Models can be entered into the regular category or the masters category. This year I went with the regular category since I still feel the master work is scary good compared to my stuff. The masters category is also looking for qualities I don't usually apply to a model since ultimately, I want to push it around the board and roll dice.
I ended up with three painting competition enteries, and all three were deemed somewhat worthy! Magma mulg ranked a silver, my circle wold guardian ranked a bronze, and an ancestral guardian/5 man immortal squad ranked silver.
I talked to the painting competition organizer, and while he wasn't one of the judges, the areas that he felt needed more work pretty much lined up with areas I had become frustrated with and given up on.
The cloth area was very straightforward. Given that both the upper rock cone and the base would be emitting light, I didn't do much with it. It needed a few more layers of shading.
I needed to add some subtle highlights to the club metal and the darker rocks. It was left pretty much flat.
The face could have been more defined. I totally agree in terms of a competition piece, but when I set out to do this I wanted it to look less like a creature and more like a mountain.
The club/left forearm ended up being my favorite piece of the model. I went for a petrified look on the club, and it uses deneb stone as a base with other rock colors built on top of it. I hit it with a few washes of ogrun flesh to try and make it feel slightly organic.
The left forearm/hand was done very late in the process, and I was more used to getting the magma look I wanted out of the red, orange and yellow ink.
Overall I dig the open judging format. I've been entering for the last 4 or 5 years, but mostly with the expectation of "having something cool in the case" for the duration of the convention. I'm already starting to plot out what sorts of models I should have a go at for next year.
