Otakon: Con Report!

So as you guys know, I went to Otakon last week.  I must say that people had told me about how large it was, but nothing they said could have prepared me for just how many people I saw.  This convention was ginormous!  I had a great time with my husband, as well as hanging out with my good friend, Jen.

So the ride there, while long, was very scenic.  We drove from my home town of Charlotte, North Carolina, all the way to Baltimore, Maryland.  It took us about seven and a half hours, give or take a few minutes. 

We left at around six in the morning just to make sure we could beat the traffic getting into the city and then went through the mountains on Highway 81 as opposed to fighting to get through Richmond and D.C. on Highway 95 like some people suggested.  I'm kinda glad we picked the less direct route, we hit very little to no traffic just as we planned.

Our Table!  Prints belong to myself and Nga Nguyen, perler Bead artwork and Origami earrings belong to Jen Austin.  Links at the end of the post.

Ah yes, planning, how often does that ever go right?  I'd say we were pretty darn lucky all things considered.  This was the first time any of us had gone to Baltimore, let alone Otakon.  We stayed with a friend who lived close to downtown.  She was super amazing to let us do that and I will

forever be grateful for it!  Hotel costs in downtown Baltimore are insane.

So we got to the convention, got our badges, set the table up and the rest of the convention was a total blur.  I'm so sad that my phone was perpetually dying!  I should have brought my camera to get more photos but I don't even know that I would have had much time!  I saw so many good cosplays! I've posted a few of them, the few I could get and I stole a few from Jen's Facebook page too.

So far as selling goes.  Friday was kinda depressing.  It usually is though, since most people are window shopping.

Half way through Saturday it was like the bottom dropped out.  I had a few people come by and spend a good $80 Just at our table!  I was pleasantly surprised by the attention that our artwork was getting!

I only made it away from the table a few times and that was in order to get food usually.  We didn't take very many breaks.  I got to explore a little bit.  I ventured around the dealer's room some, and I also found the game room and played a bit of Super Smash Brothers Melee. 

My only complaint was that things were difficult to find.  They seemed obsessed with having a designated entrance and exit to the dealer's room and to Artist alley and it wasn't really clearly marked as such.  You just had to go there and ask which one it was.  Quite irritating.  Once you were in only two feet they wouldn't let you back out either. 

Needless to say, I did a lot of circles.

I'm still kind of recovering from the whole thing, I have yet to figure out exactly what I have to split of the profits.  I do know that it was a profitable trip though, and if the taxes don't hit me too hard I will definitely be trying for it again next year!

We also made friends with the table next to us.  They were very nice people!  Also ran into a few online friends.  One was a pretty cool blast from the past.  She actually knew me from my time playing the MMO, Perfect World International.  I've long since quit but former guild members didn't forget the artwork!  

I am so thankful to everyone so far that has supported our artwork and to everyone that helped me along at Otakon this year.

You guys rock.

I may have to update my schedule soon since I signed up for a few more next year.  For now it's back to more artwork and more frequent updates.

Spark, Out!

LINKS

For Jen's Deviant Art page you can click here: OrigamiCrane12 She's starting to post more than she used to, which is totally a good thing!  Check her out!

Making Progress: Otakon 2014 and a Colorist Gig!

Hey guys!  Long time no see.

It's gotten super busy for me!  (not necessarily a bad thing.) which is why I've only been able to update the blog sparingly lately.  I don't really want to end up with a bunch of itty bitty short blog posts.  That can get rather boring I'd imagine.

Anyway, the map for Otakon's Artist Alley has been released at last!  With only a few short weeks to go I can tell you guys where we're going to be located!  Luckily, it looks like I won't have to try and shout at people from a desolate corner this time!  I'm actually decently close to the doors, which is a good thing I hope.  Click HERE for the map!

The print line up is pretty well the same as Animazement.  I think I'm going to add a few things though.  Tinkerbell will no longer be available.  For some reason she never really sold well, it took three conventions to get rid of twenty Tinkerbell prints!  I'd say that's not really worth doing over.  I have a few works in progress that I really hope to have finished by the time I make it to the convention!

That Daenerys print I was working on is still making progress.  Since I don't think there's much point in keeping around two prints of the same character, I plan to replace one with the other.  So Otakon will more than likely be the last place that you can get my old Daenerys portrait.


As you can see here, the old one is a little boring.  Very stylized, supposed to look sort of water color.  I mean let's be honest here, it was the best I could do with a cell phone picture of a sketch that I did a while back.

I was at least happy that the character was recognizable.  It made me happy that people loved it so much.  I have a feeling that the new picture is going to blow it out of the water.  I showed a small preview before and this is the only place online that I'm going to show a bigger one.

I am very out of my element with the newest painting.  I don't paint dragons well.  Or hands.  So far I'm pretty satisfied with how it's coming out.  It won't stay in black and white, but, unlike the other Daenerys print, this one will not come in an 8x10.  It is formatted for 11x17 and that's that.

I'll also be sharing my table space with a good friend of mine.  She won't have any prints, but she will have some really adorable origami crane earrings as well as some perler bead artwork!  I don't really have any pictures of the perler beads but here's a few of her earrings sets for those who'd like to see!

On top of everything here I've also been signed on to participate in a comic anthology.  I'll have more on that later, once we're further along.  Seems that there will be a Kickstarter for it soon, so not to worry!  You'll definitely hear all about it!

I'm excited about it since it is my first sorta serious job in comic books.  I can't recall ever having to sign a contract at least!  I was asked to color two, but between everything I have going on with my convention schedule, I could really only promise to color one.

Speaking of which, it's now time to stop writing.  I need to check on my e-mail.

I want to take a little bit of time first, though, to say thank you so much to those who follow my blog, whether it be on blogger, or on the numerous other sites that I post updates on.  I appreciate every +1 and comment that I receive!  Thank you also with being patient with me. I know that I was planning to update twice a week but my schedule isn't really allowing for it right now.  Trying to keep it to at least one random update every week.

Spark, Out.  Until next time!

Back on Track: More Artwork!

So, let's get back on track here with some art.

I finally finished the Punisher, Descent into Darkness piece!  Just in time too!  It seems that it can still be used for the Capitol City Comic Con, taking place in the middle of July.  Hooray!  I'm going to be honest, I thought that I was just going to fail this one and let down my client.  Which would have really sucked.  It was already long overdue and that alone made me feel terrible

Pencils by: Ace Continuado

I had some issues with it, one of those issues being how black everything was.  It was so heavily inked and I have never worked with anything like that before, it was definitely a learning experience.  I still kinda feel like I made a huge mess out of it.  The colors are bright, which is odd for me anyway.  Especially since the subject matter is so dark.  I guess at the very least it'll get someone's attention right?

On top of the colors, I've also been trying very hard to brush up on my own pencils and solo projects.  There were a couple that came out of boredom since work had slowed to a crawl for a week or two.  I'll admit, I may have drawn a few silly pictures and wrote some really nerdy things in box lids while I was doing inventory.  At least anyone who finds these boxes might get a laugh if they understand the references.

Someone's going to be so confused.

Hey, look!  Sarlacc barf!

Along with video game references, there were movie lines, silly "Confucius" jokes, an inside joke, which I'm sure no one will even understand but it sounded like a good idea at the time.  One said "Han shot first!" Another had a picture of a stop sign and then "Hammer time" down below it.  I think the "arrow to the knee" joke made it in there somewhere too.  

I even drew a De Lorean in one of them.  Yes, THE De Lorean from Back to the future.  Unfortunately I don't have a picture of it.  All I had to screw around with was a single black sharpie, I made the most of it.

Only YOU can prevent range fires

As you can see here, I do have a Star Trek reference, a Portal reference, Boba Fett, Smokey the Bear, and if you can't read the one with the itty bitty writing in the corner of the first picture, it says "Let the Wookie Win."

I'll probably get in trouble for it, but it's totally worth it.

As for some even more recent sketches... well..  They haven't been many and they haven't been easy either.

I know I want to put an owl on this next one below.  I wanted to do some crazy fancy owl makeup too, but I wasn't too thrilled with her neck.  I attempted to add a different angle than usual and some movement to my sketch but I sorta failed.

I'll fix it later I suppose.  It should be fun to paint over and I may actually have some nice original work to add to my prints before I head off to Otakon in the next few weeks.

Oh yeah that.

I'm so freaked out about going right now.  I have never been to Baltimore in my entire life and I have only ever passed through Maryland to visit my in-laws in Jersey.  Hooray for being scared shitless!

This next sketch of Daenerys from Game of Thrones I did with every intention of practicing with my greyscale markers. I ended up caving into the pencil in the end.  I wasn't even happy with the way her face turned out, not to mention her wonky boobies.  And what's with that hair?  It's all floaty and all over the place.

This is because I'm a total amateur and I was going to attempt making it look like a fancy portrait because I can't draw arms, hands, or anything else for that matter.

I really did have a vision for this one and I'm slowly completing it with the help of Photoshop.  It's proving to be very difficult but I need to challenge myself.  Most of my best paintings start out as sketches I didn't even like. 

I do have a work in progress shot for you guys.  It's only a very small portion of the overall piece.  I'm saving all of that for the big reveal.  I also want to finish this with enough time to print it out for Otakon.  It would be replacing my old Daenerys piece.

Everything I have been doing lately is an experiment.  As of right now I'm not even sure that I like her skin tones.  Perhaps it's a little too dull.  I jumped ahead of myself and started adding color before I was really done laying out the whole thing.

This means I'll probably be taking a few steps backward on this one.  But no worries!  I have a feeling I can finish it and that this will be one of my best works to date!  There will be dragons, and fire, and so much stuff that I'm pretty sure I can't draw.

I'm gonna do it anyway!  Onward with the artwork!

Also, for those of you who are interested, I would really like to do a Q & A blog entry.  One with illustrations.  I'd like to practice some expressions and this seems like a fun way to do it.  If you're curious about anything at all, feel free to ask!  There's a little box to contact the author on the side of the page.  Use it to ask whatever you'd like and I'll answer all the questions in a blog post within the next few weeks!  You can also comment on this blog post to ask your question!  It doesn't even have to be art related :3

Fire away!

Animazement 2014 Con Report!

Well that was fast!

The convention came and went a lot quicker than I imagined it would.  A lot of work went into this and I'm happy to say that we did manage to pull it off.  It was a lot of hard work and plenty of frustration at first but by the time we finished setting up on Thursday night I was feeling a little better about the whole thing. 

Open For Business!

The stand looked awesome and went together very well.  By far it was the best set up I had ever had for an artist alley.  Things weren't really easy though and I didn't do as well as I did last year.  I feel like this mostly had to do with my location.  Artist alley was very, very large this year.  That alone didn't bode well for some artists.  A lot of competition, albeit friendly.

For those that got stuck in the little alcove off to the side, that location was simply awful for business.  With that location people had to actually seek you out in order to really find you.  It wasn't just me it was everyone unfortunate enough to be stuck in this barren corner.

I don't really have a picture to accurately display my frustration at being stuck here.  This was taken before things really got busy.  From the balcony, after things picked up, you could really tell that most of the traffic was through the middle and the little alcove I was stuck in got very heavily ignored.

In a lot of cases, there were people that came by my table that wanted to buy prints, but they had no more money to do so.  They often told me that we were the last table that they saw in the alley, and they had spent their budget elsewhere before even noticing that this little cubby hole even existed.

My very lonely table in BFE

As you can see in this next picture here, this is my table from the entrance to the alley.  I had to zoom in on it.  You can kinda see my husband sitting there, conversing with an off duty police officer that had been paid to provide more security for the convention.

I resorted to a few semi-desperate tactics to up foot traffic in the area.  At some point on Saturday I got so frustrated with the lack of attention that I left my husband to watch the table, and I went half way up the stairs in between the escalators to yell at people coming down into the alley.

When I say yell I don't mean angrily.  It was something to the effect of "Hello everyone!  Artist alley is really big this year please don't leave until you've visited everyone, including that dark corner over there!  I know it's scary looking, but be brave!"  I even asked a couple of Jedi if I could borrow their mind tricks to sell prints.  I'm usually not that outgoing so I surprised myself a little with how much nerve I managed to get up to draw attention to myself.

Table Graffiti

People didn't really react terribly to me, most of them were intent on giving me a high five while they rode down the escalator.  As luck would have it, this bold move did increase foot traffic to the area and I sold to quite a number of people that I specifically remember seeing on the staircase.  Things picked up Saturday and even more on Sunday so not all hope was lost.

Another trick that I employed again this year that worked well last year, was the table graffiti.  I got a number of metallic pens and a black table cloth and let people go at it. This time it didn't get quite as full but there were more colors to play with.  It was pretty colorful by the time we left but that was the plan.  No one drew anything offensive on it, so all's well that ends well.
 
As for the art auction, the two pieces I submitted did pretty well!  They were both collaborative works, the lines were by my good friend, Nga Nguyen, and the colors were by yours truly.  You know, the usual stuff.  Upon entering your works into the auction they are subjected to a competition.  We've had pieces that placed every single year, whether it be second or third place.  This year, though, we finally got first!  It was a pretty big shocker too!

Of the two posters I put in auction, I expected the Sailor Moon piece to go for more than the original character.  After all, fan art does usually do better than anything else.  Apparently I'm just a backwards sort of person.  The auction piece that made the most money and won the prizes was actually the original that was submitted.  The winner of the auction for the print of "Angelic" purchased the print for his mother and had me sign it "to a loving mom."

He seemed very pleased with it and that made me happy.  It's always nice to know when someone really appreciates the work you do!  That's why, despite the bad location, despite the long days involved, I found it nearly impossible to have a bad time.  Even when I thought that I might not break even and after I realized that I left all of my 8x10 prints at home, I couldn't help but to enjoy myself.  I even did a few sketches for people.  I had two people at least buy four prints or more in a shot.  I also did an art trade with an artist I watch on DeviantArt.

Hopefully next year will be a little better.  From what I've heard it seems like they're going to do all they can to avoid the cubby hole next year, and maybe even open up a door in between the alley and the dealer room so that the artist alley can get more traffic and not be quite so isolated.

Despite our awful location and little traffic, we still managed to turn a profit and for that I'm pretty darn grateful. I was also grateful that my husband went with me.  He was very supportive through the whole thing, even when I was beginning to doubt myself, and I really enjoyed hanging out with him the whole weekend.  We made a great team of course!  We are married after all.

Now to get ready for Otakon and hope for better luck there.

Spark, out.

Some Missions Accomplished: Con Schedule

This year I've registered for artist alley at four conventions on the east coast and I haven't been turned down from one!  I'm rather excited and it gives me a little more hope that perhaps art really is the way to go.  I'm really glad that my first artist alley experience didn't deter me from trying again.  (that is a story for another time.)

First was Ichibancon in Concord NC.  That one was the first weekend of January.  It was a bit of a disappointment, I broke even and that was about it.  I have three more to make up for it though!

Here they are:

Animazement - Raleigh, NC - May 23-25
Otakon - Baltimore, MD - August 8-10
Anime Weekend Atlanta - Atlanta GA - September 26-28

I just heard back from Anime Weekend Atlanta the other night, which kinda spurred this blog entry.  I'm still on the fence there.  They said I've been accepted but wait-listed so that one is still to be announced.

I'm super excited about Animazement this year.  Last year I gave artist alley a second chance and it was amazing.  I had the best time, met a lot of awesome people, and of course I made quite a bit of money.  I had a wedding to pay for, I took a gamble on this and it really paid off.

Not exactly professional but it was my first real attempt... and look, I look so happy!

I don't even have a month left until Animazement this year, which means that I am already waayyy far into the planning phase.  One genius idea that I had last year that I will do again this year is that black table cloth.  I let people draw on it with metallic sharpie and it got quite decorated.  I only had to scribble out one thing - which, the artist next to me confessed to drawing while she was tipsy the night before.

This was the table cloth by the time we packed up to leave Sunday afternoon.

I was surprised at how well the table cloth worked to get attention.  People drew all over it, and while they doodled on it, their friends would hang out with the prints staring them right in the face.  In some instances, people would run off and get their friends, then drag them back to my table so that their friend could draw on it too.  Best.  Idea.  Ever.

I've already gotten the seating chart for Animazement this year and unfortunately I don't have prime real estate this time.


I'll be at table W30!  If any of happen to be there, by any chance, I'd totally like to hear from you!

I have my print line up for this year already picked out as well.  It features artwork all my own as well as collaborative works. (Profits are split for collaborations.) Also note that some of these are signed "Michele A" and others are signed "Michele Wilson."  I got married last October and my maiden name is "Wilson." This has confused some people recently, hopefully that clears it up.

Prints For Sale at Animazement:

"Last Stand at the Alamo" Pencils: Ace Continuado; Colors Michele Altenkirch

"Jade" Pencils: Nga Nguyen; Colors: Michele Altenkirch

"Messy Eater" by Michele Altenkirch

"Crystallize" Pencils: Nga Nguyen; Colors: Michele Altenkirch

  

"Royalty" Pencils: Nga Nguyen; Colors: Michele Altenkirch

"Until the End" Pencils: Ace Continuado; Colors: Michele Altenkirch

"Serenity" Pencils: Nga Nguyen; Colors: Michele Altenkirch

"Daryl Dixon" by Michele Altenkirch

"Angelic" Pencils: Nga Nguyen; Colors: Michele Altenkirch

"Demonic" Pencils: Nga Nguyen; Colors: Michele Altenkirch

"Daenerys" by Michele Altenkirch

"Princess Mononoke" Pencils: Nga Nguyen; Colors: Michele Altenkirch

"Okami" by Michele Altenkirch

"Ignite" Pencils Nga Nguyen; Colors: Michele Altenkirch

"Deep Sea Sorcery" by Michele Altenkirch