Thoughts on painting competitions

It’s almost spring, which means another convention season is approaching. I love conventions, and I especially love painting competitions, both because they provide an opportunity to glimpse fabulous miniature art works in person, and because they provide an opportunity to share your best work. Personally, I find it thrilling just to have my art in a big glass display case at a convention, even when I don’t win anything. As the 2015 season approaches, I thought I would share some of my personal thoughts on how to approach painting competitions, and a bit of what my own experience has been.

Paint what you want to paint

First and most importantly, when you go to a painting competition, you should always paint what you want to paint. This is doubly important, because a competition entry should be something you treasure having (win or lose), and because you will do your best work on a labor of love.

Some people suggest various ways of “gaming” painting competitions—choosing what and how to paint to increase your chance of winning. I couldn’t disagree more. You should paint what you want to paint, because at the end of the day, the one and only guaranteed reward for your entry is the work itself. Make sure it’s something you are proud of and will value, and you won’t be disappointed. In my experience, the people who try to game the competition often end up with a half-finished entry on competition day, while the winners frequently put in late nights working on a labor of love.

To take an example, when I won P3 grandmaster at Lock and Load 2011, the model I painted, Commander Adept Nemo, was the exact same model which had already won grandmaster at the previous PP painting competition (Gen Con 2010).

Some might say that I should have chosen a different model, since judges might be biased against choosing the same model twice in a row. (In fact, one of the judges even said to me that he voted for my other model—a Troll Axer—to avoid a repeat, which lends some credence to this objection.) However, if I’d chosen a figure I wasn’t quite as invested in painting, I might not have done as good a job, and had a worse result. Either way, this miniature remains a treasured possession. Even if I hadn’t won, I would do it the same way again.

Hope for the best, but don’t get cocky

The next most important rule, when going to a painting competition, is that you should always hope to win something, but never expect it. Hope to win something, because that will inspire you to try your hardest and do your best work. I can point to three occasions when I painted a model significantly better than anything I’d done before, and each of those occasions was because I thought I had a chance of winning an award, and tried my hardest to do so. The first time I entered a painting competition (not counting online painting competitions) was at Gen Con 2010. I really wanted to win something in the P3 painting competition, and get my minis into No Quarter, so I put a lot of time and energy into doing the best I could. The result was my Caine battlegroup.

(more views: Caine front, Caine back, grenadier)

Just to give you an idea of how much time I put into this battlegroup, I painted three different Caine models to try and get it right. On the first one, I had the same grey greatcoat with the same freehand on the back, but I painted some of the armor plates orange, and used NMM for the rest. I was very happy with how the greatcoat came out, but the face and NMM were awful. I tried a similar scheme the second time around, and again the NMM and face came out terribly. It wasn’t until the third attempt when I finally got it right, after keeping the parts that went well the first two times around the same, and changing things which had come out poorly. In the end, if you add up the time I spent painting all three versions of Caine, and the time spent converting and painting the ‘jacks, and basing them to match their ‘caster, I probably spent close to 100 hours on this project.

There were two other times I painted models which were, in my opinion, significant steps forward for my painting, and both were painted for competitions. The first of these was Ruby—who took home 1st place sci-fi monster/vehicle at Crystal Brush 2011, and who I’ll talk more about later—and the second was the Nemo pictured above. But first I wanted to share another story, about what happened one time when I didn’t hope to win…

When I was preparing for Crystal Brush 2011, I worked on five entries. Two of them I wanted to win with and worked quite hard on, and both placed in their respective categories. Two of them were models where everything seemed to be turning out badly, so I aborted. The fifth was Ar-Fienel.

I posted some work-in-progress pictures of her on the Studio McVey forums, asking for constructive criticism. One of the things I said there was, “I don’t think I have a snowball’s chance in hell of placing with this entry. But I’d still like to enter the best miniature I can, so please give me your suggestions.” I was trying to do a good job, but I wasn’t trying to win. So I didn’t end up working quite as hard on this entry as some of my others, and didn’t fix some of the things which bothered me about her. In the end, she placed fourth in her category. If I’d taken my own advice above and hoped to win, I would have worked a bit harder on her, and she might have taken home a trophy rather than nothing. Learn from my lesson: if you hope to win but don’t, at least you’ll know you tried your hardest, and the experience (and a beautifully-painted model) will be its own reward. But if you don’t try your hardest because you don’t think you can win, you might end up regretting not trying a little harder.

Always ask for critiques

Get as much constructive criticism as possible. If you can get people to look at your pieces with a judge’s eye, they can often spot flaws that you overlooked, and fixing them will increase your chances of winning. However, don’t feel that you always have to do what your critics suggest. I always consider the criticism I receive, and only act on the criticism I agree with.

In person criticism is always best, but if you don’t have painter friends nearby that you can ask for critiques, the online community is always very helpful. When I was preparing for the first Crystal Brush competition, I posted some enormous photos of one of my entries, Ruby, to get the best critique possible with just digital photos.

Some people have a tendency to ignore criticism they don’t want to hear, which is never good. If several people suggest the same thing, it usually means something needs to change, but interpreting the criticism is not always straightforward.

I painted these “White Templars” with dirty, damaged armor. Several people suggested that I fix “bathtub ring” effects on the marines’ legs, where I had applied it intentionally as part of the dirt effect. In this case, the message was that a technique I had applied intentionally looked like a mistake, even though it was intentional. It is tempting to ignore criticism like this, but a better solution is to change something, even if you don’t exactly follow your critics’ suggestions. In the end, I solved this problem by applying the technique even more, until the result was clearly an intentional effect.

Enter multiple categories

Most painting competitions have several categories, for different types of model (or groups of models), which are judged separately. If you have time, try to prepare entries for several categories, to maximize your chance of success. You never know who else will show up, and what they will enter. If your only entry is a diorama, and several people enter very strong dioramas, you may end up failing to place, even if your diorama is better than the best entries in other categories. If you enter more than one category, you reduce the chances of being disappointed because the competition in the categories you chose to enter was extremely strong. It can also be quite expensive to attend a convention, depending on how far you have to travel, and whether you are teaching or volunteering to help offset the costs. By entering in as many categories as possible, you can make the most of this expense.

If you are just beginning to enter painting competitions, it can be a good idea to enter categories that are traditionally less competitive, as this will (usually!) give you a better shot at winning something. But don’t be afraid to enter stronger categories as well—you may get lucky and exceed your own expectations. And don’t forget the most important rule, to paint what you want to paint.

No matter what, try to learn something

One of the great things about painting competitions is the chance to meet fantastic painters. Always the opportunity to learn something! Ask for critiques, or how someone accomplished that effect you drooled over. If there are any classes being offered, sign up! Classes at conventions can be a bit hit-or-miss, but I’ve learned great stuff at conventions like Adepticon and Gen Con, and it’s usually only about $20 for a 2-hour class.

Others’ advice

Roman Lappat (Massive Voodoo) and Meg Maples (Arcane Paintworks) also offer sound advice on painting competitions.

• Massive Voodoo – How to lose at Golden Demon
• Arcane Paintworks – Why I Compete