I had a really good time at AWA, but am relieved it's over.

I'm hoping that as 2009 winds down I will have time again to do some creative work. That said, next year I only plan to do local area conventions as an artist and will spend more off time (if I have any) doing things that are a bit less stressful (eating, drinking, taking in scenery), etc. Conventions are really competing forces for my time and energy; I fear that getting ready for one doesn't always entail me putting energies in the right place.

So looks like next year I'll be only doing Momocon and AWA (assuming I get a table at both).

Anyhoo - also transitioning my portfolio site to point back to the DA Portfolio app. As much as I wanted to do things manually , Picasa and Simpleviewer were fighting one another today and I just got annoyed enough to give up. I want tighter control (without a lot of need to use html and stuff) over content and make sure it's not hard to update.

Hopefully the change takes place fairly quickly sometime today. I do miss the beautiful layout of Simpleviewer, but I also will not miss updating .

...

On a last note, the contest stuff is over. Congratulations to the winners. It was really hard reading some of these comments on the entries. I know that some of the artists who entered did so out of a strong wish to honor the memory of . I was deeply touched by the things people put together in her memory.

Thank you to those who entered.

Heeeeere at THIS PLACE
Edit August 22: So I will be sharing my spot with and her fearless sister .... this means serious weirdness... I mean business! Working on bookmarks, but this time, most of them are turning out without tassels because the first batch I forgot to format a certain way xD. And turns out I can't do audio with livestream and vista, but whenever I paint, I will be turning it on. I'll leave it on tonight.. ([link])



And I'm 20 Black , back against what I think is a wall. (?)
Anyways - that means I'm next to , , and (who being the overly modest dude that he is never told me his work is in the Street Fighter tribute book and will be pinched severely). (I think I'm also three tables away from and which means I am going to be very very scary.)

Edit: So far, filling in the inventory slowly. Have bookmarks mostly done


Need to do prints next

Just set it up and am playing around with it. Not sure exactly what I'll be doing with it today (i.e., drawing or gaming), but help me out if you can by wandering in. I have no idea if audio works...

(total newbie D

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Go fill out this poll:
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AUGH MONEY I THROW AWAY
One of the reasons I never make any money in the AA is because I buy stuff off artists. I am as interested in other's art as I am in making my own. (Because frankly if I go back to hardcore writing, my desire will be to find someone else to take my concepts and draw them out further. )

I ended up finding kind of sitting quietly in the alley after two days of walking by his booth at closing time and going OMG WHERE IS THIS ARTIST. What drew me to his work was a strong sense of environment and a rich texture to his work. I bought two prints from him :>. It was so hard to choose, but I picked two images that I felt would inspire me as a writer. You know how much I love moody scenes and fantasy.... so it should be not surprising I liked these:





I also ended up finding in the alley. I think I've watched her stuff for some time. I remember her from the Rising Stars stuff and also have just liked her artistic sensibility. She's been around a longer time than most of the "popular" folks and has a good grasp of manga as well as illustration. I bought from her. I love it when people do something a little different and the fact that it was upside down made me go YAY. She was extremely nice. I have to emphasize how important it is that as a buyer to find an artist who is pleasant to deal with. I have walked away from other pieces I really liked because the artist was surly. A lot of illustrators need to understand that if they're not easy to work with or personable, that it makes it that much harder to want to work with them.

I bought some stuff from a guy who was sharing a table with another artist somewhere in the D row. and . It was the Gintama that drew me in. You know how I love obscurity.


also was cosplaying Skip Beat, and I think was the only other person having any Skip bEat stuff in the alley, so I bought a bookmark of Kyoko <3333.

And that pretty much was it. I think again the problem is there was simply too much good fanart for me to pick from, but I end up going for the obscure stuff I can't see anywhere else (ahem, Viz titles) and/or non-anime stuff. Wanted to pimp these artists out because I think they probably would have been appreciated more in a smaller venue, but as Anime Expo AA is that good, it's hard to get noticed.


On another note...


Pictures from the AA Sketch Jam
Again, I think people don't understand the value of what AX does for its artists. Aside from the lack of drama because of how well the staff handles stuff, I appreciate the programming they try to develop for the artists. So the basic concept is one night the artists have a bit of a social event with silly games and prizes, some ice breakers, and THE CRAYON MURAL OF DOOM.


I love this crayon mural and would love to know who the two artists who were sparklifying everything were. They actually did a really awesome recolor job on people's art.
One of these pictures (the random guy in the center) is also s stuff.








Lastly, I have to put this up here because it IS EPIC WIN.
and show off their PRIZES OF WIN.



So next year, I don't know that I want to be a primary artist, but just for the sketchjam, I want to be a helper. HIRE ME SOMEONE SO I CAN PARTICIPATE. THIS WAS AWESOME. XDDDDDD