Chest of Colors forum

i completly agree with banshee......

i think the talent is a question of culture, may be not the talent but the style and the way to paint
for exemple when i see pics of spanish mini, i knew it's a spanish guy done them...they have there own style, very marked faces, incredible light and shadows transition......and it's known that french, italian, and spanish have a long time of art culture...and they love this

and to conclude, i'm in poland since 3 years now....and what can i see of polsih painter is very promising
there is a real good level instead of they have access to this hobby for less time than us

in september we will have here the "wojenny mlot 2006", a sort of games day/golden demon....mahon of photo report ??

I am English and live in the States (courtesy of an American wife). I have been to GD in several places and I can tell you for a fact that in several shops where this has been discussed there is a perception that some GD are better to enter because the competition is not quite as stiff, and you stand more chance of picking up an award. Currently, it is Canadian and LA perceived as the easier with the French/ UK as the hardest. Whilst the winners of the Canadian an LA are very talented the difference between them and the other entries has a tendency to be very large indeed.

I would also agree that there are distinct stylised differences between the US and Europe - as some-one said earlier - the European style is more sutble (compared to Ortez and the DQ'ed painter whose name I cannot remember who once did a demon displaying Richard and the twins). BUT this has been changing over the last 3 years or so especially as the women painters come more and more to the fore.

I have also seen judging in GW stores which really really pissed me off. They stand from about 6 or 7 feet away for their first impressions - which mini stands out. I was so pissed that I had a stand up argument with one of the judges (I had entered but with only an average mini just to say I finished one) because what won was a joke. They completely by passed a wonderfully painted mini (by a girl and I am sure that had something to do with it)with 4+ levels of highlights (even in the eyes) and blending with an imaginative base. The thing that won was some gaudy painted mini that looked great from a distance but when looked up close was a level 2 paint job at best. I dragged 2 of the judges over to the other mini and pointed out what they missed and that was when one dork said it just didn't stand out from a distance so didn't get a good first impression. That is when I almost strangled some-one - I felt sorry for the painter who had obviously put in many hours to get this realisticly painted model upto to standard and was judge by idiots who paint with their mother's make up brushes.

Phew! Sorry about the rant.

As a final point, having seen the Rackham painting competition entries I was just blown away by the standard - especially the Aberration. Some of those were far and away a higher standard than most GD entries for pure painting skill.