Celebrating the Finalists and Winners of the 2026 PNW Custom Art Contest
The 2026 PNW Custom Art Contest has officially come to a close, and we’re incredibly excited to celebrate the talented artists who helped make this year’s contest so special!
We received more than 100 submissions featuring an amazing variety of creative interpretations of our 40oz Micro Tank. We were truly blown away by the imagination, skill, and personality behind every entry. Narrowing the submissions down was not easy (we had to expand it from 20 to 25!) and we’re so thankful to everyone who shared their artwork with us.
After the finalists were selected, we invited the PNW Custom community to help choose this year’s winners. Thank you to everyone who took the time to view the artwork, cast a vote, and support these incredible artists.
Meet the 2026 Art Contest Winners
Grand Prize Winner: starscouts_art
About: "Drawn digitally on ibis Paint X"
Congratulations to our 2026 Grand Prize Winner! This piece captured the attention of our community and earned the top spot in this year’s contest.
2nd Place Winner: Braeden
About: "This is a hand-drawn micro reef aquarium for the PNW Custom 40oz tank, this shows a diverse miniature coral reef with small marine life, while also showing a partial filtration system beneath the tank including the return pump, filter media, protein skimmer, and UV sterilization. My goal was to draw a dream tank for micro corals and crabs and snails."
3rd Place Winner: Paul
About: "Watercolors - From left to right: Rasta Zoanthids, Blue Discosoma, Orange Ricordea Yuma, Charmander Zoanthid, and Green Star Polyp - Sexy Shrimp and Blue Neon Goby - Dream setup! - Referenced PNW 40oz Micro Reef Tank, Top Shelf Aquatics, and my home aquarium."
Honorable Mention: @GhostyHits
About: "Procreate, I drew this heavily around the aesthetic and nostalgia of Frutiger Aero, a futuristic aesthetic from the mid 2000s. I’ve always loved the aesthetic as it brung me comfort as a kid with the iconic fish aquarium lamp being my main source of inspiration, to me it was so cool to look at because it felt like I had an entire coral reef in my bedroom in this tiny lamp. With the tiny tank I thought it would be perfect to combine my own style but also pay homage to the tiny lamp tank that I grew up with as a kid :)"
Honorable Mention: @strich505customs
About: "This was hand made using acrylic boxes for the tank, the coral and fish and live rock are sculpted with clay and painted with acrylics, and then finished off with resin. A few real shells and starfish are also added in"
Honorable Mention: @leahpatel.art
About: "Digital (hand drawn in photoshop), I wanted to make my tank as colorful as possible and have a playful twist. Some of the corals have little faces which I think makes it more fun! I searched for the most colorful, small corals and created my own composition by mashing them all together. Finally, I added some cute shrimp and also brought that to the design of the stand of the tank. You may have to zoom in to see the smaller details!"
Explore All 25 Finalists
Every one of our finalists brought something unique to the contest. These entries showcase the creativity that makes our community so special.
Browse the complete gallery below to see all 25 finalists from the 2026 PNW Custom Art Contest.
Thank You to Every Artist Who Entered
To everyone who submitted artwork: thank you for being part of this year’s contest. Whether or not your piece was selected as a finalist, we loved seeing what you created and truly appreciate the time and creativity that went into every entry.
We also want to thank the entire PNW Custom community for voting, sharing the contest, and encouraging the artists. Your support helped make this event possible.
Congratulations again to our winners and all 25 finalists! We hope this gallery gives everyone a place to revisit and enjoy the incredible artwork from the 2026 contest for years to come.
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