Showing my newest works before I get into things!

[fluisterwoud]

As Crystal Brush grows in quality every year, I'd rather they just had the onsite judges determine the winner and use the online vote for a "people's choice" type of award. Either that, or change the voting from a 1-10 for each piece to a ranking system. So you go to a category, look at all the entries and pick which you think should be 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. rather than give every piece a 9 or 10.

 

[Meph]

Right... so online voting starts at 03:00 on the CMOn homepage. On what day? I'll be ready and waiting with my oiled and flexed clicky finger, and Eye Of The Tiger playing in the background. So, considering that 03:00 is yankee time, that means it will be somewhere between 09:00 and 12:00 in Europe, GMT+1. Easy-peasy, even on weekends I'm up and about by 9 in the morn'.

 

[BloodASmedium]

I totally agree derek- maybe you and I should talk to Jen for a 5 min!!!EPH ILL LET YOIU KNOW A FEW HIURS BEFORE BUD- thanks a bunch-

 

[Chaotic Creations]

As Crystal Brush grows in quality every year, I'd rather they just had the onsite judges determine the winner and use the online vote for a "people's choice" type of award. Either that, or change the voting from a 1-10 for each piece to a ranking system. So you go to a category, look at all the entries and pick which you think should be 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. rather than give every piece a 9 or 10.

i don’t know much at all about miniature comps etc... but I would really think that it sould come down to the allocated judges to pick out the winner, is that not why they get the judges that they do?
anyways I totally agree with fluisterwoud here and believe all other voting online etc should be only for a people’s choice... online voting can be really easy to manipulate the results if you get enough people to support you... and with so much at stake (in the way of the prize) I think it all sounds crazy.

 

[BloodASmedium]

I’ve been saying this in my thread every year CC but it never changes. Even the judges have a 4 bullet point system of criteria so if the te painting technique isn’t as good as another the presentation, color choice , narrative , etc can have one get the upper hand. Again people don’t vote based on this they vote on what they think is why a piece should get a 10. This is another problem I’ve añready named 4 problems that are really a huge deal when and why voting lacks validity!!! The more I think the more ridiculous things keep popping into my mind. But again this is how it is so sad to say/50% on-site panel judging /50% internet voting!!! Really sad!!! If it’s the toughest and highest level comp in the world(NO ONE CAM DEBATE THIS FACT BECAUSE OF SIMPLY THE $10,000.00 check that’s offered each year, than THE WINNERS SHOULD be PICKED EXCLUSIVELY BY THE JUDGESAND NOT A FAULTY SYSTEM THAT GIVES1) friends 2) judging authority to those who don’t know how and why their picking one piece over another.3) the fact that depending when it starts -late starting(one time 9 hours later that when scheduled) saw all our American supporters were sleeping than when awoke had to play catch up. Just extremely flawed system. Poor design- however, AGAIN it’s what CB was built on regular “joes” can play the part of a judge and these folks seem to looove that!!!:/

 

[BloodASmedium]

Was just congratulated by mark Lifton -close friend and huuuge inspiration in my life- we met on P&P and talk pretty regularly through the year- he shows me his GOLDEN DEMON WORKS IN PROGRESS-I SHOW HIM MY CB EMTRIES!!! It’s great when I was 14 years old I used to see his winning entries in white dwarf and FANTASY MINIATURES HARBACK BOOK!!! Now to be in a SPOTLIGHT LAYOUT- and he had his a while back- leaves me dumbfounded. These guys aren’t heroes. They ACT HOW ROLEMODELS ARE SUPPOSED TO ACT. Always giving time for encouragement and praise. Making the smaller guys feel wonderful about our work. Now to be friends with a guy that’s my childhood hero and value my thoughts, friendship etc, just blows my mind.

 

[Sicks]

I can see the thought process behind getting public online voting, it gets people involved, spreads people's work to more people and gets potential advert revenue but it's a flawed system when it's done online, it becomes a "who has the most friends or followers" contest, hell if I entered and told my mum where to vote I'd get 10k 10 votes (she's a little over enthusiastic about me painting lol)

Hopefully my painting thought processes have come on further than last year so maybe I can be more critical this year

 

[BloodASmedium]

Sicks:THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT IBE BEEN COMPLAINING ABOUT FOR YEARS.so you all see why I ask blatantly for support . I don’t have 5000 friends on Facebook. He’ll i don’t use Facebook at all.It’s not you I’m worried about sick’s - and just keep in m8nd my team and my bust. You’ve seen. Try not only o contribute other models being better cause of a wow factor, another thing to point out. I myself and worried about gamers.and yongens.thats the thorn in my side.;/ and whoever is voting FAIR- be ready t discuss with me why those votes were the way they were. Technique,theory,presentation , composition both modeling and color,just a few things to know if those of you are judging . And there is not 7.5 or 6.7d everyone stay with the rounded numbers that’s why their that way- TO ALL VOTING THIS WEEKEND thank you deeply for your suppor AMD TIME- apologies now if it is held up by some unknown reason.hopedully no one will be dragged out of bed.:/

 

[BloodASmedium]

And guys being more critical does NOT mean- I must find something wrong. Not how it works folks. Nor does it matter if someone throws freehand all over and another model doesn’t and just has textures. Focus on what each model uses and if it’s execited 1) poorly2)10 are the textures as good as another’s good freehand.and that’s just scratching the surface of the technical 12% of a 50% broken up into a 4 point system if that’s what their using this year.technique can be broken down into suv categories too if it were me would I see the 5 layers of contrast in each model judged I know mine have em- yessir-all of em. Just a little idea what goes into judging I’ve been doing this 4 years now- inside and out. Figure showing you guys why I’m not happy of an 18 yo who just paiinted an army of 3 basecololors and a wash with 2 step up highlights. You think they know any of this and btw if they know of it have they really judged or been in an international competition where they’ve won before based on this criteria. I don’t think so.

 

[BloodASmedium]

Boy I’ve come up along way when I look at my work on my entries from CB 2015 and the work I do currently .:/ View attachment 64999View attachment 65000View attachment 65001View attachment 65002

 

[Meph]

Put that frown upside down because, yup, you sure did come a long way! Imagine where you'll be in ten years time.

 

[MrJim]

The voting will always be done online. CMON puts up the money for Crystal Brush to promote their brand, and that requires driving people to their website. As a business owner, it makes sense to me. Other competitions such as World Expo, MFCA, ReaperCon, Salute, etc; are run by the organization that owns the show and the purpose is to drive people to the show - so all judging is done onsite.

 

[BloodASmedium]

Yeah it’s all good at the end of the day!!!! A lot of talented artists will be there always are- it’s the toughest show of its kind. Any other show have 10,000 dollars 3000,1000 1st thru third placeings awarding cash like that- just as I thought none come close!!!!

 

[MrJim]

Trophies and medals are nice, but money is really nice.

 

[metalasmedium]

Money can pay for your trip! The 2nd prize is not 5K?

 

[BloodASmedium]

I’m at they changed the cash- it’s now 1st 8,000,2nd 3000 3rd 2000 still the largest bank miniature painting comp in history- THIS SLONE MAKES IT THE TOUGHEST!!! So alls they did was shave the 2,000 off the 10,000 original bank and moved a 1,000 to the second raising it from its original 2,000 - 3,000 and the other 1,000 to increase the third from its original 1,000 - 2,000.
so THERE IS NO DEBATE- cryatal brush aside having the biggest cash prizes of $13,000.00 cash prizes this makes it the hardest most competitive miniature painting contest in history- always has been always will be. Drawing all major players and box artists in the miniature painting history to earn a chance at this tax free cash haul. so if one makes the finals you can safely say you earned your place . So not only will I be chatting with all these awesome folks but I’ll take pics of all those finalists to show what kind of company me and Derek will hopefully be amongst!!! MasM if you go start saving all you have to do is get 3rd overall placing which means gold in any category (where it’s ussually picked from) and that will pay for your trip!!bang spend money to make money!!!

 

[BloodASmedium]

I’m so now , I’m still working - it’s back to start to finish up some squads for -whatever comp I decide to enter them in-there is always painting to be done- you never stop any chance you get you paint- everyone knows I firmly believe that you need to FINISH models.after all if you keep painting and only REPEAT the same steps, you’ll only get proficient at the SAME steps. If I constantly paint and get up to layering flesh. If I never get to the textures or the metals, or the cracked leather . I’ll never get proficient at those later steps. You need to be in those very situations 100ds of times in a lifespan( not very much considering all of us are always talking painting and updating our forums,to have it become habitual. so here we are back again the death guard:View attachment 65028View attachment 65029

 

[frzntoz]

BAM, really like this post as it really resonates with me as I've had a real battle finishing models lately. Sometimes it is a really challenging battle. Seeing other's work such as yours really helps to inspire and motivate. What I'm also find is that sometimes once I finish a miniature where I try new things and do get the result I'm looking for, I then struggle to follow through and finish the rest of the group|team|unit. This is part of my struggle with both my Orc Blood Bowl team and Shadespire Orcs. It's a personal block that I'm working through, and why I'm also going to start working on one-off larger scale figures occasionally to break things up (something that many of you already know and do ).

The Plague Marines look awesome so far - can't wait to see what you have in store for bases for them.

 

[BloodASmedium]

Well young lad- first off- THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I’m glad I inspire as that is at the top of my list of reasons I love to show my work. As everybody on here it’s an amazing feeling to be the MUSE in other talented painters and their reasons to strive to always to better themselves on their journey to paint a better model. Your an extremely solid painter as most of us are.i cannot emphasize enough that finishing projects really does help one increase their skill set.and let me be honest especially on that purple beige human team- that is going to look amazing times ten to have each of those perfect leggings and the rest standing next to one another ready to lay a beaten on the opposing team. So even if it takes a while, even if you have to break up the monotony of all those players with that same routine on each just keep chipping away and you know you’ll be e trembly happy cause with a unit when their all together- the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

 

[Bailey03]

Safe travels, BAM! And best of luck at the show. I'll be eagerly waiting for Saturday when they get all of the entries posted to the site!

And MrJim is right, CMON wants the online CB voting to bring a lot of people to their site. All that prize money isn't given out of the goodness of their hearts. It's to get traffic so they can sell games, get support for kickstarters, etc. So while many of us painters will continue to complain about it, it's something they can't do away with. No online voting means no big prize money. No big prize money means less incentive for the best painters across the globe to fly in for the show. And without them we miss out on seeing their work, the classes they teach, and all that good stuff. I can't think of another show in the US which draws the kind of international talent that CB does and that's all because of the $. Not to say painters are greedy, far from it. But no one is getting rich off of painting minis. So it's no small burden to spend the money for that international flight to the US.

Honestly, if I were to lobby Jen to change the system, it'd be to go from a 1-10 scoring system to a 1-100. Or 1.0 to 10.0. We go through the online voting and it's all 9's and 10's... maybe 8's, 9's and 10's if you're being really picky. Hard to really separate one piece from another. But if I could give something a 9.5 and another 9.7, I feel like I'm actually helping to pick a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Anyway, just my 2 cents.