Competitive Painting Etiquettes

Competitive Painting Etiquettes

If you have been around hobby for some times you might’ve heard announcements around your local store about miniature painting competitions or converting competitions. These 2 events might not be as big as your tournaments but they do attract certain crowds. Some competition prizes goes as high as $10,000 like the Crystal Brush (hosted by CoolMiniOrNot) for example. Believe it or not, while not as “competitive” as tournament goes, people do take these types of competitions seriously. Like any competitions/tournaments, they each have their own rules and regulations to follow. But what if there are some gray areas that were found and even the organizers don’t even know how to rule them out? This is where you, as painter, have to think what is ethically right. What does it mean to be behaving according to the unwritten rule or etiquettes?
Do remember that a painting competition is usually a judged event. Whether it is community judging or a panel of judges, the event is entirely up to the organizers. Since it is a judged event, it is almost entirely up to the judge(s) to determine who the winner is. Now let’s take a look at some of etiquettes that you should know before entering any competitive painting events.

#1: DO NOT ENTER MODELS THAT YOU DID NOT PAINT YOURSELF!
This goes without saying! Blatant plagiarism is notorious in the local level and usually the scale of the competition is so small, the plagiarist (or I call them D-bags) just get disqualifications. I am pretty sure there are higher consequences for international contests or bigger contests in general. This is like finishing a paper for your college exam by doing exact copy paste and turning it in with your name. I’ve witnessed this first hand where a model that my friend painted being turned in onto a competition that I was competing in. What’s even worse, the D-bag didn’t even feel the remorse for doing it when we (the organizer, my friend, and I – in front of a recording camera) confronted him. Please, have some respect to the painter and the model!

#2: DO NOT ENTER MODELS THAT ALREADY WON SOMETHING (without any modifications)
This is another simple etiquette that people usually have to be reminded by the organizers when they sign up. It is also usually in the rules and regulations of the competition. If you have won using the model, you shouldn’t enter it in other competition without making modifications to it. What kind of modifications are we talking about? Changing the skin color of the model, completely stripping the paint and paint it over, or adding 2 more layers of highlights are just some of the examples of modifications that you need to do before you enter the model into a different painting competition. Why is this a problem? Imagine the winner of Golden Demon or Crystal Brush turning the same models over and over knowing that it’s the best paint job in the entire competition. There will be no chances for him to grow as a painter by painting something new and there will be no chances for newer painters to win against him/her.

#3: DO CONGRATULATE YOUR OPPONENTS AFTER A WIN OR A LOSS (good sportsmanship)
Like how gamers shake hands after a game is finished, this shows sportsmanship. No one likes a sore loser, or even worse, a bad winner. There’s actually a certain kind of satisfaction shaking your opponent’s hand (even though you lost) and say “Congratulations, awesome work!” or somewhere along the same line. And to be honest, I rather be beaten by a bad painter that has good sportsmanship rather than a good painter with bad sportsmanship.

#4: DO BRING YOUR A-GAME!
Whether it is a small local competition or a huge international competition, do train yourself to bring your A-game. This means don’t bring your half finished work and turn it in expecting it to win something because there is no other entry in the category. The judges have the right to cancel a category out and you will be sh*t-out-of-luck. I’ve been in competition where the judge should’ve cancelled the category out because there’s only 1 entry but gave the guy what he deserved because it was a really well painted model.

#5: BE ON TIME!
This goes with everything in general. Pay attention to the time schedule that was given by the organizers. If they say 12pm is the last time you can turn in your model, then you should be there to enter your model at 11:45am. Because writing down your information and the model handling et cetera does take some time to get it right. You don’t want to rush the organizers because usually they are part of the judging panel and piss them off, and you don’t want to rush them in the risk of mishandling your information or your models. Relaxed and happy judge insures a smooth event!

These are just some of the etiquettes that I picked up according to my experiences in the competitive painting scene. If you have any other unwritten rule that you go by or organizers should know by now, please drop'em in the comment box down below. I'd love to hear what you guys think about this. Until then, Mars OUT!