New Crystal Brush Rules and Categories Posted

[Bailey03]

For those of you planning to attend the upcoming Crystal Brush competition, you will want to check out the website. They have changed around a number of the categories and updated the rules. Here's some of the big changes...

Categories have been condensed from something like 14 last time down to 8. Historical has merged with fantasy/steampunk. Unit categories have been condensed into a single category (so just unit, no more fantasy unit, sci-fi unit, and historical unit). Same goes for the vehicle/monster category. They've made the bust category official and removed sculpting (though that didn't seem to get many entries anyway). Large Scale, Diorama, and Young Talent are unchanged.

The other big change is now the gold winners of each category will receive a $200 cash prize. This is in addition to the big cash prizes ($10k, $2k, and $1k) for the overall top three. I like this as it spreads the prizes around a little more and gives everyone an additional incentive. Sure, winning a gold in any of the categories will still be very tough. But still not as tough as getting a top 3 overall spot. I'd like to see them do something like $200 for gold, $50 for silver, and $25 for bronze... but I don't get a vote, so no luck this time. Oh, and that only applies to the standard categories. Prizes for sponsor categories are up to the sponsors.

Other than that, the rules appear to be the same as last year. If you happened to miss last years show, be aware all entries must now be submitted by 6 pm on Friday, NOT noon on Saturday like previous years.


So, what does everyone think? Do you like the changes? Wish they'd done something else?

 

[Meph]

1K, 2K, 10K??!! ffs... that's a lot for a mini competition. :tremble!:

 

[SkelettetS]

based on what ive heard about CB this seems like a good change to raise the level of all the winning category pieces.

still not a fan of involving cash prize though, but thats just me. people dont go to GD, Monte, Duke of bavaria or any of the other comps to win dollars but to hang out, have fun and perhaps getting the honor to win something.

 

[Bailey03]

I understand your point, Skel. And let's be honest, I don't think any of us start painting miniatures to make the big bucks. I also know that most of the CMON crowd who attends the Crystal Brush are going there for those reasons... to hang out with each other, have fun, take seminars, see great work, and, if we're lucky, make first cut and maybe even win a trophy in one of the categories. Not because we plan on winning any money.

Now, that being said, there is a major benefit to the prize money (aside from the prize itself) and that is the competition attracts top painters from around the world. I'd love to get out and see the UK GD, Monte San Savino show, Duke of Bavaria, etc. But traveling there from the US is not easy. Flights aren't cheap and finding enough time off to make the trip worth it isn't easy either. I know I'll get out to one or more of the European shows at some point, but I doubt it will be in the next couple years. There are some phenomenal painters in the US, but I think most would agree that the majority of top artists are over in Europe. Rankings are a bit subjective of course, but there's not a single American or Canadian in the top 40 artists over on P&P. The only way (or at least the easiest way) most of us over in North American will get to see their work in person is if they come to one of our shows. Of course they have the same issues, cost and time associated with that travel. So if we're going to get a bunch of you crazy talented non-US painters to show up then there's got to be some incentive. For Crystal Brush, that's the prize money. For a show like MFCA, I believe they help some people with travel costs and there's the opportunity to sell to collectors. If there was some US show where the prestige of the award was great enough, that'd work too. But I don't think any of the shows have reached that level yet.

I completely respect your opinion that shows shouldn't be about the money. But, there are a lot of us over here who benefit from those awards even if we never win them ourselves.

 

[SkelettetS]

im very curious how world model expo will do next time as its in US.

i understand the dilemma here too, but hopefully crystal brush eventually will get status so people travel to the event just to get one of those sought after statuettes. i think the the last category changes made are a good help and its fun to see the amount of workshops etc around the competition grow. guess its a bit hard to ditch the cash prize from now on though.
next thing that need changing is the judge system, online voting looks nice on paper but easily turns into a popularity contest. just look at the artist fb pages weeks before cb, everyone is fishing for votes.

 

[BloodASmedium]

Couldnt agree more with you Dave,and especially with you Stefan. The FB voting example is of a partial entity to big time painters. It is a huge pop contest and helps them out easily,I say down with the online voting.

 

[Bailey03]

Yeah, I'd have no objections if they just let the judges decide the winner and skipped the online vote. I think part of CMON's interest in the CB is advertising for their other projects (like their games and kickstarters). That's most likely how they justify the prize money. So my guess is they see the online vote as something they wouldn't want to get rid of since it brings a lot of traffic to their site.

If they want to keep online voting, I'd prefer they just have a separate people's choice award. Lots of shows do that. The regular category winners could just be picked by the judges, but then allow everyone online to vote for the people's choice. Seems like a decent compromise.

I'm also curious to see how the World Expo does in the US. I know people like Ben Komets and Michael Kontraros will be there (they're doing seminars). But who knows how many other people will make the trip to the states.

 

[moetle]

Glad they finally made a bust category but why shank down the rest?