..sweet mother of mercy. I am tired.

I didn't think conventions could make you so incredibly sore. I'm an old old man.

Or not so old. Haha. Not according to one fellow A-kon goer anyway. That was one of the more welcomed comments I received while behind the table at artists alley. Haha. Anyway, here are some of the (paraphrased) quote highlights from over the weekend:

"Wow, you're like.. not at all as old as I thought you'd be! You're so young! That's awesome!"
(Little did they know, haw haw haw. Immediately after they turned their back I stuffed some of my embalming fluid back in.)

"..wow. So, you're cuter than I thought you'd be.. y'know, I mean, I was expecting some kind of (insert gestures indicating some sort of ugly manbeast here)..bleeuagrh, right? Haha."
(I thoroughly approve of this comment and would enjoy getting more in the same vein. Next time I'll shave.)

"I have just one thing to ask you. WHEN IS EVERAFTER GOING TO UUUUUPDAAAATEEEEEEE!?"
(This happened about fifteen times. A fair deal less than I expected, but just enough to make me . Haw haw.)

"Why the hell is Red in Sugar Bits?! WHY. WHY."
(Hey, at least nobody asked me if I was Bleedman.)

"Do you know Unknown-Person? Can you bring him to a convention with you?"
(This is assuming I'll be able to fit Un in my luggage.)




Overall, it was a really great experience. It felt awesome touching base with so many people who had been following my work for such a long time, and new folks alike. One person even had commissioned me for a live sketch without knowing I was Endling/the creator of Everafter, and came back later to "OMG" after she learned the fact of the matter. That was funny. XD
I made out like a bandit, too. For every commission I did I think I spent as much on the art books upstairs. Got myself three bags worth of them, haha. Disgaea, Darkstalkers, an enormous book of pencilled animation frames from Gurren Lagann, among others. Delicious. Can't wait to tear through all of them in a nice long sit down on the couch just absorbing the awesome.
Not to mention, I got a crapton of fanart too. Holy jeez. I think I got two Ree's (One of whom also gave me a badass retro pixel-y looking button I've now put on my jacket. This was a fantastic gesture up until the moment I launched into a hug, in my fanboyish glee, and creeped her out.), one Red, and two INCREDIBLY AWESOME Oliver's, one of which was a picture I'd seen long ago here on DA and had easily identified itself as my absolute favorite. (Seen here! [link] ) I'm going to have to do some gift art for you guys, seriously. Haha. That was such a nice gesture of you all.

In terms of fellow DA artists I met.. I waltzed up to quite a few. Everybody was quite polite and nice. I was seated next to `kris-wilson who introduced himself when his line was finally not wrapped around the convention hall, I recognized *ramy's art from here on DA and said hello, and met *shirotsuki upstairs and completely forgot to deliver the random doodle I was gonna draw for her. (Sorry!) I was a table away from the notorious :devsnafu-dave: who runs the site Everafter is on, and is an impossibly cool guy that I hope I get to convention run with more often now that I've gotten a real taste for it. We were gonna go see "Up" in a big group but *Zombiesmile was about to faint by the end of the day so we ducked out.

There were some real highs and lows. The highs included the faces some people would make after giving them their commissions. XD There was nothing quite like that. Some folks were just so damn happy, and staring at it as they walked away. It made me smile. A lot. Seeing all the folks in kickass cosplay was fantastic. Made me wish I could even pull off half the awesome characters I saw present. LOT of TF2 fans in the crowd, haha, including a very badass looking sniper and a spy I threatened to throw a jar of piss at as he was passing by. (He reacted accordingly.) But the best was not a human cosplay, but something some incredibly sexy people built. Actual to scale models of Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo from MST3K, who I immediately ran over to take pictures with after barreling through my table. Awesome, awesome stuff.

The lows? Oh lord. Were they ever low. I participated in something called an "Iron Artist" competition wherein random folks from Artists Alley were yanked upstairs to compete in some kind of faux-pictionary standoff with their peers by drawing stuff in front of a huge audience based on random stuff people would shout out. And sweet jesus, these people don't know how to pick random stuff that's even remotely entertaining. I BLAME EVERYONE ELSE BUT ME, YOU HEARD ME. Long story short, it went miserably and we kept losing to the other team, who typically ended their sessions with catchy one liners designed to get the crowd cheering for 'em and inevitably cheering LOUDER for them when they were judging who should win. (With the 'cheer louder for the party you want to win' method, which has to be the most fail method of all fail methods for deciding ANYTHING EVER.)

But I'm not bitter. |D Noooo~

Haha. Shit though, that was embarrassing. Having a judge gesture to your side to see how loud the audience cheers, and then NOBODY SAYS ANYTHING. Then they LAUGH out of the sheer failness of the situation at the expense of my poor team. My head turned into an enormous beet. I walked out of there (or ran, actually, when the announcer wasn't looking anymore) and had to ask Miki whether or not I was actually even remotely funny anymore or if I was kidding myself. XD That audience will haunt me forever. 8| FOREVER.

That wasn't the worst of it either. There were some mix-ups with the commissions, and someone walked away with someone else's chibi at some point. They walked away in silence, and I'd wondered why up until later on someone came for their own chibi and I had to tell them someone else walked off with it. This promptly made me feel like an asshole, and I had no idea what to do. The girl in question looked like I just punched her in the teeth and demanded her lunch money. I did the best I could though, offered her a full color commission if she was to contact me here on DA. So I gave her my contact info and I hope to hear from her soon. DX If I don't I'm just gonna draw what she asked me for and post it up for here on DA. (..consequences be damned, given the subject I was asked to draw..)
But yeah, seriously. If you're that girl and you're meandering around DA, get back to me as soon as you can! I am so sorry about what happened. DX But you best make sure to tell me exactly who you wanted done again, so I know it's actually you and not just someone else trying to grab a freebie. haha.

But yeah, that was pretty awful all around. Felt like I'd messed up big. But yeah.. did what I could in both situations. XD All around, not too shabby for a first con experience.

I'd definitely like to do this again.

Over and out. I'm tired as hell. Gonna go roll around in artbooks. |D Night all.