Updates: New Art, New Conventions

I'm alive!

So my new job took some time to settle into, but I think I've got it now. As promised, here's some new artwork!

Andromeda

First up is this thing. I thought I was done with it the last time I showed it but it turns out that I was not. There was a lot more that I could do and so, I did. I'm much happier with it now and it has turned out to be a great seller at the comic conventions I've attended so far this year.

I still never added a background because I wanted to give the sense that she IS the universe. I have been thinking of doing more ladies along these lines but I haven't really had the inspiration yet to do more.

Owls for Grandma

Next is, "Owls for Grandma," named so because that's exactly who I did it for. She's not really my grandmother, she's my cousin's grandma, but she just enjoys being everyone's grandma. She had a rough year last year, a lot of deaths in the family.

I had told her a few years back that I would paint her an owl and I just never did. Truthfully, tried a few times to digitally paint her an owl and it never turned out right. Maybe I was hard on myself I dunno.

Eventually I bought a wood board and decided to do this with acrylic paint instead and that turned out to be a good decision. What started out as only being one owl, turned into three when I realized that eastern screech owls were really tiny and the hollow in the tree was a little large to put just one in there.

Oliver Lucas: The Staff of Moses

When all was said and done, it's not the most amazing masterpiece ever but I am happy with it and my grandma is too!

to the left here is a finished commission done by myself and my usual partner in crime, Nga Nguyen. (Her lines, my colors as usual) I went to a small one day show in Richmond VA, where I met local author Andrew Linke. We are currently working on book cover number two!

This was a pretty ambitious piece with all the hieroglyphics in the background. Not to mention that making something look old and a bit distressed is somewhat difficult to do in photoshop. sometimes your textures tend to come out too perfect to look right.

Anyway, I hope to have the second cover done by mid September. Nga is always super punctual with her work, but me? Not so much. Just another something I have got to work on. I need to make myself work more. I run on inspiration far too much.

Clockwork Koi

 Next! "Clockwork Koi" I've been working on this thing since last November. I'm not sure what inspired it really. This is one of the rare times that I drew exactly what I set out to draw. That is always difficult for me for some reason. Probably goes back to that "running too much on inspiration" thing I mentioned earlier.

My job deals a lot with machines and I actually enjoy it. I'm used to seeing metal, rivets, nuts and bolts, and hydraulic lines, so I incorporated them into my art here.

The lotus flowers seemed out of place and far too plain when I added them next to the mechanical features of the koi. After a little thinking, I decided to go with an antique lamp look. My grandmother had one of those antique stained glass looking lamps, so I used those as a reference. I eventually want to draw a dragon to match it, but that will have to wait until I've cleared my commission list.

Love you to the moon and back

Last but not least! Here's the latest artwork. This isn't the whole thing and it actually can't even be finished until after the wedding. It's a guestbook idea that actually came from pinterest but my friend here had me do my own spin on it.

I told her I'd do it and decided to have it done in watercolor but didn't stop to think that I haven't actually seriously used watercolor paint. I don't think that el cheapo watercolors when I was ten years old really counts as practice. So I may have panicked a little.

I watched a few tutorials, grabbed a few supplies and just hoped that it would turn out okay. I'm happy to say that she loves it and not too many people could tell that I'm a total watercolor n00b. What can I say? I learn really fast. I have to. If I had to list a skill as my best asset, it wouldn't even be art, it would be the ability to bullshit like I know what I'm doing until I actually do know what I'm doing.

In any case, that's all I have for the moment. It makes me happy that this is the most artwork that I've updated in a while. I'm getting more time to do it these days since I ditched that old job and found this one. I just... feel better. It's amazing how much your job affects your life. Since ditching my old job and getting with this new one I've lost nearly 20 pounds, I've completed four more artworks and sketched many more, and I've signed up for the most conventions I've ever done in one year.

Speaking of conventions, I've also updated my convention schedule page. If you know of any that I may be interested in, feel free to comment! I'm always looking for more!

Talk to you again soon!

Spark, out.

New Artwork, New Year, New Job

As of right now I'm snowed in, so I had time yesterday to work on something. I wasn't feeling particularly like anything so I just painted and whatever came out of it I rolled with it. Not a bad idea. It's not getting a lot of love but I enjoyed painting it anyway.

Andromeda. You can see more at my DeviantArt page. :D Prints of this are also available.

I'm feeling a lot better these days. I have started hitting the gym every day even if I just run on a treadmill for 30 minutes. Personally I like weight training so I've tried to do as much of that as possible. Only two weeks at the gym and I already feel much better and my gut is visibly shrinking. Hooray!!

F*** you, F*** you, F***you, You're Cool, F*** you, I'm out.

I also managed to snag myself a new job! That's right, I am finally getting away from this soul sucking pit of hell. Two weeks from now, I will officially have my weekends back! Now I can spend some time with my baby, AND do significantly more artwork.

That resignation letter was the shortest one I think I have ever written. You know what they say, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all... obviously I didn't have much of anything nice to say. I am doing all I can NOT to send a mass e-mail with the scene from Half-Baked in it. That would definitely be frowned upon and it's not that I hate everyone there. Just like... one or two people. The job itself is much worse than the people I work with.

I'm looking forward to having more time in the new year to actually be a mom, get to more artwork and complete projects for once.

This couldn't have come from me... Too adorable.

In other news... Alex got to see her first snowfall,it was adorable. She's killing me with cuteness.

JUST LOOK AT THE CUTE!

Anyway, I'm out until I have something else to show lol.

I want to thank all of my current followers for still watching out for my posts. Thanks so much! I know I'm slow and not always coming out with new stuff but any little bit of support helps. I appreciate it.

Spark, out.

Sailing On: Winds of Change

Hello again!

No, I'm not dead. Things could be better but I'm certainly not dead lol.

A lot has happened since my last blog update! I'm not talking about small changes either. There have been quite a few large ones.

The Job Front

As most of you know I was laid off last year. I didn't manage to make art a career before my job at the gun factory left. Supposedly I had until August of this year, but they decided almost last minute that my last day of work there would be December 13th 2014. This was especially frustrating for me because it meant that I would be stuck looking for employment while five months pregnant. Even in this day and age, when everyone speaks of equality, you can expect to have a very hard time finding work as a pregnant woman.

Step into my office...

Fortunately, I didn't have to worry about being unemployed for very long. I found another job at a fab shop only a week after being laid off. I rather enjoyed my work. Even though the benefits were lacking and the pay wasn't what I had gotten used to at my previous job, the people were nice and the atmosphere was very relaxed. I couldn't have found a more perfect place to work while expecting. Even more helpful was the fact that I picked up skills beyond working as a gunsmith. My boss even bought me books to study up on, which was very nice of him. It wasn't without its struggles though. I have a feeling some of the guys at the shop thought I was a sympathy hire. Hell, even if I did get hired out of sympathy for my situation I am totally not complaining. For someone without a college degree, experience is almost priceless. I was able to get away from solely working in the gun industry.

Don't get me wrong, it's so cool to be able to call yourself a gunsmith. Unfortunately it's such a niche occupation. Sure, this is the dirty South, there's a gun shop on every corner that would hire a gunsmith. But that's the thing, most places only need one or two and aside from the gun shop or a gun manufacturer, no employer around really cares how well you deal with guns. And the politics! Ugh! It gets exhausting to hear it around the work place every time some politician gets too big for his pants and decides to wage war on your way of life. For most people, it's not every day that some political dingbat reveals some plan to destroy their living, but for a gunsmith it's a regular thing.

Anyway, just when you thought life couldn't throw me another curve ball, right after the birth of my adorable baby girl, the company I worked for announced that it was moving away as well. If I hadn't already been contacted by an old coworker about a job, I probably would have been laid off for the second time within the course of a year.

Which brings me to where I am now, working quality control at a factory that deals in plastics. (truthfully I'm not feeling it... but it's work.) I'm still determined to do this art thing for a living, but until then it looks like I'm stuck with the smell of burned plastic every day.

BABY!

Alexandria Michele Altenkirch. Born April 3, 2015

So the last time you heard from me I was expecting a baby. Well she's here! And she's the most adorable baby on the face of the planet! (Oh no I'm not biased, not at all.)

I will admit that I was afraid of the whole birthing thing. I wasn't looking forward to that particular detail but it wasn't exactly avoidable. Thank God for modern medicine though! For the most part I feel like I got off easy. However, once the epidural wore off I wanted it back. Oh, the things no one ever tells you about having a baby. Specifically: the recovery. I thought, nah, I don't need six weeks, I can come back to work after like... three.

Now I can be close while I work

!

Needless to say, that definitely didn't happen. When they tell you six weeks of recovery, they mean it. I needed all of it. During my recovery I did manage to do a little artwork, finally breaking my artless streak, which pretty much lasted the whole duration of my pregnancy.

But hey! Look what I got out of it: A little girl lovingly named Alexandria. I love her to death, she's just so adorable and making her smile is the highlight of my day! She's growing like a weed and at two months old she's already outgrown some of her little outfits. Being a parent is something I never really saw myself doing and being responsible for another life is just terrifying sometimes but I think I'm getting the hang of this Mom thing.

Convention Update

Although I had plans to go, I didn't ever actually make it to MAGfest. I did, however, make it to Animazement again this year.

Unfortunately this was the worst year at my home convention yet. It seemed that I was somehow just invisible. I had next to no sales, I was lucky to break even. Everything that could have gone wrong did. I already hadn't been doing well in sales (the first time ever I made less on a Saturday than on Friday.) and to make matters even worse, a friend of mine knocked a cup of coffee over and it spilled all over the remaining prints. It was a total disaster.

This was quite literally the best part of the weekend.

 I actually had more fun exploring Raleigh than I had at the actual con. I don't know, somewhere I feel like maybe I lost the Anime crowd. I don't watch many of those shows anymore and the ones that I do watch are pretty obscure or just old. I mean Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, Knights of Sidonia (ah netflix...), Utawarerumono? Anyone ever hear of them? Psycho Pass is probably the newest and most mainstream thing I've watched and actually liked. Where did Rurouni Kenshin ever go? I still see some Inuyasha hanging around, Sailor Moon never really seems to lose popularity but I was never really a fan. Full Metal Panic! Anyone? I feel like I haven't seen anything for that in years. I never really saw much fan art for it anyway.

So yeah... maybe I'm just not with it anymore.  I've decided to shift focus, and thanks to a fellow artist alley goer, I managed to sign up in time to make it into artist alley at NC Comic Con in November this year. Gonna be on the look out for more conventions to sign up for. Maybe NYCC one year? ;D (I can dream.)

Art Updates!

 I the job that I held up until I had Alex was so laid back that I did a couple of sketches. They're not my usual fare but maybe I'll paint them at some point. I did always tell my grandma I'd paint an owl for her one day. I've been working on my own line work for a while now. I'm actually pretty happy looking at some of my art. I mean, it's not perfect but the last three pieces I completed were completely my own. Making a little progress there!

I've also picked up a project, which I'm currently working on with Nga. I'm not going to go into major detail about it but I'll release a little information as I get permission to. It's gonna be awesome! So far it's hard work trying to balance a full time job, a new baby and art. I'll have to do it if I want to keep it up though.

I know I introduce myself as a colorist most often, but I have a confession to make... I have never actually colored frames. I'm not sure exactly how to keep colors consistent. It's alright everyone involved knows this is really my first try so It's bound to be a learning experience.


Now that you've read this wall of text (or at least some of it.) I will leave the blog open for questions! If you're curious about anything (so long as it's appropriate) please feel free to ask!  Anything from favorite music to what programs and tools I use for my artwork. I'll do my best to answer questions Thursday of next week if there's enough interest.

For now, I'll leave you guys with a few of my newest sketches and artworks. Remember, I am on more social media than just blogger! Check the websites and contact info tab on my blog to follow me on Twitter, Instagram, DeviantART, and a few others.

Until next week!

Spark, out.

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.

It's Official: My job is Moving

Yep, I don't know if any of you people are gun guys or follow any of the gun blogs.  If you do then you'd know that a certain holding company owns quite a number of firearm manufacturers.  You also know that this large holding company recently acquired a large facility in Huntsville, Alabama.  If you're really up to date you'll also know that they gave the axe to at least one company and are relocating a number of others to this new location.

Unfortunately one of those companies is the one that I work for.

As I said before in my introduction, we expected it.  We all saw it coming a mile away.  The writing was on the wall and has been for months, but today they finally confirmed it.

It has been one hell of a rough week around that place, this much I can tell you for certain.  Friday the building catches on fire, Tuesday some asshole sent his gun back for service and left it loaded. (Which could have ended badly.  Also mailing a gun with ammo in the same box, much less loaded, is illegal in the first place.)  Today I even got to work amid tornado warnings... keep in mind the building caught fire just a few days earlier.  Go figure the one place that had to burn was also our escape plan in case of a tornado.  So I stressed through the duration of the warning.   Then, after all of that, we get this news.

They've given us about a year's notice.  Supposedly.  They told us August 2015, which is a lot longer than what I had initially figured it would be.  Still, I'm taking that statement lightly.

It's a shame, I really used to enjoy working there.  A lot happened during the time I worked there.  I got this computer, I got my first apartment, bought my first firearm (Which my husband and I both made) I went to my first artist alley, I got married even.  I learned a lot while I was there, I got to know pretty much everyone I worked with and disliked very few of them.

My first firearm.  I did the coating and some machine work, my husband put it together.  A labor of love this one was.

The past few months have been pretty awful, but overall the experience has been quite positive.  It's a shame it has to end with a corporate buyout and a move, but that's just how it is.  Good or bad, nothing lasts forever.  At least they gave us a time frame I guess.

This doesn't change anything about my convention schedule.  I will still be attending any and every convention I can get into since my artwork has moved much more front and center.  Only one week left until Animazement.  Even with everything going on right now I'm still really excited for it and I'll be happy once I get there. 

I do have one more thing to add...

I'm debating on printing this to sell.  Not sure if too many people would get the joke.  If you do, drop me a line so I know! 

Should I print this?  Yay or nay?

In other news I have also added Instagram to my social media usage.  It's a brand spanking new account so there's not much going on yet.  If you'd like, give me a follow!  Click HERE for Instagram profile

Hopefully my next entry will be a happier one.

Spark, out.

Ready For Animazement!

Hey guys, sorry I missed that last update.  I was busy with a number of things (job hunting being one of them.  I may actually have a new job that can pay my rent and give me enough spare time for more artwork.  Hopefully.)

So I'm totally over the pre-convention jitters.  Well, mostly.  I am actually prepared much earlier than usual!  This weekend I got down to business.  All of my printing is done as well as my banner and my display. I wanted something better this year than the flimsy pvc pipe stand that I had last year.  Quite honestly it sucked and looked absolutely terrible.  I don't plan on using so much masking tape to hold the display prints up this year either.  That looked so sloppy and unprofessional.

Anyway, I wanted to make it out of pvc pipe again but the drawing I made was a little complicated.  That stuff is usually pretty cheap, which makes it an ideal material.  I did the math though, and after I found that it would cost me $75 in pvc pipe I decided that maybe that wasn't the most efficient and cost effective idea.  I over-engineered the crap out of that stand.  It needed to be sturdy enough to hold up prints, a dry erase board, and a banner.  It probably would have worked but I the money was a bit outrageous and there are better options for cheaper.

 

Our 4 foot by 2.5 foot banner.... and my wedding cake topper haha.

Totally Over-Engineered.  Would have been a good stand though...

I eventually went with those wire mesh storage cubes that a lot of people seem to use for stands now days.  After finding some of my own and getting them home, I can see why people use them.  They are sturdy and there's so many ways you can arrange them.  My display is gonna rock this year!  I may still end up buying some pvc pipe and some zip ties, I need to hoist my banner up over the stand somehow.  The higher up the better.  After all, I am stuck in a corner and getting attention is important.

I also got this super awesome board.  It's a black dry erase board that you use with neon colored dry erase markers.  Yes!  This is dry erase!  I had no Idea that they even made these until I found them in Walmart.  I'm not sure that these will be my final prices, I just had to try it out when I got it home.  It was too cool.  I plan to attach it to one side of my stand at eye level.  I may even get another one for the other side to keep the commission list updated and let people know when their commissions are finished.  Haven't decided yet.

As you can tell I used to work in the restaurant... they bugged me do the feature board every day for this reason.

So maybe I lied I'm not COMPLETELY ready for the convention yet.  The to-do list is definitely a lot smaller than it used to be though. I have to trim my prints.  They turned out great by the way!  I'm so excited about it!  I finally did enough research to save my print files in a printer friendly fashion.  The colors turned out amazing and I am very happy with the quality of the paper I got them on.  I even printed everything for less than the budget I had set aside for printing, which is also a plus.

I want to print out one more poster though.  I will be putting two prints into the art auction this year instead of just one like in previous years.  One is an original concept and the other is fan art.  I thought that was fitting.  I only ever print out ONE 16x20 print to sell of each piece.  There will never be another print that size for sale of any of these again. 


Sailor Moon was kind of a no-brainer.  I did a quick poll on DeviantArt anyway and it won out over three other pieces to be in the art auction this year.

As for the original, I just had it printed on a whim because I liked it.  The brown haired angel in this picture is a character from a really old story I had dreamed up back in high school.  She does have a name, and her name is Catriona.  Nga did an absolutely wonderful job capturing her character in her pencil work!  It was a joy to color.

I've adapted Catriona's character for E20XX like most of the characters from that old story plot.  The characters were just too cool to abandon even if the story I came up with sucked.  What could you expect though, I was sixteen.  As I grew up, so did the characters.  It was almost like they outgrew that story.

Hopefully other people will like her as much as I do.  I sold an original character last year in auction which was a success, far more successful than I thought it would be. It gave me the warm fuzzies when the lady who won the auction brought it by the table to have me physically sign it.  Her daughter found me on DeviantArt and sent me a picture of it hanging up on the wall in their house.  I cried happy tears.

This will probably be the last I write about the convention before I actually go.  I only have two weeks until the con.  Since I'm mostly done with the preparations, expect some sketch entries into the blog pretty soon along with my current works in progress.  Got some overdue commissions to finish.

If all goes well I will be updating again on my normal schedule of Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Until then thanks for the continued support it means a lot to me.  

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