kathrynloch
New member
What contests/awards are out there that "make or break" (painting, sculpting, conversion, etc.) artists. I mean the ones that put them over the top in professionalism. Okay, like there's GD, of course, I would think that's a pretty darn big award but I don't know the details about it. Do you have to qualify to enter or do yous pays your money and takes yous chances so to speak? 
Do you have to personally attend or is there a "proxy" system? What sort of divisions do they have?
Is there a GD Primer out there somewhere that covers all of this stuff?
But that's just one contest. Are there others out there? Are there awards that artists put on their portfolio that companies look for?
With the model horses, our biggest one is NAN (North American Nationals) but you have to qualify to get there. This can be easy or difficult depending on the situation. You have to win a 1st or 2nd in a class at a NAN qualifying show. These shows have specific rules to follow and fees they need to pay. Sometimes that's easy. If you're in an area with not a lot of people and the show is small, your horse might be the only one on the table so you get the qualifier by default. Other shows are highly attended and classes are huge so if you win a 1st or a 2nd that's saying something.
Plus, you can only compete at NAN what you qualified in. So if my horse won a Thoroughbred class, I can't turn around and put him in an Arabian class at NAN. (It gets more complicated but that's the basic gist of it.)
I titled this for artists because again in model horses, many folks who can't paint or sculpt will purchase horses so they can compete at NAN. Sorta like real horses, they bought the horse, paid someone to train it, and paid someone to ride it, but they own it so the award is their's. But for an artist to win a top 10 at NAN, that's when those folks looking to buy horses to compete with start beating down your door.
But if I put my horse on the table, that I painted, I might be competing against a horse owned by a non-artist but they paid major money (the highest I saw a painted horse go at auction was $8,000.00 yup a painted resin - not even a real horse cost just as much as a real horse.) to have the biggest of the Big Name Artists to paint theirs. So technically I'm going up against BNA but they never entered the piece. Yet their portfolio gets a boost every time that horse wins. See what I mean?
So what are the big contests and awards?
Do you have to personally attend or is there a "proxy" system? What sort of divisions do they have? Is there a GD Primer out there somewhere that covers all of this stuff?
But that's just one contest. Are there others out there? Are there awards that artists put on their portfolio that companies look for?
With the model horses, our biggest one is NAN (North American Nationals) but you have to qualify to get there. This can be easy or difficult depending on the situation. You have to win a 1st or 2nd in a class at a NAN qualifying show. These shows have specific rules to follow and fees they need to pay. Sometimes that's easy. If you're in an area with not a lot of people and the show is small, your horse might be the only one on the table so you get the qualifier by default. Other shows are highly attended and classes are huge so if you win a 1st or a 2nd that's saying something.
Plus, you can only compete at NAN what you qualified in. So if my horse won a Thoroughbred class, I can't turn around and put him in an Arabian class at NAN. (It gets more complicated but that's the basic gist of it.)
I titled this for artists because again in model horses, many folks who can't paint or sculpt will purchase horses so they can compete at NAN. Sorta like real horses, they bought the horse, paid someone to train it, and paid someone to ride it, but they own it so the award is their's. But for an artist to win a top 10 at NAN, that's when those folks looking to buy horses to compete with start beating down your door.
But if I put my horse on the table, that I painted, I might be competing against a horse owned by a non-artist but they paid major money (the highest I saw a painted horse go at auction was $8,000.00 yup a painted resin - not even a real horse cost just as much as a real horse.) to have the biggest of the Big Name Artists to paint theirs. So technically I'm going up against BNA but they never entered the piece. Yet their portfolio gets a boost every time that horse wins. See what I mean?
So what are the big contests and awards?
