I ranted previously about painters who wimp out when it comes to honest critique and competition. To be fair now I shall rant about the other side of that coin.
Judging is by its very nature subjective. Even with that "Open Judging" system it's still a judge's opinion. Blatant things like inadequate prep, messy paint and other very basic problems are easy enough to ding. It's the judging after that I'm going to rant about.
Everyone has a different style of painting. This is a good thing. Where it becomes a less good thing is when Judge A prefers Painting Style 1. That judge has a bias against every other style of painting whether they admit it or not. Therefore they will give higher scores to minis that conform to Painting Style 1. Typically it's the preferred painting style of that judge too.
This has actually been discussed by painters. The artistic aspect of the mini tends to get lost in the "we need to judge against a technical standard" in open judging. It's all well and good that someone knows how to prep a mini and stay within the lines. It's much more difficult to say "I like this" without any reason other than it appeals to you. That isn't what open judging is about.
Trophy competition is just that - competition. There's 11 minis and the best 3 are given trophies. Does that discourage the painters who didn't win? Possibly. Giving out handfuls of medals also isn't encouraging since you see all the other painters being given the same thing as you without any real reason why unless you can corner a judge and ask.
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