An ocean of artwork
The great swimming pancake has briefly come ashore to seek out the very best artists on dry land! You can help our flappy friend by submitting your hand crafted artwork and the most sea worthy submissions will be forever part of the Ubuntu 26.10 Stonking Stingray release this fall!
So, as we always say.. Break out those paint brushes, sharpen those colored pencils, plug in those drawing tablets and charge up those digital cameras, because it’s Ubuntu Wallpaper Competition season once again!
Categories
As in competitions past, we’ll be collecting the submissions here on the Ubuntu Discourse via this thread. When submitting your artwork, please indicate which category your submission falls under. You can only choose one category per submission.
- Mascot Theme - Artwork that prominently features the mascot for this release. For 26.10 that’s the Stonking Stingray.
- Digital / Abstract - Artwork created using digital creative tools e.g. Blender, GIMP, Inkscape, Aesprite, etc.
- Photography - High resolution image taken from a conventional or digital camera.
After the submission window closes, members of the community will have a chance to vote on their favorite entries. The top TWO vote earners from each category will be included in the Ubuntu 26.10 Stonking Stingray!
Competition Rules
If you’d like to join in the wallpaper fun, there are a few other important rules that you need to follow:
- You must own the rights to the image you are submitting, it should be your original work of art.
- The full quality image must be 3840x2160px. PNG and WebP formats are preferable.
- Please ensure you create a high quality image. Avoid image compression artifacts, pixelation, chromatic aberration and noise. Please do not add any watermarks, names or logos. See also these helpful guidelines from GNOME on screen backgrounds.
- The Ubuntu Discourse will automatically compress all posted images. A full resolution submission will be requested of the chosen winners at the conclusion of the competition.
- When posting your image, please include a note that you are licensing the image as CC BY-SA 4.0 or CC BY 4.0 . If you do not specify a license we will assume CC BY-SA 4.0 . By entering the competition you are agreeing to these license terms.
AI Generated Works
We do NOT allow AI generated works to be considered for our wallpaper competitions. Here’s a few reasons why we take that position:
- Many popular AI art generation tools use a license that does not align with those that we have chosen for our competition.
- There are active legal debates on the ownership of AI generated artwork and whether it can or can’t be copyrighted.
- Many popular AI models have been shown to include artwork from artists without their consent. We do not believe this aligns with our community’s values and stated mission.
- If your submission displays hallmarks of AI generation, you may be asked to provide proof of human creation, which may include a request for source project files.
Important Dates
Make sure you put the following dates into your calendar:
August 10th - Submission Window opens.
August 28th - Submission Window closes and Voting Period begins.
September 4th - Voting Period closes and the winners are announced!
Previous Competitions
Not sure where to start? Check out the results from recent wallpaper competitions:
Ubuntu 26.04 Results
Ubuntu 25.10 Results
Join our growing school of fish
Participating in the Wallpaper Competition is a fun and easy way to contribute to Ubuntu! You don’t need to be an expert artist or a professional photographer to participate. As a great artist once said, “I think there’s an artist hidden at the bottom of every single one of us.”
Make contributing to Ubuntu part of your New Year’s resolution! To learn more ways that you can get involved, check out The Ubuntu Community | Ubuntu
