Awesome Con DC!

This past weekend I exhibited at my very first convention! Up until now, I have only been an attendee at conventions (Comic Con in NYC and San Diego, CTN, Illuxcon, etc). As a recent DC transplant, I was looking around for artsy stuff to do in the area, and saw that my illustrator friend Marc Scheff was listed as an Artist Alley exhibitor at Awesome Con. I wrote him a "Hey dude, I'm excited that you'll be in my town" email, and he wrote back asking if I'd like to share his table, and that's how it all went down!

Here is Marc at our table. Day 1! My stuff is to the left. He was selling his beautiful art book and some sweet mugs.

Awesome Con is only in its second year, but it grew exponentially from last year, filling a HUGE hall at the Washington Convention Center. I sold prints from my Russian Fairy Tale series, my artist sketchbook, and a few folks even bought original drawings. The convention was definitely focused on comics and pop culture fan stuff (Dr. Who was everywhere!), and by the last day it was pretty clear that it was my cute stuff (bunnies, turkeys wearing hats) that this particular crowd was most interested in. To test my theory, I drew a cuddly hedgehog and put it out front, and immediately started getting more people coming to look at my stuff (and I sold the drawing).

My cute hedgehog

Overall I had a great time, I got to meet some really wonderful area artists, I am happy with how much I sold, and Marc and I already signed up for a table at next year's convention! I plan to bring more cuddly animals next time around.

I learned that at conventions you may end up doing a lot of sitting around, which can lead to some sweet sketchbook drawings!

Animals of the National Zoo

I currently live just a ten minute walk from the National Zoo in Washington, DC, essentially making the zoo animals my new neighbors. This is, in a word, AWESOME! I have taken to carrying my camera with me every time I visit, and snapping photos of whoever is out and about (it changes every time!). Here are some drawings of my new animal friends - I am excited to keep getting to know them.

(Click the images to see them nice and BIG)

 Andean Bear

 Cheetah

 Dama Gazelle

 Goeldi's Marmoset Monkey

 Giant Panda

Alpaca

The Wolf

In the past year or so I have spent a lot of time drawing wolves, thanks to my Russian Fairy Tales series. Here are a few that came out of that process.

Prince Ivan and the Grey Wolf. This piece made it into my sketchbook, available here. It is from the story of Prince Ivan, The Firebird, and the Grey Wolf.

Dire Wolf. This piece was done as an exploratory experiment while in a class with C.F. Payne and Gary Kelley. The woods were inspired by a trip I took to The Painted Forest of Oma in Basque Country. The original painting is available for sale here.

 Above is another exploratory wolf sketch, and below is a monotype (also available for purchase) based on the sketch. Wolves galore!