Tag: art

Tabling at Wizard World Chicago

Jumping back into the Convention Scene, and I Met Mario!

It’s been a while, but I’m back to talk about a major event I attended recently. A few weeks ago in mid October, I had a table in the artist alley of a convention for the first time in two years. It wasn’t any convention either. It was at Wizard World Chicago and it was the biggest convention I’ve been to and the last one to use the ‘Wizard World’ name (starting next year it will be FanExpo). I wanted to write about this sooner, but other things and life stuff got in the way. But I’m here now to tell you about my experience at the show.

Back in 2019 I did a few smaller conventions that were pretty fun, but this one was the biggest yet for me. There were tons of incredibly talented artists and authors everywhere you looked. As I was setting up, the imposter syndrome crept up big time. I couldn’t help but think that I was way out of my league here, and I probably was. But something I’ve learned from many people is you don’t know how prepared and ready you are for something until you do it. You can plan and ponder these things until you are blue in the face, but you’ll never know if you are truly ready and able until you jump into the water with both feet. So that’s what I did here.

I’m glad I did too. Overall, the show was great and quite successful. I had some new prints available and tried some different thing out at this one. What’s weird is that all these convention shows are super unpredictable. I thought many of the new things I brought this time would do really well and that didn’t seem to be the case. In fact, many of the older prints that didn’t garner much attention at other shows sold better here. Also, the day that was supposed to be the biggest day of the show turned out to be my slowest. I’ve learned now to expect the unexpected and nothing is predictable. I never know how these shows will play out, and while that is really terrifying as a selling artist, it’s also part of the appeal and enjoyment.

Let me get to what was easily he highlight of the weekend. As you may or may not know, these conventions usually have celebrity guest show up for all or a few of the days. This being a very big show meant that some big names showed up. People like Rob Paulsen (voice of Yakko from the the Animaniacs and many others), Paige O’Hara (voice of Belle from Beauty and the Beast, and William Shatner (no introduction necessary) all appeared. I usually don’t try to make time to visit any of these people because I’m usually busy trying to market my work and network with fellow creators. But there was one guest who I had to make and exception and meet…Charles Martinet was there! That’s right, the voice of Mario himself was signing and taking photos all weekend. Being that a huge part of my love and passion for video games, art, and animation came from Super Mario and hearing his voice, meeting Charles became a top priority. I have a bunch of Mario related fan art I’ve created over the years and I had to capitalize on the opportunity to have the voice of Mario sign one of my original Super Mario art prints.

I try not to show my face too much because I’d rather let my artwork take the spotlight, but I have to show off this picture to remind myself that this actually happened. I don’t get star struck, but this was certainly a surreal experience I’ll never forget. You can be sure that print is getting framed and hung on my wall. A massive thank you to Charles Martinet for this moment. He’ll probably never remember this, but for me it will forever be a highlight in my life. I only wish we didn’t have to be wearing masks, but it was a small price to pay for this priceless memory.

Before the show wrapped up, I made sure to go around the show and meet some of the fellow artists around me. Everyone had amazing work and were very kind and friendly. I stopped and chatted with many of them and made quite a few new art buddies. What I did notice is that many artist had their own published comics shown off at their tables. That reminded me how my own comic project has been put on the backburner for far too long. It’s long past time I dust it off and continue development on it. That will be a top priority going into the new year.

So that was my time at Wizard World Chicago. It was a fun and memorable weekend for sure. I learned some things and made some new friends. While I may never attend another convention the size and scale as this one again, I’m definitely going to look back and remember how fun it was as I continue my artistic journey at future conventions.

Keep Moving Forward

by Categories: Artist Alley, Comic Con, comics, Fan Art, Potato & BimmTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Knowing When to Take a Break

Sometimes its ok to walk away for a bit.
Just make sure to come back at some point.

Being an artist isn’t as easy as many people make it out to be. While on the surface it looks like all we do is just make pretty pictures for a living, there is more to it than that. As strange as this may sound to a bunch of you out there, it actually takes a lot of work and a ton of time. Even though it’s super fun and incredibly rewarding, the weight of all of it can be too much to handle at a point. When you pick up a pencil or stylus and it feels like a burden and a struggle, then you need to make a change. It’s a little thing us artists like to call…a break.

*gasp*
Taking a break from the thing I love and am passionate about? What blasphemy!

I know, it sounds crazy and absurd doesn’t it? But all joking aside, it really a necessity that many artist can easily neglect. Even if they are well aware that a break is needed, it can be difficult to distance yourself from you work. I fall into that group all the time. Which is why I bring this topic up here. This blog I started was supposed to be a weekly thing that I kept up with for the foreseeable future. However, after about a month of it I began to struggle with what to write about and it starting feeling like a hassle to force something out. Now a huge part of that could be that I’ve never been a writer at heart and always preferred to showcase emotion and feeling through visuals. I’m an artist, it’s what we do. Anyway, I reflected for a moment on what I wanted to accomplish here with this. I reminded myself that the purpose of this was to be a way for me to express my thoughts on various art/artist related topics and not worry about being struck by the almighty hammer of the internet overlords.

*cough cough* Facebook and Twitter *cough cough*

Once I remembered that, I realized that I was literally burning myself out. I exhausted all my ideas I had in mind, and I was trying to force out new ones out of thin air just to hold to a schedule I made for myself. While it’s great to set a goal and adhere to a scheduled path to reach it, sometimes it just doesn’t work out the way you wanted. I can’t speak for all artists, but that’s certainly the case for me when it comes to my work. I can’t force it. I need to brainstorm an idea and way to make it a reality before I can start it. I can’t just tell myself, ‘I will paint an elaborate portrait every weekend’. That’s just not how it works for me and it never has. It feels like a very rigid and corporate approach to this line of work. If it starts feeling like that for me, then all the fun and enjoyment is sucked out. I need there to be a bit of openness and spontaneity to my artwork so that it feels organic and not manufactured. When I try to manufacture something and it feels forced, the result always looks like shit. Then when that happens the demoralizing feeling creeps up and I begin the downward spiral of demotivation.

That’s just not how it works for me and it never has

So why take a break? I’m willing to bet there are many artists that don’t take a ton of breaks. That might be fine for them, but I can almost guarantee that those artists are already well established in the industry. Once again, I can’t speak for all the artists in the world, but I feel like I can say with at least a bit of confidence that taking a break from your work isn’t as hard when you know you have the audience and the income to get you through that gap in productivity. Breaks are hard for me to sit through since I’m still at the lower stages of my career. Whether a break is just a few hours or even a couple days, for me it always feels like an eternity. That’s because I’m not at the level I want to be and every moment I’m not working to progress forward feels like wasting time. I also know that sitting down and forcing work out when it just isn’t working is more of a waste of time and counterproductive.

When you feel like you’re burning the candle at both ends and you’re running out of wax, the best option is to step back and take some time to rebuild the figurative candle and maybe even reinforce it. Burn out is real for any profession. I felt some major burn out with this blog and some of my work. So I took some time to gather myself back up and resume with some fresh and exciting ideas. So take a break before your candle burns out completely.

Keep Moving Forward

by Categories: UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , ,

Rolling with the Punches

I had other things planned, but sometimes you have to adapt on the fly.

Life is unpredictable. No matter how much you plan and prepare, you never know when a curveball will be thrown your way. My family was thrown a major curveball this week. I lost the time needed for my planned topic so I had to improvise. I thought about skipping this week, but I made a commitment to myself to keep this ongoing no matter what.

There was a time where such a thing would throw me off and I could not recover. But my experiences this last year have shown me what is important. I know now that when you hit a large bump in the road that you need to brace for impact and adjust speed. You don’t stop and turn around, you slow down and maybe change your approach. But you keep moving forward.

If there is one thing I know its that I can take a punch. I’ve been hit left and right many times and I’m still standing. I’ve been beaten and bruised but I keep fighting. There is too much at stake to lie down and take it. This post is short, but it needed to be given the circumstances. I’ll return to my original idea for next week. And if something else happens then I’ll adjust. I’ve been in this fight long enough that I know how to roll with the punches.

Never give up. Fight on!

by Categories: UncategorizedTags: , , , , ,

Regaining Focus and Remembering “Why?”

I’m going pretty deep as I remind myself why I began my art journey in the first place.

I’ll start by saying my journey has not been an easy one. I have faced an incredible amount of adversity, especially these last few years. Rejection after disappointed put my desire and faith to the test. Last year specifically was the ultimate tipping point. The pandemic hit and affected every one of us in different ways. Like many people out there, I lost someone incredibly special. I was not prepared for how hard it would hit me. It took my already fragile mindset over the years and completely shattered it. I could feel myself scrambling to find a course of action to return to the path I began on. Everything I created felt like a futile attempt at a far off impossible achievement. What little focus I had was gone.

At this point I felt like giving up was an inevitability. When I did find the motivation to create something, it fell on blind eyes. I began focusing too much on becoming successful by any means that the art I made felt forced and lifeless. I’m not sure if I was actually depressed, but I felt like I was pretty close. I foresaw no end to all of this. An ongoing spiral of failure and letdowns that made me question my goals. Was my dream of being a successful artist nothing but a dream? Was I destined to fail?

What little focus I had was gone.

2021 began and I was about to break. Shortly after a talk with a good friend about all my troubles, I had an epiphany. I started thinking of my friend who had passed away and how he never gave up on himself. He faced adversity and never caved. And he would certainly never give up on me. He would slap me across my face and tell me I’m crazy for even contemplating giving up. I then went even further back and remembered my college graduation. It was the last major event my “Papou” saw. I remember seeing the pride in his eyes as I walked up to the stage to receive my degree. He believed in me too. By giving up, I would be letting them down just as much as myself. To do so would be desecrating their memory. I couldn’t do that, so I needed to take a deep look within myself and regain my true focus.

To become re-focused, I needed to remember my “Why?” Why did I start this journey? Why did I want to become an artist? I had to go back to when I was a kid watching all sorts of animated films and shows. The characters and stories they told inspired me and introduced worlds I could never imagine. I felt the joy and happiness they brought me and could see it in others. Video games entered my life and took that to the next level. I wanted to bring that feeling of joy to others as well. I wanted them to see my work and become inspired themselves. I needed to make sure all those who believed in me and had my back were proud of what I created.

I needed to take a deep look within myself and regain my true focus.

So what is defined as success? I became so fixated on financial success that I neglected to see that success comes in many forms. I started to focus on creating art for financial gain instead of for the pure joy of doing it. Success should be creating artwork that I am immensely proud of no matter what and makes people happy. Whether others choose to follow along or not doesn’t change this. That is why I became an artist. Keeping this in mind has helped me realign my focus on continuing to create great artwork for all to enjoy. It’s why I can’t give up. I can’t ever throw in the towel. The only thing I guarantee by doing that is ensuring failure completely, and that is not an option. I can’t do that to myself, to anyone who believed in me, or to anyone that my art has touched in some way. So I will keep drawing and creating to reach the peak of the mountain. It may take my whole life and I may never even make it, but I can never stop trying. That in itself is success.

Cowards never start. Weak never finish. Strong never quit.

Here is an exclusive Rosalina sketch that has nothing to do with what I wrote. Enjoy!
by Categories: Deep ThoughtsTags: , , , , , ,