SeBM said:
@ AllSeeingSkink: Like I told MI_Tiger, Most entries could have won a similar contest had the competition not been so high. Your spirder riders were really nice. I think what made me vote for something else in the end is that while the whole unit was excellent, I would've have love to see a tad bit more color on the golbins. But hey, I don't even finish my own stuff, who am I to comment on other people's work

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Yeah, I'm not disappointed with the result, I was just being silly

The Spiders were painted to fit into a large horde army which is why I kept the colour variation down. I find hordes look best with 2 brightish primary colours which tie the army together (in my case green skin with red highlights) then 1 or 2 secondary colours (like browns or darker/duller colours) to keep the horde looking cohesive. Though since this was for a painting contest I should have been more adventurous. After painting the first 5 goblins (as I painted them in batches of 5) I regretted not using a 2nd brown for the loincloth and a different colour for the feather, but oh well, they turned out well and I think they did well considering the competition.
A couple of comments on the other entries that I thought looked like they deserved more votes than they got...
I really liked the orange skinks, the standard of painting was really high, I think they were let down by the base, the strong contrast between black and white on the base took away from the subtle contrast on the actual model, and indeed each individual skink base is done brilliantly. The skinks were my personal favourite, but I didn't even notice how great they were until a 2nd or 3rd glance because of that. I'm sure they would have gotten more votes if you'd photographed them on a pure white sheet because the models themselves look awesome.
I also liked the Ghouls, but they didn't make the short list for my voting because I couldn't see them clearly enough. They look good, but you can't tell from the pictures supplied. I think if you'd set up an area which got indirect natural lighting to cut down on the reflections and improve the colour separation in the photography, it would have highlighted the great work you did painting them, because they do look good, its just hard to see in the photos.
I also thought the Boar Boyz were great, they would have been my 3rd choice. There were just so many great entries, I feel previlaged the Spider Riders got the 10 votes they did, especially since they were basically (carefully) speed painted.