Painting Contest 2024 Winners!

Hey friends,

Thank you to everyone who took part in our very first painting contest last month! You guys rock!

In all honesty, the competition was more successful than I hoped for, even though we definitely learned some lessons for future events like that.

Picking winners among 62 final entries was no easy feat for our invited judges, but they've done a great job, and I am really grateful to each of them! But let's not waste any more time and discuss the winners instead!

Join our Discord to see all participants!

Large-scale category 

Judges: Timothy Day (tday3d), Joe Hudson (highlander242)

1st place: Alaiziagae

More pics here: https://discord.com/channels/1027464521444507680/1278319094155837512

Comment by Timothy Day: The skin, cloak, gold trim and armor are beautifully executed. The gold trim especially looked daunting, because we both know the time it can take; however, the lines were clean and there was very little to no overspill that we could see from the images. The subtle shine on the tips of the boots were a nice touch. The ground work ties into the figure very well, it blends in and it’s all cohesive. Going back to the skin and cloth work, it just feels real.

Some minor nitpicks are the bridge of the nose had some distracting print lines that could’ve been better prepped, especially with such beautiful skin. The face is arguably the best part of any painting in my opinion. The blade of the sword could also have been done a little better to look more authentic like the rest of the painting. Overall, winning piece for Joe and I.

2nd place: President_Ev1l (Mimic)

More pics here: https://discord.com/channels/1027464521444507680/1274431773257892043

Comment by Timothy Day: This character was also well done by another artist and we felt both very good; however, this one just popped better for us. The armor trim was very clean with no visible overspill. Nicely blended blue highlights. Skin and eye makeup were excellent. Overall, it gives that wow factor and has no stark indications that it was 3D printed.

We both strongly agreed that the yellow basing flowers really distracted from the overall view of the piece and could’ve been left without.

3rd place: Kaisi

More pics here: https://discord.com/channels/1027464521444507680/1274456615415971881

Comment by Timothy Day: This person has a very unique style by the way the skin work was done. As someone who spends a lot of time on skin myself, I was able to appreciate some of those finer details that I would try to implement, especially in the hands. The skin and translucent effect was beautiful. The texturing on the knuckles, chef’s kiss. The face was beautiful and loved the crescent moon on her crown. Iridescent glow on her collar and other parts of her armor were excellent. I really liked the way the leg was done and transitioning those freehanded flames into the skin. It’s too bad the leg doesn’t light up, because we were expecting this as we progressed in the photos, but it never came. However, we are grading based on the paint work and determined this was our 3rd place winner.

Some things we felt could’ve been improved were adding more depth/shadows/highlights in certain areas, such as the armor, sword, tassles and thigh wrapping for instance. We noticed some brown speckling in the hair as well, that kind of felt out of place for us. We checked references on the character and renders, but weren’t seeing this effect. Overall, we thought this was a great work of art.

Traditional category

Judges: SuperTank (mtechminipainting), Zumikito Miniatures (Zumikit0)

1st place: Alena (Siberian Hydra)

More pics here: https://discord.com/channels/1027464521444507680/1278629364673679381

Comment by SuperTank: Stunning, beautiful and phenomenal work. I knew this was going to be a difficult one to beat once I saw it. The consistency and cleanliness was a definite agreement to us that this was on a different level to the rest of the entries. I especially loved the use of purples and pinks/lilacs in the shadows on the white. Excellent work!

2nd place: Goldkit

More pics here: https://discord.com/channels/1027464521444507680/1279206991218081803

Comment by SuperTank: Another incredible well done cell shaded model. There are just minor bits on this on that I would have liked to have seen touched up/a few naughty support marks that I nitpicked. But other than that a great and really well done piece.

3rd place: Jinxy

More pics here: https://discord.com/channels/1027464521444507680/1278876684862492774

Comment by SuperTank: There was a LOT of ghouls to choose from and we felt this one one really stood out from the bunch as well as being that little bit more clean than some of the other entries pushed it into 3rd place for us. Really nice colour palette and we felt the face was really well done.

Honorable mention

Elfenwahn

More pics here: https://discord.com/channels/1027464521444507680/1279155413425848410

Comment by SuperTank: This was rough and we debated this one for a good while. It was really well done nmm and a solid overall entry, we just felt it needed a little more depth in shadows and a little more glazing on the wings to elevate it to the next level. But that's why we wanted to give it an honourable mention because it was so close to being a winner.

Crabigail

More pics here: https://discord.com/channels/1027464521444507680/1277294613622689995

Comment by Timothy Day: It was very nice and simple. We liked the face painting, hair and the pearlescent effect color on her outfit. The colors on the rest of the attire feel a bit flat for us. That's perhaps intended, but we didn't think it was a top 3. Very nicely done otherwise.

Arkady88

More pics here: https://discord.com/channels/1027464521444507680/1278276279841587280

Comment by Timothy Day: It was an excellent paint job and we loved the composition of colors; however, there was several rows of support marks on very visible viewing areas of the lion. We really feel this is a highly important part of presentation, to reduce or spend extra care on these areas before painting.

Artists' choice

Judges: Bulkamancer core team (YoruNoAme, Vik, Totenn, Bulka Sensei, Br.Des)

Winner: Abril

More pics here: https://discord.com/channels/1027464521444507680/1277319809847001228

Comment by Br.Des: I am not going to lie - picking winners is a lot harder when you know the names behind the entries, which is something our other judges were spared from, having been banned from the contest channels from the start. But we did our best to remain impartial and make a decision based on the entries themselves. And this piece simply pierced the hearts of our entire team from the moment we saw it! Great attention to detail and the strive to recreate the original poster completely won us over.

That's it for the winners! The team members were very insistent that I wrote a lengthy 20-page speech on their behalf to express their gratitude to all participants for painting their models. Our artists hope it was as enjoyable for all of you to paint the figures as it is for them to gaze upon your creations! Now, would you kindly imagine a wall of text to further emphasise their gratitute so I wouldn't have to resort to asking Mokka to generate it for me? Trust me, none of us want that!

P.S. Vik sends her regards.

And on that note, I would like to announce the end of our first contest! See you next time!

Cheers!
Des