Aftermath: HeroesCon 2013

Another HeroesCon down in the books!

Little Asian Sweatshop, Maria Danalakis Art, and myself in Artist Alley!

After show drinks on Saturday!

Let it be known that this and Baltimore Comic Con are my two favorite shows of the year. HeroesCon is a fantastic show that is comic and artist focused and always has a fantastic guest list with amazingly friendly fans and attendees and a supportive staff who are ready and able to help you out with whatever it is you need. Heroes is the one show I will go out of my way to attend and is my main 'away' show where I stay at a hotel and actually socialize with fellow con folks after hours. 

OMG it's "Pee-Wee"!

My harlequin-print Jenny dress from Pinup Girl clothing!

Not that there isn't some criticism. This year seemed a transitional one for the show, after the insanity of last year's 30th anniversary show plus having Stan Lee as a guest it seemed the showrunners assumed that the enormous crowds of last year would carry through and had an even BIGGER floorplan than any year previous. What resulted was a GINORMOUS show floor with GIANT aisles that spread out the attendees so thin that it gave the illusion that the show was kinda dead all weekend. Which from the opinions I heard around resulted in a lack of enthusiasm from the fans and exhibitors and a lack of money being made at Artist Alley tables. I know there were large swaths of time where practically no one came by my table and I actually ::gasp:: SAT DOWN. I know, I know- I'm just as disappointed in myself. :\ 

ALSO- and by no fault of Heroes, traveling down this year was a NIGHTMARE. My husband and I will usually make a 2 day journey down to NC from NYC due to the sheer volume of merch I bring with me requiring us to drive. We'll take a Megabus down from NYC to Baltimore and borrow my parent's van, then we pick up Fenny in DC and drive the (what's supposed to be 7 hours) to Charlotte. Which we usually have done on Thursday, but figured we'd do it this year on Friday as that's a dead day anyways for most, and we assumed we'd get there at at 2ish since we were on the road at 7am. Ugh, but constant torrential downpours and traffic jams destroyed any hope for smooth sailing and setup on Friday was left for a hectic final hour of the show that day. And I must admit I got really snippy with people who stopped to talk to me while I was trying to setup.  

"Little Stepford Sweatshop"

My husband Phil "Ballsy" Balsman and I!

All was not lost at Heroes however. While I did financially take a hit this year (hopefully the rest of this year's shows will fare better on my wallet), one of the things that makes the show really worth it at the end is the Dead Dog party for all the professionals/workers/volunteers on Sunday night after the show at the comic shop that throws it, Heroes Aren't Hard to Find. The after party has an awesome spread of tacos, beer and I got some discounted comics- though as always when I actually go into a brick-and-mortar comic shop I get a case of buyer's amnesia and forget EVERYTHING I want to buy. What's super-duper awesome about the afterparty is also that it gives me a chance to mingle and catch up with my contemporaries and I even got some hugs *initiated* by some longtime artistic heroes, which put me on cloud 9. Especially since I'm chained to my table during con hours and rarely get a break to pee let alone go around and talk to people. I also for the third year in a row donated art to the Heroescon Saturday art auction, this year it being the original to my chibi Poison Ivy pinup, which went to a huge fan of the character. Which I'm aways glad to see.

So very, very tired.

Me and my FAVE cosplayer DJ Spider as golden age Batwoman!

Something I did notice however with Heroes regarding my own work is that this being my 6th year tabling I feel like I'm starting to get pigeonholed as the 'pin-up girl'. Which is awesome thing to be known for and I love the genre, but my true passion has always been comics and I feel like there's so much more artistically I can offer. Like drawing guys. And ugly people. And having characters act in a way other than 'Were you just looking at my bum, naughty boy?' So I'm trying to really focus on actually putting out my magnum opus comic Pearly Whites in the next 5 years, which is honestly a VERY generous time frame and it will hopefully be in even less time then that. I already started my final character designs and I've been writing and outlining like crazy trying to streamline 15 years worth of story notes into a cohesive narrative that doesn't suck. Thankfully my BFF Fenny of Little Asian Sweatshop was an English Lit major in college and is helping me out with all the fine tuning and is an AMAZING sounding board for ideas. Look for future blog entries where I'll share some tidbits on the craziness that is Pearly Whites. 

HeroesCon 2013 prep!!

My first convention of 2013 is also my biggest- HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC is right around the corner and I'll be at Artist Alley tables 418-419 with Little Asian Sweatshop, Maria Danalakis, Phil Balsman and select works of Christy Sawyer. This will be my 3rd year attending Heroes and it's always an amazing time hanging out with friends I only get to see a scant few times a year. The low-key vibe of the show is a welcome alternative to the high-anxiety pace of bigger shows like San Diego and NYCC.  I'll have lots of new merch available!

LOOK for the NEW Paigey banner!!

Just a fraction of the magnet sets I'll have for sale!

Bracelets, stash tins, even KEYCHAINS!

Harley & Ivy and Bettie & Marilyn mini prints- $5 a set!

8.5x11 prints- $5 each!

Ballsy's classic monster mini prints! Set of 5 for $8!!

Plus TONS of original art for sale!

*Original* Poison Ivy inks! HAND-colored!

Miss Mary Jane inks, hand colored! 

Mondo Gecko! Hand colored and ready to frame!

Also new stuff from Little Asian Sweatshop!

*Knockout* pencil/makeup bags!

Starro hair flower!

Lady Blacula pencil/makeup bags!

VERY excited for the show this year! Hope to see you there!!

Heroescon 2013 commissions are now open!

Heroescon (June 7-9) commissions are NOW OPEN. $100 gets you a single character inked on vellum, toned with grey marker and spot colored. 8.5"x11". Payment in advance. Pickup at the show only. Email me iampaigey(at)yahoo(dot)com for further info.

I will have an Artist Alley table alongside Little Asian Sweatshop and we'll have lots of new and exciting merch for you to check out! Lots of original pieces! Hope to see you there!

More examples of my commissions:

Aftermath: HeroesCon 2012

My 'Mrs. Batman' outfit- I'm the housewife of  The Batcave!

Whoosh. Whatta weekend. HeroesCon 2012 has come and gone, and it was my first major show of the year as well as my favorite to go to. This was my 2nd year attending and it was awesome to see so many friends and fans both old and new alike at such a fun show.
So much going on! I had gotten a huuuge exhibitor table with my friends, including my BFF Fenny of Little Asian Sweatshop, pinup superstar Maria Danalakis, beloved husband Ballsy and NYCBFF Christy Sawyer and had all sorts of cool trinkets and doodads for sale.

Me, Fenny and Maria

There aren't enough nice things I can say about Heroescon. Everyone is so dang nice, it's run super professional and the guests and level of talent that attends is amazing. Since my first visit to Heroes last year, this show has been a fantastic example of a con done right. Was so happy Fenny and Maria had a good time, as this was their first Heroes and they attended purely from word of mouth (specifically, mine).

Our booth!

There were a few personal 'experiments' this go at Heroescon for me- I *did* try to sit down and sketch at the show on Friday. I really did! Buuut unfortunately my sales suffered as I wasn't standing up and addressing customers and giving myself presence on the floor. I think that people were afraid to disturb me and feel like they're being rude. Plus I can't see what's going on in front of me as my head is down. Apparently y'all would rather engage in conversation with me than watch me draw. Which I'm actually totally fine with. Drawing at cons sucks. I'd much rather give someone a solid piece of art that has my full attention that was created in the comfort of my own home. Plus I have a rather unique situation of hawking my wares at a show, in which I'd actually say sales and engaging in conversations is my secondary strong suit behind creating the actual art. Several other artists I know have enough of a draw from their art to have people search them out, versus me, who is usually reeling people in with my crazy outfits and gift of gab and only after that do they realize that all the cool stuff in front of me on the table is of my creation. So Sat and Sun I focused purely on sales.

My convention obsession: Table Feng Shui

Another experiment was getting an exhibitor booth versus Artist Alley tables. The space was fantastic and very roomy, however with the high partitions and giant tshirt booth in front of us our visibility was somewhat lacking as opposed to AA which was very open and allowed you to see across the entire showroom floor, which allows for things like vertical banners to really work in your favor. Also since we were on the exhibitor side of the con, we were grouped among the more retail-heavy booths such as the aforementioned tshirt booth, back issue bins and wholesalers, which doesn't attract the type of art collector-heavy audience having a table in AA has, as they tend to have a very strict budget and a tendency to bee-line. Which is also something to say about Heroes- usually AA is segregated to some back corner of the show much like a leper colony. But not Heroes, here AA is a major draw.

Lil' bit of Con Ingenuity: standing up all day? Lay down a yoga mat!
Your feet will thank you!

With this being my one convention where I actually have to pay for a hotel room (as it's not in NYC where I live or Balt/DC where my parents live) this is one of my most social conventions. I usually try to save as much money as possible during shows, to the point of not leaving my table and eating only before/after the show (save for the odd granola bar) in the comfort of my own/parent's home (since then it's free, plus I'm exhausted). But there are just TOO MANY awesome people to hang out with at Heroes. Which unfortunately means I'm spending at least one day at the table hungover (hellooooo Sunday!). But it was really fab to hang out with my closest friends (like my table-mates and husband) alongside folks I only talk to online or whose DeviantArt I stalk regularly. Or people who I had NO IDEA I would meet who now are one of my favorite new people to follow online (like the *amazing* dressmaker Vivcore!). 

Us ladies with my husband Ballsy at the Saturday Art Auction!

I also put one of my new experimental pieces, where I ink/greytone/highlight a pinup on vellum that I lay on top of a piece of shaded paper, in the HeroesCon Art Auction. It's their big Saturday night hullabaloo where they auction off artwork donated by various artists at the show to go towards throwing heroes next year. Unfortunately my piece was early in the evening so I missed the bidding, but from what I hear it was one of the first big highlights/bidding wars of the night, raking in $200! Either way it was a lot of fun seeing friends and hanging out and getting shushed when Stan Lee started talking. (Oops. ~_^;)

My Batgirl piece- 'Bat Dat Ass Up'

Overall it was a pretty amazing time at Heroes this year and I'm so glad to see everyone and spend time with folks I don't get to see face-to-face very often. It's really awesome that even when I don't see my friends in comics very often (sometimes for only a few hours over the course of a year) we're able to pick up and hang out like we saw each other yesterday. Eagerly looking forward to attending next year- and this time FOR REAL, we're gonna fly instead of drive. ;)

Heroes Con prep!

Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC is coming up the weekend of June 22-24th and I am SO EXCITED! 

I will be vending the show at a giant booth just for me, Little Asian Sweatshop, Maria Danalakis and Christy Sawyer. And since I will have a few friends at the table to mind customers and general comings and goings, I will actually attempt at convention sketches this show. I'm kinda playing that aspect of the show by ear, I really want to commit to sitting down at my table and drawing for people but I'm sure I will be slow as all hell and will have a very short list of commissions over the weekend, either out of general disinterest or me just being busy with taking on very few sketches at a time. I'm also making them a little more involved than the average sketch you can buy at a show, as my OCD refuses to let me give anyone any art of mine that looks rushed or hacked. It makes me cringe. Especially once it shows up later on the internet.  9_9;;

So I'm *planning* on initially sketching the piece out on scrap paper, thus removing the performance anxiety of using 1 piece of Bristol for the entire thing and also allowing for the inevitable 2-4 false starts I'll have trying to nail a pose. Then I'll ink it on super heavy vellum and on the flip side tone it it with warm and cool grey markers and white-out, much like an animation cel. This being a bit more involved a process I'm still trying to figure out a price point. 

I was experimenting with a few already-inked vellum pieces I had laying around the office. 

I also dug up some original inks to what would be considered 'classic' Paigey pieces, all but the mermaid inks I'll be hitting with greytone markers and selling off at Heroes, and if they don't sell there I'll have them either on my etsy or at my solo pre-Baltimore Con show in Sept.

I got a headstart on a couple of commissions for people at Heroes already:

DC Comics' Looker sketch

Inks on vellum.

Batgirl sketch

Batgirl inks

A Bettie Page/Lum mashup, just for fun/practice

What I'm pretty excited about is that this method can lend some new life to my 'originals', which I tend to discard to various piles around my work area once they're all scanned in and forget about them. Some of the guys I worked with at my old office job Freeze can attest- when I cleaned out my work area when we changed offices I had a pile of original inks and sketches about an inch high that I hadn't given a second thought to. I've got a pre-Baltimore Comic Con solo show happening at the Ottobar in September and now I think I'll be greytoning and throwing some older work in frames for purchase. Which is good, cuz otherwise it's just taking up valuable space in my Brooklyn apt.

Sketch Dump!

So I'm going a bit crazy with some sketching the last few nights, and figured I'd share some of what I've been working on! 

I've simultaneously got both colors and the background sketch going on with my Derby Dazzler vs. Hellfire Club commission. (See earlier progress shots here!) The guy who got it has been super-cool with letting me do what I want at my own pace. Commissions for portraits, which I usually do, are fun and rewarding but they're usually for a specific deadline (birthday/wedding) and some people can get very touchy over likenesses. And revisions, revisions, revisions. Oye. But yeah, people seem to really dig my versions of comic characters, now if only *someone* would give me a job doing that. 

::POINTED SIGH:: 

 This is the kinda stuff I want to do more of. <3

MOAR X-Men Redesigns:

More X-Men redesigns. This is alt.model Psylocke in her British body,
I'll be drawing her Japanese body as well. 

Another X-Redesign: DJ Nightcrawler.

I'm also in 10-week crunch time for my most favorite/important comic convention of the year: beloved Heroescon in Charlotte, NC! YAY!! Last year was my first time and I had an absolute BLAST! Now I'm coming back and I'll have Little Asian Sweatshop and Maria Danalakis in tow as we vend from our BIG AWESOME GIANT BOOTH! Woot!! 

I'm hoping by the time Heroes rolls around the Sweatshop and I will have a prototype of the *DRESSES* we plan to start making together that will feature fabric designed by me! I'm figuring out how to make an omnidirectional fabric swatch to get printed now- and drawing little pinup girls and accompanying elements. My first fabric is going to be luchadora (Mexican wrestlers) themed. I know- random! But it's definitely fun to draw! Hopefully even more fun to wear! So excited about this!

A fierce little luchadora.

More luchadoras and some ideas for elements, like a bell.

Hello 2012!

Got a lot of stuff cookin' in 2012!

2011 is done! Holy crap, what a year! I frequently used the word 'tumultuous' to describe my goings-on. So many personal milestones and the stressed out times leading up to them- my wedding, a new job, a new lifestyle as a professional freelancer working from home to boot! The new vocation of freelance letterer for manga imprint Kodansha Comics is starting to hit it's stride, I already have my first published lettering work out- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex book 2: Testation and I'm currently juggling Ghost in the Shell's third book as well as the 24th volume of Air Gear. So so beyond happy to be involved in comics as part of my now dayjob, and to spend all day with my beloved husband Ballsy who works freelance from home as well. And we don't even get on each other's nerves or anything, which is impressive when we sit back-to-back with each other in our home office for hours at a time. Nope, we just blast through season after season of tv shows on Netflix and listen to Bachelor Pad radio all day. We are truly living the dream.

Color sketch/progress shot of my new art book cover- 'Thanks For Your Support!'
Get it? Support? Yuckety yuck. ;D

2012 is laid out before me with more opportunities than ever to share my creations with you and I'm already setting up events well into the year alongside my BFF Fenny's company Little Asian Sweatshop, to deliver a one-two punch of awesome artwork, accesories and hopefully later in the year... *apparel*! Ooooohhh! So far on tap we are going to be vending the March 10th bout for the Charm City Roller girls at DuBurns Arena. I haven't been to a CCRG bout in a couple years so I'm super excited to attend. We also have solidified plans to have a *MASSIVE* corner booth at Heroes Con in Charlotte, North Carolina in late June that we will be sharing along with a few friends. We also plan on attending the NYC Psychobilly Luau again with a vengeance, hopefully this year it won't be during an awful heat wave. Then in September I'm hitting Baltimore with a double-whammy of a release party for my second artbook, titled 'Thanks For Your Support!' at The Ottobar and yet another booth this time at Baltimore Comic Con. I'll send out reminders as these events get closer. There will hopefully be plenty more events that I be involved in, we're always looking out for vending opportunities. Here's to an awesome 2012!

Loki sez 'Happy Mew Year!' >^_^<