Tesseract Horizons
Welcome to our bi-monthly artistic competition series, where we aim to inspire and foster creativity and artistry in the miniature painting community.
Scroll past the rules to view the current round!
Horizons Rules:
Photos:
Submissions must comprise of 5 photos. 1 Photo of the unpainted model, in it’s pre-painted state of assembly, 3 Photos of the finished piece from any angle and one photo that shows the entire finished piece, but overlaid with a short write up about your intentions and desired outcomes for the project (include what parts of the brief inspired you and how you implemented them in your piece). Please remember that we can only judge you on what you show us.
Models:
Choose any model you like, at any scale, so long as it can reasonably be called a miniature. You may create dioramas at miniature scale if that’s your jam, and you are allowed to convert and customise. You are also permitted to scratch sculpt both digitally and physically, but all submissions must be FULLY painted. Any unpainted elements will not be scored and if there are more unpainted elements than painted elements, they will score against you. Models can be presented on display plinths, wargaming bases, or custom presentation bases. Multiple models in the same display are also fine, so long as they are all part of the same base and clearly a single cohesive piece.
Submitting your Entry:
Categories will (except for round 1) be announced on the 1st of their month of commencement - for example Round 2 will be referred to as “Round 2, December 2026” and will be announced on 1st of December 2026. You will then have until the last day of the third full week of the following month to submit. This gives us a one week window to judge the entries, announce the winner and then announce the next round. In the case of our example, that would mean that Round 2 would have a deadline of Jan 24th for submission, giving us from 25th to 31st to carry out judging and announcement duties, before announcing Round 3 on Feb 1st.
Submissions must all be made by Email, including all images, to hello@tesseractministudios.com with the subject line reading “(your name) - Horizons - (round number).
Please also include your Instagram handle in your email so that we can tag you if you place!
Who Can Enter?:
In order to cover running costs, prize support and the time of the people involved, this competition series is only open to Patreon supporters of Tesseract Minis, or Rising Ape Minis. When you submit your entries we will check them against our subscriber lists to verify your eligibility. Both of our Patreon services include affordable lower tiers. You can find Tesseract HERE and Rising Ape HERE. Of course if you just want to join us for fun and don’t wish to be judged, or eligible for prizes, EVERYONE is welcome to paint along for fun, just be sure to tag us on Instagram, if you post your piece!
Judging Criteria:
Your judges each month will be Stu from Tesseract Minis, James from Rising Ape Minis, PLUS the winner of the previous round of the competition (they will not be permitted to enter rounds that they are judging).
Each of the judges will score your piece 1-10 on three categories: Interpretation of the Brief, Originality and Wow Factor. We’ll then combine your score for each category and work out your overall average score.
Entrants scoring 4-5 will receive a commendation.
Entrants scoring 6-7 will receive a bronze.
Entrants scoring 8 will receive a silver.
Entrants scoring a 9+ will receive gold.
The Best in Show Winner will be chosen from among all the gold level winners.
Your intentions (as written in your overview image writeup) will be considered in your scoring.
Prizes:
All medal winners will receive a feature in the Round Rundown on Instagram, with their piece shown with a medal watermark. Commendation winners will have their watermarked image emailed to them, which they are free to share to their own socials if desired.
The Best in Show Winner will receive a physical care package containing goodies from TMS and Rising Ape, as well as other select bits from participating partners (including Gaahleri, Warlord Games, Fourscore Gaming and more). If you have won Best in Show you will be contacted by the organisers to request your postage details.
Final Notes:
If by the judges discretion you have violated any of the rules and guidelines for the competition, we reserve the right to disqualify your entry.
Please remember that the celebrations for Horizons take place on Instagram, therefore your images need to be Instagram friendly. If they contain content that might violate the content policy of Instagram (such as nudity) we ask that you provide a clear photo for judging, plus an additional edited photo that covers the offending article, for Instagram. Please do this for all angles where offending articles are visible. We give you agency to use blurring, black-boxing or draw-over censoring at your preference.
If you have any questions or anything isn’t clear, drop Stu an email at hello@tesseractministudios.com
Most importantly: have fun!
Round 1: October 2026
Edward Hopper
Your challenge for Round 1 is to produce an artist study of Edward Hopper the late 19th to Mid 20th century American painter and print maker. Edward produced incredible works that focus largely on themes of isolation and loneliness and his work on early to mid 20th century America is particularly evocative of these ideas.
We want you to create and paint a miniature that captures the mood, feel and themes of Edward’s work. We’ll be looking for colours and lighting that capture the sense of contrast and boldness in his paintings. We’ll be looking for the emotional energy and the communication of those underlying themes of loneliness and isolation.
We don’t want a copy of one of Edward’s pieces, we want you to be inspired by them. Here’s a handful of Stu’s favourite Hoppers to get you going:
The Wikipedia Article on Edward is full of interesting information and can be found HERE and there are a TON of images available online to use as reference or to create a mood board.
We’re really Excited to see what you come up with for this inaugural round of the competition and we can’t wait to start seeing your miniatures flow in to our inbox.
Submissions are due by November 22nd 2026 with winners announced no later than November 29th.