Dinosaur Diorama Contest 2012 – winners!

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I’m pleased to announce the results of the Dinosaur Diorama Contest 2012, sponsored by Dan’s Dinosaurs. This year we had the largest number of entries ever and the standard was incredibly high. However, one diorama stood head and shoulders above the rest, both in the public vote and also in the opinion of the judges, so first place winner this year is especially deserved. In addition to the three prize winners, I also asked the judges to select three honourable mentions. After much thoughtful discussion and deliberation the judges decided on the following dioramas…

First place. Diorama 9. ‘Tyrant of the Wasteland’ by Jeremy K9

Bob: “I think this is the most effective by far really,
compositionally and photographically it’s excellent.”

Darren: “It reminds me of Wayne Barlow’s painting of a Triceratops walking
away from a dead Tyrannosaurus, but the other way around.”

Dave: “I would call it the clear winner.”

Second place. Diorama 22. ‘You’d better go hunt some sauropods, mate. I ain’t sharing this sturgeon’ by Vermilion

Dave: “The title is a bit silly but I really like the diorama: you’ve
got the sharp focus with the depth of field going through three
distinct lines, you’ve got the male-female thing going on, it looks
like a real shoreline, they’ve even put the fish in the mouth. Part of
the trick of doing a good diorama like this is getting them posed to
tell a story, which is difficult because the figures are in fixed positions.”

Third place. Diorama 13. ‘Dangerous Crossing’ by Turret

Bob. “A cracking idea.”

Dave. “It could easily have done better [in the contest], but was let down by the execution.”

Honorable mentions.

Diorama 27. ‘Feathered Dragon’ by Zopteryx

Darren. “What have they made that from, where is the actual dinosaur
from, because nobody’s made a scansoriopterygid toy of any kind. I
think that’s pretty good.”

Dave. “It looks like they used guinea fowl feathers – they’ve put an
awful lot of effort into it.”

Bob: “They’ve produced a nice portrait.”

Diorama 6.’Charge of the bull’ by Amargasaurus Cazaui

Dave: “It’s nice and dramatic, you can sort of see what’s coming next…”

Diorama 18. ‘The last Supper’ by Bokisaurus

Bob. “I like the colours and the scale works well.”

Dave. “It has nice lighting and shadow”

I’m delighted to offer my congratulations to all three prize winners and ask them to drop me an email at [email protected] to sort out prizes. All that remains for me to say is thank you to a bunch of people: everyone who entered the contest and helped make it a success (All of the entries to the contest can be seen here), all the forum members who voted in the public vote to whittle down the shortlist, the panel of judges; Dave Hone, Darren Naish, and Bob Nicholls, for dedicating their time and expertise (pictured above in deep thought), and Dan of Dan’s Dinosaurs for sponsoring the contest and offering some great prizes. Oh my, it is almost 2013 already…