Last weekend I had a booth at the art show at the Origins Game Fair. Had a pretty good time hanging with many fellow artists. The show was a little lighter in attendance I think, and kinks were being worked out as we had a new art show director, but it ended up being my best con appearance yet. From top to bottom, left to right: there’s me setting up, my booth and table fully set up, a quick watercolor sketch of general Star Warsiness, Kyle with a couple L5R cards he wanted signed which I did the art for(first time that’s happened to me and I must say a very awesome feeling), Morgan who’s bought some prints from me before snagged the original acrylic painting I did for the Origins program, and Jennifer who snagged the first of five limited edition prints of “She Came to Play”.

I want to thank everyone who stopped by, everyone who helped make the show happen, all my artist friends new and old, and all the people who liked my work enough to take some home with them. I am truly grateful.

Here’s a little taste of what I’m trying to wrap up this weekend. I hope to get this done and available for the Origins Game Fair which starts next week. I felt like doing a quick little comic and the character from my Discover a Muse entry seemed a great fit. It isn’t going to be perfect in any way as I’ve been rushed getting it done, but it’s been fun creating and looks pretty good so far.

My wife and I went backpacking over the past week. What was supposed to be 3 days and 2 nights, and hike of about 6 miles a day, quickly got changed. We were told the trail was good for beginners but the first part was a bit challenging. Well, the first part was more than a bit challenging. Though we could’ve kept on keeping on if it wasn’t for the mosquitoes. Our timing was not good with rain over the past few weeks, and temperatures in the mid to upper 80s as we arrived, it was perfect mosquito time. I think it’s that time of year anyway, but there was a good amount of mud and a few marshy areas. Once we passed the first marsh spot it was like we crossed into the filming of some B movie titled “Killer Mosquitoes”. As we woke the second day, and the mosquitoes weren’t letting up(even with massive amounts of OFF), we decided to call it off and chalk it up to a learning experience. We had a decent time with all things considered, but we’ll certainly research the bug populations and trends before our next trip. And yes, I’ll pack in such a way not to have so many things hanging off my pack like an idiot:)

My wife and I are going backpacking in a couple weeks and I had the bright idea to go buy a small travel set of watercolors and a small watercolor paper pad. I was excited and being years since I’ve used watercolors I had to try them out. So I picked a panel from a mini-comic I’m putting together to try out the paints.

Last weekend was the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo here in Columbus Ohio. It was a pretty good time for my first comic convention. I met a lot of other creators who were all very nice and talented and far too numerous to list here. Sales were OK, I made the money for the table back, not taking into consideration what the printing costs were. That just means I’ll have books to sell at Origins and GenCon this summer. Attendance was decent on the first day, but the second day seemed to be mostly other exhibitors walking around checking everybody out. Who knows if it was the economy, the new location this year, or the weather. I didn’t take many pictures. The one above was right after I finished setting up my table and the doors hadn’t opened to the public yet. Mike Kitchen was one of my neighbors and is shuffling through some of his Spy Guy books.