Well, it seems like my time has come to say goodbye…
I have to say that this was a fun contest, even if people who dropped out shortened it up. Thanks Bill and Iron Wind Metals for allowing us the chance to compete. It was a real inspiration for me to be involved and a real honor to make it as far as I did. Thanks to all who voted and left feedback on the contestant's entries.
Now a couple of things that bothered me - but did not surprise me in any way - were the schemes and the attitudes of some of the members of TMP. Now this is not exclusive to TMP, but seen throughout the hobby where fantasy and sci-fi collides. It seems that those who paint mainly fantasy works think that those of us who do mainly mecha or sci-fi can't paint. Well, I hope this contest may have changed a few points of views out there about the skill involved. Trying to make a 2" hunk of metal look 30 meters tall is a different process than making that same 2" metal figure look 6-foot-tall.
On the scheme selection, I feel that the choices of schemes were more chosen as a slap in the face more than as a real selection of challenges for the artist. I hope that if a contest like this is ever run in the future, that more consideration and thought would go into what would make a challenge and make sense in the scale of things. I mean, really, Cheese, Art Deco, and Eveningwear has no place in a serious contest of skill, no matter what the mini may be.
I believe that the schemes and attitudes may have contributed to some of the contestants dropping out or not having the desire to compete anymore.
Those that also wanted bye-rounds when people dropped missed the whole spirit of the contest, which is to see who can take the pressure and remain to the end. Having a bye-round would have taken away from the heart of the contest, even if it would have made it last longer.
OK, now that I’m done with the negative part, I would like to say that I really learned a lot from all of the entries, and I see a real tough choice for those in the final rounds.
I wish I had pictures to show you some of my other work, but due to a major computer crash, they remained locked in the old hard drive until I can recover them. If you would like to see more of my work, you can go to camospecs.com and look in the artist gallery for "Sounguru."
I would also suggest that you look at some of the other great work on the site. Thanks again to Bill and his wonderful work on the TMP site, I have gained quite a few tips and ideas from this site, and will continue to be a regular visitor.