Crystal Brush 2011

[mahon]

link: https://www.crystalbrush.com/2010/10/rec ... rush-2011/

Click to see full-sized image

CoolMiniOrNot Inc announced today the Crystal Brush Awards, which will be a painting competition held at AdeptiCon 2011 in Chicago from April 1st to 3rd 2011.

The Crystal Brush awards are a showcase for the best in miniature painting, primarily focused on fictional settings. As a competition meant to celebrate the hobby, figures from any manufacturer are welcome.

Huge cash prize

Chief highlight was the news that the top scoring miniature would receive $10,000, and unheard of sum for miniatures. 2nd and 3rd prizes were also guaranteed at $2,000 and $1,000 respectively.

“This is quite a large sum of money”, said Chern Ann Ng, Director at CoolMiniOrNot. “Running CoolMiniOrNot.com since 2001 has shown us that there is a huge pool of talent out there, but global competition tends to be focused around just manufacturer sponsored and controlled events. ”

[ToMaZ]

rediculous 1st place cash price IMO. It will lure a lot of painters though. Which was the point.

[Nameless]

I have sooo many doubts about it...
prize changes our hobby into business... broken CMON voting system, which is already pulling the worst out of many people...
now combine the two...

[sea.man]

I also have doubts about the 50% CMON voting.
On the other hand such huge amount of money can motivate the best painters in the world to create some magnificent works. I am looking forward how wilk it turn out;)

[Nameless]

geez, they create magnificent works all the time, for other contests, clients, own collections... without 10K at all...

[ToMaZ]

So many people disagree with GD judging, imagine how the reactions will be when there is $10 000 at stake. And then they combine the normal judging with a popularity contest. (I don't think they let the folks over at CMON vote btw, I think it's a voting system like on CMON for the people attending the show.)

and like czlowiek.morze said, it will create a gathering of some magnificent works, but I can also think of a few painters who will go purely for the money. Business painters.

[Nameless]

Internet Voting

1. All entriest that make first cut will be photographed/recorded at the Awards on the day of entry by staff.
2. These photogrpahs will be placed online at the same time. Voting will be open on April 2nd for 24 hours.
3. Entrants will not be identified during Internet voting.
4. Entries will be rotated so that they receive roughly the same number of votes.
5. The full procedure for Internet voting will be disclosed closer to the date of the Awards.

Procedures may change without notice.

[ToMaZ]

ok. At least they try to rule out the popularity contest.

[Nameless]

I still expect a lot of problem and even more controversies....
I think ScottRadom summarized it perfectly on WAMP forum (quote from my memory) - take all the CMON voting drawbacks and multiply it by 10K bucks...

[ToMaZ]

lol yeah. I think Scott has it right there.

I just really don't like the fact that they put such a big money price on an art related hobby. There will always be room for controversy because the judging can't be fully objective. In a hobby that's creative and based on opinions and preferences there is no room for big cash prizes.

When I think about it, CMON hasn't really been a hobby related site for a long time. It's a business. (eBay, Online store, Member fee's,...)