The illustration on my website titled "Discover a Muse" was done for a charity challenge this past summer for Jon Schindehette's ArtOrder blog. The top 20 pieces got picked to be included in a book to be published and sold for charity. Well there were so many great entries he picked 43 instead of just 20 lol. But mine was one and the book is now available for purchase.
The charity it benefits is Discovery Arts and you can see their site HERE All proceeds above the cost of printing are going to Discovery Arts. If you wish to purchase a copy of the book you can do so HERE It has a lot of great work in it and it benefits a good cause so check it out!
Thanks!
Monday, November 29, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
I'm Back!
Ok, First and foremost I moved my blog here because the site I was using was a pain when it came to trying to get pics to upload and diplay correctly. It was getting too aggravating trying to figure out how to get it right there. Hopefully this one goes better.
I'm Back from Illuxcon. :(
I had intended to post more from the show but I was to busy and having to much fun and finally decided that I would do a summary today.
Warning...it's probably gonna be pretty long! And lots of pics!
A full list of the main show artists can be found here- LINK
I am thrilled that I went and sad that it is over. It's the most fun I've had in a long time. I got to meet many great people and a lot of people who's work I have admired for a long time.
So my last post was early afternoon Friday. If I recall I was about to watch Patrick Jones LINK do a painting demo. I did and he was great. He's a master at what he does and anyone who gets the chance should not miss the chance to view his work or see him do a demo.
Patrick's display:
After the demo I browsed around the show for a while longer. It had so many great pieces of Artwork that I could spend hours there snooping. I got to talk to Ralph Horsley LINK for a bit and see some pieces of his work in person that I really like. He paints traditionally in acrylic and no matter how good the piece looks on a website or cover it doesn't do justice to the original. Some bits actually seemed to glow! On Sunday I stopped back in to see him again and picked up a signed print...cause I just had to!
Below is Ralph doodling at his table and some of his display:
I also checked out Greg Hildebrandts LINK display. His work I've loved since I saw the cover for "The Sword of Shannara" I was walking in the building earlier in the day for Todd Lockwoods composition demo and this gentleman was starting to walk out with a cup of coffee at the same time. I saw his name tag and it was Greg. He thanked me for holding the door and I told him I'd hold the door open for him anytime! :D
That was as much as I got to talk with him though.
Greg's display:
I also browsed around and checked out a few more great artists work.
Dave Seeley LINK
Vincent Villafranca LINK has got to be one of the coolest sculptors in the world. He had a live bronze pour that evening but I did not get to attend because I wanted to make sure I was set up in time for the showcase.
The coolest chess set in the world!
I got Michael Whelan LINK to sign a book I've had of his for years. I never got to talk much with him as he always had people around keeping him busy. Somehow I also forgot to take a picture of his display. It figures since he's one of my favorite artists.
Raoul Vitale LINK
And of course the famous Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell. LINK I got a couple of shots of them painting as well as their displays. The two of them made the highlight of my trip which I shall talk about in a little bit.
So after browsing around a bit I went back to the hotel to get ready for the showcase. The main show was downtown at the heritage center but the showcase was in the primary hotel which was the Altoona Ramada and held in their Grand Ballroom. I was pretty much scared to death. After spending the day looking at incredible work form great artists I was trying to figure out how I had the nerve to set up my stuff at anything connected to their works. But I steeled up my nerve and headed down there anyways. I got there about half an hour early and took all of five minutes to set up my display. It wasn't too complicated since this was my first con. My set up is in the first pic and the next is a general showcase shot. There were about 40 artists participating ranging from students to pro's
So I took a break for a few then came back in an sat and waited. It ran Fri night from 8pm to midnight and Sat morning from 9am to Noon. The biggest crowd was Fri night and Sat was a little slower so it was easier to meander and chat with some of the other artists.
Saturday night I did a lot of talking with a lot of great people. A number of people who visits Jon Schindehette's ArtOrder blog recognized my piece from the discover a muse challenge. It's the one with the lady and the tiger and owl set in a winter scene on my main website. I got to talk to a number of people that I've seen post in the forums there and now had a real person to put to the posts! It was fun meeting them in person.
One girl walked by, stopped and looked at the Discover piece and said "Where have I seen this before?" I mentioned the ArtOrder blog and she said "Yeah! That's it. I really like this one." We talked for a bit and it happened to be Cynthia Sheppard LINK. She was one of the artists in the main show. She's a wonderful person and I got to talk with her a bit more the next two days while she was at her table.
Another person I got to talk with a lot was Dave Leri LINK.
Dave stopped at my table in the showcase and said he really liked my work. I thought that was great. Dave's work is amazing and incredibly detailed. In the pic above you can see two sculptures on the table. He makes them himself for references for his paintings. He paints traditionally and between the time he makes his references to the time he gets all the details done in his paintings some pieces can take up to five months to finish! That makes it hard for commercial work since they usually want a much quicker turnaround. In my opinion it's worth the wait though. He's a great guy and we talked a lot more when I visited his booth a couple times. I look forward to keeping in touch with him and hope to see him in person again next year.
I also got to meet Jon Schindehette live and in person. He's an art director for Wizards of the Coast which published the Dungeons and Dragons line among othere. He and his ArtOrder blog are the reason I found out about this whole thing. He mentioned on his blog that if he could only attend one con each year it would be Illuxcon. That's a pretty strong endorsement. When I looked a bit more into the details of the con and found out it was only a four hour drive away I figured I had to make it work.
It was great having them all there with me and it made an awesome time even awesomer!
I spent the showcase talking more and visiting with other artists. Met and exchanged prints with Jeff Haynie. LINK His table was across from mine and we talked a good bit. Also talked with Drew Baker LINK and realized we live about an hour apart as he is near Rochester NY. I've listened to him on the Ninja Mountain Podcast so it was cool to talk with him in person.
Jeff Easley LINK stopped at my table and we talked for bit then and I also talked to him later at his display in the main show.
His work I've love since I was playing DnD as a kid. He's done a lot of work for them and it was great to chat with him. We were talking about the show and he said that it was both inspiring and intimidating to see all the great work. Wait! Jeff Easley who is in the main show and who has been doing this for years and producing great work feels intimidated here? I guess if he feels that way then it's OK for me to as well. When we talked again Sun at his table he compared it to the early American painters seeing major European works and then realizing what potential there is and how to elevate their own work. That's the feeling I tried to take home from all of this. Seeing all the wonderful work can make you feel inadequate but can also make you want to work harder to achieve that level.
So remember above when I mentioned the highlight of my year? While I was at my table chatting I saw Boris and Julie making the round. I was doing the cautious sidelong glances seeing them coming my way and I was trying not to stare and be an obvious goober. They meandered over and started looking at my table. Julie said she really liked my piece that was for the Discover a Muse project. (Lady/tiger/owl) Boris was nodding and I was just staring feeling stupid. I had prints of that one on display for sale. She said she thought it was really great and I said "Please, go ahead and take one." She said "Really?" and I said yes. I told Boris that when I started drawing and painting as a kid it was his book covers that I had copied from. I've admired their work for years and if they liked it they were more than welcome to have it.
She said "Thanks, that's really nice.....will you sign it?"
Will you sign it??????????? OK what's my name and how do I write again? You can do it, you can do it.....
Somehow I managed to sign what I think was my name. She thanked me again and they left. By the way I'm pretty sure that's how the conversation went in my brain. It's quite possible all they heard was a bunch of "DURRRRRR, UGHHHHHHH, HMMMMMMMM, BURGELSNORT?"
Bottom line, it may wind up stored in a drawer somewhere collecting dust but Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell have one of my signed prints. I suppose I can die happy now?
Another time while I was at my table this nice gent came over and looked at my display. He pointed out the dwarf cleric I had done and said he liked it a lot.(it's on my website) That piece I had finished about two weeks before the show. I liked it and wanted it to display so I ordered a print of it. The print came out way too dark and it's a darker image to begin with.. I told him that I had been making excuses for that one all night because of it's darkness and did what I had on some other occasions when other people commented on that one. I pulled out my cell phone and showed him the better lighted image. He said "Wow! That is a big difference!" He said he still liked it and then pointed out how he liked the green back lighting in the hall and I should bring that up a bit and darken the leg of the dwarf and kind of really set it off that way. He offered some other good tidbits and I thanked him for the advice. He seemed to know what he was talking about and I figured I'd take it seriously and try to follow his advice when I got home and could work on the pic again.
Well the next day when I was walking around the main show I saw him again... and felt like an idiot. It was Donato Giancola LINK He was at his table. I had stopped at his table the day before but he wasn't there at the time. Donato is a master painter by anyone's definition. His paintings are like classical Renaissance work in the fantasy genre. He's also a teacher and has more awards than can probably be displayed. I had been the beneficiary of a five minute lesson from Donato. I'm still waiting for the bill... If you haven't seen his work you have to visit his site and check it out. Below is his display and the bottom pic is him signing the book I bought from him.
So I finished up the rest of the showcase in a bit of a daze probably. I told Stephanie what had happened since she was meandering around at the time and she thought it was great. I probably told anyone else that would listen too. The showcase ended for the evening at midnight and I went off to bed.
I wanted to make sure I was all in time for the next morning set up so got down there about 8:30 am. Turns out I needn't have rushed. I was the first one there and a lot of artists didn't make it until about 9:15 or so. A lot of artists spend all their time closeted away from the world working and don't get to socialize a lot and especially not a lot with people who think on the same wavelengths as themselves. The con gives them a chance to and they make up for lost time with a vengeance! There were a number of slow moving, seemingly a tad hungover people at their tables. I didn't misbehave because I was uptight about not being late and making sure I was all good for the show. I think I missed some fun lol.
Finished up the showcase about noon and went to lunch with Steph and the guys at a Mexican place across from the hotel. Then we went to the main show. Browsed and talked some more. We had a nice time. About 3:30 there was a painting display by Todd Lockwood that I wanted to see. Thom and Tommy had the three hour ride home to deal with so they said their goodbyes and drove off. I headed up to the demo and Steph browsed the show some more and then joined me.
Watch Todd paint for a couple hours which was mostly fascinating. He does great work but I think he's like most painters. When you're painting you get into a zone on what you're working on and forget to talk sometimes. He's a humorous guy with a pretty dry sense of humor. He answered a lot of question but sometimes there were stretches of 10 minutes or so of silence while he painted and we watched. After a busy weekend to this point and sitting in a darkened auditorium with stretches of silence I found myself struggling not to nod off. Hopefully he didn't notice :)
Here's Todd's table:
After that Steph and I went to dinner. We kept up with the rebellious theme of the day by parking at Red Lobster and (when finding out there was a 20 min wait) walking across 4 lanes of traffic to eat at Pizza Hut across the street.
After that went to the evening entertainment which was at Le Bistro Cafe across from the main show. There some of the artists who also had musical talent were playing and holding an open mic session if anyone anted to get up and join (no I did not) It was very informal and fun.
I went outside at one point and was talking to a student by the door. There were a lot of students who attended the show. We were talking about how great it was and what kind of an environment and feel there was. A couple people walked in the door together and I used that as a perfect example. Were else can you be standing outside an event and have Todd Lockwood, Jeff Easley and Michale Whelan walk past you together as they go inside! Just awesome.
We left about 10:30. Steph wanted to leave about 8am the next morning for he 8 hour ride home so I didn't want to keep her out too late. Went back and crashed for the night. The next morning I said goodbye to her and thanked her for making the effort to come down. She left mostly on schedule which is a minor miracle for her :P
I then went back to the show for a few hours. Talked to some more people and said goodbye to some. I told many sincerely that I hoped to see them next year. Here's a few additional pics:
I got in the car a little after noon and then began the four hour ride home. I was excited at all that I had seen and done and sad that it was over. I loved it all and will make every effort to go back next year.
I think Cynthia Sheppard said it best when we were talking about the show. She said there's 51 weeks in the year and then there's Illuxcon.
I'm Back from Illuxcon. :(
I had intended to post more from the show but I was to busy and having to much fun and finally decided that I would do a summary today.
Warning...it's probably gonna be pretty long! And lots of pics!
A full list of the main show artists can be found here- LINK
I am thrilled that I went and sad that it is over. It's the most fun I've had in a long time. I got to meet many great people and a lot of people who's work I have admired for a long time.
So my last post was early afternoon Friday. If I recall I was about to watch Patrick Jones LINK do a painting demo. I did and he was great. He's a master at what he does and anyone who gets the chance should not miss the chance to view his work or see him do a demo.
Patrick's display:
Main Show
After the demo I browsed around the show for a while longer. It had so many great pieces of Artwork that I could spend hours there snooping. I got to talk to Ralph Horsley LINK for a bit and see some pieces of his work in person that I really like. He paints traditionally in acrylic and no matter how good the piece looks on a website or cover it doesn't do justice to the original. Some bits actually seemed to glow! On Sunday I stopped back in to see him again and picked up a signed print...cause I just had to!
Below is Ralph doodling at his table and some of his display:
I also checked out Greg Hildebrandts LINK display. His work I've loved since I saw the cover for "The Sword of Shannara" I was walking in the building earlier in the day for Todd Lockwoods composition demo and this gentleman was starting to walk out with a cup of coffee at the same time. I saw his name tag and it was Greg. He thanked me for holding the door and I told him I'd hold the door open for him anytime! :D
That was as much as I got to talk with him though.
Greg's display:
I also browsed around and checked out a few more great artists work.
Dave Seeley LINK
Vincent Villafranca LINK has got to be one of the coolest sculptors in the world. He had a live bronze pour that evening but I did not get to attend because I wanted to make sure I was set up in time for the showcase.
The coolest chess set in the world!
I got Michael Whelan LINK to sign a book I've had of his for years. I never got to talk much with him as he always had people around keeping him busy. Somehow I also forgot to take a picture of his display. It figures since he's one of my favorite artists.
Raoul Vitale LINK
And of course the famous Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell. LINK I got a couple of shots of them painting as well as their displays. The two of them made the highlight of my trip which I shall talk about in a little bit.
Showcase
So after browsing around a bit I went back to the hotel to get ready for the showcase. The main show was downtown at the heritage center but the showcase was in the primary hotel which was the Altoona Ramada and held in their Grand Ballroom. I was pretty much scared to death. After spending the day looking at incredible work form great artists I was trying to figure out how I had the nerve to set up my stuff at anything connected to their works. But I steeled up my nerve and headed down there anyways. I got there about half an hour early and took all of five minutes to set up my display. It wasn't too complicated since this was my first con. My set up is in the first pic and the next is a general showcase shot. There were about 40 artists participating ranging from students to pro's
So I took a break for a few then came back in an sat and waited. It ran Fri night from 8pm to midnight and Sat morning from 9am to Noon. The biggest crowd was Fri night and Sat was a little slower so it was easier to meander and chat with some of the other artists.
Saturday night I did a lot of talking with a lot of great people. A number of people who visits Jon Schindehette's ArtOrder blog recognized my piece from the discover a muse challenge. It's the one with the lady and the tiger and owl set in a winter scene on my main website. I got to talk to a number of people that I've seen post in the forums there and now had a real person to put to the posts! It was fun meeting them in person.
One girl walked by, stopped and looked at the Discover piece and said "Where have I seen this before?" I mentioned the ArtOrder blog and she said "Yeah! That's it. I really like this one." We talked for a bit and it happened to be Cynthia Sheppard LINK. She was one of the artists in the main show. She's a wonderful person and I got to talk with her a bit more the next two days while she was at her table.
Another person I got to talk with a lot was Dave Leri LINK.
Dave stopped at my table in the showcase and said he really liked my work. I thought that was great. Dave's work is amazing and incredibly detailed. In the pic above you can see two sculptures on the table. He makes them himself for references for his paintings. He paints traditionally and between the time he makes his references to the time he gets all the details done in his paintings some pieces can take up to five months to finish! That makes it hard for commercial work since they usually want a much quicker turnaround. In my opinion it's worth the wait though. He's a great guy and we talked a lot more when I visited his booth a couple times. I look forward to keeping in touch with him and hope to see him in person again next year.
I also got to meet Jon Schindehette live and in person. He's an art director for Wizards of the Coast which published the Dungeons and Dragons line among othere. He and his ArtOrder blog are the reason I found out about this whole thing. He mentioned on his blog that if he could only attend one con each year it would be Illuxcon. That's a pretty strong endorsement. When I looked a bit more into the details of the con and found out it was only a four hour drive away I figured I had to make it work.
Sidebar Awesomness!
Shortly after the show started my friend Stephanie arrived. I've known her for about 7 or 8 years now. We met way back when playing Everquest. She lives in MI an drove 8 hours to come hang out with me. How awesome is that!?
She doesn't like having her picture taken. Usually when you try this is the result you get.
However I had a few other pics of her that she thinks are really unflattering. When I threatened to post them then I got the pretty smile:
She arrived and we chatted for a bit as best I could between talking with other people checking out my table. She also brought me some news of additional awesomeness. Two other friends that I used to play online with decided, upon realizing they were a short 3 hours drive away, to make a day trip and come up and hang out with us on Saturday in time for the morning showcase. They made it in about 10am Sat.
Don't let the smiles fool you. They can be a lot of trouble. Their names are Tommy and Thom. They're spelled differently so you can tell them apart. Thom likes to pass cop cars at 90 miles an hour even though the cop tells them he clocked them at 82. He was tempted to correct the officer but decided against it. We continued the rebellious theme by parking in one restaurants parking lot and eating at another for lunch after the morning showcase. Here we are all downtown. While having the pic taken Steph tried to hide in the shadows
We got her into the light though
It was great having them all there with me and it made an awesome time even awesomer!
Sidebar over- Back to the showcase
I spent the showcase talking more and visiting with other artists. Met and exchanged prints with Jeff Haynie. LINK His table was across from mine and we talked a good bit. Also talked with Drew Baker LINK and realized we live about an hour apart as he is near Rochester NY. I've listened to him on the Ninja Mountain Podcast so it was cool to talk with him in person.
Jeff Easley LINK stopped at my table and we talked for bit then and I also talked to him later at his display in the main show.
His work I've love since I was playing DnD as a kid. He's done a lot of work for them and it was great to chat with him. We were talking about the show and he said that it was both inspiring and intimidating to see all the great work. Wait! Jeff Easley who is in the main show and who has been doing this for years and producing great work feels intimidated here? I guess if he feels that way then it's OK for me to as well. When we talked again Sun at his table he compared it to the early American painters seeing major European works and then realizing what potential there is and how to elevate their own work. That's the feeling I tried to take home from all of this. Seeing all the wonderful work can make you feel inadequate but can also make you want to work harder to achieve that level.
Highlight of my year
So remember above when I mentioned the highlight of my year? While I was at my table chatting I saw Boris and Julie making the round. I was doing the cautious sidelong glances seeing them coming my way and I was trying not to stare and be an obvious goober. They meandered over and started looking at my table. Julie said she really liked my piece that was for the Discover a Muse project. (Lady/tiger/owl) Boris was nodding and I was just staring feeling stupid. I had prints of that one on display for sale. She said she thought it was really great and I said "Please, go ahead and take one." She said "Really?" and I said yes. I told Boris that when I started drawing and painting as a kid it was his book covers that I had copied from. I've admired their work for years and if they liked it they were more than welcome to have it.
She said "Thanks, that's really nice.....will you sign it?"
Will you sign it??????????? OK what's my name and how do I write again? You can do it, you can do it.....
Somehow I managed to sign what I think was my name. She thanked me again and they left. By the way I'm pretty sure that's how the conversation went in my brain. It's quite possible all they heard was a bunch of "DURRRRRR, UGHHHHHHH, HMMMMMMMM, BURGELSNORT?"
Bottom line, it may wind up stored in a drawer somewhere collecting dust but Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell have one of my signed prints. I suppose I can die happy now?
Another time while I was at my table this nice gent came over and looked at my display. He pointed out the dwarf cleric I had done and said he liked it a lot.(it's on my website) That piece I had finished about two weeks before the show. I liked it and wanted it to display so I ordered a print of it. The print came out way too dark and it's a darker image to begin with.. I told him that I had been making excuses for that one all night because of it's darkness and did what I had on some other occasions when other people commented on that one. I pulled out my cell phone and showed him the better lighted image. He said "Wow! That is a big difference!" He said he still liked it and then pointed out how he liked the green back lighting in the hall and I should bring that up a bit and darken the leg of the dwarf and kind of really set it off that way. He offered some other good tidbits and I thanked him for the advice. He seemed to know what he was talking about and I figured I'd take it seriously and try to follow his advice when I got home and could work on the pic again.
Well the next day when I was walking around the main show I saw him again... and felt like an idiot. It was Donato Giancola LINK He was at his table. I had stopped at his table the day before but he wasn't there at the time. Donato is a master painter by anyone's definition. His paintings are like classical Renaissance work in the fantasy genre. He's also a teacher and has more awards than can probably be displayed. I had been the beneficiary of a five minute lesson from Donato. I'm still waiting for the bill... If you haven't seen his work you have to visit his site and check it out. Below is his display and the bottom pic is him signing the book I bought from him.
So I finished up the rest of the showcase in a bit of a daze probably. I told Stephanie what had happened since she was meandering around at the time and she thought it was great. I probably told anyone else that would listen too. The showcase ended for the evening at midnight and I went off to bed.
Back to regular stuffs
I wanted to make sure I was all in time for the next morning set up so got down there about 8:30 am. Turns out I needn't have rushed. I was the first one there and a lot of artists didn't make it until about 9:15 or so. A lot of artists spend all their time closeted away from the world working and don't get to socialize a lot and especially not a lot with people who think on the same wavelengths as themselves. The con gives them a chance to and they make up for lost time with a vengeance! There were a number of slow moving, seemingly a tad hungover people at their tables. I didn't misbehave because I was uptight about not being late and making sure I was all good for the show. I think I missed some fun lol.
Finished up the showcase about noon and went to lunch with Steph and the guys at a Mexican place across from the hotel. Then we went to the main show. Browsed and talked some more. We had a nice time. About 3:30 there was a painting display by Todd Lockwood that I wanted to see. Thom and Tommy had the three hour ride home to deal with so they said their goodbyes and drove off. I headed up to the demo and Steph browsed the show some more and then joined me.
Watch Todd paint for a couple hours which was mostly fascinating. He does great work but I think he's like most painters. When you're painting you get into a zone on what you're working on and forget to talk sometimes. He's a humorous guy with a pretty dry sense of humor. He answered a lot of question but sometimes there were stretches of 10 minutes or so of silence while he painted and we watched. After a busy weekend to this point and sitting in a darkened auditorium with stretches of silence I found myself struggling not to nod off. Hopefully he didn't notice :)
Here's Todd's table:
After that Steph and I went to dinner. We kept up with the rebellious theme of the day by parking at Red Lobster and (when finding out there was a 20 min wait) walking across 4 lanes of traffic to eat at Pizza Hut across the street.
After that went to the evening entertainment which was at Le Bistro Cafe across from the main show. There some of the artists who also had musical talent were playing and holding an open mic session if anyone anted to get up and join (no I did not) It was very informal and fun.
I went outside at one point and was talking to a student by the door. There were a lot of students who attended the show. We were talking about how great it was and what kind of an environment and feel there was. A couple people walked in the door together and I used that as a perfect example. Were else can you be standing outside an event and have Todd Lockwood, Jeff Easley and Michale Whelan walk past you together as they go inside! Just awesome.
We left about 10:30. Steph wanted to leave about 8am the next morning for he 8 hour ride home so I didn't want to keep her out too late. Went back and crashed for the night. The next morning I said goodbye to her and thanked her for making the effort to come down. She left mostly on schedule which is a minor miracle for her :P
I then went back to the show for a few hours. Talked to some more people and said goodbye to some. I told many sincerely that I hoped to see them next year. Here's a few additional pics:
I got in the car a little after noon and then began the four hour ride home. I was excited at all that I had seen and done and sad that it was over. I loved it all and will make every effort to go back next year.
I think Cynthia Sheppard said it best when we were talking about the show. She said there's 51 weeks in the year and then there's Illuxcon.
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