I think I would attempt the spots, they look like they are stippled on. I did go to NOVA this year. I flew over to my buddy's place in North Carolina and we drove to VA. It was an awesome time. I manged to take most of the Massive Voodoo classes. Roman and Raffa are simply awesome people. They covered a lot of stuff - OSL, focused area, metal and leather, some color theory and basing ideas. Even though I had some idea of what they were talking about, they explained it all in a way that reinforced those topics in my mind. They've basically re-energized my desire to paint, which is cool. It was good to see Shades, Mr. Justin and Caleb. I bumped into Jessica Rich as well and got some good feedback on my stuff in the case from her. Also met Melissa Powell and Shade's buddy Rich who were both finalists as well. My firefighter was the only piece that placed, but got 2nd place in the large historical category. I'm pretty happy about it. Melissa entered a stunning alternate sculpt of Verthandi, which got her gold in large fantasy. Caleb ran away with a gold, best in show and fan favorite.. he looked very happy. Over all, it was a great time..
I think that Roman and Raffa are coming back next year, I highly recommend that if you can swing it, go next year and take some of their classes. Now saying that, prolly just killed my placing chances in historical next year, meh.. oh well...