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i moved to tumblr!  this blog is up for archival purposes.

Anime Next

I'm going to be at Anime Next this weekend in Somerset NJ in the artist alley at table 99! This is a last minute addition and I did not expect to be attending Anime Next this year! BUT I'M EXCITED TO!

The photo is from Anime Boston, which happened a two weekends ago. It was a record breaking show for me and filled with so much love and warmth from 5 years of AB followers. I can't wait for next year. 

I've also become terrible at keeping this blog and will be moving completely to Tumblr by the end of the month, but more on that later! <3 p="">

See you this weekend New Jersey!

Con Weekend!

(KL @ MECAF)

This past weekend I had appearances in three different states! Like whoa! On Friday night in my hometown of Boston, I guested as a portraiture artist for the Liar's and Believer's opening night performance of their dustbowl era, musical rendition of Icarus. The show was fantastic and done with a minimalist set. The actors made use of mobile circus banners and a large ring box to create a fantastic recreation of a classic tragedy. The songs were gorgeous and the lighting was by far the best I've seen in a play. The show opened with some acts by Rogue Burlesque star Bustee Keaton and the Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library! :) I drew a few awesome portraits including this one of Ian:

On Saturday we headed up to NH for Akumacon, which Pembroke High school's Anime Club hosted. We made some new friends and hung out for the day. Our friend CT came by with her son too:

(photo by Rick Lowell of my favorite Maine Brony and I chattin' Ponies)

And then on Sunday we went to Maine for my favorite small comics convention, the Maine Comic Arts Festival for a beautiful day of comics by the sea. I was across from Jeff Smith of Bone fame and my first purchase of the day was from Brian Wood's daughter. I love this festival because so many kids come hungry to learn about art and comics. My second sale was actually a trade for buttons with some middle school kids who made a comic and selfpublished it through a comic publishing website.

I did some amazing commissions for some amazing comic fans this weekend: 

I picked up some awesome comics and prints, but my favorite was my fake ID made personally by 9 year old Wyeth. Wyeth may have been busier than Jeff Smith at the con- everyone wanted a fake ID and how could you NOT? 

I will see you next year Portland! :) 

Wereism

Wereism is out on Etsy! :) 

The first printing is limited to 25 comics and each comic is signed and numbered on the back by me! :) The cover is full color and the comics is 12 black and white pages detailing Wendy Wimbly's encounter with a werewolf. :) This is the first in my new series called the Tiny Trilogy of Terror. 

Flipbook Workshop

Let's Make A Flip Book Workshop sign ups end this Sunday, May 5th! 

Enroll by Sunday, May 5th

In this fun 1-day workshop, learn from local artist and illustrator Kristilyn Stevenson.  Attendees will learn the basics of animation and creating a simple flipbook of a subject carrying out an action.

INSTRUCTOR: Kristilyn Stevenson
MEETS: 1 Wednesdays, 6:30-9:30pm, May 8, 2013

INSTRUCTOR BIO: Kristilyn is an illustrator, crafty crafter and occasional animator whose work can be found in galleries along the East Coast. When she isn’t conjuring up her next adorably macabre image, she can be found around New England at a convention or craft show or in a Boston club drawing the most talented local bands as they perform.

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!

I’m guesting at Legends Comix and Games in Maynard for FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! I’ll have a free comic for you too!  Come by and say hello, get a picture drawn and buy my new werewolf comic called Wereism! I will be onsite from 12pm-6pm and there will be free comics from all over the industry to collect! Come have fun! 

Comic!

It was rough last week, but this week I'm working on finishing up a comic I had hoped to have for Boston Comic Con. Boston Comic Con, of course was cancelled. :( They are working rescheduling now. Instead, I'll be releasing the comic at Maine Comic Arts Festival in May! :) 

Workshop

I am running a workshop on Creative Portraiture at the Uforge Gallery in Jamaica Plain, MA next week! Sign up by Sunday to participate! :)

Enroll by Sunday, April 14th

In this fun 1-day workshop, learn from local artist and illustrator Kristilyn Stevenson.  Students will learn tips and tricks for portraiture and using those methods to cartoon from them.  We will study our own faces and create a realistic and cartooned portrait from them.

INSTRUCTOR: Kristilyn Stevenson
MEETS: 1 Wednesdays, 6:30-9:30pm, April 17, 2013

Southern Tour Part 3: MTAC Devil's Dozen

Our last leg of our Southern Tour was in Nashville TN at MTAC Devil's Dozen con at the Nashville Convention Center. This was around a 4-5,000 person con that I got invited to special by a scout at Katsucon in February. It lined up perfectly with our trip so we did it! I'm glad we did because it was an grand time! The citizens of Nashville were super sweet and we made a lot of new friends! 

On Friday night the NYC Japanese punk band GELATINE played in the main events ballroom. What a show! I got some video of the last bit of their performance: 

And there were lots of fun commissions: 

We had a suprise visit from Blake's sisters and neice!

There was also a horror convention going on in the same building and it was $10.00 for anyone associated with the anime convention to get in. So on Sunday I got a pass and went to visit Adrienne King who played Alice in Friday the 13th. I gave her a print of my illustration A Dream of Jason and she was so excited and so nice she autographed a poster and posed for a photo with me. :) This was by far the best part of the Nashville trip! And we both were in Nashville for the first time! 

After that I wish we had a TARDIS. We spent a total of 27.5 hours driving back to Boston from Sunday to Monday night. The best part was that our cats weren't even mad when we got back, so we bathed in cats. :)

The whole trip was really wonderful and we are truly thankful to every one who we met or visited. I hope we can do something similar next year that involves DRAGON CON. ;)

Southern Tour Part 2: Zapow Gallery!

For our next length of tour we journeyed to Traveler's Rest, SC to visit my old art school buddy Susan Molner of SUMO Design. We hung there for the night and talked craft! It was really awesome to see Susan again after a long time and we are SUPER thankful she had us come stay with her and hang out on our tour! After Traveler's Rest, we moved onto...

Zapow Gallery in Asheville, NC! I got to meet long time internet and artist friend Steven Hall of Doodle Divas and Lauren and Matt Johnson, the gallery owners FINALLY! :) We had a lovely dinner at Chai Pani across the street from the gallery and hung out while I restocked my wall.

And there was dancing!

The gallery is a gorgeous space in downtown Asheville and houses over 90 different artists. Lauren designed the layout and built some of it herself. Her blood is literally invested in the walls of this gallery. Prior to last month, I had only seen the gallery in photos or an awesome skype video tour. 

We stocked up some new things just in time for the opening of the Space Time Trifecta show: a Star Wars, Star Trek and Dr. Who themed group gallery show on display this month and next. I also got my paws on some of Lauren, Belle Dee, Heather Kreiter and Jasmina VB's work along with a beautiful gift package from Doodle Divas! :) 

After an evening of art and conversation in Asheville, we headed over the SNOWING Smokey Mountains to Knoxville, TN where we spent a few days with Blake's family...

Next up NASHVILLE TN!

Southern Tour Part 1: Mad Monster Party

Blake and I embarked on a southern tour on March 21st through NC, SC and TN for 11 days. Our first stop was The Mad Monster Party in Charlotte, NC. Blake was particularly excited to be staying at the Blake Hotel where the convention was being held. :) We drove 18 hours to Charlotte and our drive was 20% cooler thanks to the Rainbow Dash-board.

The Mad Monster Party was an amazing time! We were so close to the celebrity room that we would often see stars taking a break in our vendor row. Gary Busey was playing with our weapon vendor neighbor's machete for a few minutes. That was a little nerve inducing. 

The highlight of the trip was meeting Bruce Campbell for 20 seconds. I gave him some art and the new Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys album from Edrie Edrie and Walter. He was very nice and shook my hand, but there were so many people waiting for photos that it was over before I could register what was happening! :)

I gave Gunnar Hansen a copy of my drawing of Dinner with Sally. He said, "I've never looked so beautiful." Fellow Zapow Artist Brad Parton of Alpha Sketch was vending too and we got to chat a bit. He has an incredible vast and diverse body of work all comprised of letter in the alphabet. I also met Max Reinhart of Skullclown and We Become Monsters and chatted a bit about resin casting. There were a lot of really amazing vendors present. Rob Ortel and his brother hung out at my booth and talked shrinky dinks for a while. I ran into Lea Thompson in the bathroom and Haruo Nakajima in the hallway. Is this real life? 

Also aptly timed, I met this man who's incredibly talented husband knitted this fucking insanely detailed sweater. He brought by his husband later to meet me. HOLY CRAP WHAT INSANE KNITTING TALENT!

Did I mention Blake was really excited to be staying at the Blake Hotel? 

Freddy Pedo Bear!

We had a grand time! On Sunday we packed up at headed for Traveler's Rest, South Carolina... but that's tomorrow's post! 

Bohemian Bacchanalia

I did some live drawing at the Boston Circus Guild's Bohemian Bacchanalia the other night and I have to admit that it's REALLY hard to draw circus people. They move really quickly and in positions the average human could only hope to obtain for maybe three seconds. Someone told me the trapeze artists were making the sirlesque guys feel fat! XD It was really amazing. Aside from swinging from great heights and spinning at nauseating speeds, there was burlesque, sirlesque, Johnny Blazes and the Pretty Boys and Emperor Norton's Stationary Marching Band. It was a fantastic show and I got ten drawings done. Some are still around for sale so feel free to contact me if you'd like one.

More drawings on tumblr! (I'll be posting full sets there and linking them here now- follow me on tumblr too!)

TEETH or FINGERS

At the end of last year the Liars and Believers performance collective invited Raul Gonzalez, Walter Sickert, Tyler Brown and I to create a piece of art inspired by a new unpublished short story by Neil Gaiman that the collective was creating a performance around. As I have been indulging in Gaiman's comic works since the age of 16 (after discovering the beautifully illustrated novel Stardust at my local comics store), I was really excited to be apart of this project. I received a copy of the Lunar Labyrinth and read it through around ten times trying to unlock the mysteries Gaiman presents. As it's not published yet, I can't summarize the story too much, but I can say it's really gripping, tense and ambiguous. I liked it very much. :)

One line of the story really grabbed me every time I read through the text. One character is describing how couples walked through the Lunar Labyrinth by the light of the waxing moon and would engage in romantic activities. Elderly couples too, because you never really forget your courting days no matter how old you are: "You never forget. It must be somewhere inside you. Even if the brain has forgotten, perhaps the teeth remember or the fingers."

I thought this was very profound considering society's general attitude towards geriatric sex which is usually discomfort or mocking. So I illustrated this line specifically and included the other big themes of the story - the rosemary hedge labyrinth and the waxing moon.

Each piece made for the show was displayed in the lobby of Oberon. The show was an incredible experience and just as mysterious as the text. The performers used the entire house as a stage and created some histories for some of the people mentioned in the text. There was beautiful acrobatics on the silks to represent the moon. During the show, various actors would approach you in the audience, grip onto you and ask you a muddled question about the moon or the labyrinth. And, yeah, Neil was in attendance- that was super cool. :)

At one point in the show an actor threw out a handful of quotes written on paper and I picked on off the floor... this is the one I picked up...

WHOA!

All the art is up for auction on Ebay this week! So you can own my piece, THE TEETH OR THE FINGERS, in a beautiful, ornate, black frame!

Film Strip!

I drew at Rogue Burlesque's Film Strip show tonight. It was really awesome. I got 9 drawings done and all were snatched up by performers and audience after the show, but I got some photos! :)