will I make it past first cut

Avicenna

New member
You ever been to GenCon in the UK?

Utter crap!

Very different in the US and in my opinion a VERY high standard, but UK was more than disappointing... cost me nearly as much as GD to get in too!

I also dont think that GD is judged from a marketing point of view either. Through one of my fellow Slave to Paint guys I know some of the judges and can say with some confidence that I think marketing is the last thing on their mind. So Atacam, i\'m afraid it just aint so.

Its purely down to the taste of the judges - whether we agree with them or not ;)
 

EricJ

Active member
Weeeeeell, Atlanta is probably better than LA, but that is about it I think. Take your highlights a bit further, and do a little more to make you OSL work (look at Ritual\'s comments) here and I bet you could make the cut in ATL
 

darthfoley

Active member
Having been to both Atlanta GD\'s...sorry Eric, but I\'ll have to disagree with you.

Especially in the 40K single category, the competition is IMO quite stiff.
 

EricJ

Active member
disagree about the quality of the miniatures? or disagree he could make it?

I haven\'t been to ATL, so I don\'t know the competition for the first cut, so I can\'t defend my opinion there, but I do see the winners. It is my opinion that ATL and CHI are roughly equal, both better than LA but worse than Baltimore, and of course all are far worse than UK, France, Spain, German and Italian. Could be on par with Aussie or Russian, I haven\'t seem enough from those two.

This is of course a in general terms, any given year things can change, but I\'m just judging over the last couple years
 

StarFyre

Active member
actually..

if you check out the stuff in australia past few years....victoria, johnnyks, etc...their stuff is awesome...

i\'d say the north american ones are below the rest of the world, sad to say..other than few specific entries (magmatrax, hellblade, come to mind)...

Sanjay
 

Hiliter

New member
Biased opinions all around...

To me Really US Daemons are ranked Chicago, Baltimore, LA and Atl are a toss up between the two, last year I think Atlanta was better. As far as comparing the various Daemons, its impossible to determine what would place where, because theres just way too much difference in national painting style and what one area thinks looks good. (Globaly)

As far as you making the cut, Id say Maybe, at best. Your pictures aren\'t the best but it really depends on how many entires there are overall in 40k single (which from what ive seen, is probably the hardest cat. at Atlanta.)

I will be attending Atlanta and im only bringing two entries (Fantasy single and LOTR single) id be happy with first cut, but who knows with the way things are judged at the daemons and such. All i say is best of luck and if you put your best effort into it, its just a stepping stone to seeing what you need to improve to get better.
 

EricJ

Active member
yep, I\'d agree these are all quite bias, lol

But looking at Aussie winners last year at least, there is quite a bit of it that looks like it was picked on favortism for a few artists rather than the piece itself.

That being said, also LA was FAR weaker last year than the previous few years. But also ATL sword winner last year was quite poor as well.
 

darthfoley

Active member
Originally posted by EricJ
disagree about the quality of the miniatures? or disagree he could make it?

Both.

As for the \'North American < Europe\' argument...I think there were threads dedicated to it before. lol I personally find pieces I like from all of them, but I tend to like the NA stuff more because it fits my \'style\' better.

Prolly the same reason I don\'t care for Rackham stuff and never will...it just isn\'t my style.
 

EricJ

Active member
Originally posted by darthfoley
Originally posted by EricJ
disagree about the quality of the miniatures? or disagree he could make it?

Both.

As for the \'North American < Europe\' argument...I think there were threads dedicated to it before. lol I personally find pieces I like from all of them, but I tend to like the NA stuff more because it fits my \'style\' better.

Prolly the same reason I don\'t care for Rackham stuff and never will...it just isn\'t my style.

LOL the funny thing is I do agree with you as well. While I do think the quality is lower in our 4 GD\'s, often times we get some good interesting entries that I\'d rather look at.
 

Orb

procrastinator
unfortunately, GD\'s in differing countries are judged by different people, something that simply wont every be sorted - it being wholly subjective. So there are always difficulties in comparing different events.

I think one of the benefits of the European GD\'s is their relatively close proximity, and cheap flights and easy access to anyone motivated to attend. There\'s the French Style, Spanish style, British style (not sure that actually exists tho) and others and these compete against one another regularly and there is a cross pollenation of methods, styles etc that is very healthy for the hobby.

In the US, there is, as you say a NA style, and 4 GDs cater for this. No Atlanta style, no Calafornian style.........arguably a little too insular and thats maybe why there is a perceived standard difference.

just a thought
 

Trevor

Brushlicker and Freak!
It also varies due to numbers. Some years there are only a few entries in Oz, yet UK always has many entries, just by numbers alone there is more chance of better entries.

Same goes for the entrants, there are Oz painters who are as good as anyone in the world, but there are less of them than in the larger countries (UK alone has over 3x the population of Oz).
 

AinuLainour

New member
I have to disagree with StarFyre about the North American painters. I admit that the quality in European painters overall is better, but North America has some amazing artists as well.
As you mentioned, there is Vincent Hudon, but there is also Ben Bishop, Joe Orteza, Lilianna Troy, Jen Haley, Bobby Wong and Victor Hardy.
 

automaton

New member
Originally posted by EricJ

But looking at Aussie winners last year at least, there is quite a bit of it that looks like it was picked on favortism for a few artists rather than the piece itself.
I see what you are saying, but I think one of the problems in australia is the lack of depth - there aren\'t as many good painters, which is why certain individuals appear to dominate the GDs. I think it may be this, rather than favouritism shown to certain artists. Although I have heard people argue otherwise!
 

Avicenna

New member
Originally posted by Orb
British style (not sure that actually exists tho)
I think we have a style - just look at the GDUK winners! I would say that the \'British style\' is dominated by the sort of gritty realism and muted/natural colours shown by Jakob Neilsson (even though he is Danish - they have a similar style IMO - and he has dominated the GDUK for a long time), Mike Anderson, Martin Footit, Joe Hill, Tammy Haye (lol another non-brit) Adrian Bay etc etc... even the more cartoony styles like Steve Buddle\'s are very realistic and not overly exaggerated.

JMO though :)
 

OrkyDave

New member
Not too sure when your Atlanta Golden demon is, but if you have time to tart up the piece (ie lighting cast from the flame- bit more on highlights etc) then that may just give you an edge over another piece Also the mini looks really dark (even with flame!) and a bit of contrast may help. It really isn\'t the best picture and I have a hunch the model will look shedloads better in the flesh. Also with her being a Sister of battle, and in my experience not many sisters are entered,she may stand out more (if 1000 space marines are there a sister may look more appealing)

At the end of the day, you have absolutley no idea what you will be up against or what the judges are after so GO FOR IT!!!!!!!Don\'t ever be afraid to have a go. I have inly ever entered the (UK) golden demons once, incidentally the last one, with one mini as a way to avoid queing as much to get in. It was my best painted model but was really a \'token\' entry. I went to collect him at 1pm only to find a green spot on the entry card! I was well loads exited and danced around lots. Judging by his placing in the cabinet the judges must have liked him too. A very similar model (just done so much better) took the gold . I\'m going to really go for it this year!

Hope my rantings have been of some use, but I\'m not a golden demon Judge, just your run of the mill Hobyist, and best of luck- let us know how you get on!
 

OrkyDave

New member
??? A lot of people have said here that judges favour certain artists, but I would just like to know how they know who entered what? not sure how it works worldwide but in the UK there are no names submitted with the actual model, only numbers?

Also if the same people keep on winning then maybe its because their work is the best in the category. I for one have no problem with the same person winning the slayer sword 5, 10 , even 15 years on the trot, provided they deserved to win it!

yeah!
 
M

Marmoset

Guest
The judges don\'t favour...

There is no bias at all, because the judges have no idea who painted what!
 

EArkham

Necromancer
I don\'t think you can really get a good idea of what the competition is like without seeing all the other pieces that didn\'t place.

Baltimore, for example, had a ton of simply amazing pieces that made first cut in both 40K single and Warhammer single. I\'m thinking specifically of a armoured warrior with stunning freehand on the shield.

Atlanta was very similar, with several high quality entries that didn\'t place. However, Atlanta has few enough entries that quirks can happen. The vehicle entry the first year was absolutely incredible. Maybe this scared people, because the next year hardly anyone entered that category and as a result those that placed were rather dull by GD winning standards.

But if you\'re banking on luck in the 40K single category, I believe you\'re going to be disappointed. Having been to both Atlanta GDs, I\'m of the opinion that this figure would not even be considered for first cut.

This year the American GDs are going to be significantly harder with the combination of several categories. In my opinion, this is going to mean two things: the combined categories are going to be tough, and a lot of amazing pieces will not place, while those folks who shy away from the intense competition of these categories are going to flood the other categories.

Now, the more constructive portion of the show:

1) First, your object source lighting is odd -- the torch is only as bright as the light it\'s giving off. The source of light should be the BRIGHTEST thing on the mini for the OSL to work.

2) The eyes, they need eyeballs. And pupils. Preferably eyeballs, pupils and highlights.

3) The base looks more like a slab of cake than a rock. This is because of the texture and round shape; chip at it with a hobby knife, and cover the rough spots up with some sort of texture, touch up.

4) The tip of the gun, something weird there. Looks like too much soot on the tip? If so, drop it, make it a fresh barrel. With the OSL, you\'re going to have a lot of shadows everywhere and it\'s going to be damned hard to make the soot stand out from that.

5) Sharpen the highlights everywhere, even in the shadows (though with a darker highlight than what you\'re using for the OSL). Exaggerate, exaggerate, exaggerate!

6) The photos are way too dark, it\'s really hard to see what else is going on.

You have nearly three weeks and more helpful people around here than you can beat with a stick (I\'ve tried, incidently, they get all whiney and bitchy when you do that). Revise, show it again. :)

Kep
 
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