Hmmm... good question, and good goals! There are plenty of online contests. It's great to see CMON doing a bunch. They're already on their third of 2015. After only one in 2014 and none in 2013, that's a nice change! Also keep an eye on the contests over at WAMP. They're a bit quieter than they used to be, but there are still some good opportunities. For the rest, well, just keep painting! =)
My goals... I haven't given it a lot of thought. For the past year I've been focused on placing at the Crystal Brush. I've done well at more local competitions (Bay Area Open, NOVA Open), but this was my first in-person national (or perhaps even international since a few Europeans did show up) competition. It was great to win gold in two of the historical categories. Of course, at a show like that the historical categories have traditionally not been as competitive as the other ones. Personally I think this year was a bit different. Second place in historical single and vehicle/mounted went to Tom Ales, who won sci-fi vehicles and placed 4th overall. And my knight was 7th overall. But still, I'd love to place in the top three in one of the fantasy, sci-fi, or general categories (diorama or large scale) next year. I've also got the goal of finishing in the top three overall... but that's more of a long term goal rather than something I think will happen in the next year. Next time around I'll come up with a more competitive large scale entry. There's lots of possibilities, maybe one of the scale75 pieces or any number of historicals. I have a couple in my collection that could be real contenders... lots of freehand, OSL possibilities. And then there are the figures from the Black Sailors kickstarter which will hopefully arrive this summer. I'm also waiting on a figure from the creature caster kickstarter, so maybe I'll enter the fantasy vehicle/monster category with that.
Other goals... well, getting into the CMON top ten of 2015 would be awesome, but will take a pretty special project to pull off. I wish they still did Golden Demon in the US because that would be a good goal. Sadly I can't justify flying to England for that, at least not right now. I'd like to do well in some more big online competitions. I've got an entry over at Massive Voodoo which could potentially finish in the top three. And I was talking with another painter about doing a class sometime, so I could add that to the goals: do a painting seminar.
In terms of general painting, I'd like to keep pushing my contrast, work in more color variation, use color more effectively (warm/cool contrast, forced focus, etc), and create more narrative basing/scenes. So yeah, all that should keep me busy.
Unfortunately I didn't do a tutorial on the hobbit piece. If I'd know is was going to turn out so well I would have taken more pictures while I was painting! But the OSL on that piece came down to these things...
1) The OSL was a single light source, so I just used what we all do with zenithal lighting but shifted the direction.
2) I definitely pushed the light/dark contrast more than I usually do. Many parts went from near pure white highlights to pure black shadows.
3) Varied the intensity of the highlights to create the illusion of fall off. The closer an object was to the light source, the brighter the highlights. Further away, the more subdued they were. Do your best to be consistent. But, also take into account how reflective a material might be. Shiny leather or metal that's further away will reflect more light than dull materials like cloth.