Stumptown Recap

It was Christmas, the first day of school, and a rock concert all rolled into one!!


(The Stumptown 2009 Flickr pool is already up! Add your photos or browse through others'! :D That's Ainsley, my table mate, on the left!)

Saturday:
I woke up at 6 on Saturday morning practically buzzing with excitement. First convention jitters!! I had time to finish most of my final preparations, such as assembling my tool kit and packing a lunch, before hitting the road at 8:30. I got to the Lloyd Center DoubleTree at 9 and had an hour to set up my table. The floor was so full of excited, talented comic folk! It was inspiring just watching everyone set up their tables. (And sadly, the set up and take down hours were the times I saw the most tables, because I hardly got a chance to walk around during the day.)

I was really nervous (shaking, really...) for the first couple of hours, but talking with Ainsley (cool as a cucumber :P) and forcing myself to crack my sketchbook helped me hit my stride. A bunch of friends stopped by my table throughout the day, including my good friends Carrie and Andy, Jamie Rich, Periscope friends, and even friends from school. They were all really supportive and it cheered me up every time they stopped by.

I like imagining all of the people that might have my comics in their hands now. It's a wonderful feeling!

Blogger ate three paragraphs of this post, but I'll try to rewrite them!:
I tried to find a friend's party after the fest Saturday, but it was epic fail. I am from the west side, and Portland's east side confounds me miserably. I drove up and down the last street I could find on my direction sheet for 10 minutes, but never found the next one. x___x
I went to the Cosmic Monkey after party next, where I was finally able to see the awesome comic book store everyone raves about! What a place! They had an entire section for local zines, and another for locally published books. :D It is a truly awesome comic shop. I plan to return. :) The Trophy Awards show and Comic Art Battles were fun to watch, and Jeff Parker cracked up the whole audience for several hours in his MC alter ego. I met the new Periscope intern, Emi, and the old one, Sarah. New friends, yaaaay! xD We danced and shouted at the stage late into the night.

I went to the portfolio review table late Saturday, and got some time with Bob Schreck. I went in with a thick skin, but he was nice. He did tell me I should go to art school, which sounds harsh out of context, but I agree that I could use basic training in some areas (perspective, anatomy, and color theory most of all...). He said that my expressions and faces were good, but I should work on backgrounds (don't ink with a ruler) and character details from far away, esp. hands. I'm in such a frustrating place between 'hobbyist' and 'employable artist'. I don't have the money for art school, but I'll try to take at least a single class at PSU or AI this summer.

Sunday:
I got out the door pretty late, and arrived at the fest with only half an hour before opening. However, I had left all of my stuff under my table over night, so I was able to set up pretty quickly. Though activity was down, sales were up. I think it was people exploring the fest Saturday and buying Sunday. My family came through, which was very sweet, and even took pictures of my booth (BLUSH). I met even more cool people, and enjoyed the more casual atmosphere of the day.
At 6, I made the decision to go straight home instead of out to celebrate, and gave my family some attention. We made burgers and watched LOST. Bliss!

THINGS I LEARNED FOR NEXT TIME:

• You need super, SUPER sticky tape to hang anything on tablecloth
  
• Pack a lunch you can eat with one hand
• Don't smile with unbreaking eye contact when someone approaches you. In fact, I found that my most effective attitude for making people stick around was sketching in my own little world, and only looking up and smiling if someone stayed at the booth for half a minute or more.
• Business cards. Bring them all.
• It may seem pompous to put your pricing sheet at the front of your table, but that is where it needs to be
• Print out driving directions the night before and put them in your car before you go to bed
• Do not drink caffeine the first morning--the excitement more than does the job!
• Only pack merchandise that you think represents you well. Each item could be the only one a customer takes home with them!
• Wear a bright color
  
• If you think it's time to get a table and a con, sign the frick up today!!!! I wish I'd started doing this a year or even two years ago!!

As of today, I'm planning on attending the Portland Zine Symposium. :) I like this convention stuff!

Next post: review of all the minis I read at the end of the weekend!!

They flash upon that inward eye

(I memorized I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud for a school assignment in 4th grade, and can still recite it. Such a beautiful poem! I love that image of remembering something that made an impression on you days or weeks after the fact.)

The University of Oregon is gorgeous in the spring. It's always fun to watch Eugene go from barren to green in just 10 days (usually around mid-March). Our campus has a lot of deciduous trees, and though it's bleak in the winter, there's this magical, sudden change every year when the leaves come back. I saw cherry blossoms today, and daffodil shoots! It was a shock to see the first signs of spring so soon, but I'm not complaining! I've been suspicious for a while that I'm slightly S.A.D., because my mood changes for the first part of each new season. The next one is a happy change, though, so again, not complaining. :)

I HAVE been drawing, I promise. I just don't own a scanner, so I have to wait for a day when I can drag all of my sketches/work to the library, wait for the nice scanner/computer workstation to clear (it's almost always someone checking Facebook for an hour! AAAAH!), and scan it all at once. There are plenty of new sketches on the way, and A Room of One's Own pages, once I have an inking session. Hang in there!

It feels good to have Out of Place chapter 6 done. Weekly webcomic pages only work when the pages stand alone...otherwise, your art changes so much from week to week, the flow of the chapters themselves get reeeally choppy. Sitting down and doing a scene at a time is the only way to go! I'm printing out chapter 6 today to have in a binder at Stumptown. I haven't decided how much art I want to have on the table...I have this fear of sitting there with 2 notebooks and a minicomic in front of me and looking like an idiot, but I don't want stacks of mediocre art in front of me, either. :P
Btw, the list of exibitors is up on Stumptown's website.

Blaaaaah 4-year college

Out of Place chapter 6 is shaping up nicely---all that's left is toning, lettering, and some final effects, but I hope to finish by tomorrow and have the next month and a half of updates done early. Then it's AROO, and I am going to try my darnedest to get excited about it!

School is hard. D: Why do I have to know the 4 functions of management or the 5 characteristics of successful goal making? I know the 3 steps to apply eyeshadow correctly, so I think I'm good (/half sarcastic).

LOST, The Office, 30 Rock, and The Soup. My Wednesday-Friday is a happy, happy time. :) If you watch LOST: Dan and Richard are my favorite characters, so you can imagine how much I enjoyed that last episode! *A*

New video

New video on Youtube: 10 minutes of me inking an Out of Place panel. I described it, "It's slightly more interesting than watching paint dry", but if you're into inking, then I hope you'll like it :P


There should be another video up tomorrow or later this weekend of the next panel on the page; I learned from the first video and have a better angle, lighting, and higher resolution. Finishing Out of Place chapter 6 is going well--just 2 more pages to pencil, 3 to ink, 4 to edit. :>

EDIT: Oh yeah! My business environments teacher made sure to mention today that he is enjoying The United States Constitution, and can he have it for another week? xD D'aw, I love when people get excited about reading. <3

Updates

ROFL. So true!!! xD Oh Jennie Breeden, how did you get so cool?

Laziness aside, I did update Out of Place yesterday, and there is a page already uploaded for next Monday. :) My plan is to finish chapter 6 as soon as possible, post the cover for chapter 7, and go on hiatus to focus on proposals during the spring... >__>



I lent my business environments (read: business law) professor The United States Constitution last Tuesday, and I'm hoping he brings it to class today with his reactions.

Happy Holidays!

HOLIDAY SHOPPING!! *FOAM* It was so fun!

Our neighborhood got about 4 inches of snow on Sunday, which stuck throughout yesterday and today, and effectively snowed my family in. The forecasts say there may be even more tomorrow! It's been fun pretending to live in Alaska, but my body has taken about as much abuse as it can on the sledding hill, and I'm running out of things to do (except finishing A Room of One's Own...ugh, my wrists...).

The roads improved a little today, so my mom and I took the opportunity to go downtown and shop. I love the way Portland looks in the winter: clear sky, bright lights, bundled up people--the snowy icing is a bonus this year. We found gifts for my little cousin Kendra at Art Media, some gifts for the boys in Pioneer Place, and a couple of things for ourselves. I bought a dress for my birthday next Monday (21!!!!! OMG) at Express. It's so cute. I can't wait! I just hope the roads are clear enough for my friends and me to get downtown... :-/

Kara says "Happy Holidays!" :)