Con Sketches part 3

As Lee said you probably couldn't shut me up in a vacuum. A slight dislike of silences and a genuine interest in everyone around me and telling and being told great stories keeps me endlessly chatting.

Another thing you have to remember is that I spend a great proportion of every day in silence drawing. After extended periods of this, I get a serious dose of "cabin fever" and can't wait to get out of my cage and chat to people. Friends are acutely aware when I need to get back to the drawing table though. I go quiet, get distracted and sometimes a little surly. I sit down, draw and recharge the social batteries.

So imagine my joy when I get to chat to people who like my artwork!

As far as I'm concerned, everyone has a story, it's just up to me to get it out of them. It's fascinating for me to find out what brings people to the convention. It's such a diverse range of people. My favourite targets are the "extras".

You know who they are, the poor people who get dragged along in the wake of someone else's fandom. Maybe you're a mother working three jobs to support your kid's Pokhemon habit? A suffering wife smiling sweetly as your husband moves your mother into a nursing home to make way for his comics. An embarassed child following dad around in his Superman costume (that he REALLY shouldn't be wearing). The understanding girlfriend sharing your boyfriend with a World of Warcraft Night-Elf.

You're my targets.

You're the people who I want to have a good time. You're the people I will target for sketches of anything you want.

Fans will have a great time at the con. But if they want to have a really good time, you need the people around you to have a good time. I'm not going to say a smile, a sketch and a quick chat is going to turn your day around, but it's definite contribution to the "Have a Better Day" fund.

And then when that fan asks to come back next year, hopefully their "extra" agrees because they had a pretty good time because people were nice to them.

Ok, so while this picture of Niki didn't work out so well, and the Clare's are inconsistent, I'm especially proud of this Haitian. As you can see, my secret weapon was a copic marker. It's a grey transluscent marker. This means that I can draw a layer of grey, then draw over the top of that layer to create a darker grey.

This cool guy brought his son, Ares (what a cool name) along last year also. Last year he asked me if he could draw a portrait of Ares, and that he's a huge Nightwing fan. Here's the picture.

This year he brought Ares back and mentioned that the little guy can't get enough Star Wars. So here he is as a Jedi.

An even better emo Peter here. See what a difference these grey things make?

And whenever anyone said draw what you want, I tended to draw Superman. He was like my mental break if you will. An image from our cultural unconsciousness rather than a likeness.