a learning experience. I spent hours obsessing over shadows, textures, and tiny details to make my edits seamless. There were no shortcuts—just grit, patience, and a lot of trial and error. Worth1000 pushed me to think beyond the obvious and taught me how to tell a story with an image.

The 48 hours you have for each entry means a whole weekend at the computer with little sleep. Time does not allow me to take part in those competitions anymore, but I loved every second of it.

Update 2017

Sadly the website has shut down. I found a few archives with some entries, but they are missing the amazing masterpieces I remember so vividly. Here are a few I saved:

Next time you come across an awesome photo manipulation with a worth1000 watermark, you know where it came from.

Archives:

http://w1k.com/#!/galleries
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nerdcoreblog/collections/72157635112785034/