Califur ended up being a pretty pleasant experience for a show that I had only minimal time to prepare for. As I mentioned in my previous journal I had knowledge *of* the convention but had no plans to attend for the simple fact that I don't live close enough to LA to make the con profitable. At least usually. I made my trip to LA this month without any research into any potential selling opportunities and yet Califur shows up as something I was able to do at the last minute. Many, MANY thanks to Glen Wooten for his ready assistance in telling me what I needed to know about the availability of space in artists' alley and the temporary seller's permit. It all went down easily and pleasantly and despite the fact that all of my typical convention items were left back home in Kentucky I was able to cover my costs through some original art comissions onsite. Unfortunately the things I left behind would have been very useful: badge holders for badges (of which I'd just purchased a new box), my metal ruler / straightedge for cutting badges out, my business cards (again printed fresh this year), my booklet of example art so folks unfamiliar with my work could see, and finally my folder of original art which usually finds some buyers. All in all I did well enough to be very happy with the results, but for me the pleasure was in getting to visit with folks I don't normally see in the four main conventions I've been attended back east. Time was when Further Confusion was my main show and I would always see friends again in San Diego for Comic Con, and it's felt a little like home being able to travel around LA to do another sales event.

One thing that I realized belatedly would be a problem was the travel distance to the convention. I'm staying with family in Santa Monica and the drive to Irvine amounted to about 100 miles round trip every day. Considering that my usual convention schedule has me doing commission homework until 3am every day that means I end up with about 4 hours of sleep every night. I ended up being fine and awake by Sunday during the daily drive but if the convention had lasted a day or two longer I don't think I would have made it.

Of course since I didn't register in advance for this show I ended up getting to stand in line to do so onsite. That took two hours to accomplish which left me exceedingly bored but at least not put out. It seems that onsite registration lines are ALWAYS forbiddingly long and there's just no escaping it even though I think that should be an integral part of the convention planning. It just reinforces the importance of registering in advance since that makes things SO much easier.

As always the primary enjoyment of the convention was getting to visit with people both old and new, and although it puts a serious dent in my productivity efficiency I don't think I'd willingly subject myself to the experience so eagerly if I didn't get a charge out of the social communication. To that end I want to say thank you to the various folks I sat with in the surrounding tables, in particular to Roz and Meg for the steady company, and it was great to see other folks like CEagle, Arsemouse, NeoCanis, Ajin, Freckle, Redwulf, Rubbertex, and more besides. Cheers to you all!

Now that that's out of the way I'm gearing myself up for Anthrocon next month which is typically the biggest event of the year in terms of sales, and I've got some art projects I need to complete before then including some which been waiting and absurdly long amount of time to execute. To those who have been waiting, -I'm expecting to deliver for this show!

To give folks a heads up though, -one of the things I had to show off at Califur are a collection of little art cards I've been making in my downtime at conventions based off of the characters in the movie Animalympics. I did a couple of these that sold at FWA 2014 (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/13040047/) and the response was strong enough that I've been doing progressively more and more of them. Oddly enough while they attracted commentary at Califur nobody actually bought any so I thought I'd let people know in advance that I'll have these at my table at AC, and if you have a particular favorite character then let me know in the comments below and I'll see about adding them to the list. So far I've just been focusing on the athletes but I'll probably have some commentators done up as well.

Take it easy, folks!