As I reflected upon right after my Enchanted Pool project was completed, I recognised that I needed to focus not on the competing aspects of the event, but more on the opportunities for growth and constructive feedback from many painters. I spent a lot of time just hanging around the painting area, chatting with many good people including Meg and Mark, David Higgins, David Colwell, Kyle, Matt D and Casey. Lots of good chats about all the usual stuff painters talk about, paints, contrasts, techniques etc. I took lots of notes, and spent ages gazing at all the incredible work that was put up.
With over 100 entries this was the largest Crystal Dragon so far, and the judges said they thought the quality stepped up a notch again this year. With a few notable absentees that usually make an appearance and throw out some beautiful stuff, it bodes well for future events both in terms of quality and quantity. For a small (population wise) island country, it is encouraging for me to see.
If you've followed my Twitter (@sious69) for the weekend, you would have already seen all the entries which I posted photos of, and there was a truckload of great pieces. I really enjoyed seeing the different ways people approach things like base construction, using contrast and light and colour, and even things like how to present a model on a plinth. I took so many great ideas away even just from looking at the models, let alone the conversations I had with other painters.
My own performance far exceeded my expectations for the weekend, it is fair to say. I was hoping (desperately hoping) that I might squeeze a Silver from the weekend, but in my heart I felt like I was looking at mostly Bronze for my best pieces, and nothing for the rest. I was utterly shocked when I saw that everything I had entered had received an award, and even more shocked when I saw that I had THREE Gold awards. I figured if anything would get a Silver it might be Surt, or the Lord of the Spirits, but to see both of them AND Papa Jambo in Gold... I was actually a bit stunned. I didn't really know what to think. I actually still don't. It's nice to realise a goal every once in a while.
The prize ceremony was a small and intimate affair, and I had been tipped off a little earlier that I was in contention for the People's Choice award, and so when my name was announced I was pleased, but truthfully it was both a default win, and nowhere near as satisfying as the Gold awards. The other thing that made it a little jarring was how unsatisfied I was with the model that had won, and how much more I wanted it to be.
After everyone congratulated the well deserved winner, Kara, for her amazing (and I mean it, it was literally jaw dropping) Sentinel of R'yleh, the judges began fielding about eight hundred thousand questions from people wanting feedback. I was in no rush, so I waited for everything to die down and then sat down with Mark, Meg, Toya my fiance, Moops and Leeps my bromance buddies, and the Davids to discuss each of the entries in a bit more detail. Before I get into this in much more detail, I should elaborate on how I approach my hobby.
I've always given 100% to anything I start out, and I also firmly believe that to be the best, you have to beat the best. I throw myself into a challenge and losing over and over again until I can finally succeed. I like to use a golf analogy to explain it: when you first start playing golf, you kick the ball out from under trees so you can have an easier shot. It isn't until you realise that you don't get better until you accept your mistakes and learn from them, that you will actually start making real progress in achieving your goals. The judges have an unenviable job sometimes, but I wholeheartedly supported any decision they made and made a point of thanking them after the event. I wouldn't have cared if they thought everything I painted was absolute trash, because at least I could have gotten feedback as to why, and learnt from the experience. So here is my learnings from each of the models I submitted.
The first one we discussed was the Reaper, which received a Bronze. It was obvious that the model had been rushed, and the composition was not great. We talked through a lot of the aspects that they did like, but we all agreed the model and pose let it down, and my square basing effort made everything worse.
The Zombie Knight came next, and I was really very pleased it got a Bronze, because I felt it was one of my weakest in terms of the painting. Roughly, the detail on the leather areas needed more work, the metallics were not detailed enough and the actual model itself lacked a lot of ability to do more with it.
The next obvious ones were my two earlier pieces, the Last Mercenary and Zoraida. The conversations about these two were encouraging, the judges felt they could see an improvement and progression from these to my later pieces, and that it was very obvious that they were things I had painted months ago. The banner needed more work, the base on both let them down, and the metallics on the Mercenary were highlighted as a big problem area.
We then started to get into some of my better painted things. There was a period during the judging where both Luz, the Gnomes and the Crimson Priest were all in the mix for Silver, but in the end they got bumped down to Bronze, and for all of them it was little details. The sculpt, pose and basing was what let down Luz, although there was some really nice areas there was a few that werent at the same standard. The Gnomes, they felt the base was not quite polished enough, and that the busts needed more depth of colour and shading. Finally the Priest, one of favourite pieces, they felt just didn't quite do enough, and maybe on another day it gets Silver, but didn't quite make the cut this time.
The first piece that we discussed from my Silver winning entries was the Enchanted Pool. I had given Meg a rundown on how much I had changed the model during the process of building it, and if you want to read exactly how that went down, you can check out this blog post here: Enchanted Pool Start to Finish!. But as I reflected on then, I actually really dislike the final product, and I think maybe that coloured my perception of it a lot. The feedback was really good, and they felt that the main issues were two that I had already highlighted for myself: Not enough contrast from the model to base, the base was too saturated and didn't put enough focus on the model (which I painted pretty well actually!). The second was simply the tree. It was too big, bulky and closed off the scene. It was a compositional mistake from me, Meg recommended a nature Shrine, Mark suggested a big old mushroom both would have been much better than what it ended up with. But they felt there was enough attention to detail and cool little elements that it warranted Silver.
Skulk, the Ratcatcher, is actually one of the best painted pieces I did. The smaller scale meant he didn't really have the wow pop factor that some of the other ones did, but the judges recognised the work was of a high quality which was really satisfying. When I asked how I would get it to Gold, the answer was pretty simply, a display base, rather than a gaming base attached to a plinth.
So, onto the Gold entries!
Papa Jambo I kind of forgot how good it was. I really nailed a lot of elements of that guy. The funniest part of that model being entered, was that another entrant had painted an almost identical version of the same bust, with the same base style, but she had put more atmosphere into her piece, with a beautiful dawn colour scheme on the right hand side. I was sure mine would not place as high as Caseys, but mine got GOLD. I am really very pleased about that Gold, in case you couldn't tell. :)
The Lord of the Spirits is my most recent piece, and it really came together beautifully from start to finish, and it is the first time I have felt like I really put my model on a base that perfectly suited it. I thought about the framing, I thought about the colours, I thought about the textures and I was able to bring it all together with a really nice paintjob. Mark noted that the skin tones didn't have enough depth on the stomach and chest area, and when he put it beside Surt, I could completely see where he was coming from.
Surt is probably my best painted model to date, possibly better even than Jessica, and he was given really great comments by the judges. Meg said that had Kara's model not been entered, he was in contention for Judge's Choice!!! That was just so humbling to hear and really just ultimate motivation for next year to bring something that knocks the judges socks off.
After all the conversations ended and I packed up, it was back home to Brisbane and to the toil and drudgery of work and Post Tournament Depression, or PTD. I had a bit of time to pull out all the prizes I received and took a quick snap:
Pretty sweet. :)
So in terms of moving forward, this weekend was both a goal realised, and a new goal set. I know now that I can paint to a level that satisfies some of the best painters in not just Australia, but the world, but the challenge is to rise above that standard, and push for the sort of quality that I see coming out of Europe. The innovation, the colour choices, the texture, the boundaries that I see pushed on a day to day basis via Facebook groups, Putty and Paint and various chat groups... there is a huge gap between what I am putting out and what they are putting out, and I want to close that gap. I've seen some incredible innovation from Australian painters this weekend, and it has made me so motivated to improve. The painters whose work I was most captivated by were Kyle (his two dwarf pieces were on another level, his diorama entry was incredible and the face on Saladin was out of this world), Kara (not only the winning entry, but the both her goblin entries were super cool) and David C. (whose style, basing and technique were really exceptional, a style I want to try and emulate, and possibly had my favourite piece at the whole event, the Mountain Man). I also saw a lot of other painters who next year will be competing right up there in the Gold categories, in David H. (his Jamal was a standout for non caucasian skin tones (and he also bought two of my models on the weekend, what a legend!)), Casey (Porco Rosso, Papa Jambo both really great concepts and well executed) and Lee (only one entry, Hellboy, but it was a fucking doozy). I am still buzzing from the experience.
A massive thanks to Meg Maples, Mark Soley and Sebastian Archer for their judging work on the weekend, Charles for helping out with the entries and general tomfoolery, and the Davids who helped out taking some photos and whatever else they did that I didn't see. It takes a huge amount of work to run an event like this, it often goes unappreciated but they did a fantastic job! I am inspired by their work and by the event that they have put together.
Thanks for all the support I have received, and thanks for reading!
Cheers
Trent
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