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Andrew's 90cm

Thanks a lot for the encouragement guys! I appreciate it! I hope i could bring as much errr vigor? in my next rescape as well :lol: :lol:

My previous works? well, I have to say it's nothing much to shout about :twisted:

@nelson, yeap, things back here at home is waaay more tough :lol: and I kinda appreciate them, makes me brainstorm for next year

@mark evans, you should talk to the guy personally. He can crack you up (literally or verbally ) LOL :lol: :lol:

Again thank you guys for your kind comments and I hope to be able to gain a beter ranking next year..

Andrew
p/s Im already is the midst of planning for the next one :lol:
 
chuppy said:
@mark evans, you should talk to the guy personally. He can crack you up (literally or verbally ) LOL :lol: :lol:

I'd love to meet him. Conversed on the net, and i get a good vibe from the man. very good sense of humour.
 
nelson said:
Mark Evans said:
nelson said:
but a big difference of opinion on it from here in the UK and from MAC forum in Malaysia.

that's because they can handle criticism better than us. and on reading, their comments are very constructive. Stan's always the man in my book.
i never said they're opinions weren't constructive :? .just different.
i'd much rather people said what they thought on my journals.good or bad :) .
i've a lot to learn still and would welcome input.especially from people with your skill ;) .
Interesting points, guys. Neil, I don't think Mark was getting personal. :D :thumbup:

I've read through the critiques on Andrew's (Chuppy's) 'scape on the MAC forum and they are excellent, in the main.

I think the key is that Chuppy has a very good rapport with his fellow MAC members, some of whom are world class 'scapers in their own right. Stan Chung immediately springs to mind.

If we had a similar level of 'scaper giving critiques over here on UKAPS, I'd like to think we'd 'handle' it just as well. Or maybe there is too much ego, at times, over here... :woot: :)

My long-term aim, with the help of UKAPS, is to raise the general awareness and level of aquascaping and planted tanks in the UK. Perhaps one day to somewhere near the level that is embraced by our Far Eastern friends. A pipe dream perhaps, but it's going the right way, slowly but surely.

Apologies for going a little off-topic but I don't think Andrew would mind...

In my view, Andrew's 'scape here definitely has a European/Amercian influenced style. I can see Jeff Senske doing something similar. Something to think about there, also... ;)

Keep up the great work, Andrew, and I look forward to seeing what you come up with next, my friend. :D
 
Yeap those guys and their comments are spot on.. Surrounded by good folk there ( and here too, but I'm still fresh here LOL)

And yes, I always do find myself going into the Euro/amer style.. I did after all start 'foruming' from APC. :lol:

And about the comments, be it ego or not. I would have preferred what people honestly think too :D

TO be honest,
It's tough sometimes. Sometimes I don't know which direction I'm going in the hobby.. (you know what they say, lack of inspiration or aspiration.. either way.
Then i realized Its about how you enjoy your tank's scape with its ups and downs. I mean, it's definitely not easy to please the judges or the world . Not everybody has the same taste but in the end of the day, you who are fertilizing it daily, clearing out algae , mopping the floor out from the canister filter faulty rubber o ring leak, should enjoy the every process and come out happy with your own tank. ( It's a huge bonus to get a good ranking in competitions though!! :twisted: )

Wow, i went out of topic on my own thread! hahaha

Hope you good folks of UKAPS understood the gibberish im speaking! (except you david-flyga LOL :twisted: )

Cheers and again, hope the next one comes out nice!

Drew
 
chuppy said:
It's tough sometimes. Sometimes I don't know which direction I'm going in the hobby.. (you know what they say, lack of inspiration or aspiration.. either way.
Then i realized Its about how you enjoy your tank's scape with its ups and downs. I mean, it's definitely not easy to please the judges or the world . Not everybody has the same taste but in the end of the day, you who are fertilizing it daily, clearing out algae , mopping the floor out from the canister filter faulty rubber o ring leak, should enjoy the every process and come out happy with your own tank. ( It's a huge bonus to get a good ranking in competitions though!! :twisted: )
Very wise words indeed.
 
Mark Evans said:
that's because they can handle criticism better than us. and on reading, their comments are very constructive. Stan's always the man in my book.

I`m glad I stumbled across this comment, as I rarely bother with journals. For me, there is far too much high fiving, back slapping etc when people post their tanks, without any worthwhile comments on the scape.

My guess is that you are right, and people don`t take criticism too well on UKAPS.

Dave.
 
Dave Spencer said:
without any worthwhile comments on the scape.

there's only a handful of people who give constructive critique. The main one, is George. without his critique on some of my stuff, I'd of not achieved certain things in my tank.

a sloped HC carpet springs to mind.

critique has to be done tactfully mind due.
 
Mark Evans said:
there's only a handful of people who give constructive critique. The main one, is George. without his critique on some of my stuff, I'd of not achieved certain things in my tank.

With this I agree but I also think there are only a handful of people who could take constructive critique. There're two types of aquascaper. Those people who strive for perfection and move from scape to scape in order to improve. And then those that want an attractive aquarium. On a couple of times I have pointed out to you, Mark, areas of your tanks I think you could improve, not because I feel I am better than you, because of course I'm not, I don't have the experience, but because you are one of those that strive for perfection. I think often on forums, people take advice better from a 'name', rather than appreciating the comment. With that in mind i've seen a few times where someone has critiqued the 'scape of one of the 'names' and three or four people have stuck up for the 'scaper, which is unnecessary.

The comments on the MAC forum are great because Andrew set the tank up for the competition and didnt rank as highly as he had hoped (criminal if you ask me, this is a beautiful scape)
 
George Farmer said:
Interesting points, guys. Neil, I don't think Mark was getting personal. :D :thumbup:
yeah,i did take this the wrong way :oops: .
sorry Mark ;) .

i was just trying to point out that there is quite a big difference in "tastes" between East and West.
 
nelson said:
yeah,i did take this the wrong way :oops: .
sorry Mark ;) .

i was just trying to point out that there is quite a big difference in "tastes" between East and West.

I didn't actually see the wrong way mate :thumbup:

nelson said:
big difference in "tastes" between East and West.

I don't think it's tastes, maybe more away of life. In the east, they live different, think different. Nature becomes more important than in the west....these thoughts are stabs in the dark.

Chuppy, I didn't actually comment, sorry! :oops:

From your previous works i've seen, this is by far the best. can we take lessons from this? of course we can, But from the evidence, your on the road to even better and more successful aquariums.
 
Dave Spencer said:
Mark Evans said:
that's because they can handle criticism better than us. and on reading, their comments are very constructive. Stan's always the man in my book.

I`m glad I stumbled across this comment, as I rarely bother with journals. For me, there is far too much high fiving, back slapping etc when people post their tanks, without any worthwhile comments on the scape.

My guess is that you are right, and people don`t take criticism too well on UKAPS.

Dave.
Fair comments, Dave, but I also think that the 'high fiving and back slapping' you refer to is important to some extent, as a form of positive encouragement. Some members may need more encouragement than others. Not all of us are perhaps as self-assured as you... :D :thumbup:

I like the fact that there's a lot of journals on here. Without them UKAPS would be a lot smaller, and a lot of useful info would not be made so accessible. For me creating a journal is more about sharing and learning. If there's a side effect element of ego-massage (back slapping etc.), then so be it, but that should not be the priority of the journal, of course.

I enjoy both giving and receiving constructive critisism, personally.

Chuppy - apologies for going off-topic again, but it's a point worth raising, I feel.
 
this is a reall stunner :D, well done in the compition. I look forward to seeing your next andrew.
 
George Farmer said:
Fair comments, Dave, but I also think that the 'high fiving and back slapping' you refer to is important to some extent, as a form of positive encouragement. Some members may need more encouragement than others.

This sounds reasonable. I wonder whether there would be enough traffic to justify a sub forum for people wanting a critique of their work.

Sorry for the thread hi jack, Chuppy.

Dave.
 
No worries guys. Though I feel somehow responsible triggering this LOL. :D :D :D (being from MAC and all :p )

I won't comment further since I wasn't here for long :crazy: and now im still having a headache on my next one. ( a 2feeter and 3ft rescape. )

Drew
 
Hi everybody-my first post here and I promise it would be friendly! :wave: :angelic:
So many familiar names here-Mark, George, Nelson, ...David-

It nice to be agreeable and friendly on forums and if journal posters want more constructive comments, we just turn it up a notch. Not nasty but a sugar coated pill. LOL [that in our humble opinion would make the scape better-]

Chuppy's tank to be fair is very nice, clean and pleasant to look at. I actually hate using words like 'nice', 'pleasant', 'fun' because it could rub off the wrong way when someone wanted 'awesome', 'impressive', 'wow'! English is complex[to us]-most of us at MAC like more direct comments. :crazy:

Being a competition tank, we expect some 'X' factor. [his previous had too many X's :D ] Not that there isn't an X factor in Chuppy's tank but the factor is low. Like doing an excellent but low difficulty dive = lower scores.
More comments at My-Mac Chuppy has the talent. Age and $ is not a limiting factor-he's a kid almost half my age. Plenty of time to climb up that ladder-it's the journey.

------------
Tastes change-East or West. This divide is less and less with the internet than you think! [I could be wrong]
IMHO oriental taste generally gravitates toward having at least one thing red colour. A lucky colour in oriental culture- :thumbup: You can count Chuppy, David and me to be more Western in taste, however it changes-
That said, it's a PITA to get red stem plants red so the shortcut is to use red fishes. :D

------------

IMHO, to get a decent ranking at the IAPLC, it's gotta be at least as good as one of Amano's on a bad day. To be in the top hundred, it's got to impress Amano and/or make the quota of XL, L, M, S, XS- :rolleyes: That's going to one of the questions we're going to ask him when he's here in KL come Nov 25th to judge The Aquafair Aquascaping Competition and do an aquascaping lecture. "So why is this tank not in top 300 huh?" :twisted: :D
 
Dave Spencer said:
This sounds reasonable. I wonder whether there would be enough traffic to justify a sub forum for people wanting a critique of their work.

There has been a section on ASW for 'critique my scape' for a long time but it hardly gets used. Those who do use it get some good advice and of course some bad but I think most people who would like critique are a little afraid of the risk they may hear too much negative when they were actually quite pleased with what they had done. It's a brave thing to use that section as it is a 'hit me, I can take it' sort of stance'.

Its something I hate on APC (The rock police) where someone puts a scape up and then are told that 1 stone is 5mm out of position etc. Good critique is greatly appreciated. Pedantic little points are just meaningless. More a case of oneupmanship IMO. People trying to make a name by belittling what they see as their 'competition'.


Haven't read this journal before. Like Dave I tend not to look through journals for all the back patting etc. If I do its a scroll through at pictures because of the number of posts :) Journals with too many pages I tend not to bother with. Sorry guys. I guess the success of the journal section puts some of us off looking through it most of the time. this is a rare exception for me :)

Its a shame really because it does mean I miss out on scapes like this and I personally love this style of scaping. Simple, clean, crisp. Its one of the reasons I like George's and Mark's style because it is clean and crisp. Personally I think it is definately a European style and there seem to be many more clear backgrounds in European scapes than in Asian scapes where the black/blue still seems to be dominant. I think lighting is a little 'cleaner' looking in Europe too. We tend to be using more 'white light' than the rest of the world.

I personally think UK scaping is a lot further forward than George thinks. From looking at it from an ASW point of view I see a definate seperate 'look' than everywhere else. There is a definate different style than anywhere else. It doesn't go unnoticed either. There are a lot of people that 'namedrop' UK scapers (in a complimentary way.)

Personally I prefer 1 page of journal with constructive criticism rather than all the 'well dones'.


So why do I like this scape so much?

It has all the sort of elements I like. the difference in leaf textures, lots of different greens. I like the bold rise from the front with the banks/cliffs.

The major thing I like is that the scaper 'dares' to leave a lot of open substrate. Plenty of room behind the rockwork for bottom dwellers (don't know if there are any though.) Its something I've done in my last few where from the front it looks crammed full but under my hardscape hidden at the rear is open substrate where the Corys et al can play to their hearts content :) A little like an open room with a designer ceiling.

Its a cool concept where the scape still maintains its sense of depth whilst giving the inhabitants the room and space they deserve :) Hence it should score higher in 'suitability for inhabitants' which is one of the judging criteria in the IAPLC. Maybe they don't realise this aspect from the pictures or maybe they have a different view on what is suitable.

Top marks though and another name to remember :)

AC
 
@stan. Ah Ha! you came... Thanks for the encouragement. but seriously, im dead blank on ideas now. Gotta have an idea tossing session with Dave soon enough.

(Seriously, blank on the idea for the 2feeter for AF2010, and IAPLC 2011.. :shh: )

also, agreed 100% on the low difficulty thing. Will spoof up something from the 3feeter soon enough!

@supercoley.
Wow. that is really a deeeeeep comment! thanks a whole lot! Yea, in this scape , the main idea i had etched into my mind was, "minimalist"-remember this Dave? LOL . Trying to keep the scape as simple( i think too simple this time round) while having the feeling of depth. Certainly my tank wasn't deep enough to have more X factor or even have the X factor. But I'm glad i get such comments. I have sumore food for thought now!

Again, thanks for the comments.

Drew
 
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