IlluXcon V 2012: Omega Sci-Fi-Fantasy Smackdown 5: In Review, Part 2

Soooo...onto Saturday!!!...

Saturday was another really big day for me, I spent most of the day attending more lectures. As soon as I got to the building, I headed straight to the lecture being held by Christopher Burdett and Jon Schindehette on the topic of "Getting Serious*". The room was absolutely packed with people and I wound up standing up against the back wall, but it was 100% worth it. They shared a lot of personal experiences and the advice they gave made a pretty big impression on me. I have notes on that lecture too if anybody wants them, let me know and I'll send them your way. I also got to catch a little bit of Winona Nelson's 2nd Lecture, "Break the Rut*" where she talked about her personal journey on how she lifted her artwork to a more meaningful level for herself and how that lead her to creating her best work thus far. The lecture also covered ways that you can try to push yourself to break out of your own artistic rut, and it was cool hearing her own personal experiences. After that I wandered around the main show a bit more then headed over to see Todd Lockwood do digital paint-over critiques in order to kill some time before my portfolio review with Jon Schindehette.

On Friday I had a portfolio review with Andrew Vallas from Paizo, and Saturday, a portfolio review with Jon Schindehette from Wizards of the Coast. Both of the reviews went well, and the comments on my portfolio were along the same lines I had been hearing all weekend. Without getting too much into what they said, I know I'm really close to working with these people, I just have to work on addressing a very clear issue with my portfolio, and I think I'll be ready. It was a really exciting feeling that really cranked up my excitement and it has me really craving to break through this wall that's in front of me. A few well planned out pieces and I should be blowing that wall to pieces and then I'll hopefully be in a much better place with my work and my career.

Soon after my review with Schidehette was over, I left the convention center to head back to the hotel where they were hosting the Illie Awards ceremony followed by the IlluXcon Jam. The IlluXcon Jam was an idea concocted by the guitar-wiz and very skilled painter, Mark Zug. Mark thought it would be a fun idea to bring together the visual artists who are also involved in the musical arts as well. I was one of the several artists who took part in the Jam the first year around (I play the drums for anyone who doesn't know) and it was so much fun and people seemed to enjoy it. The second year they put on the Jam (the year I didn't attend) apparently there was no drummer and based on what I heard from people the drums were missed. This year was the third IlluXcon Jam and I was back on the drums. I was pretty nervous as I hadn't really played much since the first IlluXcon Jam two years ago, but people seemed to be pretty happy to have the drums back. It felt really nice hearing the reaction to me being back on the drums. I know my skills had gotten a little rusty, but after I got a few rough songs out of the way I really started having fun and it was such a great experience getting to play along with some of my illustration heroes. I was happy to have my dad in the audience as well to cheer me on. I know that night will stick with me for a very long time, thanks to everyone who took part and to everyone in the audience who listened.

 

Here's one of the better performances of the night, Fiona Apple's "Criminal" Click here to see the playlist of video I was able to have recorded that night.

After the jam I was pretty exhausted, so I went straight back to my room to sleep. Sunday, being the last day of IlluXcon, I spent a few hours walking around the main show, talking to any people I missed, getting some final portfolio reviews, making my final purchases, and saying my goodbyes. Sunday was also the day I was able to convince my dad to come see the main show with me. My dad was a little out of his element, so he was a little shy walking around and I'm sure he felt a little tense when Matt Stewart starting handing him original paintings to look at. My dad is a fan of the World of Warcraft MMO so I made sure to point out all of the WoW art for him at the show. I even specifically asked Matt Stewart if he could pull out his WoW pieces so my dad could see.

It was really nice getting to show my dad around the main show. My dad has been a huge support for me and my art ever since I was a little kid. I do my best to keep my dad informed as to how the art world works and while he definitely understands more about the art world than most parents might, it really meant a lot to me that my dad got this chance to take a closer look into my world through IlluXcon. It was really exciting watching him react to all the amazing artwork, and he even bought a few prints. All the artists were very welcoming to my dad when I told them who he was and a special thanks to Matt Stewart for sharing his time and talking about his work with us, it really meant a lot.

A farewell photo with J. Edwin Stevens, Dave Mallon and Myself (thanks Jeannie!)

After I made my last purchases and said my final goodbyes, it was time to head back out onto the road and head home to Philadelphia. I had an absolutely amazing time the whole weekend. I can't express that enough, just a wealth of knowledge, advice, inspiration, and good times. I learned a great deal and I'm super excited to get back to work. Next year, IlluXcon VI is going to be taking place in Allentown, PA, so I'll only have about an hour drive from my home to the convention, so hopefully everything works out for me to go again next year. I hope to brings some more friends with me next year as well...we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Me and my dad posing with the amazing work of Tom Kuebler

Lastly, I would like to extend a huge thank you to my family for all the support throughout the years. I know the path I've chosen with art isn't the easiest, and it can be very difficult to understand when you're not an artist yourself, but I'm very thankful to have the huge support from my family in order to help me get to where I want to go in life. A special thanks to my dad, Michael D. Burns for taking the time to travel across the state with me and for helping me with all of my IlluXcon arrangements. I would never have made it to IlluXcon this year without him, nor would I have made it this far in my art altogether. Thank you so much!

IlluXcon V 2012: Omega Sci-Fi-Fantasy Smackdown 5: In Review, Part 1

Last Thursday, my dad and I loaded up the truck and made the 5 hour drive from our home in Philadelphia, PA to Altoona, PA to attend IlluXcon V. A lot of awesome stuff went down over the weekend, and in the next two blog posts I'm going to share what my experience was like this year as well as how it differed from my last time attending, two years ago at IlluXcon III.

That place where I wanted to go to and then did

IlluXcon III was my first time attending a convention of any sort. When I arrived at the main show I was blown away by all the amazing artwork and I felt really intimidated by all the talent I was surrounded by. I felt pretty insignificant that first year. I knew I had a lot to improve upon, and I was too scared to talk to a lot of the people I wanted to talk to. Getting sick halfway through the show didn't help either, it only taxed my energy and excitement even more. Yet despite all of the hurdles during the convention I still left feeling inspired and motivated to keep creating and honing my skills. The year after, when IlluXcon IV came around, I had just graduated from college and somehow talked myself out of going to IlluXcon that year, and I never forgave myself for not going.

My first year at IlluXcon I felt like I didn't get the most I could have out of the experience, and the next year I was kicking myself for not even going at all. I mention this because these things put me in a state of mind this year that really forced me to get the most out of the experience.

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When I arrived this year I was overflowing with excitement and energy. I was so happy just to be standing in the main show room that any fears or insecurities I had in the years before flew right out the window and I was able to just enjoy talking to all the artists without worries. When I showed up the first night I talked to a lot of awesome people like Chris Rahn, Ralph Horsley, Steve Prescott, Matt Stewart, and plenty of others. These guys are some of my illustration heroes and it was really exciting to get a chance to pick their brains, listen to their critiques and just share a laugh with people who I really admire. It's not everyday you get to meet one of your heroes, but at IlluXcon there are rooms completely filled with them.

The next day (Friday) I spent a lot of time sitting in on lectures and taking notes. The lectures I attended that day were: "Self-Teaching & Self-Design*" by Winona Nelson, and "Narrating in the Dark*" by E. M. Gist. Winona talked about how to make ourselves most efficient and how it's important to be open to experiencing new things because you never know who or what could wind up teaching you valuable information. Erik Gist's lecture covered popular conventions in telling horror and dark fantasy stories, and gave plenty of great examples of where these methods have been executed successfully. Both lectures were very interesting and insightful, and they got me excited to apply what I learned to myself and my work.

*Note: I typed up my notes from all the lectures. Nothing can replace actually being in attendance yourself, but if anyone missed a lecture and wanted an idea as to what was talked about let me know and I'll happily email you the document.

After the lectures I spent some more time in the main show, making my way around to artists I didn't get a chance to talk to the first night. I met the very talented Milivoj Ćeran who came all the way from Croatia to attend the convention, and I also met Jeremy Caniglia, whom I had never heard of before but I wound up really liking his work. I stopped by and chatted a little with Randy Gallegos who I'd met 2 years ago. And I also got a really helpful portfolio review from Winona Nelson, and since she lives in the Philadelphia area she was able to give me some really great information to help me find resources in my hometown.

It's almost like I'm a professional or something...

...almost.

My Showcase neighbor and good friend, Jimmy, aka J. Edwin Stevens, aka Level20artist, aka J master Flash

Friday night was a big night for me because it would be my first time being a part of the IlluXcon Showcase event and my first time ever setting up any kind of convention table. My 2 artist friends J. Edwin Stevens (aka Jimmy, also setting up in the Showcase for the first time) and Dave Mallon made sure to save me a table next to Jimmy's so I had a familiar face to keep me company. As we were setting up we both could tell we were a little bit unsure of how to arrange things, and what to expect from the coming event. By the time people started pouring into the room we were all set up and ready for, well...whatever was going to happen. For me, the night was full of highs and lows, but overall I'm very satisfied with my first display at Showcase. At one point I was sitting at my table and I look up and there's Julie Bell taking a look at my work. She said a few kind words to me about my work, and upon seeing my Wights painting she tipped me off about a Game of Thrones exhibit happening in Austin Texas. Later in the night Raoul Vitale and his son Santino stopped by my table to check out my work and also share their excitement with me about Santino and I performing in the IlluXcon Jam the next night...but I'll talk more about the Jam in a bit. It was really great feeling having artist's I admire so much taking the time to check out my own work and spending some of their time chatting with me, it helped keep my nerves from getting to me. In the middle of all the hustle and bustle of Showcase night I even sold a couple of my pieces! I sold my 18"x24" Boo Berry, and my 11"x14" Darksol portrait. Thanks again to China and Shawn, I hope you get a lot of enjoyment out of them! Towards the end of the night I decided to step away from my table so I could see what else the Showcase had to offer. It was great seeing some familiar faces like Chris Burdett and Jeremy McHugh, and I met a lot of great new people as well, and of course collected a bunch of postcards and business cards. It was a long night, but overall a great experience and I hope I can be a part of Showcase again next year.

That's all I'll cover for today, I'll cover the 2nd half of the con in a later post, so stay tuned if you enjoyed reading about my experiences so far. Thanks for stopping by the blog!

My NYCC Adventure

On Friday October 12, 2012 me and my awesome girlfriend Amabel attended the New York Comic Con! We only had one day passes, but we made sure to get the most out of the trip. Here's a little rundown of how our day went...

View of the convention center (not my photo)

We arrived about an hour before the convention center opened where we waited in an insanely long and very loud line full of other excited attendees, many in costume as per expected. We stood there looking through the convention program figuring out where we had to go to see the panels and events we wanted to attend and we also saw some new things we hadn't noticed on the con's website.

We were looking for something to do in the beginning of the con and we found an event called Dare 2 Draw which took place on a stage were 3 models posed in costumes for various warm-up sketches leading up to a 15 minute long challenge where you had to use the models as inspiration to do a Tor themed drawing. After the 15 minutes was up everyone then submitted their drawings, a couple of which would be contacted for prizes if they were selected to win. Not sure when they choose the winner but we haven't heard anything yet. Either way, we both had a lot of fun participating as neither Ama or I had gotten to do any figure drawing for a while. Plus after the event they gave away from free art supplies which was pretty cool. I was also surprised to see my SU classmates Kerff and Jenn at the event too, I haven't seen either of them since graduation.

From there, we headed over to attend a panel and as we were leaving the room I noticed a familiar face who turned out to be none other than Tester Season 2 contestant Mo Chocolate. We didn't say anything to him as he seemed pretty into what he was saying to his handheld video camera, but it was pretty cool passing by him. I'll have to check out his Youtube page, we might have wound up in his video.

The panel we then went to was How to Get a Job in the Video Game Industry held by Capcom. There were a lot of speakers, each with their own unique story as to how they got into the industry, and what their responsibilities were in the company. There was a lot of really nice information provided, and we took some notes. Definitely glad we went to the panel, it got me feeling motivated and with a better idea of how to research finding work. After that we had some time to kill before the next panel we wanted to attend so we decided to head towards the Artist Alley.





We didn't have enough time to see the whole Artist Alley showroom so we decided to scope out some of the specific artists we wanted to see, the first one we spotted was Katie Cook. Ama was especially excited to see her booth as she's worked on the Official My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Comic (Ama kind of likes My Little Pony...kind of a lot actually :P ). Katie was busy doing quick little con sketches for fans so we had to wait in line, but we were looking at her prints for sale and decided to buy prints of the 2 images below...we couldn't resist the adorableness.

 

When we got to the front of the line we got to talk to Katie a little and Ama asked her to do a sketch of us which, as you can see is pretty freaking adorable as well!

(Pic coming soon)

Waiting in line took a while so afterward we had to leave to catch the first of the 2 back to back panels we wanted to see in the IGN Theater. The first panel was featuring Kevin Smith and his new show Comic Book Men. Season 2 is starting up soon so Kevin and his pals Walt, Mike, Ming and Bryan (the stars of the show) talked about what it was like doing the first season as well what's in store for the second season, and we even got a sneak peek on the show! I think it's safe to say that Kevin Smith is one of my heroes, so it was really awesome to get to hear him speak in person. I've been watching his movies my whole life and I love his sense of humor. It was pretty inspiring hearing him talk, everything that came out of his mouth during that panel was solid gold and I'm really happy I got to attend, even though we were all the way in the back of the room. After that panel was over the room began emptying out and Ama and I ran up front to get closer seats for the next panel. We noticed that the guys from the show were posing for pictures up front so I ran up and handed Mike Zapcic some of my postcards. He was really polite and excitedly took my postcards so we'll see what happens with that.

Comic Book Men Panel (not my photo)

The next panel right after Comic Book Men was for the new Silent Hill movie called Silent Hill: Revelation 3D. As everyone knows, I'm pretty obsessed with Silent Hill so of course I just HAD to see this panel. Not to mention the fact that Ama and I were both super excited to see that Kit Harrington (Jon Snow from Game of Thrones) would be there since he's playing Vincent in the new movie! We got to see some never-before-seen sneak peeks at the movie and at the end there was a Q&A where I got to ask the panel a question of my own! I asked them if they all played the games themselves and if so what they thought about them. The audience seemed to react when I asked the question and I was happy to hear them all speak very highly and at great length about the games. It was an awesome panel and I'm really excited to see the movie!

Silent Hill: Revelation 3D Panel (not my photo)

From there we decided to grab some food and then we headed through the merchant booths which were completely overwhelming. Crap stacked to the ceiling of the room and people EVERYWHERE. There were some cool booths set up by video game companies and such but like I said, the place was crazy crowded so we mostly just walked through the place. After we were done we went back to the Artist Alley and got to see more of what was in the room. I met Ben Templesmith and got one of my issues of Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse signed by him along with a cool little doodle. Later I found Bobby Chiu and Kei Acedera's booth where I got to show Bobby my portfolio and got some really nice feedback from him.

The last thing we headed to was the CollegeHumor LIVE panel, but the line was really long and we just missed the cutoff for getting into the room. Instead we just took one last walk around the convention center and then made our way home. It was a really awesome day and we had a lot of fun! I'm going to do my best to make it back again next year, and who knows, maybe I'll get to attend 3 or 4 days!

As for now, I've gotta get ready for my next convention coming up...the BIG one...IlluXcon V

Conventions, and me being at them.

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'll be attending a couple of conventions in the next few weeks. Those conventions are New York Comic Con and IlluXcon.

I'll only be attending the New York Comic Con on Friday, October 12. I've never been to NYCC and I'll be attending the con as a spectator. I'm planning on enjoying some entertainment panels and having fun, but there's also a panel being held by Capcom on how to get a job in the video game industry which I'm really looking forward to, so I'll be trying to squeeze in some business on the side as well. I'll even have some of my new postcards on me just in case (see below). I'm really excited to be attending the NYCC and depending on what happens I'll see about making a blog post about my experience.

As for IlluXcon, this will be my 2nd time attending the con, and I'll be setting up a table for the first time as well. The con is from November 8-11 and this is the big one for me. Over the past year I've been putting a lot of effort into taking my artwork to the next level and I'm really hoping to attract a lot attention from art directors. I'm really looking forward to making new contacts, meeting new people and catching up with old friends. Look for my table at the Showcase event where I'll have some large framed prints up on display and you can even purchase them if you'd like. Below you can see one print I already have made of my Darksol portrait. See this and many more pieces, including my General Mills Cereal Monsters Series, and grab some of my new postcards / business cards too.

I'll be posting more updates on what's in store for my Illuxcon venture so stay tuned. Let me know if you're going to the con too! I'm really looking forward to meeting tons of awesome people.

Inspiration Spotlight #24: Dave DeVries and the Monster Engine...and a visit to NYC

I've got a special Spotlight post today! Yesterday I dragged my friend Anthony Briglia with me to New York City to see the opening for Dave DeVries's Monster Engine gallery show. But I'll get to that in a minute.

Before the opening we spent some time visiting different places like Forbidden Planet Comics, and The Evolution Store. In addition to those places we decided to hunt down the Comedy Cellar and Ben's Pizzeria, two locations (on the same block) featured in the FX show Louie, created by Louis CK. It was a lot of fun seeing the places in person, and we even got some slices at Ben's. We only got to see the outside of the Comedy Cellar, but I would really love to be able to go in and see a performance sometime in the future.

After we were done sight-seeing, we headed over to Sacred Gallery at 424 Broadway (2nd Floor) for Dave's opening. Here's an excerpt from the Engine's website where Dave describes what exactly the Monster Engine is:

The Monster Engine is a book, a demonstration, lecture and a gallery exhibition. The premise for all three came from one single question: What would a child’s drawing look like if it were painted realistically?


Below are some of the pieces that were at the exhibit, both the children's original drawings and Dave's paintings based on them.

Getting to see the pieces in person was a real treat; Dave has done some really great work. It'd been a while since I worked with Dave back on Blue Shift so it was nice seeing him again and saying hello. I got a signed copy of the printed Monster Engine book, full of interviews Dave conducts with the kids about the process.

If you're in the area you should stop by and check out the work yourself. The exhibit will be up until the 31st. Also check out his book and the news report on the Monster Engine on CBS (note:this doesn't cover the exhibit, only the Monster Engine itself).

Copies of my Children's Book

Last week I received a few copies of the children's book I did over the summer with Capstone, "Your Life as a Cabin Boy on a Pirate Ship".

 It's a pretty nice feeling to finally have the final hard copy in my hands. It's been so long since I worked on it that pretty much forgot about it, so it was a nice surprise. Here are a couple shots of the cover.

If you want to see what's on the inside you can pick up a copy from the Capstone website or from Amazon.

2/2 Birthday Zombie

Here's a piece I did as a gift for my good friend Anthony Briglia. It was his birthday yesterday so I worked up this fake (and over-sized) Zombie token for Magic: The Gathering. I recently split a box of the new Magic set, Innistrad, with him and he really took a liking to how the zombies worked so I decided to make him his very own personalized zombie token featuring him and...himself.

Last month was my own birthday and Anthony made a couple of custom Magic cards for me along with some original artwork featuring myself and my old dog Chester...

The piece I did was drawn in pencil then inked with Microns and Sharpie, painted in water color and acrylic.

Phillustration 2011 Opening

Today was the opening for the Phillustration show at the Philadelphia Sketch Club! I had 2 pieces of my own in the show and I even won an honorable mention for one of them in the Student category. Here are some of the photos I took...

Matt Stewart(left), Best of Show winner Joe DeVito(right)

Charles Santore


Julie Bell

Boris Vallejo


...more artwork (the pics that didn't turn out ridiculously blurry

My good friend Anthony Briglia got 2 pieces into the show as well!

Here's me with my 2 entries, the one on the right won me an honorable mention...

...and here I am receiving my award along with my goodie bag of art supplies along with a copy of Star Wars: Visions, the Star Wars tribute art-book.

It was a fun day and I got to talk to a bunch of cool people and saw some amazing artwork! The show will be up until around July 17th...look up hours the Sketch Club is open as well as directions on their website.

The New Studio

I've been setting up my new studio lately and it's still a little cluttered but it's finally ready for business! I've got my new drawing table set up, a brand new 27" iMac to work on and a nice comfy chair so I can work all day. Oh yeah, and those are all my art books under the table...I should really do something with those.

It's time to start producing more work so get ready to see some new stuff on the blog really soon. I'll be submitting some work to a show coming up here in Philadelphia pretty soon, I'll talk more about that later. I'll be back soon!

The Nightman Cometh and Goeth...

You may have noticed that I've been making a lot of posts regarding my Nightman Cometh painting recently, so let me explain...

Soon after finishing my Nightman Cometh painting I got the idea to look up the cast members on Twitter and I found that Glenn Howerton (Dennis), Danny DeVito (Frank), Charlie Day (Charlie), and Kaitlin Olson (Dee) all have personal accounts. I tagged them all in a tweet linking to the finished painting posted on my blog. I thought it would be really awesome if the cast of one of my favorite shows could see my painting.

Danny and Glenn complimented me on the painting and a few hours later I got an email from Glenn's assistant Sean asking if it were possible to buy the original. We made a deal. As you can see from the photo below, my Nightman Cometh painting is now in the hands of "Dennis" from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". This has been a great experience for me. It's been such a blast interacting with the people who have created a show that brings me so much enjoyment!

The Nightman Cometh in my hands

I thought it would be fun to post an image of me holding the painting so people can get an idea of the scale of the piece.

I've been receiving a lot of awesome feedback on the painting and will be deciding what to do with it in the very near future so stay tuned if you're interested!

IlluXcon 3 - 2010 in review

It's been a few days since I've gotten back from Altoona and my brain is still trying to register all the awesomeness I've experienced during the Super-Omega-Awesome-Illustration-Fun-Fest that was IlluXcon 3.

I met so many awesome artists who are just as awesome people. I showed my portfolio around, got it ripped to shreds, and was told which shreds were worth keeping. I was very humbled by the great overall response my portfolio drew from a number of people and at the same time all of the masters I was surrounded by showed me just how much further I have yet to push myself. I bought a ton of goodies and grabbed freebies from just about anyone who was giving them out.

IlluXcon has got me really motivated to really throw everything I've got into my new work and I really look forward to seeing how these new pieces I'm working on turn out. I'm already seeing signs of how the con has impacted me and it's a really great feeling to know that I'm getting closer to reaching that next level.

Thank you to everyone who was kind enough to share their time and wisdom with me at the con and a special thanks to Jeannie and Pat Wilshire for putting the con together in the first place. Those two really have put together something special and I hope to come back again next year. IlluXcon is the perfect reminder as to why I love the fantasy genre, it seems that nowhere else can you find such a talented and passionate group of people who want to share their knowledge and help each other improve in their work!

P.S. the jam night was incredibly fun! I very rarely get to play the drums without silencing pads anymore...nor do I get to play with other people, or on stage, so that was a really awesome time for me :)