Been meaning to do this: it will probably be two parts and it's going to be stream of consciousness.

The first day: going there at the opening hour, I thought I would save time. I spent a long time in a line as large as the expo space for the Anime Festival of NY. I had a nice chat with a couple people, one of which was eating General (??Tsao's, Sao's??) chicken, a meal I cannot stand (texture!). Finally I got inside and tried to figure how much of the main floor I could cover in about two hours. I decided my first priority was the Artist Alley.


The results of that subject go like this:

I spent the up-coming week prepping a (rough draft) portfolio for the artists I planned on seeing for advice and critiques. After the first day showing it to some artists, I revamped my portfolio drastically. My presentation the next day was more streamlined and organized. The difference paid off and the artists liked and loved what I had, especially the first two pages of character design and my storyboards. Some of the people I met and presented to were Dave Coleman, character designer for Class of 3000 and Open Season; super animal artist Joe Weatherly (fantastic!); multiple-talented comic, character, and 'board artist LeSean Thomas (Ben 10 Alien Force, Boondocks); Christopher Jones (The Batman Strikes!); Marvel comics artist Alvin Lee; the creator of World of Quest; and a plethora of others.

Most of my feedback involved adding more dimension to my work, and get more figure drawing practice. I usually have my pieces flat colored and while I try to add some dimension to my line work, I was told that I lack volume. Eep! The latter is an issue because it's not easy finding modeling sessions outside of school courses (not affordable) so I try to capture people when I travel. But the artists insist that I search for sessions and I am aware that my humans are lacking. Probably one of my best pieces of advice came from LeSean Thomas, who wants money OUT of the focus: you have to love doing art. If you're just about art for dollars and cents, then don't do it. He also helped me figure which direction of art I want to do. I love conceptual art and rough work; I'm full of ideas and like my work before it's lost in final line and rendering. So he suggested developmental art. Quite a turning point.


The main floor was thousands of square feet and I covered about 90% of it in two days. Besides chatting with the artists, the coolest thing was on Saturday when I got my latest issue of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic (Sonic vs. Super Scourge) signed by the Archie people! That included an overseer of Archie comics and the people responsible for creating Scourge! Turns out they paid homage to Street Fighter when they turned the Sonic doppleganger into the chest-scarred bad guy he is today

Jumping back to Friday three awesome things happened. The first was in the Artist Alley where I saw a poster of the underappreciated and short lived cartoon Legion of Superheroes. So I started talking to guy in front of the Superman poster and I was talking about the show and stuff.

He introduced himself...Yuri Lowenthal. Superman/Ben 10 Yuri Lowenthal. Big geek moment! He's a nice guy, and he's cute. So I bought the poster and got his autograph with a couple others from the show.

Second, I was on a personal quest to find Danny Phantom related people at the comic-con. I didn't see one of the character designers like last year nor did I see Nick Mag head man Dave Roman. However, in the Artist Alley, there was an artist that had Nick art. Turns out he was a NickMag artist named Gregg Schigiel, which rang a bell for me. A couple of the magazine issues he had on him had DP comics in it, but his original pieces (or prints?) were a mass of works in a open box. Most of it was Spongebob; I was disappointed until he asked what I was looking for and I mentioned I was a huge Danny Phantom fan. He said he had two pieces. Turns out they were concept art for a Nicktoons racing game. One was Danny in his racing car while the second piece had Vlad in his car (funny!) mixed with a couple of FOP racing art I believe. I couldn't buy both for the prices so I got the Danny one.


The third awesome thing...to be continued. It has to do with Batman and such.