Recovery Fund Follow-Up: Thank you!
This past week during which I ran my Art Supply Recovery Fund was more uplifting than I could have anticipated, and I simply want to thank each and every one of you who support my work.
Read MoreSasha's Art Supply Recovery Fund
At the recent C2E2 convention in Chicago, I had my Nomad art satchel stolen during load-out, with about $500 worth of supplies and work in progress pieces inside. I've done what I could to recover it, but unfortunately it seems long gone.
In order to try and recoop some of the costs of replacing the supplies, I'm running a big sale online, as well as two marathon streaming events during which I'll create a bunch of small originals and live auction during the streams.
Read MoreHavencon!
There is one convention I didn't go into great detail on in my previous blog post, not for lack of things worth remarking on, but rather the opposite: Havencon is one of my favorite con experiences I have had to date, and I wanted to give it a shout-out of it's own.
Read MoreThe Spring of First Cons
The past two months have seen me take the plunge and table my first three conventions, after a tremendous deal of research and planning. I'd avoided them for a while, laboring under the false assumption that my lack of much online reception to my work was indicative of how it would be received in person. I know now that that assumption was one based on fear, and that really, things work the other way around; working conventions has provided me a wonderful opportunity to connect with people through my work in the way I've always longed to.
My first show of the year was Staple!, a little local con which a lot of my friends regularly attend, followed by Texas Furry Fiesta the very next weekend, and then the local Havencon the month after.
Read MoreMy 3 Unfortunately-Secret Programs for Illustrators
There are a few programs I use on an almost daily basis as an artist and illustrator which I find invaluable, but that seem to be unfortunately more secret than they deserve to be. Which is too bad, because they solve a lot of small workflow problems that I think a number of people would find useful!
Read MoreOne Year, Some Months, and Many Thanks
When I look back at the past year, it keeps going back not to early January, but to attending my first Illuxcon in September 2014. It was my first real introduction to the community of Fantasy Art/Imaginative Realism, and I went not quite knowing what to expect, but hoping it would be the beginning of something, a lead to the way forward, whatever that was. I had some cobbled-together notion of what being a 'Professional Freelance Fantasy Artist' was supposed to be like-- very tough, with long hours and a lot of uncertainty. But I was very determined, or at least I had enough drive to just surpass the similarly large quantities of anxiety lurking just beneath the surface.
I distinctly remember climbing the stairs to the second floor of the Allentown Art Museum at Illuxcon and feeling a sense of wonder wash over me as I saw the dozens upon dozens of paintings hanging on the walls. They seemed to almost radiate with an internal glow, and there was something about the space itself which had a magic about it-- one which cannot be owed just to the art, but by a greater degree to the people there.
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