AMECON 2004

SUNDAY: the madness continues

Art attack
The last con day was much quieter and for that reason, prolly why I can’t remember most of it. The first thing I remember is once again going back to the Artist’s Alley. I had to hand my entry for the comic comp in before 10AM. Everyone’s entries were spread out for a while so people could see. I only heard one person comment on mine, saying that she found the fifth panel so true. Maybe I wasn’t the only that got a little upset about feeling so inferior when surrounded by artists and cosplayers.
That’s when I noticed a group of people showing off their art portfolios to each other and I couldn’t help having a look and bowing down to them all. Somehow (don’t ask me how coz I’m always shy and unable to be social normally) I wound up sitting at the table with these four cute female artists and as I watched them drawing and trading art, I slowly started getting the urge to draw as well in the hope I’d be able to join in. Mel was the most talkative to me and was the first to start drawing and then inking an anime style self-portrait for me and I did my best to draw a pic of myself with Kuro. She also had a great portfolio and told me of a project she and her friends were doing, I can’t wait to see what they come up with. To the other side of me was Jess, a girl that really knows how to draw her mecha, which is pretty unique in my opinion. She drew me a female character in really cool armor and a rabbit with an eye patch from a comic she’s working on. In return she got Marc with Lapin. I was wearing my Lapin t-shirt at the time and that was what KT Coope got her idea form for my trade with her. She drew her evil character Lucifer holding Lapin up and saying; “Are you sure this isn’t the ultimate evil?” Which made me laugh more because Ven and I planned t-shirt designs proclaiming the exact same thing. My trade to her had Marc looking very worried and saying; “Please don’t eat the spabbit…” with Lapin looking up at him confused. KT ended up winning first prize in the comic comp by the way, receiving many goodies. Last but definitely not least, there was Bazabat. As she was part of Moon Wolf and already doing an art trade with Mel (a decent artist) I honestly didn’t think I’d be able to pull it off but she gladly excepted and drew a brutal sketch of herself and in return I gave her a more detailed picture of Marc than the other before but only a head and shoulders shot with Shiro flapping around. I’ll practice more, and next time, give them all something more worthy!
Unlike Edge, I couldn’t make another trip to the dealer’s room due to money shortage but I was happy to stay there and draw and chat anyway.

Closing down
I kept drawing with the others until we all started queuing up to see the closing ceremony. By then I realized that I’d missed the manga panel as well as the TokyoPop panel, which probably would have given out some good tips for me trying to get into comics, ah well.
Winners of competitions were announced along with more details on the next Amecon in 2006. The committee had done an awesome and out-standing job in such a short time, so with two years to prepare, I can’t wait for the next con.
It was at this point that some people (most who had a long way to travel) started to pack up and go home. I helped Edge get sorted and found some taxi numbers out (when in doubt, ask the bar staff) before seeing him off as he caught his lift back to the train station.
Alone once more I decided to go out in hunt of people I knew.
Not only were the video rooms closing down but everyone was being kicked out of the Artist’s Alley too. That’s when I found Kat and Dave from Two Sides Wide again, sitting on a low wall doing commissions for people. Kat would sketch out what someone wanted and then ink the lines before passing it onto Dave who would colour it in with cool art pens including the Letraset ones that they were given. I liked these two and got on well so decided to scrap any other ideas and just stick with them. Darkness and the sign of rain forced us inside however and we squatted in the corner of the ‘fan-bar’, which consisted of a bar and a seating area mostly taken up by a pool table and a huge crowd surround a Dance Dance Revolution set up (someone had brought in their PC and connected it to proper metal dance mats). Many cheers, insanely fast dancing, and anime tunes filled the room as Kat and Dave continued to do commissions. Soon chants of ‘Dragon Half’ were heard and two people attempted the super high-speed ending theme, the first failing within ten seconds, the second causing his feet to become a blur and actually completing the song. Adopting Kat and Dave as my sensei’s, I watched them do their work and in no time I wanted to buy these guys a drink. At the same time I thought about maybe getting my own commission from them and asked if I could have one in return for the drinks. It was agreed and I jumped to the bar, it was only then that I found out that the prices of the drinks (excluding my own) came to the exact same price as a coloured and framed commission. I thought it was going to be slightly more but afterwards I was glad because I wouldn’t have been able to pay for my taxi the next day. Kat had just finished some anthro art of a fox girl for Bazabat and was still in that kind of mood and so suggested it. I couldn’t decide anyway so went with that and chose a cat girl. After she sketched out a couple of poses she asked about what clothes I wanted her to wear, I was still undecided until she said ‘duct tape’ and basically that sold me, hee. I left the finished piece, after Dave coloured and framed it, on the table next to their other finished pieces waiting to be collected and it was quickly becoming a target for buyers. They had to resort to asking for their own commissions, two people choosing Chi from Chobits and Kat was lent a manga to draw from, she copied extremely well as if it was her own character. Dave and I discussed colouring and the fan art event they were starting on their web comic (thanks for the TSW badge and key ring by the way). At one point a girl with a video camera filmed us for a moment saying it was for the convention DVD, for a laugh I asked if I could show off my ‘a3s Kuro; Ya face!’ t-shirt so you never know, I might end up on the final product with a little free advertising, muhaha. The girl was also wearing a cool lolita/goth costume and became Kat’s next target.
I starting getting that artistic itch again and disappeared to return with my pad and pencil, doing some rough ideas I had in my head because I knew they’d disappear if I didn’t draw them down right then. Half way through Kat’s last commission of Naruto from the Naruto manga, the bar staff kicked us all out as they had to close up. The commission was finished in one of the hall’s kitchens (where through the windows we could see a crowd around someone getting a glow stick… inserted into him) and we all decided to call it a night.

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