Let's see if I can summarize
this ramble of mine on why I am turned away from most art contests into easily digestible points.
Always read the rules in detail. Overwhelmingly you'll find an item that says
you relinquish your commercial rights pertaining to the submitted artwork or even all of them to the entity holding the contest just to participate.
All things being equal, a contest corresponds to a ballot where a "ticket" is something for which entrants likely worked hard for and yet
only three of them at most get a one time payment, resulting, if that hasn't already happened, in the
complete forfeiture of the winning artworks to the contest manager.
I hope it's clear that this is
a trap designed to have most of the entrants work for free under dubious pretenses, which is especially troubling when children are involved. A lottery ticket compared to this is a sound investment.
I would like it that otherwise ostensibly idoneous institutions such as are those whose purvey involves scientific research would consider other, far more transparent methods to obtain artwork.
That's about it, I think. I'm not sure that even if this situation is satisfactorily resolved I'll participate in one of the many paleontologically-themed scientific illustration contests due to other considerations, but, all the same, this is something that cannot be in a society that should appropriately value people's work.