Dinosaur toy forum diorama contest 2015 - Results

[Viking Spawn]

Congrats to the entries and winners listed above!  It was a fun contest!   

[triceratops83]

I just want to say a big Thank You to Dr Admin for organizing the contest. This was my first time participating and it was a lot of fun. My favourite was number 40 - Expedition Archive Photo #21, Central Africa 1933.

[Libraraptor]

All three winners were on my list, too! Congratulations! I liked "Unexpected guests" for both the ambivalence (WHO are the unexpected guests? The bears or the humans?) and I liked the winner diorama for the powerful sauropods looking like real dinosaurs in a real landscape!
But my favourite was  number 40 - Expedition Archive Photo #21, Central Africa 1933 because it was completely out of the ordinary. And I liked this Triassic diorama with all those burrowing little mammal - like reptiles
Unfortunately I missed participating this year due to tons of work. 

[docronnie]

3 got it - Irimali, Boki and Dinomike.  Congrats everyone! 

[Carnosaur]

Thanks again everyone!
I'm still surprised as there were a lot of really good submissions this time around.
I had several favorites myself. 6. 8. 22. 24. 25. 33. 42. 47. 52. and 61.
There was a lot of great shots this time around.

I'd also like to invite all these photo artists to join my facebook group Dinosaur Toy Photography
https://www.facebook.com/groups/217092875144407/

I'd love to see and share more of your work guys.

[Gwangi]

I just want to say a big Thank You to Dr Admin for organizing the contest. This was my first time participating and it was a lot of fun. My favourite was number 40 - Expedition Archive Photo #21, Central Africa 1933.

Thanks! And thanks to Libra as well. Glad you guys liked my entry. I'll be posting about it in my diorama thread shortly.

[Doug Watson]

Congratulations to Carnosaur for the winning photo, that was the photo that impressed me the most, and congratulations to everyone who took the time to enter.

Special congratulations to irimali, your entry was my # 1 vote this year and last year and nice to see you moved from 3rd to 2nd this year. Having worked as a diorama artist your traditional dioramas truly impress me especially the atmosphere you create with your colour palette and photography. I was very impressed how the colouring of the the two dinosaurs blended with the tone of the diorama.
I have to ask are those scratch built dinosaur models and did you paint them?

[Arul]

Irimali, i hope someday you show how the process of the making of your diorama for the contest, i really love your entry last year and this year all pure handmade thats what make your diorama special 

[postsaurischian]

I have to repeat that request: irimali, please let us know more about your wonderful diorama!

[PaleoMatt]

Surprising results!

[irimali]

Congratulations to Carnosaur for the winning photo, that was the photo that impressed me the most, and congratulations to everyone who took the time to enter.

Special congratulations to irimali, your entry was my # 1 vote this year and last year and nice to see you moved from 3rd to 2nd this year. Having worked as a diorama artist your traditional dioramas truly impress me especially the atmosphere you create with your colour palette and photography. I was very impressed how the colouring of the the two dinosaurs blended with the tone of the diorama.
I have to ask are those scratch built dinosaur models and did you paint them?

Thank You!  It's an honor to have a professional appreciate my work.  I did build the dinosaurs from scratch.  They're mostly paper mache with some cotton and beeswax to smooth them out.  I need to refine the technique a little but the skin texture was done with poppy seeds and amaranth seeds pressed into gesso before painting.  It came out a little rougher than I'd hoped.  I'll post some making of pics soon!

Irimali, i hope someday you show how the process of the making of your diorama for the contest, i really love your entry last year and this year all pure handmade thats what make your diorama special 

I have to repeat that request: irimali, please let us know more about your wonderful diorama!

Thank you both!  I'll be posting some process pics soon!   

[Doug Watson]

Thank You!  It's an honor to have a professional appreciate my work.  I did build the dinosaurs from scratch.  They're mostly paper mache with some cotton and beeswax to smooth them out.  I need to refine the technique a little but the skin texture was done with poppy seeds and amaranth seeds pressed into gesso before painting.  It came out a little rougher than I'd hoped.  I'll post some making of pics soon!

Wow! I am even more impressed, scratch built with good old ingenuity, no high tech process or materials, very nice. You could have told me you bought some figures and painted them and I would have believed you. In large scale dioramas building to the level of detail that is only required by the depth is one of the tricks that some people never get. You may think they were rough but they were a complete success for what you needed in this form of competition. Plus I love your paint scheme on the dinosaurs. Great job, I hope you keep competing. 

[irimali]

Thank You!  It's an honor to have a professional appreciate my work.  I did build the dinosaurs from scratch.  They're mostly paper mache with some cotton and beeswax to smooth them out.  I need to refine the technique a little but the skin texture was done with poppy seeds and amaranth seeds pressed into gesso before painting.  It came out a little rougher than I'd hoped.  I'll post some making of pics soon!

Wow! I am even more impressed, scratch built with good old ingenuity, no high tech process or materials, very nice. You could have told me you bought some figures and painted them and I would have believed you. In large scale dioramas building to the level of detail that is only required by the depth is one of the tricks that some people never get. You may think they were rough but they were a complete success for what you needed in this form of competition. Plus I love your paint scheme on the dinosaurs. Great job, I hope you keep competing.

I actually used pretty cheap materials for the whole diorama.  The conifer branches are yarn and wire and the ferns are a mix of acrylic paint and elmer's glue.

[Federreptil]

Dear Irimali, I can't wait to see the making-of and more details of your diorama. Please hurry on. Because of your creative look to ordinary things and their potential for a jurassic landscape, the suspense is killing me. I think, my attempts are a more heavily builted.

[Georassic]

Congratulations to all the honorees. Well done. But I think irimali has redefined the concept of diorama for a lot of us. Amazing work.

[dreadmane]

Thanks everyone for your votes and congratulations to the winners, great dioramas this year! I looked at last years dioramas and though I should do something different, Iam glad you liked my Neanderthals and cave bears .

[Bokisaurus]

Congratulations to the top 3 winners and the other 2 honorees! It was truly a fun and exciting contest!
Glad that my top 2 favorites won the first and second place.
And a BIG THANK YOU to all those who voted for my diorama, Blue Lagoon # 47, I'm very happy that you all liked it. It was indeed a tough race with only 1 vote separating 4th and 5th place

[sauroid]

four out of the six who won i voted for
(the impact of Irimali's diorama at first glance is really powerful btw, so instantly clicked his #. "Uninvited guests" is so dramatic and cinematic so i voted for it too, my two other picks who made it were Boki's and triceratops83's dioramas)

[Turret]

I voted for four of these (25 and 8 of the winners, 47 and 3 of the runners up). Congratulations everyone, looking at the hard work you put in the dioramas is always fun 

[LaaskaZaika]

I have a few favorites I wanted to mention.  #8-"Unexpected Guests" i thought was unique and a very well done photo. 

#33-"Here Comes Trouble" had some nice jurassic  period appropriate vegetation. The handmade miniature cycads and conifers blend well with the outdoor background.  And the interaction between the models is convincing too.

Same for #43-"Confronting the Raging Tyrants."  Nice model interaction and good use of small plants to keep a sense of scale.

#57-"His Domain/Triassic Sunset" is a very natural feeling shot of animals in their environment.  And I realize I keep mentioning plants but the moss used in the foreground works well as a scaled down version of triassic club mosses like lycopodites.

#60-"Gardeners of the River".  Again, dinosaurs in a fitting dinosaur era environment.  Whatever the ground cover plant is it looks like ferns and the branches in the foreground work as a miniature conifer like podocarpus.  My favorite of the outdoor shots.

# 64-"Terror Stalks Lakeside".  If we had voted based on seeing the dioramas in person, rather than in photos I think it would have won.  It's a whole handmade (and accurate) environment.

Thanks irimali for your Terror Stalks Lakeside comment.  I truly appreciate all of your incredibly detailed work.  Yours was my favorite to win.