Wizard World / Chicago Comic-Con: Day 1 Report

Today started out on a bad note.

I don't want you to think it was anyone's fault but my own. I was the idiot in this situation who forgot to check out the actual opening time for the convention. In past years, it always opened at 10am on Friday morning - advance ticket holders got in at 9:30am as a perk. I assumed that his was still the case. The Con has a policy of releasing your table to anyone who wants to have a booth should you not be fully set-up a full 30 minuted before doors open - so I arrive in plenty of time. In fact, I made sure i overkilled the time I needed. I arrived promptly at 7:45am. I was amazed at the lack of traffic and people attending the convention. Even as I paid for my parking and made my way down that loooooooooooooong corridor from the garage to the convention center and arrived in the main exhibition hall that there was really no one but a few volunteers and some staff members. No attendees. No people in costume. No one. Ok.... no one except a rather friendly group of Muslims attending their convention just upstairs from the comic book convention in the main hall. Someone even mentioned that there was a Dianetics convention in another wing of the building, but I cannot confirm or deny that....

I went to the artist alley registration line and asked the person there if I could get my packet and begin my setup. The doughy man looked blankly at me and informed me that I could not - not until 9am.

D'oh.

I looked at my watch and contemplated exactly what I would be doing for the next hour and fifteen minutes as I impatiently awaited the arrival of 9am. Eventually, my partner in crime Andy Evans (www.andyevansillustration.com) arrived and we passed the time talking to a pleasant guy from Iowa. 9am rolled around and we got the packet and meandered our way off to find our booth and claim our rightful place as almighty artists - or at least a few guys hoping someone would just buy our stuff.... At this point we set up all of our stuff and I have a moment to breathe (as if I didn't have all the time in the world to do this while waiting earlier...) and looked at the program to see what time this party was getting kicked off.... my watch was reading 9:15 am.....

The convention started at 12-noon.

@#*$#@!

After sobbing openly for a few humiliating moments, Mr. Evans and I took a (very) leisurely tour around the nearly silent convention center looking at artists' booths and commenting on the work we liked and also didn't care for - you know, typical artist crap. After killing enough time, we headed back to our booth and settled in for the grueling 12-8 convention day.

We met all kinds of cool people and some you would more likely consider douche-bags. Andy sold some prints and I did some drawings for people. One guy had me draw him a picture of Hellboy all zombie-fied and another guy had me draw him a picture of Jedi Quinlin Voss from the Star Wars comics. I must say, drawing Voss was fun and it turned out really cool. The fellow who I drew it for was super cool. He said he'd stop back on Sunday when he returned for that day.

All in all it was a fun day - really inspiring, but really draining. Tomorrow Andy and I are going to see what kind of mischief we can get ourselves int0 (and hopefully out of too...) and go on a photo scavenger hunt. We might even have an "out-geek the other" competition.

I can't wait!

This is the final version with text. It'll be available at Wizard World 2010 (otherwise known as the Chicago Comic Con) at my booth.

After the long battle, I like the way it turned out but I would probably do things completely different next time around. Coloring the line art rather than keeping it black (as I usually do) is new for me and took a long and hard learning curve to get it right. It's not all there, but it's satisfactory for me. My next image I will start out that much farther ahead of where I am now.

"Africana"

Africana marks the beginning of the second half of my series titled "The Devil's Cup." This painting as well as the following nine paintings will each contain coffee in their paint as to further tie in the symbolism of each piece and to make it that much more unique.

I made a pot of french-pressed coffee and upon finishing the pot I poured the dregs into a small bowl and allowed it to reduce a bit (allowing the water to evaporate naturally.) After it reduced, the concentration of the remaining coffee was darker and more syrup-like which was perfect for painting. I then tried directly painting into the painting with the coffee as well as mixing it into the other colors to enhance their color and texture.

Emma Print - WiP 2

My next step up from my last image is the addition of some hard edged shapes to Emma's costume and turning the black ink lines to a blue hue. I also re-touched the hair from the last version, completely deleting the old stuff and re-creating something else. I'm still not all that happy with it. Something is really bugging me about it but I don't know what...

Emma Print - WiP

This is the stage my 3rd print for Wizard World Chicago is at. I am trying a few new techniques out on this, so it may not succeed the way I want it to, but you don't get an omelette without breaking a few eggs, or so they say....

I'll try to post the stages as they progress. If I forget somehow, please forgive me!

Wizard World Chicago 2010 Print - 2 of 4

Here's my second print for Wizard World Chicago. Thanks to all those that voted for this one on my Facebook page. I really appreciate all the help. It was an obvious victory for this one.

I've adjusted the size and played with the hue and saturation of the text to get it to be a bit more red in the halftone dots - they were a bit too dark brown for me an wanted to bring out their red hues. This is much much better for me.

Sydney - Three Variations

I am trying to finalize this image as my second print for Wizard World Chicago, yet I cannot decide which one I like. Each one has it's merits, yet I am undecided as to which one to make the final version. Please help me and tell me if you like 1, 2 or 3 best.

Thanks in advance!