Week 18 into this great contest... and my 14th entry for the Pay It Forward contest, hosted by @pifc! *

And the craziest part is that I don't even have to spend hours or even minutes to hunt for talent. There are so many great artists that I usually have to choose 2 posts from 4 or 5 that I encounter naturally on my daily SteemIt visits.

I actually spend more time writing these posts than hunting for new talent.

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The rules of this challenge are very simple: Feature 2 High Quality Original Content Blog Posts from Steemians with a reputation score of 55 or under.

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Again, I've selected 2 struggling artists. Here's the preview of their artworks:

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#1 - @marya77 (41)

@marya77 has joined SteemIt just 4 months ago and her blog is very diverse, she shares a bit of everything, from photography (she appears to be from Iran) to cooking and, of course, her lovely drawings.

She doesn't share anything personal and perhaps that's a conscious decision, so I'll just focus on her work and skip my usual artist introduction.

The post I'm featuring from @marya77 is an illustration called Redskin Dwarf, a beautiful portrait drawing of an Indian warrior.

@marya77 also includes 10 photos showing the various steps into the drawing.

I had a couple more users I wanted to feature, but in the end, I decided to go with this post for a couple of reasons:

• At first there was almost no text in this post, making it unfit for this contest, but meanwhile, @marya77 added it;
• @marya77's reputation is only 41, making her a perfect candidate for this contest;
• This post has been up for 2 days and has a ridiculous reward of $0.03 and 25% of those $0.03 are going to the Elegance Platform. How is an artist supposed to eat with that?

Please give @marya77 some love...

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#2 - @lady-idra (42)

I love to make an artist's introduction but sometimes it's just not possible. If people don't share that information, I respect that decision and I move on.

Alenia joined SteemIt in April, but started posting just a couple of months ago. Her drawings are very original, cute and creative... which makes me wonder, what in the world was she waiting for?

I with to feature her most recent post, Abstract of Log, which is a marvellous and sweet painting of a dancing girl accompanied by @lady-idra's original poem.

I have just come across @lady-idra and I'm eager to follow her work. If this is the way she started, I can only imagine what she will present in the future.

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I hope you enjoy these artists and their works. If so, please support them with a couple of votes and comments.

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If you want to join the contest, here's more info about the "Pay It Forward" contest.

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My previous participations are here:

• Week 3, featuring @lesploratore, @natashamoscow & @cebuvibes
• Week 5, featuring @sscrow, @nikonat & @alcidsmujica
• Week 6, featuring @neliacordeiro, @anomt & @gonzeto
• Week 7, featuring @aleisandel, @sentanu74 & @kothy
• Week 8, featuring @maryspace, @timmolloy & @viking-ventures
• Week 9, featuring @permanayogi, @teafp & @dustsweeper
• Week 10, featuring @abrahmatan & @itsdatneighbour
• Week 11, featuring @wgustaman & @blue-dragon
• Week 12, featuring @skinlovekin04 & @chriscomics
• Week 14, featuring @stahlberg & @daio
• Week 15, featuring @drowkeudrow & @christianyocte
• Week 16, featuring @escfrancis & @marzukie
• Week 17, featuring @artbynadine & @unyimeetuk

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Curation Contest - Week 18 of Paying it Forward

* Thanks, @thedarkhorse, for kicking up this initiative.

@trincowski signing out.