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AC, Art, Life and More...
14 years ago
General
Hey all!
Well... it's been more than long enough... been procrastinating on a lot of things, so I figure I might as well get the journal out of the way this week. Lots of things to cover, so let's get into it!
Anthrocon 2011
Day 1: Took the long, 6 hour drive with
Derranged and 
Sierra to the Double Tree in Pittsburg. Ran dangerously low on gas at the end as well. They made us park at another garage about 2-3 blocks away... but heck, the price was cheaper. If only we didn't bring so much in the way of snacks... and buy even more later on... *facepalm* But hey, finally met up with our buddy 
Androo and got caught up a little before crashing for the night.
Day 2: Friday... decidedly our "shopping day" at the con. Sierra blew what little cash she had that day and got a bit mopey about doing so (this happens more often than you'd believe =p). I looked around for certain artists and, not finding too much merch I was looking into buying, I decided to pick an artist for a commission. I eventually went with
Tsampikos to do a pic of my lizard girl Tira. Not too much else worth noting I suppose.
Day 3: The day the girls and I decided to go for Artist's Alley. We had prepared for this one and even gotten some business and a portfolio made for our tables. We all even got picked in the lottery and got set up in a row. Unfortunately, despite my price list being very cheap, I only made about 28 dollars, selling one pencil sketch, one inked sketch and one pencilled Artist Trading Card. Derr and Sier, naturally, made considerably more - closer to 200 bucks each. This pretty much gave me flashbacks of AC 2009, where I'd made a table and was almost completely ignored by everyone who walked by. Although I'm often told not to let it bother you, it can be very crushing as an artist to have people completely walk by you without even a glimpse, but at the same time stop by every person around you. I did not even make back the money I spent getting the business cards made.
Day 4: We all decided to do one more AA run... and if Saturday wasn't bad enough, Sunday sure as heck was. For the first couple of hours, I was completely blocked off by the artist on my left - people who kept coming to see her would crowd around her table and spill over to mine. Not only were they completely ignoring my table, but they were making it impossible for anyone to even see me. I was about ready to tell them all to get lost, but they dispersed eventually... not that it mattered. The rest of the time I sat there, I was ignored in full anyways. Sier and Derr made a few more commissions in the meantime. I did not stay the full remainder of the day Sunday - around 2:00, I just said "fuck it" and gave up. Derr, of course, tried to get me to stop thinking about art for the sake of recognition and shit like that, but I was depressed. Even though I've felt definite improvement in the past 2 years, I felt as if it was for nothing. I've been virtually ignored here and completely ignored at AC. Even if you do art for fun, you still would like to get the occasional thumbs up from a bystander... and hell, even when everyone else is getting them sitting at a table drawing, I still get left out. The one good thing to come out of Sunday is that Tsampikos dropped by my table with the finished commission. He felt bad that he "could have done better", but I reassured him that it was great and that he shouldn't beat himself up over it. I think it cheered him up.
Day 5: Monday... time to go home, but not before a grand trip to IHOP. What can I say... I loves me pancakes and we don't have IHOP where I live. So, we said goodbye to Droo for the time being, loaded up our car (with more stuff than we had before we left... snacks included) and took the 6 hour drive home.
Yep... that's just about it for me from AC. But wait... there's more!
Art and Watchers
Well, a few days after AC, I did end up getting a little "recognition" in the way of new watchers (guess those business cards helped after all =p). After years on the site, I finally hit the 100 watcher mark. Sure, it's not much, but it's triple-digits... so it did lift my spirits. I thought I'd do a commemorative picture for it, but I'm not sure yet.
As for art, I have a few projects in the works... a pic I drew and inked at AC in my spare time at the tables and another I doodled up at work. They're almost done, but I'm at a bit of an impass on what to do for backgrounds for them =p
Also, I've decided to update my character reference sheets yet again. I feel that I can do better on them and, on top of that, I have some ideas to change some things on some of the characters, so I figure, might as well do the whole set.
Life
What can I say? Life's got it's ups and downs.
On the upside, one of my oldest friends is back from being across the country in BC, military training and travelling through Europe (apparently), so I get to catch up with him. I've also been doing a lot with my other friends, including starting up a DnD-like game called "Anima" soon which sounds awesome. I've been playing a lot more video games lately, satisfying my inner gamer pretty nicely. I blew threw Saints Row 2 and then immediately bought inFamous 2 (which is awesome, by the way... highly reccomended).
On the downside, I've had a nasty cough ever since the first day of the AC trip... and it has not gone away to this day. Worse than that, I had a coughing fit that has almost completely trashed my voice (which makes work hard). I've finally went to the doctor's to see what's going on and have been put on a 10-day antibiotic regimen to hopefully get rid of the damned cough. Also, work has been really hectic with losing some employees and gaining others. My manager's even being replaced, making me one of the oldest and longest-working people there =p
Ah well... such is life.
Anyways, that's it for now. Hopefully, I'll begin doing some uploading real soon. Until then, take care, y'all!
Well... it's been more than long enough... been procrastinating on a lot of things, so I figure I might as well get the journal out of the way this week. Lots of things to cover, so let's get into it!
Anthrocon 2011
Day 1: Took the long, 6 hour drive with
Derranged and 
Sierra to the Double Tree in Pittsburg. Ran dangerously low on gas at the end as well. They made us park at another garage about 2-3 blocks away... but heck, the price was cheaper. If only we didn't bring so much in the way of snacks... and buy even more later on... *facepalm* But hey, finally met up with our buddy 
Androo and got caught up a little before crashing for the night.Day 2: Friday... decidedly our "shopping day" at the con. Sierra blew what little cash she had that day and got a bit mopey about doing so (this happens more often than you'd believe =p). I looked around for certain artists and, not finding too much merch I was looking into buying, I decided to pick an artist for a commission. I eventually went with
Tsampikos to do a pic of my lizard girl Tira. Not too much else worth noting I suppose.Day 3: The day the girls and I decided to go for Artist's Alley. We had prepared for this one and even gotten some business and a portfolio made for our tables. We all even got picked in the lottery and got set up in a row. Unfortunately, despite my price list being very cheap, I only made about 28 dollars, selling one pencil sketch, one inked sketch and one pencilled Artist Trading Card. Derr and Sier, naturally, made considerably more - closer to 200 bucks each. This pretty much gave me flashbacks of AC 2009, where I'd made a table and was almost completely ignored by everyone who walked by. Although I'm often told not to let it bother you, it can be very crushing as an artist to have people completely walk by you without even a glimpse, but at the same time stop by every person around you. I did not even make back the money I spent getting the business cards made.
Day 4: We all decided to do one more AA run... and if Saturday wasn't bad enough, Sunday sure as heck was. For the first couple of hours, I was completely blocked off by the artist on my left - people who kept coming to see her would crowd around her table and spill over to mine. Not only were they completely ignoring my table, but they were making it impossible for anyone to even see me. I was about ready to tell them all to get lost, but they dispersed eventually... not that it mattered. The rest of the time I sat there, I was ignored in full anyways. Sier and Derr made a few more commissions in the meantime. I did not stay the full remainder of the day Sunday - around 2:00, I just said "fuck it" and gave up. Derr, of course, tried to get me to stop thinking about art for the sake of recognition and shit like that, but I was depressed. Even though I've felt definite improvement in the past 2 years, I felt as if it was for nothing. I've been virtually ignored here and completely ignored at AC. Even if you do art for fun, you still would like to get the occasional thumbs up from a bystander... and hell, even when everyone else is getting them sitting at a table drawing, I still get left out. The one good thing to come out of Sunday is that Tsampikos dropped by my table with the finished commission. He felt bad that he "could have done better", but I reassured him that it was great and that he shouldn't beat himself up over it. I think it cheered him up.
Day 5: Monday... time to go home, but not before a grand trip to IHOP. What can I say... I loves me pancakes and we don't have IHOP where I live. So, we said goodbye to Droo for the time being, loaded up our car (with more stuff than we had before we left... snacks included) and took the 6 hour drive home.
Yep... that's just about it for me from AC. But wait... there's more!
Art and Watchers
Well, a few days after AC, I did end up getting a little "recognition" in the way of new watchers (guess those business cards helped after all =p). After years on the site, I finally hit the 100 watcher mark. Sure, it's not much, but it's triple-digits... so it did lift my spirits. I thought I'd do a commemorative picture for it, but I'm not sure yet.
As for art, I have a few projects in the works... a pic I drew and inked at AC in my spare time at the tables and another I doodled up at work. They're almost done, but I'm at a bit of an impass on what to do for backgrounds for them =p
Also, I've decided to update my character reference sheets yet again. I feel that I can do better on them and, on top of that, I have some ideas to change some things on some of the characters, so I figure, might as well do the whole set.
Life
What can I say? Life's got it's ups and downs.
On the upside, one of my oldest friends is back from being across the country in BC, military training and travelling through Europe (apparently), so I get to catch up with him. I've also been doing a lot with my other friends, including starting up a DnD-like game called "Anima" soon which sounds awesome. I've been playing a lot more video games lately, satisfying my inner gamer pretty nicely. I blew threw Saints Row 2 and then immediately bought inFamous 2 (which is awesome, by the way... highly reccomended).
On the downside, I've had a nasty cough ever since the first day of the AC trip... and it has not gone away to this day. Worse than that, I had a coughing fit that has almost completely trashed my voice (which makes work hard). I've finally went to the doctor's to see what's going on and have been put on a 10-day antibiotic regimen to hopefully get rid of the damned cough. Also, work has been really hectic with losing some employees and gaining others. My manager's even being replaced, making me one of the oldest and longest-working people there =p
Ah well... such is life.
Anyways, that's it for now. Hopefully, I'll begin doing some uploading real soon. Until then, take care, y'all!
I have to admit though, you are a lot more willing to try out Artist Alley than I am. I tried it my first year and had the same problem where not many people looked at me, and I haven't been back since, you are still willing to give it a go and I think that says something.
Also, if I can mange it, you might be getting a comment spam from me at some point, I've been stupidly slow and you need some comment love.
As for games like Anima, uhm, I'd be cautious, I hear that game is rather mechanical heavy, the character sheet is like, six pages long, and not in the good way.
But hey, DnD is good, have to ask but what version do you play?
For example, initiative is calculated based on some of the character's stats as well as things like weapon and armour weight, not a simple dice roll. This means a character like a monk in light cloth and a quarterstaff will almost always attack before a paladin wearing full plate mail and a war hammer.
The same goes for things like armour. In games like DnD, armour doesn't really do anything. If the enemy hits you, damage is dealt normally. In Anima, if the enemy lands a successful hit, a person with heavy armour won't take as much damage, since the armour protects them.
So far, the creation bit is more complicated, but the gameplay itself seems to work a lot better.
As for DnD, I haven't gotten to play much of it directly. I have done a run or two in Pathfinder though in preparation for this.