Crystal Brush 2013 results

We have a new Crystal Brush winner!


The grand prize went this time to Jeremie Bonamant with this piece, "Game 08 Life":


Game 08 Life by Jeremie Bonamant
A truly wonderful piece which serves as the comeback for the legendary Bonamant, lost in Africa for three years for an amazing adventure biking around the continent. It seems like he is back for good, and how good!

Remember emuse's indiegogo campaign to get to Crystal Brush this year? Well the effort finally paid off! Second position for his wonderful diorama "The Walking Dead".


The Walking Dead by Enrique Velasco
Third position went to our beloved Raffaele Picca, with this amazing monster of nature being hunt down, in "Touch of Death":


Touch of Death by Raffaele Picca
Apparently winners this year were really really close! Quite a battle indeed, and a lot of effort must have been required from poor monkey judge Mr. Roman Lappat (with the help of all the voting CoolMiniOrNot community). These other remarkable entries were left out of the juicy prizes:


The Steam Piper of Hamelin by Matt Cexwish

So High de Marc Masclans y Diego Esteban
We have been told that there were lots of entries in Crystal Brush this year, but that there was a big gap in quality between the really impressive ones and the rest. Despite this, it seems that the number of great entries is growing slowly in this contest. Let's see if next year's Crystal Brush follows the trend!

As for now, congrats to all winners! Also, good to see some Spanish representation in the podium once again, keep up guys!

Crystal Brush 2013 this weekend

This weekend Chicago hold's the third edition of CoolMiniOrNot's $10,000 prize contest: Crystal Brush!


Previous editions saw this contest establish and consolidate, but this year seems the confirmation. Many reknown artists have confirmed their presence in this year's edition, something that will definitely make it more interesting.

As you can see, I also didn't make it this year, I already have the calendar filled with events and contests I want to attend so Crystal Brush will have to wait a little more for me. But two spaniards will be there to fight again for the big prize! Good luck to Enrique (emuse) and Marc (mesklins)! We are very excited to see what you guys have created for this special occassion! Also, Spain has dominated Crystal Brush since its creation! (Alfonso-Diego silver in 2011, Diego silver in 2012 and Jose-Hugo gold in 2012).

There will be other great friends attending from other countries. Matt Cexwish, Raffaele Picca, Conrad Mynett... Roman Lappat will be judge (help him by voting your preferred miniatures on Sunday in CoolMini's website) and I also heard Michael Bartels will be there to make some noise! Good luck to all of you! Enjoy the trip and may the best mini win!

Expanding The Library

In my opinion, wargamers are a natural mine of future serious painters. I was kind of a gamer back in the day, before I got lured into our little world of colour. That is why I consider that wargamers interested in the artistic part of the hobby should be carefully guided into the vast knowledge that exists around painting, which is overwhelming for them in most cases.


Classic old school gamer discovering his real passion: miniatures.
A few weeks ago I was imparting a painting class to gamers (you might remember my post on Festival de Espadas) and I noticed the big disconnection existing between gamers and painters. Even for tabletop painting purposes, there are a few things that I think are essential. To this purpose, I've decided to start a series of articles which will cover basic aspects of miniature painting, such as the palette, preparation of a miniature, priming, etc. I will continue in time to cover more advanced topics of painting.


The new incoming Library in Volomir's Blog
Even though there's tons of articles around the internet about it (the world is full of tutorials nowadays), I thought that I could do some good if I finished off some articles that I already have near completely written since long ago. All of the things that I will present here are obviously tips and tricks, basic stuff that most of the people already know (or don't), and also deeper thoughts on how I personally paint (there is no absolute truth in anything, this is no exact science). So, in the next few months you will find in the blog some articles talking about basic concepts of the miniature painting world. If you have any doubt or question about any of the topics, or if you want to share your own point of view and add stuff to the articles, you know you can contact me by either mail, facebook or leaving a comment in the blog. I'm looking forward to your feedback!

Back from Berlin (Painting Buddha style)

I'm back from Berlin!


What a nice week surrounded by the most amazing people. There is a lot going on in Painting Buddha and I encourage you guys to follow what they are doing because there are some really cool proposals being cooked as I write these lines and the products that they will be releasing in the next few months are some of the best quality creations that we can see in the market currently.


Obviously I'm not going to speak about the triple DVD in which I have just participated because my impressions would be a bit subjective... but seriously, the talent that they have, the care that they put in all their work and especially the passion that they are throwing in (the company is practically non-for-profit so the prices are surprisingly low) really make a difference.


I'd say that what we will see released in the coming times is the result of a group of people absolutely in love with our hobby who have received so much from the miniature painting community that they are now going to give back a lot of that love by doing what they do best.


And the best part is that I sincerely had a lot of fun!