Arcane Brush 2021 Winners

We are pleased to announce the winners of our inaugural painting competition; The Arcane Brush!

A huge thank you to everyone that entered, we were blown away with all the entries. It’s been a blast seeing the huge amounts of effort people put into their models, it was very difficult to choose only three to be the winners, and top spot taking home a Flashforge Foto 8.9! We received such a variety of entries too. There’s even a good mix between resin and FDM showing that is not all about the equipment you have but the care and thought that goes into the entry.

Look over all the entries into the competition in the Arcane Immortals Gallery

So without further ado, we present our top 3:

1st Place: Nikole Courtney – Witch’s Hovel with Tree Creatures

Mike: Nikole did an excellent paint job on the Witch’s Hovel and surrounding Trees/Tree Creatures. Her paintwork is smooth and she’s chosen her colors well to give the wood an ethereal glow that looks fantastic, whilst still looking realistic. The dark background sets a gloomy mood to the piece which is the perfect tone for the Witch’s Hovel. The foliage is well placed and uses a variety of textures that is eye-catching without distracting from the models. The Hovel makes an excellent centerpiece, the placement of foliage really brings the tree to life! Well done Nikole!

Johnny: I love painting wood, it’s so fun and rewarding and I’ve created some great shortcuts to get a realistic look with actual wood stains. What I’ve never tried is painstakingly airbrushing, washing, and dry brushing up entire trees to create something that would look at home in a Frank Frazetta painting. And yeah, I know it’s a painting comp, but the choices in foliage color create such a fantastical setting when all these pieces come together, it’s so great to see my personal additions of Tree creatures really complement the existing range at Printable Scenery.  

Matt: I love that Nikole has combined pieces from three different ranges but you wouldn’t know it, she’s brought them together beautifully. I’m also a big fan of the different colors used for the wood between the different pieces, with the foliage varying too, even though they are similar sculpts they look like different species of tree.

2nd Place: Storm Hajnal – Feywild Bower

Mike: Storm has perfectly captured the atmosphere and feel of a dark forest with her miniature version of the Feywild Bower. Her scratch-built display, with a hand-painted backdrop, really highlights the dark and gloomy nature of the Feywild without distracting from the miniature. The LED lighting is tastefully done, adding atmosphere without detracting from the paint job. She’s also been creative in scaling down the print to a very small size, showing how versatile 3d printing is as a creative medium. Those branches are tiny and she’s still managed to highlight and shade them all without breaking!

Johnny: My favorite movies are ones like Labyrinth or Box trolls where you know everything in frame has been created practically by talented craft persons. Storm has captured the look of a studio-sized set piece that would be at home in Terry Gilliam’s ‘Brothers Grimm film at a scale you could fit in your palm. Truly breathtaking. The extra effort of a hand-painted backdrop brings it back to Henson’s and Laika environments for me too, and as someone who actually lives in an old wooden house in the middle of a forest I fell in love with this piece and would love to try to create something similar one day myself and fit it into a nook somewhere at home.

Matt: What an excellent display of what you can do with 3d printing! Even at such a small scale Storm has highlighted the details of the Bower wonderfully. The lighting inside adds such a cool atmosphere, if I was lost in the woods and saw that I’d definitely go inside. She’s done a great job of capturing the mood of the Shadowfey, love it!

3rd Place: Jeremy Gard – The Manor Inn

Mike: There were a few Manor Inns entered into the painting competition, showing its popularity as a set for both modelers and gamers. It’s the little touches that really bring this entry to life, like the different kinds of grass for the different areas of the model; with neat, bright mown grass out the front and the rougher, weed-strewn grass around the back and side. The miniatures on his entry compliment the piece rather than distract from it as does the use of scatter pieces like the street signs, trees, and stables. You can tell he’s put a huge amount of thought behind this piece. He also tells me the interior is fully painted too, he’s included the basement with another secret trapdoor leading into a dungeon!

Johnny: What an epically majestic piece. I saw this and immediately wanted to be part of this guy’s gaming group. When someone can render a functioning piece of gaming terrain to look like it’s a screengrab from a video game you know you have found some serious skills. I love the subtlety of colors chosen here, cohesively connecting everything visually while showing the clearly different materials used in construction. Very cool work. 

Matt: Surely this is what every RPG group dreams of playing on. Jeremy has made excellent use of the OpenLOCK system to not only replicate but enhance the Manor Inn. If I was an adventurer here I’d never want to leave, and it looks like there’s enough going on that you wouldn’t have to! Jeremy has excelled with this range and shows that you can achieve great results with OpenLOCK tiles, can’t wait to see what he does next!