I don’t usually get to indulge in art from Friday to Sunday, it felt really great.
Long awesome weekend recap.
Wow, the weekend swept past. I managed to hang on to several moments, and didn’t waste my own time.
Friday, I created a new illustration! Ancient. For the first time I used the translucency of the copic paper, and without a lightbox, traced the pencil sketch with the sepia ink on the copic paper, with the sketch underneath. No erasing!

It worked pretty well. The sketch was only slightly better in my opinion, but it was nice to get right to the markering as soon as I could. I may have to construct a lightbox in the future, as would likely really help speed things up. Note to self: Let ink dry a bit before jumping into the markering. I had a little bit of ink smearing with the markers, nothing that’s really even noticeable after I was done, but I may not be so fortunate next time I move too hasty.

Saturday, I slept in, and then did some general housework. By 2:30 or so, I was heading back to my art desk to work on the pencils for page 10. I worked on some scrap paper layouts until 5pm,figuring out where each character needed to be, but not actually placing them on the bristol.

I then packed up all my art stuff and headed over to K&M’s for dinner and more art.By the time I left, around 10:30, I had finished the pencils for page 10, yay! I’m planning on inking tomorrow night.

Sunday, The three of us reconvened for a day’s road trip to Chicago Comic Fest. The comic fest part was ok, and cheap ($10!!) They had lots of pirated dvd’s of cartoons not seen since my childhood and classic comics by the box (I rarely by single issues anymore, much more interested in the trade paperbacks). My junior high, high school self would have totally grokked it, but after years of Gencon, and anime and manga associated cons, it was fairly lackluster.

The artist alley was very kickbutt, though. So very worth it. There were a bunch of self-publishing and small press comics. I really enjoyed talking with (Connie P) and (Pam Bliss). Connie’s art is amazing, fairy/goth/fantasy work with an explosion of color and textures. Pam has amazing minis, and is a blast to talk too. We traded our zines to her, and I also bought some of her fun comics.

The Studio met and traded our zines to several artists in the alley, and got to meet lots of people from Chicago, Detroit and Minnesota. Then we headed out to Mitsuwa’s with Dirk, Gerry, Jhim and Christine and Alysia from Kumateworks, and met up with Derrick from PandaRage Press. It’s always so much fun to hang out with different artists and studio, always inspiring, and nice to share sketchbooks around.