Biggest Little FurCon was a blast—some of the nicest attendees I’ve ever had the pleasure dealing to—and you can read the full writeup over on the Goldeen Ogawa blog. I do hope we can go back again in 2020!
Even though it’s still weeks away, AnthroCon is looming large on my horizon. I have a few new prints and am working hard to get a couple new eBook cards ready in time. I think I will have a pretty strong table this year, made even stronger by the return of my Wonderful Mother as my volunteer muscle—I mean table assistant. But also muscle. Turns out swinging kettlebells is a great way to train for setting up a vendor table!
This year I have the pleasure of an actual mascot! Please meet Astrhopi, the Heliopause Chimera and the newest addition to my Kimaerhaic family. Astrhopi loves stories, art, and skipping around the theoretical boundary between the heliosphere and the interstellar media. I’ll have prints of her for sale, and she’ll be decorating my table in the form of a brand new runner.
I’m also bringing in some new (old) prints that I haven’t had in stock for a few years. First of these are my series of Elemental Horsies. Ignis, Aura, Aqua and Terra were originally done on commission, and I added Ligno (wood) and Ferro (metal) to complete the sextet.
For the first time as a true-size (9″x12″) print, I have my Lady in Black painting. This will be a metallic print, since I used metallic gold acrylics for the halo. I like to joke that this is my “woman in front of circle” painting… except that the woman in question is a California Condor. Condors are amazing birds and the Californians continue to haul themselves back from the brink of extinction. Atta-girl!
Another 9″x12″ mettalic print, Gildenvern was originally a watercolor with real gold leaf. The original sold long ago, but now you can get him as a true-size print—complete with a shiny signature.
It’s not just prints: I’ll have eBook cards for Driving Arcana Rotations Four and Five and Driving Arcana: By Moon and Star so you can get caught up on all the Arcana shenanigans. I’ll also have limited print copies of By Moon and Star for those who like something more tangible to hold.
I will also be accepting a limited number of both Artist Choice and Custom commissions on Friday and Saturday, with an Artist Choice special (TBA) on Sunday.
Pencil Sketch 
Brush Pen Study 
Finished Pencil Drawing 
Fine Inked Piece
My prices for regular Artist Choice and Custom work, for at-con only, are as follows:
Artist Choice on a 9″x12″ sheet of bristol or equivalent Sketchbook:
Flat rate: $25 Pencil Sketch; $50 Brush Pen Study; $75 Finished Pencil Drawing; $100 Fine Inked Piece
Custom Work on a 9″x12″ sheet of bristol or equivalent Sketchbook:
Starts at: $50 Pencil Sketch; $75 Brush Pen Study; $100 Finished Pencil Drawing; $125 Fine Inked Piece
Extra detail such as wings, complex markings or costumes, specific and/or complex backgrounds, and additional characters will raise the cost of custom commissions. Prices above are for a single reasonably simple character with little-to-no background. You can always ask for a free, no-obligation estimate!
Perhaps what I’m most excited about is something I’m doing more for other artists than for myself. I’d been thinking of doing a badge ribbon—like the kind people collect and stack under their convention badge like long, glittering trails—specifically for people who bid on art in the art show, for over a year now—and this year I finally got around to designing and ordering just such a ribbon.
You see, I love Art Shows in concept: we artists go hang our work, people buy it, and about a month later we get a check. The con does a wonderful thing by giving us display space and handling the monetary transactions, and people get an opportunity to buy originals.
Unfortunately, in practice I rarely sell anything through the art show, and while a lot of people have legitimate reasons for not bidding (such as, “I do not have that many dollars in my bank account” or “I have nowhere to hang that picture”) I’m always disappointed when people say “Oh, I would have loved to buy something, but I didn’t know there was an Art Show!“
This is the worst. I think there are some things that can only be fixed on the con-end (blazing neon signs posted at every doorway flashing the hours of the art show too much to ask? Probably too much to ask…) but I figured it couldn’t help to do a little bit on my end to promote the show, to encourage people to bid—and show my appreciation to people who do bid. So without further ado, let me tell you about the…
Named for the Florentine dynasty that promoted such artists as Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, and bankrolled the invention the piano, opera, and the construction of my favorite cathedral, the Santa Maria del Fiore, the Medici Achievement can be unlocked simply by bidding on a piece in the AnthroCon Art Show. To get the ribbon, all you need do is make a note of which piece you bid on (artist name and piece title) and the amount you bid (which you should do anyway) and present this information along with your badge number to either myself or my assistant at the Heliopause Productions table. You may be able to get one from other dealers/artists or even art show staff, but I have not made formal arrangements as of yet.
Fine print: only on ribbon per bidder per show. There is no official penalty for recipients who provide false info to fraudulently collect a ribbon but c’mon guys we’re artists we can get super creative with our methods of retribution do not test us.
AnthroCon will be held at the David L Lawrence Convention Center in beautiful (yes, really!) Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, July 5-7. I will be present behind the Heliopause Productions table located at D17 in the Dealer’s Den Friday thru Sunday, except for a break Friday at 4 p.m. when I go do my Mapping Your Imagined World panel until 5. I will also be holding a reading on Saturday at 9 p.m., with a brief Q&A to follow. I hope to see you there!