Post by menace on Sept 7, 2006 12:46:05 GMT
privateerpress.com/default.php?x=contest/review
Here's the reveiw from PP, it's well worth popping over for a browse, linky above
Privateer Press Grand Master Painting Competition
by Mike McVey - Miniature Director, Privateer Press.
The first Privateer Press Grand Master Painting Competition has come and gone - and after a sleepless night before GenCon started, worrying that we wouldn’t get any entries - I was just blown away by the response. Both the quality and number of entries was simply amazing - we could only just fit them all in the display cabinet. It really exceeded my expectations, especially considering how late we announced the event - I can only imagine what it will be like next year when people have a whole year to prepare for it!
There will be an in-depth look in an upcoming issue of No Quarter Magazine, where we will look at the other entries that came close to placing, amazed us with their invention or had us in stitches for their comedic approach. For the moment though, we are going to look at the winners - and what an amazing selection of miniatures they are. I have been judging painting competitions for nearly twenty years and picking between these miniatures was one of the hardest tasks I have been faced with. We decided to have a panel to choose the winners - myself, Ali McVey (aka PPS_Fluffy on the forums), Rob Stoddard and Matt Wilson. Sometimes we agreed unanimously on a particular piece, and other times we didn’t. In the end we used a blind scoring system to judge the entries, and I know we were all in agreement that the results were fair, and the right entries placed.
All of the categories produced stunning results, there were dozens of entries and eight serious contenders for the three places in the Warrior category alone. One of the things that amazed us was the thought and care that was lavished on the entries for each of the categories - all of them exceeded our expectations.
One of the hardest fought battles of the competition was between the dioramas. Pictures of Partick Keith’s Steamjack Facory have already been shown on the forums, and the response there has been much the same as ours - Wow! Truly an incredible piece, and if it hadn’t used parts from the IMEX Urban Terrain Sets (I specified earlier that entries couldn’t use parts from other miniature games, and these sets are closely linked to the Urban War game), this piece could have been a contender for best in show. The winning diorama by Dave Perrotta was a fantastic piece though - and the level of thought and detail that went into it, along with the beautiful standard of painting made it a deserved winner. It’s the kind of diorama that is perfectly balanced, a simple scene that is brimming with narrative and atmosphere - it also had an amazing level of fine detail. From the way the lamp post actually lit up, to the insides of the jack that had been drilled out and filled with gears and springs - great work!
If the choice for the winner of the Diorama category was close - the choice for the Grand Master was even harder, and it took the judging panel nearly an hour to come to a final decision. In the end it was technical ability that won the day, and Jennifer Haley’s Alexia certainly showed that! While there may have been other entries that had more in the way of atmosphere and were closer to the feel of the IK, the eventual winner stunned most people that saw it with a level of painting that few could equal.
Well done Jen - I hope you’ll be back to defend the title next year!
When the very last entry had been handed back to the final contestant, late on Sunday afternoon - everyone seemed to be in agreement that the event was an unqualified success. Most people even said they were already staring to think about next year’s entry! Looks like we’d better get a bigger cabinet…
by Mike McVey - Miniature Director, Privateer Press.
The first Privateer Press Grand Master Painting Competition has come and gone - and after a sleepless night before GenCon started, worrying that we wouldn’t get any entries - I was just blown away by the response. Both the quality and number of entries was simply amazing - we could only just fit them all in the display cabinet. It really exceeded my expectations, especially considering how late we announced the event - I can only imagine what it will be like next year when people have a whole year to prepare for it!
There will be an in-depth look in an upcoming issue of No Quarter Magazine, where we will look at the other entries that came close to placing, amazed us with their invention or had us in stitches for their comedic approach. For the moment though, we are going to look at the winners - and what an amazing selection of miniatures they are. I have been judging painting competitions for nearly twenty years and picking between these miniatures was one of the hardest tasks I have been faced with. We decided to have a panel to choose the winners - myself, Ali McVey (aka PPS_Fluffy on the forums), Rob Stoddard and Matt Wilson. Sometimes we agreed unanimously on a particular piece, and other times we didn’t. In the end we used a blind scoring system to judge the entries, and I know we were all in agreement that the results were fair, and the right entries placed.
All of the categories produced stunning results, there were dozens of entries and eight serious contenders for the three places in the Warrior category alone. One of the things that amazed us was the thought and care that was lavished on the entries for each of the categories - all of them exceeded our expectations.
One of the hardest fought battles of the competition was between the dioramas. Pictures of Partick Keith’s Steamjack Facory have already been shown on the forums, and the response there has been much the same as ours - Wow! Truly an incredible piece, and if it hadn’t used parts from the IMEX Urban Terrain Sets (I specified earlier that entries couldn’t use parts from other miniature games, and these sets are closely linked to the Urban War game), this piece could have been a contender for best in show. The winning diorama by Dave Perrotta was a fantastic piece though - and the level of thought and detail that went into it, along with the beautiful standard of painting made it a deserved winner. It’s the kind of diorama that is perfectly balanced, a simple scene that is brimming with narrative and atmosphere - it also had an amazing level of fine detail. From the way the lamp post actually lit up, to the insides of the jack that had been drilled out and filled with gears and springs - great work!
If the choice for the winner of the Diorama category was close - the choice for the Grand Master was even harder, and it took the judging panel nearly an hour to come to a final decision. In the end it was technical ability that won the day, and Jennifer Haley’s Alexia certainly showed that! While there may have been other entries that had more in the way of atmosphere and were closer to the feel of the IK, the eventual winner stunned most people that saw it with a level of painting that few could equal.
Well done Jen - I hope you’ll be back to defend the title next year!
When the very last entry had been handed back to the final contestant, late on Sunday afternoon - everyone seemed to be in agreement that the event was an unqualified success. Most people even said they were already staring to think about next year’s entry! Looks like we’d better get a bigger cabinet…