you're not the only one who gets bothered by mold lines. Im looking at getting back into the hobby and currently sucking up as much content as possible. and back in the day i would spend hours cleaning up my minis!!!
I entered this competition, but my paint job wound up really bad. I tried multiple techniques that I'd never attempted before and it wound up not working out. I did have a ton of fun painting though, and this was the first competition I'd ever entered, but I was a bit discouraged. You are a very inspiring painter, when I saw you were one of the judges it made me want to join the competition. I love that your confident enough to judge paint jobs very critically, and find flaws where I'd never even fathom on some of these amazing works. I feel I've learned so much from watching you judge these.
I painted the Wendigo in the advanced. Thanks for the feedback, I agree with the points you made. I only half committed to what I wanted to do with the base (it was going to be more integrated), but getting the model onto it after building it up a bit was a nightmare so kept it simple. The scratches were honestly me just panicking, it was nearing the end of the time I had left to finish it and it was the third time I had painted the skin and still wasn't happy with it. I actually nearly didn't even enter it into the comp I doubted it all so much, and only really did because it was "done", so I'm just pleased that it even made it as a finalist!
The nature of the beast...I don't know how many times I painted 20 hours the day before a competition deadline :) You still painted a GREAT mini! ALWAYS enter if you can, it's always a chance to learn something! Keep going and have fun :)
@@trovarion Thank you, it was trying some new things and I had fun doing it still, and it's also a great opportunity to get feedback and learn from people such as yourself. On to the next one!
Hey Trovarion! Thank you so much for taking your time to judge our entries, and for your kind words. One of my primary goals when entering this contest was to get your feedback on my model, so I appreciate you being nit-picky since I'm looking to improve. Thanks again! Best regards, the author of Murder of puppets
your piece was definitely my fave in terms of story telling. I love it so much. I esp. like the fact that his cape is SUPER bright but doesnt subtract anything from the front viewing angle. props!
I like your long critic videos. It gives a great insight in what is considered a good mini from many different viewpoints and skill levels. You are super supportive for the beginners and that is really motivating. Thank you!
Mould lines also through me off when looking at miniatures in general, but especially when they are used for competition and display, but shouldn't the same be said for print lines? Many entries that where unique, where clearly 3d printed and had that distracting stepping pattern.
Another funny thing: Except for the Advanced category my judging is completely opposite to the endresults too...lol. In any case...I just wanted to give as much feedback and possible and hopefully some people will learn a bit here and there :)
Midwinter is a great guy (his name) but a terrible choice for a judge, he's a casual level of painter, not a ultra competitive painter like our gentleman here.
I guess i would have ranked the Fireplace OSL piece higher. It´s a common theme - yes - and for really experienced painters it might become a novelty - but as a "middle ground" painter myself i still think it´s really something that´s not easy to do... but maybe i just would have a hard time doing it :D
Hello Christoph! Thanks for taking the time to do this rundown and honest critique. Very much appreciated. Everyone should have something to take away. And like I said to Guy and the other judges.... The feed back is a prize in itself! It was myself that did Chucky and I've had truly fantastic feedback and food for thought. This is the first comp I've entered so to make it alongside the other finalists, with and the quality of them, I'm just delighted. And with confidence to go forward (confident, not cocky :) I knew the puppet master would take top spot. Exceptional! Thanks again bro! :)
Great insight! When I was looking at the one that used the LED to cast the red on it, I wondered why he didn’t use the lighted picture as a guide for actually painting the osl effect.
I ranked 6th on the intermediate / small category, honestly I wanted to see how much I can push myself if I worked on a mini for a month, something I've never done before. I am quite happy with where I ended up, congrats on all the finalists, and all the winners!
If there's one thing I always take away from these sorts of competitions it's that intermediate level is basically always obsessed with edge highlighting.
I think this makes sense when you think about why they qualify as that "level" of painter. - Beginner: Good, clean brushwork, solid colours across the model - Intermediate: Starting to consider how light works with the model, knowing where and how to highlight an edge to show this - Advanced: Considers how light interacts with the model completely, how it works with the different volumes and shapes. This means more blends and intricate lighting techniques. So I wouldn't say "obsessed" with edge highlighting, it's just an indicator of where they are with their painting
Your critique is super detailed and helpfull. It really helps the competitors to understand your reasoning and how to improve. Great job doing this and also thank you for the time to do it. Beeing a judge already takes time, but giving a super detailed critique? Super nice of you!
Wow. It is HARD to be succinct, yet clear when offering constructive feedback. I believe it when you said you did this twice. I am a writing professor, and I find myself re-recording my feedback all the time because it’s just so hard to say enough but not too much, and in the right way. This was fantastic.
Very nice to see you judge different levels of painting. People can learn a lot from this since it's very direct as well. Not 'mean', but it's nice to see you say what needs to be said for someone to grow. Well done!
Was very neat to see how you and Guy judged each piece and how different each of you judged each area. Your judging makes sense for you with your experience and Guy's judging makes sense for his. If I had a piece judged I would love to get this level of feedback on how to improve and be better at nailing competition judging.
Great video! Even though those are not my paintjobs it always gives me a better perspective what can be improved, especially when I see a painted mini, but am not sure what's not exactly right.
I 10,000% agree with you, I'm not a fan of integrated bases either. For, when the base is integrated into the piece, my eye STRUGGLES to find a NATURAL RESTING PLACE. It's just too busy. HOWEVER, I can see people with lightweight "OCD" tendencies drastically PREFERRING a smoother transition. It's kind of cool how one piece of art can be so divisive.
After watching the whole thing through I do think that some finalists could be easily replaced with the runner ups. In general, however, advice was well placed and hopefully painters will try to improve on things that were pointed out. Thanks for taking time and being a judge for the competition, that's mighty nice of you Trovarion!
Thanks Trovarion again for lending your expertise and suggestions. It takes a lot of guts and heart to offer honest and helpful feedback that is designed to help painters improve.
The zoom in is great when you're talking about different part of the miniatures, but when you start out with the composition, and I as the viewer is not shown the actual composition (because I am only shown zoomed in on a certain part of the figure) as a whole, I do not know what you're talking about. It can also be hard following your story telling over the miniatures when the pictures you're showing is moving, for me at least. I get this: "Uh, something new is getting into frame, what is it? Uh, it is moving, so what is now the center for my eyes to rest on"-feeling. Still, it is a treat to hear your judging and thought process, it really helps me out to expand my approach to miniature painting!
Not obvious on Guy's review, but clear on this one - the mirror image mini was 3d printed and I think the execution suffered from the clearly visible layer lines.
yeah, i hate print layers, but everytime I say it people comment that I overreact and "who cares" and when I don't mention them I get people saying "you should have called that out" - you can never do anything right on youtube ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@trovarion you gotta remember, even if you are exactly on what the "average viewer" wants there will be half the viewers wanting more and half the viewers wanting less off any given thing. Chances are, if you are being told to do both more and less of something, you're doing it right! (Yes I know I'm talking about median here not average but what is a "median viewer"...)
@@Arne_Z Your comment is excellent. It offered insightful reasoning for a perceived phenomenon (not being able to please everyone whatever you do). But it went further: talking about the "average viewer" and implying that this concept doesn't actually represent anyone. Deeply philosophical. The only gripe I had was that you were actually talking about the median and not the average... ...BUT THEN you adress even this at the end! Beautiful! Breathtaking! 10/10, five golden stars out of five, and a sticker on top. PS. No, this comment isn't sarcasm. It however tried to be funny. Whether it succeeded or not, I just wanted to say that I got such intense pleasure off of you correcting yourself that I wanted to say: thank you. And that's why I wrote a reaaaally long reply to a RUclips comment that's almost a year old... 😅
To be fair, the fine art world has a long history of discounting paintings which didn't match current fashions only to later be considered masterpieces. It's good that you are trying to be as fair as possible but also don't be too hard on yourself. Of course, I'm writing this at 3:32 so maybe at the end of the video I'll have an angry comment about how you are a terrible judge (though I doubt it)
One part of the judging criteria that you were given that I find particularly disagreeable is Execution, Primary, Finish, where it says "Is everything painted to an equal standard?". In my opinion, having everything painted to an equal standard is a bad thing. Of course I am not saying that parts should be unfinished, but, for centuries artists have been using the level of rendering to direct the eye to to different points of interest. Look at the old masters and you'll see that their focal areas are much more highly resolved than areas that are not focal.
You are not wrong - I think judges need to be aware of that and able to recognise that. That's a good example for why I said in the introduction that I will have to take this and melt it with my own judging criteria and experience :)
@@trovarion Agreed. I thought that your critique was fair and insightful throughout. I was just flagging this up to reinforce your point! Painting competitions are an inherently awkward thing, I think. Some folks will inevitably be dissatisfied. Thankfully, I think that most people in our community see them as events for meeting people, seeing others work, and sharing their work with others; and everyone wins from this!
Great vid, very fun and educational to watch! Just for laughs, I would love to see you judge or even hold a painting competition where the goal is to get the lowest score possible. The categories for judgement would be the exact reverse of the ones we had here so for example the more inconsistencies the better, OSL should be backwards and the base should have absolutely nothing to do with the models. It would still require a lot of effort, just in a different way than we're used to. =)
I would like to point out that 'giant' miniatures are, by definition, not miniatures at all. I would invite squidmar and anyone else to go invent their own hobby and to stop subverting mine.
35:44 is ebrietas from bloodborne of you didn't know, the colours are pretty spot on in reference to the game, the wings and tentacles are a little brighter in game though
Yes...still plenty of ways to make a mini more interesting, even if you try to be somewhat accurate to some source material. It's a mini painting comp, not a "who can stay true to X?" Comp.
Cyber Month Deal! Go to nordvpn.com/trovarion to get a 2-year plan plus 1 additional month with a huge discount.
you're not the only one who gets bothered by mold lines.
Im looking at getting back into the hobby and currently sucking up as much content as possible.
and back in the day i would spend hours cleaning up my minis!!!
I entered this competition, but my paint job wound up really bad. I tried multiple techniques that I'd never attempted before and it wound up not working out. I did have a ton of fun painting though, and this was the first competition I'd ever entered, but I was a bit discouraged. You are a very inspiring painter, when I saw you were one of the judges it made me want to join the competition. I love that your confident enough to judge paint jobs very critically, and find flaws where I'd never even fathom on some of these amazing works. I feel I've learned so much from watching you judge these.
To be honest, I am pretty sure your viewers wouldn't mind 6 hours video with good quality insight into painting mistakes
I painted the Wendigo in the advanced.
Thanks for the feedback, I agree with the points you made. I only half committed to what I wanted to do with the base (it was going to be more integrated), but getting the model onto it after building it up a bit was a nightmare so kept it simple. The scratches were honestly me just panicking, it was nearing the end of the time I had left to finish it and it was the third time I had painted the skin and still wasn't happy with it. I actually nearly didn't even enter it into the comp I doubted it all so much, and only really did because it was "done", so I'm just pleased that it even made it as a finalist!
The nature of the beast...I don't know how many times I painted 20 hours the day before a competition deadline :) You still painted a GREAT mini! ALWAYS enter if you can, it's always a chance to learn something! Keep going and have fun :)
@@trovarion Thank you, it was trying some new things and I had fun doing it still, and it's also a great opportunity to get feedback and learn from people such as yourself. On to the next one!
Hey Trovarion! Thank you so much for taking your time to judge our entries, and for your kind words. One of my primary goals when entering this contest was to get your feedback on my model, so I appreciate you being nit-picky since I'm looking to improve. Thanks again!
Best regards, the author of Murder of puppets
Incredible paint-job btw - really excellent!
Love that piece! Personal favorite
your piece was definitely my fave in terms of story telling. I love it so much. I esp. like the fact that his cape is SUPER bright but doesnt subtract anything from the front viewing angle. props!
I like your long critic videos. It gives a great insight in what is considered a good mini from many different viewpoints and skill levels. You are super supportive for the beginners and that is really motivating. Thank you!
My only issue with the puppeteer is that the pictures are so over edited. I wanna see it irl
# release the trovarion 8hrs directors cut!
Mould lines also through me off when looking at miniatures in general, but especially when they are used for competition and display, but shouldn't the same be said for print lines? Many entries that where unique, where clearly 3d printed and had that distracting stepping pattern.
Yeah, I thought the same thing.
Fun to see you juge this, i just watched midwinther minis juge the same stuff, and you are much more critic of them, and i agree with you much more
Another funny thing: Except for the Advanced category my judging is completely opposite to the endresults too...lol. In any case...I just wanted to give as much feedback and possible and hopefully some people will learn a bit here and there :)
Midwinter is a great guy (his name) but a terrible choice for a judge, he's a casual level of painter, not a ultra competitive painter like our gentleman here.
@@jeancouscous And, well, he's colourblind
@@jeancouscous what exactly constitutes casual to you? Sounds a bit dismissive.
@@DustyLamp ...not competetive? its right there in his sentence...
I guess i would have ranked the Fireplace OSL piece higher. It´s a common theme - yes - and for really experienced painters it might become a novelty - but as a "middle ground" painter myself i still think it´s really something that´s not easy to do... but maybe i just would have a hard time doing it :D
Hello Christoph! Thanks for taking the time to do this rundown and honest critique.
Very much appreciated. Everyone should have something to take away.
And like I said to Guy and the other judges.... The feed back is a prize in itself!
It was myself that did Chucky and I've had truly fantastic feedback and food for thought.
This is the first comp I've entered so to make it alongside the other finalists, with and the quality of them, I'm just delighted. And with confidence to go forward (confident, not cocky :)
I knew the puppet master would take top spot. Exceptional!
Thanks again bro! :)
Great insight! When I was looking at the one that used the LED to cast the red on it, I wondered why he didn’t use the lighted picture as a guide for actually painting the osl effect.
Thinking that also, should definitely use it to actually paint it like that
I ranked 6th on the intermediate / small category, honestly I wanted to see how much I can push myself if I worked on a mini for a month, something I've never done before. I am quite happy with where I ended up, congrats on all the finalists, and all the winners!
awesome mate! I am happy that you had fun pushing yourself!
If there's one thing I always take away from these sorts of competitions it's that intermediate level is basically always obsessed with edge highlighting.
I think this makes sense when you think about why they qualify as that "level" of painter.
- Beginner: Good, clean brushwork, solid colours across the model
- Intermediate: Starting to consider how light works with the model, knowing where and how to highlight an edge to show this
- Advanced: Considers how light interacts with the model completely, how it works with the different volumes and shapes. This means more blends and intricate lighting techniques.
So I wouldn't say "obsessed" with edge highlighting, it's just an indicator of where they are with their painting
Your critique is super detailed and helpfull. It really helps the competitors to understand your reasoning and how to improve. Great job doing this and also thank you for the time to do it. Beeing a judge already takes time, but giving a super detailed critique? Super nice of you!
Wow. It is HARD to be succinct, yet clear when offering constructive feedback. I believe it when you said you did this twice. I am a writing professor, and I find myself re-recording my feedback all the time because it’s just so hard to say enough but not too much, and in the right way. This was fantastic.
Very nice to see you judge different levels of painting. People can learn a lot from this since it's very direct as well. Not 'mean', but it's nice to see you say what needs to be said for someone to grow. Well done!
You are the best miniatures painter on YT, skill-culture-imagination-wise.
Never stop.
1:35 I would actually watch a 6 hour video of you giving feedback!
Super informative video. Really made me think about my own painting.
Was very neat to see how you and Guy judged each piece and how different each of you judged each area. Your judging makes sense for you with your experience and Guy's judging makes sense for his. If I had a piece judged I would love to get this level of feedback on how to improve and be better at nailing competition judging.
You are so generous with your knowledge and time. Renews my faith in humanity!
Very nice video, as a beginner It gives me a new appreciation for the hobby
Great video! Even though those are not my paintjobs it always gives me a better perspective what can be improved, especially when I see a painted mini, but am not sure what's not exactly right.
I 10,000% agree with you, I'm not a fan of integrated bases either. For, when the base is integrated into the piece, my eye STRUGGLES to find a NATURAL RESTING PLACE.
It's just too busy.
HOWEVER, I can see people with lightweight "OCD" tendencies drastically PREFERRING a smoother transition.
It's kind of cool how one piece of art can be so divisive.
After watching the whole thing through I do think that some finalists could be easily replaced with the runner ups. In general, however, advice was well placed and hopefully painters will try to improve on things that were pointed out. Thanks for taking time and being a judge for the competition, that's mighty nice of you Trovarion!
thank you!
Thanks Trovarion again for lending your expertise and suggestions. It takes a lot of guts and heart to offer honest and helpful feedback that is designed to help painters improve.
these were all dope! love this video! The last two were insane, that marrionette or w.e you call a puppetier was amazing!
You have some wild takes on some of these but pretty fair for the most part
That puppet model was sick
24:30 ish, what's 'cell shading' I think you said?
If you google 'cel shading" and check out the pictures you will get a good idea :)
Very generous video and very enjoyable. Great job
I didn't have the confidence to enter.
I see that this time you remembered to record it ;)
I dont think you posted the link for the 3rd art peice
Ah damn...I forgot...thanks for reminding!
@@trovarion No worries!
You could have tricked us at the beginning by saying. All of them are ten out ten! Thanks for watching guys.
I wouldn't mind listening to your smooth jazz voice for 6h
Just sayin
First view do I get a prize lol
The zoom in is great when you're talking about different part of the miniatures, but when you start out with the composition, and I as the viewer is not shown the actual composition (because I am only shown zoomed in on a certain part of the figure) as a whole, I do not know what you're talking about.
It can also be hard following your story telling over the miniatures when the pictures you're showing is moving, for me at least. I get this: "Uh, something new is getting into frame, what is it? Uh, it is moving, so what is now the center for my eyes to rest on"-feeling.
Still, it is a treat to hear your judging and thought process, it really helps me out to expand my approach to miniature painting!
This is a really awesome format for a video! I should try posting some of my painting on this Reddit :D
I now really want to attempt painting a large demon with red OSL from below to see if you can match the trick effect!
That murder of puppets was amazing!
Great video
man, every time i watch you i wanna go back to painting..
i would watch the 6h version too XD
Great video, thanks for the insight
awesome
It's really cool of you to do this, Trov
Man, these critiques are ruthlessness
Wants to see everything from one angle but deducts points if you don't make all angles look good ;P
*wants to have a designated viewing angle. I fixed it for you.
What are you going to paint in your next video?
Ohhh I love these videos
Not obvious on Guy's review, but clear on this one - the mirror image mini was 3d printed and I think the execution suffered from the clearly visible layer lines.
yeah, i hate print layers, but everytime I say it people comment that I overreact and "who cares" and when I don't mention them I get people saying "you should have called that out" - you can never do anything right on youtube ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@trovarion you gotta remember, even if you are exactly on what the "average viewer" wants there will be half the viewers wanting more and half the viewers wanting less off any given thing. Chances are, if you are being told to do both more and less of something, you're doing it right!
(Yes I know I'm talking about median here not average but what is a "median viewer"...)
@@Arne_Z Your comment is excellent. It offered insightful reasoning for a perceived phenomenon (not being able to please everyone whatever you do). But it went further: talking about the "average viewer" and implying that this concept doesn't actually represent anyone. Deeply philosophical. The only gripe I had was that you were actually talking about the median and not the average...
...BUT THEN you adress even this at the end! Beautiful! Breathtaking! 10/10, five golden stars out of five, and a sticker on top.
PS. No, this comment isn't sarcasm. It however tried to be funny. Whether it succeeded or not, I just wanted to say that I got such intense pleasure off of you correcting yourself that I wanted to say: thank you. And that's why I wrote a reaaaally long reply to a RUclips comment that's almost a year old... 😅
I want to know Who appointed this guy as an expert on art. What are his credentials?
So many dark mood entries...!
that was the theme of the competition
Have you found your Ber and Jah rune yet?
It's literally the only 2 high runes I found, so now I am a poor person with an enigma!
: )
Finally someone ill re subb to Nordvpn for after their security blunder a while back they did well in sorting that out.
To be fair, the fine art world has a long history of discounting paintings which didn't match current fashions only to later be considered masterpieces. It's good that you are trying to be as fair as possible but also don't be too hard on yourself. Of course, I'm writing this at 3:32 so maybe at the end of the video I'll have an angry comment about how you are a terrible judge (though I doubt it)
One part of the judging criteria that you were given that I find particularly disagreeable is Execution, Primary, Finish, where it says "Is everything painted to an equal standard?". In my opinion, having everything painted to an equal standard is a bad thing. Of course I am not saying that parts should be unfinished, but, for centuries artists have been using the level of rendering to direct the eye to to different points of interest. Look at the old masters and you'll see that their focal areas are much more highly resolved than areas that are not focal.
You are not wrong - I think judges need to be aware of that and able to recognise that. That's a good example for why I said in the introduction that I will have to take this and melt it with my own judging criteria and experience :)
@@trovarion Agreed. I thought that your critique was fair and insightful throughout. I was just flagging this up to reinforce your point! Painting competitions are an inherently awkward thing, I think. Some folks will inevitably be dissatisfied. Thankfully, I think that most people in our community see them as events for meeting people, seeing others work, and sharing their work with others; and everyone wins from this!
Great vid, very fun and educational to watch!
Just for laughs, I would love to see you judge or even hold a painting competition where the goal is to get the lowest score possible. The categories for judgement would be the exact reverse of the ones we had here so for example the more inconsistencies the better, OSL should be backwards and the base should have absolutely nothing to do with the models. It would still require a lot of effort, just in a different way than we're used to. =)
I would like to point out that 'giant' miniatures are, by definition, not miniatures at all.
I would invite squidmar and anyone else to go invent their own hobby and to stop subverting mine.
On the contrary, if something isn't 1:1 in scale, then it's a miniature.
35:44 is ebrietas from bloodborne of you didn't know, the colours are pretty spot on in reference to the game, the wings and tentacles are a little brighter in game though
Yes...still plenty of ways to make a mini more interesting, even if you try to be somewhat accurate to some source material. It's a mini painting comp, not a "who can stay true to X?" Comp.