Now that I’ve been home for a few days, decompressed, unpacked my car, and rolled my new dice a few times, I can talk about RadCon 6b. My artist peers are right, it is quite the experiance!
This was my first RadCon and my impressions of this con were really great. For having a large attendance (it’s one of the largest science fiction and fantasy conventions in the northwestern United States), it has a very friendly and intimate atmosphere, the median age is a lot younger than you see at many sci-fi cons, and all areas of the con seemed really well attended, including all of the auctions, ceremonies, the shows, and art show. It was just generally well run, well attended, and well done.
Attending the convention this year was a bit challenging for me. I have chronic migraines and had been fighting one all week, which lead to my missing my Friday morning pro school visit/demo and first piece of programing on Friday. Luckily I have some great helpers and friends, and I got to the art show and was set up by late Friday afternoon. Thankfully my weekend got better from there! Friendly faces, good company, and interesting panels smoothed out the rest of the weekend.
My panels at RadCon were pretty informative, variations on themes that I’ve participated in a few times over the last year or so. Art: combining digital and traditional techniques, and Arts Distribution in the Digital Age went along similar tangents, and had some of the same panelists. I had the joy of participating in programing with both John Gray and Jeff Sturgeon again, as well as meeting Herb Leonhard, Brendan Quinn, and Howard Tayler. I was also part of an, “Art Jam!” that took part on Saturday afternoon where a bunch of the pros got together and sketched and chatted with whoever wanted to join in. It was fairly fun, and I’d like to hear from the visitors how they liked it and if they could think of improvements or if they liked the lack of structure.
At the “Art Jam!” I sat next to the RadCon’s artist guest of honor, Howard Tayler, who writes and draws the web comic Schlock Mercenary. He is a pretty funny and engaging guy, as well as tenaciously interested in what makes things work. I found myself prattling on about glass for way too long – he’d make a great spy. I came away from the panel with one of his drawings and a smile on my face (ok, in the drawing I don’t have a smile on my face).
One change from the norm was doing a demo that was actually well attended in the art show! My 10 am demonstration actually had people get up to come watch it!!! It was kind of awesome! Next year (and I do hope there is a next year), I am going to ask to not be scheduled before noon because I didn’t get to bed before 4am once during the entire weekend (silly me, what was I thinking). But having people actually make it up to watch was great! And the later demonstrations were full, which was wonderful!
I may need a little more than an hour scheduled for my demo if I’m going to continue demonstrating my sculpture techniques in such detail. This was my first time working through the armature process and then starting to add the epoxy resin over the top of it in front of people, and all in one go. It was definitely a stretch time wise, and I can think of some things I’ll do a bit differently the next time. Here’s a picture of what I got done during the demonstration. And my cat, who thinks this entire blog post is about her.
Just a couple more notes of awesomeness from the event:
I got new dice! Because I couldn’t find any of my dice. (left)
So I found all of my other dice today. Of course. 🙂 (right)
Also, skeksis cosplay!!! Made Of Win!
Overall, this was a pretty good con. And I sold art, which made it a successful convention too! Thank you RadCon, I hope to be back next year!