Life is going swell as I’ve been dabbling on art projects while attending shows and events over the autumn season. I’ve been fluctuating with my moods for most of the time and reworking my priorities list. Some days, I lose focus on my big needs of my art career. Seasonal depression might be the culprit, but I’m hanging in there and not losing focus in the unimportant stuff.

ArtWauk

I never mention this as I learned of and attended the show the week of but I tabled at ArtWauk in Waukegan,IL back on September 16th. It was another outdoor show and I scrambled to buy a tent in time!

The ArtWauk was also down the street from Fiesta Sin Frontera Festival for Mexican Independence Day, so it was a decent crowd and I filled up on plenty of Tortas!

WaukeCon

Wauke-Con happened on the the last day of September and beginning of October. There was a good turn out on Saturday and I set up my art prints backdrop behind me for once.

I keep forgetting how much of a difference selling prints with the stickers makes. There’s questions about making new prints, so I know they’ll be interest in more of my finished work.

On Sunday, the show slowed down and only picked up in the final few hours. With this, I passed the time with a large ink drawing I had in my Bristol pads.

This is another worldbuilding thing for Blackmask that I need to make a narrative for. Most of my illustration ideas start as small lore ideas and scenarios that I want to do for the game. It wouldn’t kill me to make an outline though…

FantaSciFest

On October 21st, did a small show in Evergreen Park Called FantaSciFest! The event was at a former church building that’s now a senior center; a few miles away from Oak Lawn Public Library from last year. The venue was tiny as I expected but I pushed to keep my entire prints set up to get used to the process of keeping up the weird poles.

Most of the first hour had people scoping the place out to see what the event is about. Many are unfamiliar with the nerd culture stuff but do admire the arts and crafts available. Beyond that it was quite slow.

I debut a few 11×14 new art prints for sale! I’m sneaking in the first of hopefully many Blackmask illustrations I’ve made to get some interest. I made a smaller run of the prints so I’m not sitting on inventory.

As usual, I do what I always do and finish months-old blue line sketches in my Bristol Pad. I get bored enough to ignore my worries of messing up and get into the flow of inking.

In terms of seeking a profit from selling my art at FantaSciFest, I made back gas money. But, I took the time to celebrate with lunch too. For these smaller, free shows, the point is to build up your name and experience. Beyond the cost of time and travel, it’s not a problem if I don’t sell. Sometimes you need to stay realistic but optimistic to give all this drawing a fair chance.

Sablecon

The following week on Halloween Weekend, I want to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for SableCon! The show was decent, with a great crowd turnout for their first show!

Plenty of up and coming creators trying to learn the convention dynamics to get their name out there! I’m confident that I’ll see them again when I stop by Wisconsin at other shows!

Windycon

In a surprise twist of good luck and good timing, I managed to snag a table at Windycon in November! It’s a sci-fi show with plenty of writers, so it’s been a good spot to network and get potential gigs.

First day of the three-day show was slow and people were returning from work like most of them. The crowd flow spread out in between hotel meeting rooms, so I consider this a medium sized show. The con is a nice spot to chat with anyone curious about my work and interested in doing more. Between conversations, I inked unfinished Sketches in my bristol pad.

I submitted some of my prints and originals to their Art Show for the first time to see how they’d do. I had my original drawings on my person so entering some work in was a spur of the moment decision.

There weren’t any bid on my artwork, but I did direct people to my table somehow, so that’s a positive. Being and unknown artist, it’s tough to convince anyone to buy my work with nothing established or having meaning.

Overall, Windycon was a small show with not a crazy amount of commissions or sales. I did find a goldmine of out of-state conventions to look up! You might see me at new shows soon!

The Return of Pastry Cat Playmats and Stickers

If you missed my shows, I still have Cat Playmats left at my Etsy Store! I restocked quick enough to have stuff for a few of my future conventions. There’s also plans to hit up local Card Shops in my area to find anyone interested in a collaboration. I’ll drop in more news about this in the future!

Book and Bean Cafe Showcase

Since the beginning of September, I had select pages of Shirley’s Day and Incident at the game Store hanging at the Book and Been Cafe at the Black Road Branch of the Joliet Public Library!

This is one of the new public showings I display my artwork out to. I’ve had luck in the past at Gallery Seven in Lockport, so this is another chance for people to see my work large and in charge! Unfortunately, the shop will closed down at the end of December, but I’m confident I can find a new location to show my artwork.

There’s one more convention I’ll be attending and that’s PocketCon in Chicago! After that my convention season seems to be finished for the year. Application for next years events are opening up, so now I’m busy seeking new events to attend. I’ll make short visits to any winter events but I have no plans for more conventions until next year.

If I have another convention sometime this years I’ll indicate that here on my Convention Schedule page or on my social media accounts.