Chesley Awards and Isis

I just learned about Chesley Awards. Here I am, 42, wannabe-illustrator for Fantasy and SciFi, and I just learned about Chesley Awards - and ASFA, too... I feel kind of stupid, but - better late than never, huh?

I was looking at Omar Rayyan pictures, and I found his "Favorite" that was "a potential nominee for best unpublished color work"

I love Omar Rayyan...

Anyway, I stumbled over this page (potential nominees...) and started looking into it, and found out that there is a Chesley Award blah blah blah.

Now, first on the page is Isis by Daren Bader.

Looks really nice at first glance, but... I don't like it. It's a bit too... Just... doesn't work for me. So I went for looking at other things he has done, found his blog, and then I found this...

 Nice...

So, of course I went to look up Steve Huston and his sketchbooks... Ah.

It's lovely to see a sketchbook that's just as crowded and messy as mine :-D Of course, I'm not even close to this quality, but... I will be. In some 20 years or so :-D

If you look at all four pictures, you'll see yourself what's wrong with Isis. It's so finished it's dead.

I like this Isis by Willow Arlenea...

and this, by Kinuko Craft... I really need to give her an own entry.