Ok! Last week I got to go to the Mega Con 2005 in Orlando with my mum and nephew and, out of the four I've been to so far(two of them were small, and then the FX which is midsized) the Mega con by far the bggest, best one yet! There was a huge lineup of guest. Marv Wolfman(I was going to but a crisis on infinite earths or teentitans east script from him for 15 bucks, but but the time I got back from the sit in at Joe quesadas booth, he had already sold out of scripts and had gone to lunch :'( ) George Perez, Mark Waid, Dick Giordano, The publishers of Cross Gen comics and several others along with a long line of actors: Lou Ferrino(Hulk), the cast of battle star gallactica, a cast of star trek people, the cast of Buck Rogers, The voive of ed on Cowboy bebop, the voice of Sano from Ruroni Kenshin, and the voice of Space ghost on space ghost coast to coast, as well as Pete Ross(Sam Jones III)) from smallville(although he wasn't at his booth when I got there.) There was a huge anime and manga as well as superhero costume contest so there were lots of people in costumes(THere were about fifty or more people there dressed as people from shawn of the dead who stormed through the place at closing timew recitings some sort of poem ) and there was a fairly good programming schedule with writting lessons from Barbara Kesel, a short animation from a local animation school, a panel discussion with Joe Quesada, and a quick draw with the artist of human torch and several others, and the debut of two new bands(one was a Japanese Rock band, the other a punk rock band).


I didn't get to see everything, sadly(I missed barbara kesels writing workshop standing in line At Joe Quesadas booth. :( ) but I did get to do alot of the things I original went there to see.
I managed to get critiques from the likes of Dick Giordano, Jay Lechenstien(sp?), Gene Colan, Joe Quesada, George perez, Adam Hughes, and Ethan Van Sciver.
The critiques varied alot. Van sciver and Adam hughes liked how I over lapped my panels while Joe Queesada told me not to overlap them unless its extremely nessesary; Dick Giordano said I needed to try to grasp the basics abit better but Lechenstien told me it looked like I had a natural grasp of the foundations(Though, to be honest, after Giordanos critique, I took out three older pages of a story of the six in my portfolio and showed only the mot recent ones since I realized they were the ones I improved most on). However, alot of them said I should focus on a few certain things(I'll try to list the main one from each):

Dick Giordano: Said I needed to work on constructing my heads better and encouraged me to buy his new book ofn drawing comics which comes out in may.

Jay Lechinstien: My hair doesn't look quite convincing, so try drawing it from magazines a bit.

Gene Colan: Storytelling is good, but work to improve it since its the artist's main job -comment: Don't be to shy to show them to editors for their opnion. The pages are good enough to give it a shot.

Joe Quesada(Note: Had a sit in at his booth thirty minutes before h arrived for signings, The voice of Space ghost joked/taunted the other "Dedicated fans" who sat in the line.) comment-shows alot of promise and characters have alot of flavor Critique-It looked like I was drawing what I THOUGHT a city looked like.Get reference books and draw detailed buildings. Don't overlap panels so much if at all, and take a rfew life drawing classes.

George Perez: comment-on the right track.Doing alot of bold stuff most beginnners wouldn't do such as foreshortening and threeway perspective critique- Making alot of the same mistakes he first made: Rendering style needs work. Theres a diference between clutter and detail, plus, the rendering doesn't look realistic. Perspective is bold, but need to learn the geometry behind it to make all the bricks the right length. Study more anatomy

Adam Hughes: coment-really good considering my age. Good use of shadow and fun character style. Critique/suggestions: Anatomy. Rendering style will develop over time. Never put a line down without having a reason or purpose for it, even if its a personal reason not "Just because I thought it looked cool" Before drawing a page, try starting out with a half an hour to an hour warm up studying whatever your weakness is. Also: a penciler is the person who desides on the entire outlook of the book, draw the renderings clearer so whoever inks it knows which lines to ink. Also mentioned how perspective is nothing but basic Geometry and basic trig, so try to work it into figuring out perspective demensions.

Ethan Van Sciver: comment- improved 200% since last convention in january(Florida extravaganza) abnd every other time hhe's had to critique my portfolio I come back better(also critiques at small tampa conventions) shows dedication. Crisper, clearner lines, good use of design and good use of shadow. Critique- the curvulinear perspective is interesting, however should have used frnech curve and other drafting tools to produce something in thirty seconds nsteadt of five minutes. Work on rendering style and work as much on buildings as I do my figures, because the background is going to be the thing to convince the editors.

Okay! Quick notes of all my critiques. After all my critiques, I checked alot of new independent comics that are being produced locally and got a handout for James Marters(Spikes) new movie "chance" that he's premering in Fort Lauderdale three hours of here(Gotta find a way to get to that....) Bought some comics and spent the better half of the day trying to track down Chuck dixons booth. I didn't find the booth he was SUPPOSED to be at until five minutes till closing time only to race the other side of the HUGE exibition hall and track down his both just before it closed, getting him to autograph my issue 0 of Robin and issue one of Richard dragon. Also got raffle tickets from the voice of Sanp(Lex Lang, who also does voices for JLU and several others) and the voice of Ed(Sandra Fox, also does digimon, ghost in a shell, ect.). Didn't when the raffle, but it went to a good cause(Tsunami relief and comicbool legal defense fund). OH! And Hamony and someone else from Buffy the vampire slayer were in the main hallway too..... Had an AMAZING fun time. Lots of really cool people and some really weird ones too....(Lots of masculan looking guys dressed up as anime girls.........kinda freaky) But it was overall cool!
If anyone wants me to upload my porfolio to here, lt me know! I'm going to try and get my pictures up using my art teachers digital camera.

Oh wow. That's a lot of great stuff. Especially the information on the art. Though its odd when two artists say stuff that conflict. What I've learned is that you go with the advise of the artist who's work you like best. If you like what they've done and suggested, you might be more likely to enjoy following that advise.

Just the fact you've gotten that kind of critiques is great and despite the creepy geek groups that go there, I'd love to have been there.

See, this is why I hate Nebraska. We never get any cool Cons. The closest thing I've got is when my local comic book store has their anniversary sale once a year and calls in artists from time to time. More often its local comic book artists, but last year we got one of the pencilers from JLA.

There are the Chicago and Denver Cons, but I usually can't make those. So yeah, I'm majorly jealous. Congrats Rach.

Bah there's nothing here in Ky .....nothing even the comic bookshops close down. Anything that happens takes place hours and hours away and like on the days I work :'(
If I want to get crtiqued I have to do it via email and wait weeks for a response


Jealousy rising.....

Try living in England.

No Cons.

No Artists.

Ever.

~Hugging signed #0 of robin close, smiling.....then sees everyone else....~ Cheerup guys! We can kidnapp them at the next converntion them and force them to attend the first YJUTT CONVENTION!!!(Meh....Hey I'm tired, not getting any other creative thoughts tonight.....) Or we could just email them and invite some to an online chat to bring more veiwers to the site.....waitaminute.....there WAS a last thought in my head!! Haha! I knew it couldn't be completely empty yet!!(now it is though....)

And yeah. all the critique information was good. Definitely weren't any conventions or artist when I lived(and might live again. depends. starting to understand the poor student thing bigtime.) the only problem I'm having now is not being able to draw anything after drawing fifty hours last week(not for a convention, though theres a small on in tampa next month, but for my ap portfolio.drawing a twleve page comic for my concsntraition.).......drained.burnt.blocked. ect. Got no advice on how to deal with that. Any suggestions?

Hmmm, sleep on it, then watch some anime, or read a good book

I'M currently in the middle of 'the return of moriarty' Its pretty good.

Anyhow, I plan on going to Gen con next year, ha i'll be 17 and able to drive myself there...hopefully...*shrug*