ISCACON34 RULES AND REGULATIONS

Each competing artist will be required to agree to these rules and regulations to compete. The rules and regulations are available so that everyone has ample time to read through them before the conference. Violation of these rules will be evaluated by the ISCA Board of Directors and appropriate disciplinary action will be taken. This may range from a verbal warning to removal from the Ballroom and ISCAcon34 without refund. You are representing ISCA in all spaces both in and out of the conference areas. 

Please review and contact us at iscaboard@caricature.org if you have any questions. Rules subject to change. Any updates will be posted online and at the conference. 

REGISTRATION 
Registration is open to anyone and includes admission to all seminars, the competition ballroom and all meals provided. Registering for ISCAcon assumes that the registrant agrees to be drawn by other attendees, and that any photos taken of the registrant and/or their artwork during ISCAcon may be used for promotional purposes and reprinted in further ISCA materials.

Professional ISCA Members have the option to register as a competitor and have voting privileges whether they compete or not. Not a Professional member? Join us today!

Attendee/Competitor Tickets (January 1st - October 7th) - $450
(Pro Members are guaranteed a 2025 compendium and t-shirt and can vote)

Attendee/Competitor Tickets (October 8th - door) - $625
(no 2025 compendium, does not guarantee a t-shirt)

Child Registration 3-11 - $100 includes admission to all seminars, the competition ballroom and any meals provided and are subject to the ISCAcon child policy.

Day Passes are $125 and are available for a single day of entry to ISCAcon (10am-midnight PST). They include admission to all seminars, the competition room and all provided meals for the day specified. Day pass entrants may not participate in the competition (except as subjects), or vote. Anyone can purchase a day pass. 

Guest Passes are $250 and are available for any NON-caricature artist who is in attendance to support an attending artist. Guests have access to the competition ballroom, the icebreaker, and the awards banquet. This pass does not include seminars and is unable to vote. This pass must be purchased in tandem with a standard Attendee or Competitor registration.

The ISCAcon34 Caricature Showcase - We are inviting members of the public in from 6-9pm PST on Thursday, November 13th with the purchase of a $20 wristband ($5 if you’re an ISCA Professional Member who didn’t buy a con ticket). 

Registration cancellations can be made by emailing iscaboard@caricature.org. All sales are final, if you need to cancel your registration your payment will be added to your account as store credit that may be used for membership dues, or future cons. 

COMPETITION SPACE: THE BALLROOM

Name badges MUST be worn at all times during the conference. Your name badge will be used to grant entry to the ballroom as well as the classroom areas. There are no exceptions. If you are not wearing your name badge, you will be asked to get it before you will be allowed inside the ballroom or classroom areas. If you lose your badge, you may visit the Help Desk to get a replacement.

With the exception of board members and certain volunteers, no competing artists or guests will be allowed to enter the competition ballroom before 9:30 a.m. PST on Monday, November 10th. 

Each competing artist can select an area of the competition ballroom to be their work area for the duration of the competition. Moving locations is permitted, however, please do not disturb anyone else’s belongings or workspace. We kindly ask that you do not take up multiple work areas so that there is enough space for all attendees. Seating/work areas are available on a first-come, first-served basis daily. All attendees are responsible for the security of their own personal belongings, artwork and supplies that are brought into the ballroom. The ISCA Board of Directors, its working staff, hotel staff or volunteers are in no way responsible for any lost or stolen items during the annual conference.

All in-person competing artists are allotted a space of 20” wide on the walls of the competition ballroom. Artwork may extend above or below the blue painter’s tape used to delineate each competition space. Where the wall meets the floor is the bottom of your allotted space. Any floor space used in front of your wall must be for display purposes only (i.e. heavy canvases, compact easels, etc.) and cannot be for promotional materials or other items. Pieces that can’t be hung on your wall space must be submitted on the 3D table. All 2-D art displayed during the competition must be contained within each artist’s allotted competition space. The edges of the artwork are allowed to touch, but not exceed, the blue tape which separates each space. One artist’s use of another artist’s competition space in addition to their own is NOT permitted. Artists must use ONLY the blue painters tape provided by ISCA to display pieces on their walls. Any artwork installed not using blue painters tape will be disqualified and the artist will be 100% liable for paying the hotel for repairs on any damage inflicted.

There will be a designated display table for standalone 3-D artwork (artwork that is 3-dimensional may also be displayed on wall space if it can be hung using ONLY blue painters tape but must fit within the designated competition space). Submissions must be able to fit on a 12”L x 18”W table space and no more than 30” Height (30.48cm L x 45.72cm W and no more than 76.2cm Height). If the ISCA Board finds a certain piece of art to be in violation of space requirements, the creator of the piece will be notified and given the opportunity to either modify or remove it before judging begins. 

CREATION OF ARTWORK 

Competition is open only to Professional ISCA Members who are paid in full. Non-competitors are encouraged to create artwork to share, though they will not be assigned a designated wall space. Instead, they are encouraged to post their work publicly on social media. Non-competitors are also encouraged to join ISCA as a Professional Member if they wish to take part in the competition (this can be arranged during the event up until we close the drawing room for voting, pending there are enough available wall spaces). Competition spaces are limited to 170 wall spaces this year, and upgrades to memberships are subject to our waitlist. Any non-competitor upgrading their membership can request to be put on our waitlist. If competition spaces become available, members will be notified in order of when they joined the waitlist. 

Open competition takes place starting Monday at 9:30am PST and ending on Thursday at 3pm PST. All artwork must be created during that time (with the exception of specially designated competition categories). Caricatures suspected of being created by someone other than the competing artist or created prior to the competition time will be addressed with the competing artist. Caricatures known to be created by someone other than the competing artist or created prior to the competition time will be disqualified. You may draw anywhere inside or outside of the ballroom as long as it is within the window of time allotted.

All artwork remains property of its creator(s) but may be used for promotional purposes and reprinted in further ISCA materials.

Caricatures created, edited, or modified using Artificial Intelligence (AI), or using AI in any other way is prohibited. Caricatures suspected of utilizing AI will be addressed with the competing artist. Caricatures known to utilize AI will be disqualified.

COMPETITION NUMBERS 

All competing artists will be assigned a competition number. Each drawing must be labeled starting with your competition number followed by a dash and then consecutively numbered 1-99. For example: If your assigned competition number is 100, you would tape your artwork in the wall space labeled “100.” Each piece you post will then be individually numbered. Your first piece will be labeled “100-1.” Your second piece will be labeled “100-2.” And so on. This number should be easily visible on the piece itself. Use of letters to identify an individual piece of art will result in the disqualification of that piece. If the ISCA Board finds a certain piece of art to be improperly numbered, the creator of the piece will be notified and given the opportunity to fix it before judging begins.

LIVE COMPETITIONS 

Participants in live competitions are responsible for supplying their own drawing tables, boards, etc. ISCA will provide chairs ONLY for these competitions.

Likeness Competition

(A warm up round + three official rounds) In each round, artists will have 10 minutes to draw the same subject. Paper size should be no larger than 12 inches (30.5 centimeters) by 16 inches (40.6 centimeters). No bodies/gags, drawings must be of head and shoulders ONLY and done in black & white on white paper (shading is okay). The focus of this particular competition is getting really great LIKENESS while maintaining the defining qualities of caricature. Following each round, artists must write their competition number on each caricature and they will be hung on a designated wall space by Board members. 

Live Event Style & Speed Competition

The Live Event Style and Speed Competition are a single event, which will determine the winners of each category. Competitors will have 15 minutes to draw live subjects in a party/event atmosphere. Competitors may draw in whatever style they want — black and white, color, heads-only, heads & bodies, digital*, any size — though it’s suggested they work in whatever style/setup best reflects their own live drawing setup. Only one face per page is allowed. Paper must be no wider than 20”. The contest is moderated live; anyone found to be using pre-drawn assets (bodies, faces, props, pre-printed paper/borders/logos) will be disqualified. Artists must write their competition number on each caricature and are encouraged to do this before their heat. Competitors will only draw in a single heat and will have to balance sellable drawing quality with the quantity of drawings they are able to produce for the Speed Competition. Competitors will need to produce at least 6 drawings to qualify for Speed Competition judging.

After ALL heats are over, competitors will have 20 minutes to hang their art on their wall. Any competitor found to be hanging artwork before all heats are over will be disqualified.

*ISCA will not be providing a printer, those who choose to draw digitally must provide their own printer. Power for airbrushes or device charging will not be available.

A note on subjects for competitors and non-competitors: This competition only works if we have plenty of subjects. If you are not competing, please be a subject! If you are competing, please be a subject in the other heats! We will be running multiple heats, so we encourage you to stick around for the duration of the entire competition so that each heat has plenty of people to draw. Anyone with ticketed access to the ballroom can be a subject, including ISCAcon Day Pass holders.  

CONTENT OF ARTWORK 

All caricatures created for competition must use conference attendees as subjects (no celebrities or non-participants, except in specially-designated competitions). 

ISCAcon is an all-ages event and will have attendees under the age of 18. While the ISCA Board encourages the creation of humorous, thought-provoking, insightful, and inventive work, artwork containing the following will be reviewed to determine whether or not it needs to be covered with a content warning flap or disqualified:

• Extreme or realistic violence

• Excessive adult language

• Drug use/paraphernalia 

• Excessive use of nudity

 The Board will disqualify artwork containing the following:

• Pornography

• Subject matter that could be considered vulgar, lewd, or highly offensive, such as content including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ageism or negative depictions of any and all protected classes

• Artwork depicting subjects in any mature content when that subject does not have the appropriate consent identifier on their badge

Keep your work professional and editorial comments about your models in good taste. The ISCA Board reserves the right to determine whether or not any piece of artwork on display is inappropriate or in poor taste. All questionable artwork flagged for review is reviewed by the full board and a formal vote is taken. The majority vote of the Board of Directors determines if the artwork will need to be amended or disqualified. If the ISCA Board deems a certain piece of art sensitive or inappropriate for young audience members, the creator of the piece will be notified and given the opportunity to add a content warning flap. Any subjects drawn in mature content MUST have the appropriate consent identifier on their badge. If you have a concern about any artwork please bring it to any board member’s attention at any time during the conference or fill out our anonymous complaint form. 

The Board has the right to remove any disqualified artwork from the competition. Removed artwork will be held by the board until after the awards banquet and it is the responsibility of the artist to contact the Executive Director to pick up artwork. Disqualified artwork that is not picked up by ballroom close on Friday night will be discarded.

VOTING ON ARTWORK 

On Thursday, November 13th at 3:00 p.m. PST the competition will end and no new artwork may be hung. Any artwork hung after 3pm will be disqualified. If artwork falls off the wall, the board will do its best to rehang it or it will be set in front of your wall space for voting.

Attendees will then have one hour to pack up their supplies, clean their workspace including all trash and leave the ballroom. The ballroom will be closed and locked at 4:00 p.m. PST.

Volunteer moderators will then review all posted artwork to ensure it meets ALL of the rules listed above. Artists who are found to have artwork displayed which violates any of the rules stated above will then be notified and may be given the opportunity to either modify, cover or remove their artwork before voting begins. If the artwork violates the artwork content/mature content rules, it will either need to be modified or covered at the discretion of the Board or it will risk disqualification.

Following the content survey by the ISCA Board, the ballroom will be open for voting from 6:00-9:00 p.m. PST. The award winners will be determined by vote via ballot, open to all Professional Member attendees. Professional Members (both competing and non-competing) registered for ISCAcon34 may vote. You can only vote one time and you cannot vote for yourself.

SELLING OF MERCHANDISE 

Anyone wishing to sell merchandise during the con must pay for a Vendor Table ($75 USD), which may be purchased prior to or during the con. The term “merchandise” refers to items like art materials, books, or electronic items (in amounts greater than 5 units). Any attendees caught selling merchandise without having purchased a Vendor Table will be required to pay the Vendor Table fee. 

GENERAL RULES OF CONDUCT  

All competing artists attending ISCAcon should be free to work on their caricatures within a uniquely creative atmosphere. The ISCA Board aims to create a welcoming environment through respect, kindness and constructive communication.

Hate Speech or Bullying is strictly prohibited. Degrading comments or artwork about things like race, religion, culture, sexual orientation, gender or identity will not be tolerated. Anyone found making offensive or harassing comments or content will be removed from the event without a refund, at the discretion of the ISCA Board of Directors. For more information, please see ISCA’s Anti-Harassment Policy on caricature.org.

No Pricing Discussions. Price fixing is against the law. Any discussion of pricing within any ISCA related spaces should not include actual numbers. For more information go to: https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/dealings-competitors/price-fixing.

Personal Space and Property. The personal space and property of all attendees must be respected. This includes the space of each physical attendee, as well as the space they have selected within the ballroom. Please keep your area tidy so you do not encroach into another attendees’ space. Do not move, take, or dispose of other attendees’ personal property without their consent. This includes touching, damaging, or removing any artwork from wall spaces.

Unruly Behavior. We encourage everyone to enjoy their time at ISCAcon, but please keep in mind that this is a shared space and experience for all attendees. Disrupting the work of other attendees, seminars, awards, the live auction, or other scheduled events with loud music, physical disruptions, overly loud discussions, etc. is not acceptable. Consumption of alcohol is not prohibited, but please keep your drinking discreet in consideration of fellow attendees, hotel policies and guests. Any attendees found to be in violation of the above will be asked to leave the ballroom/classroom area. If the behavior continues, the attendee will be removed from the event without a refund, at the discretion of the Board of Directors. 

Event Conduct. When attending seminars, please silence your phones, tablets, and any other electronic devices. Please be sure to step fully outside of the classroom area before answering any phone calls and make sure the door is closed behind you. All classroom seminars, and the Awards Dinner, will be recorded by the organization. Please refrain from recording and live-streaming during the speaker events. Please take photos discreetly and do not come up the side aisles or crouch in front of the speaker. These activities disrupt all of the attendees in the immediate area. Any attendees found to be in violation of this will be asked to stop. If the behavior continues, the attendee will be removed from the event without a refund, at the discretion of the Board of Directors.

All rules and regulations are subject to change.