My painting time has been a bit limited over the summer, but I did manage to finish updated my pirate orc vignette in time for NOVA's Capital Palette competition. Here's a look at the finished piece. The main orc is pretty much the same, I added some color to the knuckles and feet plus some stains on the pants, but that's about it. The rest, however, went through more extensive revisions. I repainted the face on the goblin and the highlights on the hat to give it some more pop. The base was pretty rushed so I at least had something to enter at KublaCon. I decided to add a little more to the scene, placing a case of run in the front and a knocked over bottle behind the orc. I went over the wood with a variety of glazes to give it a stained look with a lot more nuance and visual interest. Then I added some blood stains/streaks and a bit of bird poop on the back. I didn't want to go overboard, but I spoke with Krzysztof Kobalczyk at NOVA and apparently he wished I had put even more bird poop on the base.
Looking at the piece some more, I feel like I could have also added some weathering to the goblin. Perhaps some splotches and stains on his coat for example. I don't have plans to take it to any more shows, but if that changes maybe I'll go in and add a bit more detail to it.
I brought this piece with me to the NOVA Open and used Gurkan, the main orc figure, to teach a class on painting large-scale display figures. It was a 6 hour workshop, so we have time to tackle a couple different topics including painting skin, leather textures, and cloth (including stripes). I had a blast teaching the class and was really happy with all of the students progress. I also loved seeing one of the students, Karen M., finish her figure afterward and enter it into the Capital Palette painting competition. She did a fantastic job and ended up with a silver in the apprentice division!
I entered my piece into the Masterclass division and ended up winning Best in Category with it for diorama. Overall it was a great show. I had fun teaching and taking some classes too. There was a fantastic group of instructors covering a ton of subjects. This was my first time traveling to a show since before covid, so I had a great time catching up with old friends, finally meeting a bunch of online friends in person, and getting to know some new friends as well.
The painting competition had a lot of really impressive entries. There was a lot of impressive work from around the US as well as some international entries. The show is judged on the open system, so there are multiple gold, silver, and bronze medals awarded in each category. However, the standard for medals was the toughest I've seen in the US so far. For example, the piece I'd won Best of Show with at KublaCon ended up with a silver at NOVA. And looking at the other entries, there were clearly pieces that were a level above it and I completely agree with the judges decisions. I ended up with two silvers and two golds. The golds were for my most recent pieces (these pirates and the Neko Galaxy figure I finished), so it's nice to see that growth over this past year. And it's nice to see the additional work I did to improve the pirates was worth the effort.
I would definitely recommend NOVA's Capital Palette to anyone interested in competing. You'll see some amazing figures in person, which I've found to be a huge help in my own painting journey. Just be aware this is going to be a tough competition and force you to push yourself. The show also has three divisions: apprentice, journeyman, and masterclass. So even if you're not an experience competition painter, you can still find a place to enter your work and be judged at the appropriate level. Whichever level you're in, the judging is still tough, but that also means if you do win something you should feel proud of the accomplishment. I'm excited to go back next year and know I've got to come up with something even better if I want to do well.
