Fantasy Castles winners

Castles in the Clouds by David Griffith

(available for sale HERE)

FIRST PLACE tie with Ali Oppy

Floating Kingdom by Ali Oppy

(available for sale HERE)

FIRST PLACE tie with David Griffith

The Fine Art America way of running contests is to award first prize to the under-dog that pulled ahead at the last moment, even though he tied with another member. However, these two artists both received the same number of votes, so they both tied for first place as far as placement is concerned. So they are both being featured.

And in fact, these are also the two artists' who are featured in our banner art above. Their work is also consistently recognizable.

Both of these castles have a dreamy atmospheric quality to them with much of the same sort of background color palette. They are both relatively symmetrical pieces as well. All of this, plus their expertise at creating detailed interesting images may have contributed to putting their pieces on top.

David Griffith is a master of digital art. In his description he tells how he made his piece using several thousand components:

This castle was created in Bryce v4 and is constructed entirely of cubes, cones, cylinders and I believe three spheres. This is not a model and there are no parts or pieces of models anywhere in it ... there were several thousand individual elements used in its construction.

~ David Griffith

Ali Oppy is also a master of digital art and her signature pieces tend to be dreamy, feminine, fairy-like and monochromatic with a lot of details. 

This castle is a little less monochromatic than her other work, but the color palette seems to be carefully chosen in terms of letting three colors dominate the image-making: grays, greens and rust. If you look closely at the piece, you will notice that the rust areas are "the creatures": notably a hooded figure with an insect-like creature at his (or her) feet, and a dragon off in the distance on the other side of the castle. 

The originality of the concept of a kingdom floating around with moons, stars and planets probably put this piece on top too, in terms of "fantasy" -- we are all about fantasy art after all.

Ali says of her piece: 

What a place to be your own kingdom floating around the solar system

~ Ali Oppy

Here are some ideas for framing possibilities for these two pieces:

Ali Oppy's Floating Kingdom framed

(framed prints are available for sale HERE)

choose frames and mats using the drop-downs on the right of the image

This frame is GL8 with a manor white mat

David Griffith's Castles in the Clouds framed

(framed prints are available for sale HERE)

choose frames and mats using the drop-downs on the right of the image

This frame is PLC8 with olde gray mat

Here is what these two pieces look like as pillows:

Castle in the Clouds as a pillow

(pillows available HERE)

background colors are adjustable. This one is #546783

Floating Kingdom as a pillow

(pillows available HERE)

background colors are adjustable. This one is #686868

Next up are our second place winners (also ties) and a third place winner (another piece by Ali Oppy), and one honorable mention:

The Forbidden Palace by Richard Hescox

(available for sale HERE)

SECOND PLACE tie with Bonnie Cook and Elenarts - Elena Duvernay

Castle by Night - 3D Render by  Elenarts - Elena Duvernay

(available for sale HERE)

SECOND PLACE tie with Richard Hescox and Bonnie Cook

King's Garden by Bonnie Cook

(available for sale HERE)

SECOND PLACE tie with Richard Hescox and Elenarts - Elena Duvernay

The Dragon's Castle by Ali Oppy

(available for sale HERE)

THIRD PLACE

The honorable mention goes to:

Misty Morning at Castle Ruins by Natalia Rudzina

(available for sale HERE)

Link to our group, Fantasy Art for Home and Office

On our discussions page we list by category if you are looking for a specific kind of fantasy art. 

The art contest and all of the pieces entered are THROUGH THIS LINK.

Thanks for reading. Our next contest is "The Weirdest, Most Bizarre Fantasy Art Creatures". That one will be decided on March 26th, so come back to see some of those creations! (note and edit: this contest took place and is available for viewing HERE).