The Digital Universes #mattepaintcontest was a contest hosted by MattePaint.com that tasked artists around the world to create a photo-realistic environment DMP using MattePaint assets.  It spanned the entire month of September, with 3 Weekly Challenges to push and test the artistic talent of contestants.  

Over the Month of September Artists around the world put their creative Caps on and set their Stylus' to Stun to compete in the #mattepaintcontest.  The sheer volume of entries that we saw come through was unbelievable and the quality of the entries we saw absolutely floored us!

The #mattepaintcontest tasked each competitor to provide the following deliverable factors:

  • One still image — 1,920px on longest edge minimum. E.g. A landscape should have at least 1,920px width, portrait should have minimum 1,920px height.
  • One composite sheet containing the photo's and elements used for the final design.
  • Work-in-progress artwork to show how your image was created.
  • Post on Artstation with the MattePaint Contest Hashtag and Logo.

With the Judging Criteria being as follows:

Images will be judged on creative, narrative and technical aspects. Successful images should combine strong composition and lighting with an attention to photo-realism and a high technical level of finish.


Our Judging panel had their work cut out for them to pick the Finalists for the contest, but the real challenge was setting the Winners apart as there was an overwhelming amount of talent displayed in each entry!


The Judges

There are very few things that an artist will appreciate more than quality artwork, and the #mattepaintcontest entries left our Judges in awe.  Everyone of our finalist entries was uniquely striking and displayed exceptional thought and effort in every aspect. So without further ado; the Winners!

THIRD PLACE - Satyaki Sarkar

? Personal Favourite of Dark Hoffman and David Luong


Judges Comments

The immersive and harmonious nature of this piece really struck the judges as well as the technical skills that were showcased.  The translucency of the lake and the placement and design of the soaring Mountains and trees gave the piece a seamless feel that is reminiscent of a Hudson River School painting in color, mood and subject matter.

Satyaki Sarkar will receive a Wacom Intuos Pro (Medium) and a MattePaint 1-year Artist-Pro Subscription for his 3rd Prize win!

SECOND PLACE - Mark Traf

? Best Technical: Dax Pandhi
? Personal Favourite: Dark Hoffman, Dax Pandhi
? Best Composition: David Luong


Judges Comments

Beautiful mood and idea. The sharpness and surrealism of the mountains combined with the snaking path and the draw of the flowers leaves you wanting to go on this adventure. Those are some strong light rays and giant dust glares, but they add to the mysticism of the piece and just invites us into the trek!

Mark Traf will receive a Wacom Intuos Pro (Medium), a Gaea indie License and a MattePaint 1-year Artist-Pro Subscription for his 2nd Prize win!

FIRST PLACE - Nitin Kale

? Best Technical: Conrad Allan, Jeevan, Dark Hoffman, Dmitriy Glazyrin
? Personal Favourite: Dmitriy Glazyrin

? Best Composition: Milton Menezes


Judges Comments

Classic and technically sound with the most integrated elements, perspective and overall mood.  We really like the depth, the scale and the dynamic feel of the micro - compositions as well as the sharpness and detail, light and mood of the Marsh.  The blues balanced with the yellow window spots combined with the time of day is very cool.  It's always difficult technically to create a realistic night painting and this is a great example of it being done well; no crushed blacks or over saturated lights make this a winning technical piece.   Great birds, they really help the image flow and the trees as well as the other tiny details.  Overall the whole piece feels dramatic and dynamic and the mood is perfect, as well as the simplicity of this piece is key to making it feel like a shot from a film.  Great work!

Nitin Kale will receive a Wacom Intuos Pro (Medium), a Gaea Professional License and a MattePaint 1-year Freelance Subscription for his 1st Prize win!

Thank-you so much to everyone who competed in the #mattepaintcontest!  We are so excited for our Winners and can not wait to host the next #mattepaintcontest!  Keep your eyes peeled for the next one and all of the other exciting events we have coming and head to our Forums and Community group for all the details!

Make sure you head over to our Forums to check out the October Monthly Challenge that we have running this month on the Forums!  It's an extremely cool concept revolving around an A.I.  Generated image and we are really excited at the prospects!

We have a TONNE of really exciting things coming your way with Challenges and contests, so be sure to stay in the know by joining our Community and signing up to our Forums!  There are so many upcoming opportunities to flex that creative muscle again and take home some great loot as a result!