Okies, now that I am back in Afghanistan, and not literally bouncing around the planet again, I can give a bit of a sum-up on my first AC and general vacation.

First week, I spent with  dariuswhitefur on the West Coast, it was awesome, and well, I fully plan on doing that again. Also, while out on the West Coast, I got to meet some others that I know through here like yoru2197, chizi, Syn_of_Ienpw and weaslemaster

Then Darius and myself went to Pittsburgh for AC, and holy crap it was amazing. Just, well, I was in a bit of awe based on the sheer size of it, and honestly found myself occupied with so much stuff to do, I also broke out the sketchbook and started to do arts, which felt amazing to do, and thanks to everyone there who was supportive of me and trying to boost my confidence about my art (I'm getting there, really am).

I got to meet a bunch of amazing people all around the con, and well, I didn't realize it at the time, but I got to meet some people I have been watching on here and sat and chilled with them before the con started up doing art and chatting, and then... having that OMGYOU! moment (well it was a good OMGYOU moment, for them, I hope it was good too).

Besides Darius and myself for the rooms, we also had Maglot and SHimmortal (along with his Quebecois posse) in some of the other rooms I got for the con. We also met up with EasySpark and fasttrack37d who became basically part of the group I wandered the con with, and they have some fantastic art in their respective galleries, and recommend watching them if you have not been already.

There were other artists that I knew from Otacon a few years ago (ianjay, pocketwolverine and dragonbelly), and it was amazing seeing them again, and others who I have known online for... going on like 8 years and finally got to meet in person, specifically AtomicStoney and Strype both of which I was also able to snag commissions from, and again, was just amazing meeting them finally (I guess to round out the fact that we knew each other and chatted for years and stuff and well, finally got to do the final thing of meeting up in person). A special shout out to Mokabur, Sylus-Foxdragon and J-Neko for being a cool group of guys to hang out with as well, and work on art at the same time as them.

Got to hang with a bunch of TF artists and well, sat in an art jam with them, and got to concept out some designs, and well, I am going to apologize right now for not getting all the names of them in here, it was a lot of them, but Hexblue, beccabunny, Vincent Hayes, Mephia and others... just well, a lot of them (again sorry for not putting your name in from memory).

On the commissions front, holy crap there were a bunch I got done, by a lot of amazing people, and I didn't even think I got to scratch the surface of the amount of commissions I wanted to get done. One challenge I came up with was to have other artists come up with outfit and design looks for my fursona, and well, I was not disappointed by ANY of the designs that I got back, some of the people that wanted to take more time with it, which I am fine with, since it means they're hopefully going to have fun with it.

The fact that I got told by a large bunch of people my art wasn't bad, and they liked my designs really made me feel good about my art, and made me work more on design ideas, so hopefully there will be uploads from me in the near future (but all the commissions I got will be uploaded in short order). Overall, I was truly amazed by everything, and the feedback I got from artists about my stuff was amazing. There were some people I wish were able to be there, or I was just unable to meet up with (like billy and Fortune_Fox as well as some artists), but hope next year will be less of a whirlwind for me.

In closing, this was honestly one of the most enjoyable times I have had in months (then again, being out of touch with things that used to be a little more accessible, made me appreciate them that much more, ranging from the people I hung out with, to the new people I got to meet and chat with and am able to continue chatting with since then). =)

So, *hugs* to all of you and hope to speak with you soon!

(I was going to put a list of other people in here as a 'Special Thanks' section like in the closing credits of a movie, but, I just realized how long the damn journal is... and I am seriously dreading forgetting one person or another seeming like I was dissing them, so will just give global hugs. ^^;)