The Late Toronto Post

A week later, seems to be my thing for convention posts. Paradise Con was a wonderful show, I was a little stressed out beforehand though. Amber ended up in the hospital early last week, she has a blood clotting condition and they found 2 new blood clots in her right leg, pushing her total of blood clots up to 8 I believe. So they installed a filter in her main artery near her heart. So she was out of commission for work, and I was running around frantically to get things ready. I ran out of color toner, so I wasn't able to print up a mini print for the convention. Anyway, Dad and I left Early Friday morning to go to Toronto, taking his brand new car, so we didn't get stopped by any car trouble. The border at Windsor was smooth sailing, they sent us on our merry way without any questions really, and we drove all the way there in about 6 hours total (Dad didn't want to speed, and so it took us longer than expected) We got into the city around 3pm and met up with my cousin, his wife and new baby boy. Ate some dinner at a bad, college town style, bar and then parted ways. Dad and I then went off in search of a movie theatre to go see Hellboy 2. After walking for about 2 hours (I'm guessing about 4 miles round trip) we came back to our hotel defeated, and went to bed. Saturday we drove to the convention and got up there with all my stuff, only to realize that I had a 4 foot table instead of a 6 foot table...my fault, the forms were a bit confusing. So we took half of my displays back down to the car, and figured out how to cram it all into such a small space. turned out fairly well I think (see photo) Said hello to a few friends like Mike Boccianowski, and Mark Sparacio...along with my usual crew (Petersen and Bastian) just in time for the doors to open. The convention was set up in a really nice way. It was in a hotel ( a first time for this convention), and they had rented out 2 halls in it...the hallway connecting the two halls became "artist alley" so that all convention go-ers would have to walk by to get to the other half of the dealer area. Artist Alley also continued along the walls of the dealer areas, so shoppers again could not ignore the talent. Saturday was long, but decent sales wise. I got to know Brian Evinou, who was set up next to me...a Toronto native, who works as an animator. Really nice guy...he kept me sane all weekend. Near the end of the day Liana K of Ed and Red's Night Party came by and interviewed me, she was dressed up as Dawn. I know that the interview wasn't for their late night canadian talk show, but perhaps for a dvd(it wasn't very clear) Sunday Liana K came back to my table first thing to buy a Mupper from me, then traffic was very verrrry slow....til about 1:30 or so, when my cousin Brett came by (put the baby down for a nap and sneeked out.) The convention traffic still was slow, but everyone who came by seemed to buy something. My sketch cards were a hit (see photo montage. I also did a Thor and a ROM, but didn't have a chance to snap a pic of them) Brian just emailed me this link to Digital Kontent with a pic of me and Dad, a commission piece I did of Mr. Miracle, Brian, and some other great pics from the con. That's about it for convention coverage...now I have to get back to work on Into the Dust #4!

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Nintendo

Did you think I was going to make you wait that long to see my new "fine art" piece? Based on Seurat's "Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte" The original, plus large prints of it will be available at Paradise Con in Toronto this coming weekend. I am also making up some prints of The Doctor Who I painted in Chicago. I hope to see some of you there, my booth babe will not be Amber for this convention, but instead will be my father Richard.
Another new thing that I will have at this convention is blank sketch cards. So come on by to my table and start collecting them!

the Late Chicago Post

Yeah, it's been a week, but here is what happened at Wizard World Chicago. don't really have too many photos this time around. Hopefully I can get the images to not break up the text so much this time, If they look funny I apologize.
Our car broke down along the way on Thursday. More specifically, we had a flat tire and the thermostat went bad, so the car overheated 8 or 9 times including one time on the Chicago skyway in bumper to bumper traffic. But the car got fixed up while we were at the convention, so I will leave it at that.
Thursday we arrived a little late due to the car, but we set up as soon as we possibly could.
For something called "Preview Night" it certainly was hopping. We sold quite a bit. There were a lot of bare tables, including the table next to us, which ended up being Mark Sparacio's (pictured in my second image)table.Chuck Moore stopped by and bought the original Dalek painting from me. He ended up being at my table everyday. I am mentioned in his podcast for that night and I am interviewed on his podcast for Saturday. Go listen to them both.
We checked into our room and ate some Giordano's pizza, something that I had been looking forward too all trip.
Friday was even better, had a rep from Diamond come by my table. I had been in contact with him over email but had never met him, he was quite a nice man. Also had a Canson paper rep show up, turns out he knows the shop that I work at back at home. He gave me some samples of their new comic paper, haven' had a chance to play around with it much yet. Mark arrived and set up his table right as the convention opened to the public, so he was scrambling to get things ready for people. He is a really nice guy, I will be setting up at Paradise con next weekend, and he is also setting up there, it will be nice to see him for a second time. His art is amazing, and he gave me some tips on working with watercolor.
Saturday was crazy, worked on a few con sketches, one of which did not end up being purchased becasue the person ran out of money. The first one of Destro, and the second (and yet to be purchased) Dr.Who. Not my best for the Destro, but the Doctor came out quite well. Didn't really have a chance to leave the table at all during the entire con. The only interactions I had with other guests was with those that came by my table. Amber and I got to meet Ryan Sohmer and Lar Desouza of Least I Could Do which is fast becoming our favorite webcomic to read. As we were about to pack up for Saturday, a lovely couple came by and purchased the Last Mupper original art from me. This week I have been working on the next painting in that series, just got it done will post about it next. Sunday started off a bit slow, but people who had been there all 4 days started coming by around noon to start buying what they had been pondering all weekend about. Thus sales were quite good on Sunday. I didn't buy anything at the convention for myself. Only a funny cute cat hat for Amber, which she wore all day Sunday, including the drive home. When I got back I had a few commisions to work on, along with the Sequel to the Last Mupper....but you will have to wait until my next post to read about that.