EDIT: Now at school, and finally the synopses for the feature journal are done! If you want something done right, of course, it has to be--slow. At least with me, it seems. Don't forget to make your own features journal if you haven't done so already!

These will be up for about a month.

Original:

Alright! Back from Orlando, and as promised since like two weeks ago, a feature journal! I’m sure you’ve seen these around DA, so you probably know the rules, but just in case, here they are, spelled out for you to see:

THE RULES: (copypasta-d from others!)

1. Leave a comment on this journal, and I'll feature three or so pieces from your gallery.

2. The only catch to this is that you then have to do a feature journal, too! Traditionally, featuring me on it to start with, and then the first dozen or so people who write you a comment.

And now, on to the features!

THE FEATURES:

1. . First up is the delightful Crowchan, whose heart and artwork are equally soft and squishy. Don’t believe me? Check out her gallery.


Where else can you find a magic lamp, eyeballs in a jar, square watermelons and delicious cherry pies all in one picture? Huh? Huh? Huh? You can find all this and more in The Fry Bat, where this delightful assortment will capture you immediately as it floats in its calmingly hypnotic swirl, leaving you only to gape and ask, “What?” What exactly is a fry bat? And why is he floating in the midst of these objects like a paradoxically curvily-spiky godly entity of blue? The calming swirls of colorful objects offer no answer, leaving you to merely bask in their colorful presence, which is exactly what I suggest you do with this piece.


Well, I’ll be dipped. Ice-cream lovers will enjoy the sentient ice-cream truck floating so gaily (yes, in the original sense of the word, folks) on top of a cheerful sparkly pink cloud. A sparkly pink cloud that, for once on this site, is not emanating from one Edward Cullen, is cause for joy enough. Add to that a shiny shiny rainbow and a mooing flying banana, and you get something so mind-blowing awesome that, once again, you just have to sit back and stare and the smooth lines and bright colors. And don’t you dare mock the lens flare—its presence merely cleverly highlights the deliberately over-the-top shininess in the piece, and is thus deep and meaningful. This picture, which is part of Crow’s InterDimensional Derby entry, is a deliciously sweet feast for the eyes.


BEST ENDING EVER. And what better way to go out than to go into freaking outer space to party with a man-sized crustacean? Proving she can draw even the most overlooked of critters well, and that said critters are neither vile nor malicious, but know how to jam. (And it looks so darn happy!) The color palette here is rich purples and reds, and the hat is a lovely touch. Far out, indeed.


2. I first heard of ~Dreamwish when she entered EfN, and she put on quite a show for us there before she unfortunately had to drop. What better way to kick off her portion of this journal, then, but with one of the pieces that brought her to my attention in the first place:


Ladies and gentlemen, this is how a great ref sheet looks. Colored fullbody turnaround, check. Face detail, check. Multiple expressions, check. Items/weapons explanation, check. A variety of interesting poses, check. All the basic info, neatly presented, check. Concise, wittily sarcastic descriptions that showcase the character's personality, check. Interesting layout that lets the eye flow, check. Cuddly but useful companion--double check! With a reference like this, it's no wonder ~Dreamwish made it into EfN.


Whoa. That's probably the best word to describe this pic. You can just feel the energy radiating off it. Impeccable attention to detail really pulls this together, from the picture-perfect anatomy to the details in the pantfolds, and those beautiful hands. The whole thing feels like a CD cover, which is appropriate, as ~Dreamwish has included some song lyrics on the side. Altogether, this powerful piece and its raw emotion is one of my favorite things in ~Dreamwish's gallery, and definitely deserves the feature.


Where the piece before this radiated angry energy, this piece provides an amazing contrast in its gloomy, pervasive sorrow. The figure's defeated posture and clasped hands ironically make it look like he's praying after a rough time, despite the Artist's Comments which declare him an atheist. In the rain, he blends fantastically into the ruins of the stone church in which he sits, becoming less the focus of the piece than an accessory to the environment, which does the most work in conveying the message. Once again, the attention to detail is evident and powerful. Preventing the piece from becoming monotonous and boring are the broken stained glass windows, like colorful fragments of shattered joy. Truly a piece worth a fave and feature.

3.


As someone personally incapable of making eyecatching, detailed backgrounds, I am truly envious of the work that ~Kirokokori produced for *RiseOCT. The Wooa Plains are bright and cheerful, with the strange windmills that dot the landscape (those are windmills, right? XD) making the picture feel like the edge of a happy farming community that I'd love to live in for a year or two. Looking at it, you just know all those dots must have been tedious, and all the color choices and contrasts are phenomenal. A great piece of concept art, for what will hopefully be a great tourney.


Along the same lines, the beautiful colors and lighting in this piece really make it stand out, despite its apparent simplicity. The girl's eyes are hidden by her hat, which accents the meaning of her pose, turned away from the sun, which has presumably just set beyond the spare horizon. Everything comes together in the shot to emphasize the feelings of self-containment, isolation, and seclusion that it draws from the minds of the viewer.


OMFGWTFBBQ. What. Here the dusky colors have turned completely drab, while remaining just as effective as ever in conveying the tone of this piece: eerie, foreboding and yes, downright creepy. I'm not definitively sure whether I should feel threatened by the figure with crooked yellow teeth and blank eyes looming like a totem figure out of the artfully applied shadows--it does have a weird, adorable puppy-dog quality in a way--but I'd still be frozen with fear if that came out at me from a dark alleyway. Don't stare at this piece too long, lest it haunt your dreams.


4. Next up, a friend I've had the pleasure of rooming with at Otakon (in fact, who graciously allowed me to stay in her room at Otakon)!


No feature of *BloomBlitz's work would be complete without mention of this cuddly little doll, on whom I've already expounded in my Otakon journal. As most of you know, I've had the privilege of seeing this guy up close and in person, and he's just as cute in real life as in this picture. (And check out the detail of that lil zipper!) Rumor has it there's going to be more of these in the future...-.^


Yes, this is a motivational poster and yes, I am featuring it. Why? Quite simply: Because this is the most useful work I have ever come across on DA.

I kid you not.


D'awwwwwwww! That was the first, albeit unintelligible, comment I came up with when I laid eyes on Blitz, the adorable cartoon dog you see before you. With his big shiny eyes and long floppy ears, he's cute, and you know it. (He reminds me a lot of some of the characters on cartoons I would watch as a young, impressionable toddler.) And for the more intrepid artisans and crafty crafters of you, would this picture not make the basis of a great pattern for a stuffed toy...?

5.


These sorts of things are always fun, but I have never been able to do them properly. I suppose I just lack the wit, or something, to make appealing jokes (or to be confident in whatever jokes I do make up). In any case, this is not a flaw of ~Uniquely-Unoriginal's, who manages this quite handily.


I like the use of the blur tool here, and the method of showing a flashback in threads leading to scenes reminds me of some comic book covers I've seen. The purple flames across the bottom really help to ground the image. Make sure you read the story that goes along with the Artist's Comments--It definitely helps.


Don't let the preview image fool you--this isn't just a picture, although that's cute enough. It's actually a story, about Goat Pixies and Pizza, no less--alright, it's not exclusively about goat pixies and pizza, but the beginning of a cautionary tale with a whole lot of surreal, dreamlike quality randomness thrown in. Still, the message is clear enough: Be careful what you wish for. This delightful little story asks the question that all "only children" have wondered and puzzled over at some point in their lives--what would you do if you suddenly had a sibling?

6.


A Pokemon trainer? No, no, no, hold on; wait a minute. This guy is dressed way too sharp to be a Pokemon trainer. Proving that people don't actually need to catch Pokemon in goofy clothes designed for a kid's show, Connor brings a dash of European, waistcoated sophistication to the art of catching little monsters and forcing them to fight. Check out the use of colored pencil to achieve the effect of highlights--and the freckles. The freckles.


It's only right to follow up a feature of a great Pokemon trainer with a great Pokemon battle. The colors here are beautifully vibrant and bold, and the action is even better--you can feel the mass of the rocks, the sweep of the Charizard's wing, and, most impressively, the shapes of the Charizard's heavy muscles, from an incredibly difficult angle in an incredibly difficult pose, no less. I don't know about you, but despite Fire being weak to Rock attacks, my bets are on the Charizard, for his sheer AWESOME.


Her name is Emily. She's a werewolf. And she's also in a wonderful, beautiful, flowing composition full of cool, cohesive colors and in a positively relaxing pose. The scarf and her hair, billowing in different directions, add balance to the piece, while the flowers in the back suggest feminine fragility--a great contrast to her alleged werewolf state. Can werewolves be romantics? Perhaps Emily can tell us.

7.


With so many wonderful characters doing so many different, crazy things, what's not to like about "Massive Sketchdump"? The man with the umbrella has some especially great action shots. (You know those cahracters you want to know more about just from seeing a picturre of them doing something cool and/or crazy? This guy is one of those for me.)


.O. What is this? Heck, I had a graphing calculator just like this one for four years, and I didn't even know this was possible! Using an incredibly unique medium (even an Etch-a-Sketch can't really compare!), =dragonack27 sends us peace from Issac from the inside of a device typically only used for spelling a few select words upside down. If you want to know how to attempt to do this too, instructions are helpfully included in the Artist's Comments--but this high school grad would advise those of you still in those hallowed halls of learning not to try it. At least, I'm sure I would never have taken a math class seriously if I had known this wonderful trick.


Another rendition of Issac, only this time, drawn digitally and smoothly shaded. Check out that casual pose and that cute, yet cocky expression. It's almost like =dragonack27 wants him to become fangirl material....

8.


I remember drawing the Mechanical Hound from Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 for eighth grade, and while mine looked nothing like this, I still love ~Zeikier's version. Many-legged and sleek, this yellow model looks like a genuine threat that I wouldn't want coming after me in the library.


Rokugon are a creature created by the artist, and they remind me of an armadillo, mixed with a pangolin, mixed with a tank. The textures and details really show that this creature is made out of something resembling solid rock. And check out that face....clearly a creature that means business.


A whole ref sheet, just for weapons? Yep. Thorough and clear, ~Zeikier went above and beyond in providing this ref, something to which all tourney hopefuls should aspire. He examines the apparatuses from all angles and even breaks them apart--clearly a labor of love.

9. is an excellent writer looking to get her own book published, although you might not know it from her DeviantArt gallery, which contains mainly photographs. But what wonderful photographs they are, too, showing a clear appreciation for the beauty of the world, both natural and man-made. Often they recognize hidden meaning in everyday situations and objects. I've endeavored to make a representative sample of her gallery in these three deviations:


This first photograph showcases one of those times that a deeper meaning can be found in a photograph, as *KaliPhantom makes usefully clear in her title "Reflection of History." Man in his later years has begun to construct modern monoliths across from his stone foundations, and I couldn't think of a better way to reflect the fullness of how far we've come than this photograph. It took a truly deep thinker and an excellent eye to spot this and recognize those messages, and consequently this makes for a truly excellent deviation.


"Becket badges! Get your Becket badges here! Prove that you made it to Canterbury!" As an English major, I couldn't resist featuring this wonderful piece of writing, although *KaliPhantom protests that it was just "an assignment." Although the piece will be much richer for those of you who have read The Canterbury Tales--or at least the Prologue--you don't have to be an English student to appreciate the portrayal of everyone in this eclectic cast through the words of the badge seller, who eventually steals the whole piece with his candid, often sly, and often witty observations and remarks on everyone who passes him by. I'm sure that if he had been in the Canterbury Tales, he would have been my absolute favorite character. Well worth a read, especially for those who want to understand how to use dialogue to build up and flesh out characters.


While the meaning of the first photograph I chose was clear, this one might be construed to have multiple meanings--it is, after all, a photograph of a piece of art. However, it is also a photograph so carefully framed as to be a wonderful piece of art in itself. Dramatic, bold and crisp, this piece makes a sharp visual statement while inviting the viewer to think about the relationship between different types of art, as well as between the earth and sky. I highly encourage you to view *KaliPhantom's gallery for more excellent photographs like this one.

10.


This has always been one of my favorite pieces from Miss *Teloka. The textures, composition, and especially the vibrant colors--practically a trademark of *Teloka's--make the image pop out at you, and the characters, while vaguely cartoony, are lovingly painted, so that they remind one of a picture in a children's book. Despite the vibrancy, the work ends up looking peaceful and serene.


Two of *Teloka's original characters, Artemis and Peggy, in a portrait that looks like it ought to be a comic book cover. Beautiful, subtle coloring of a clean sketch mixes the digital with the traditional in this image, and the details are wonderful, from the Book's flipping pages to the tiny glint of the star on Peggy's hat. The vague shapes in the background of orange almost seem to offer more of a threat than the fiery light rising up from the hill behind them. What sort of a challenge could it be...?


Of all of her deviations, this is probably one that reflects *Teloka the most, simply because of what it is: an enormous gift of love, to all her friends. The details are incredible, the coloring masterful, and the composition epic--I'd love to print it out as a giant poster and hang it in my room. Go, visit, and feast your eyes on this buffet of the different types of love--some of your favorite characters are probably included.

11.


If there's any piece of ~YamiRedPen's that deserves to be featured, it is, unquestionably, this. The depth of the background, the lighting, the dynamic shot, the textures, the reflections in the water, the detail of the mud splashes, and that adorably creepy frog--This is a fantastic piece, from the feathery bushes to the highlights on the frog and mud, and I don't even want to think about how long it must have taken.


I remember when, for one of my college art classes, we had to use charcoal to draw the inside of a refrigerator. I dropped that class. I hate charcoal. But ~YamiRedPen clearly shows that she is a master of this medium. She produces clear tones and lines without smudging, giving real and beautiful geometric depth to this piece. The thumbnail almost looks like a photograph. Outstanding work with a truly difficult medium.


"Morning Goblin" is a delightfully fresh take on an oft-misunderstood race of fantasy creatures, complete with the same beautiful textures, excellent perspective and soft highlights from the rest of ~YamiRedPen's gallery. Little touches like the tattoo, dirk and ponytail really make this piece. Far from being frightened of her like Tolkien's orcs, I think I'd rather run down to the creek and spend the day fishing with her, or climbing a giant and perilous mountain. XD


Oh, and this too. Because Jackie needs more love and YamiRedPen seems to be the only one who has taken it upon herself to make this cute character a stamp. She even drew it--that's not a screenshot, folks!

12.


Mr. Sun technically belongs to ~icedemonhiro, but the way *SabieMoonbeam has rendered him make him far too much of a standout to avoid a feature. The bright colors just pop out at you and scream, like any good shaft of sunlight coming through your window on a weekday when you are trying to sleep. Despite his extremely creepy head--or mask?--he still looks confident and carefree.


I read this delightful deviation as part of the auditions for entry into ~EscapeFromNevara, and although we the judges sadly couldn't include *SabieMoonbeam because of our need to preserve the ratio of artists to writers in the final 64, this was definitely one of the best written entries we received. Vivid diction and variable syntax makes for a great, easily readable and rhythmic piece. It's easy to understand and sympathize with the character, as the writing takes us easily inside her head.


A very well-drawn, wonderfully cartoony piece of concept art for the Yeester, a creature that's a cross between a kangaroo and a dinosaur but that kind of reminds me of a pachycelophosaurus. Despite that, and despite its crystal horns, though, I want to cuddle it--it's just too cute!

==============================================================================

EDIT: With new info: Back at school, working on homework, stress stress stress! You may not see much of me until I get settled into a routine, but I will of course, still appear to judge EfN. Also, I have elected to be a judge for



a new tournament starting in February which I highly encourage any fellow Digimon fans to join!!!



I put that up at the top of my journal because the people being featured deserve it, so if anyone wants to read about lil old me, a little about myself is down here:

Orlando was great! Hit every major Disney theme park and bought myself a ton of Jack Skellington stuff, the only fictional character whose merchandise I will buy, outside of OCs. (I now have a four-foot Jack doll that is just sweet. XD) So much left to do before school starts again at the end of August, though! ‘Twill be my senior year, which means I probably won’t be on DA as much as I’ll be busy with trying to find a job in the worst recession in America in decades. And me with my English degree! Why, I’m sure employers will be snapping that up like pancakes!

Of course, I do still have artistic obligations to this site, not least of which includes judging the last two rounds of EfN. It may have got off to a rocky start, but the four finalists have stuck with it in a truly commendable fashion. I could never have predicted the four finalists, but my hat’s off to each and every one of you.

In sillier news, I am learning how to cook Japanese dishes (they’re healthy I tell you!) and also playing Pokemon Weird, a hack of Diamond that allows you to catch all 493 Pokemon, which is really what any good Pokemon game should do. Enough with all this trading crap, honestly. And the best part was, it was completely free. XD

Aaand that’s all for now, folks. Leave your feature requests and/or suggestions for me about Japanese recipes, job search engines, art tips, office clothing tips (lol) or the universe in general.

~C.T.

Oh my God it’s finally dooooooone~ *faint* My first-ever con report for my first-ever con. It was awesome but IT TAKES SO LONG TO WRITE ABOUT. This should not have taken me this long. -.- Caution: Read only if you enjoy reading books.


I was super excited about being able to go to Otakon this year; I met an absolute ton of cool people who showered me with love and friendship and DA-fraternity. I’m serious, guys—I’ve never felt so immediately accepted by a group I didn’t even officially know. So here’s a list of the people I met/laid eyes on—if you aren’t here, you’re at the bottom of the journal because I wrote some extra stuff for you.



===============================================================

Thursday

This is the day I actually arrived in Baltimore, albeit not the day I actually arrived at the con. I did get a view of the building, however, as we drove past it on the way to the hotel, and of the huge line of the preregistered eagerly awaiting their tickets. My sister was extremely disturbed by the "pink marshmallow" costume we saw from the back while walking around the hotel, which later turned out to be a Kirby.

Dad asked if Kirby was a Digimon.

We’d come too late for me to get into the preregistration line, however, I still stayed up until about 2 AM in the cold white hotel bathroom working on the collar for my costume.

Curse you, collar.

===============================================================

Friday

On Friday, I went over to the hotel where *BloomBlitz and I would be staying and waited for her to arrive with her aunt. Once they did, we went over to the con and were told that the registration line was to the right. Okay. We went to check out this registration line. It went around the corner, down the block, around another corner, down another block, around another corner, down half a block, across a road, turned around, and went up past another corner where it finally stopped. OMFG.

And it was hot.

Once we got to the end of this insanely long line, we ended up waiting for about five minutes before the guy manning the end of the line asked if anyone was preregistered and told us that the preregistered people had another line, inside the building. And we all Sighed with Relief. I think a lot of preregistered people did that. It was still pretty awesome though, not only to see the huge line of people waiting to get in, but mostly to know that we didn’t actually have to wait in that line. Effing yes.

Once we got into the con and managed to get our badges, we were pretty overwhelmed, so we mostly wandered around and sat and tried to figure out where everything was while soaking up the cosplays, both crazy and awesome. After enough wandering and lunch outside in a shopping-mall-type thing that served HUGE, allegedly “small” fries, we eventually found ourselves near the entrance to the Dealer’s Room where we met up with ~Rizzah, ~CrawlerKat, ~Aerostella, ~Luxatrum, and ~Haunter-360 (and possibly others I have forgotten). Some of them were partly in costume that day—the Chimbley Sweep’s hat and Karl’s orange coat definitely stuck out—and we had hasty introductions and followed them into the Dealer’s Room, where ~Haunter-360 was pretty much the only person who really stayed with us. He had come all the way from the U.K., and he was already wearing his Mizuno costume. I would like to take this moment to say that his cosplay was just about perfect. Great wig, great coat, great flipperhands (that must have been a pain to eat with), no shoes on his feet, poor thing. He even had copious amounts of facepaint which somehow managed to stay on throughout the entire con. I was impressed. Not only that, but he stayed in costume all three days. That’s dedication right there.

He was pretty much the best Mizuno you could ask for in terms of personality too—quite shy. Even though Mizuno did not have a British accent, and ~Haunter-360 exhibited no signs of having annoying voices in his head.

Here is my favorite picture of him --> [link].

We went through the Dealer’s room with him and stayed with him while he got pizza. I made an impulse purchase of a plain pastel blue bento box from the Happy Japan booth, which was probably not the best idea even though it was only $5. Bentos are small and I am sure I could get a better model at Epcot next month. Maybe this will be my spare.

Upon exiting the Dealer’s Room, we finally meandered our way to the Artists’ Alley, which was the thing I had wanted to see all along. (It was hard to get a feel for the layout, but once you did, everything became pretty easy.) As expected, it was epic. So much art! I pretty much instantly bought a commission off of someone who produces an online manga at [link] and passed by Del’s table right away (she was dressed as Tulio from The Road to El Dorado at the time) to collect one of what I think was the first batch of Law of Talos books she sold. Naturally we had her autograph our copies, and she also drew a smexy picture of Rellik’s eyes in mine. ^3^

Ahem.

=TheCrowchan was there too, having been persuaded to go by the very excellent =exileddelusion, and ~Haunter-360 (I believe it was) asked if she would take commissions too, which prompted a very funny exchange between her and Del regarding how much she should charge. It seems that poor Miss Crowchan is another one of those popular artists who has succumbed to the terrible and paradoxical affliction known as Low Self Esteem (I hope she didn’t get it from me). Naturally her friends took it upon themselves to attempt to rectify this. I hope I did my part by buying a commission off of her.

After that, we had pretty much done everything we set out to do for the day. All told, we had spent about six hours at the convention. We went back to the hotel and *BloomBlitz drew, but I had to work on my collar.

Curse you, collar.

I finished the back and made the tie for the front, then sewed the barrettes together. I was very happy that the barrettes didn’t take too long. Still, I got to bed a little after 1:00, I think. I would’ve liked it to be earlier, though, in preparation for….

===============================================================

Saturday

OHMYGOD. This is probably one of the best days I’ve ever had. In my LIFE.

First, I woke up at 7:00 A.M. to take a shower and prepare my costume for the Law of Talos character meet at 10:00, because I wanted to be absolutely certain I would have enough time. I’m pretty sure I woke *BloomBlitz and her aunt up showering so early. (>.< D’oh.) I was really worried about the wig, since I had never worn a wig before, and also because I have masses and masses of my own hair that needed to fit under this wig. Fortunately, washing it flattens it, so I only had to use two elastic bands and twenty bobby pins to stick it all to my head, which I think is a new record. After I’d done that, I put on the costume, the details of which you can find here --> [link] and figured out the wig, and then we went off on the five-block walk to the convention. The first non-convention-going person I saw in the elevator of our hotel complimented me on my costume— +1 Confidence!

Once we got to the convention, we met :devLuxatrum, ~Rizzah, ~Aerostella, and ~iPl0x by the fountains --> [link] ~CrawlerKat showed up soon after in an amazing flowing coat (I wanted it soooooo baaaad) with her dad, as did ~ConcentrationMoon, ~ToxicToothpick and =MyNameIsMad. After waiting around for a little while and taking a few pictures, *BloomBlitz, ~CrawlerKat and a couple of others went to find Del’s table and see whether ~Haunter-360 had showed up there yet. ~Luxatrum and I stayed at the fountains so his hat could act as a beacon if anyone showed up. It was a good beacon for most of the convention. While we waited, I Drew Stuff.

Eventually the whole troupe came back, with ~TheDragoness014, =exileddelusion, ~Haunter-360, =TheCrowchan, =SHADOBOXXER, =Alamus, ~kemonoart, and :devcheshire-ghost:. All of whom had very awesome cosplays, but I have to give special props to ~kemonoart, who showed us the intricacies of his costume at Del’s table later. (He had actual industrial toe protectors, actual extra belt buckles, redid the buttons on the vest he bought, the works) Ditto ~Luxatrum, who had…a hat. That hat! It was made of pure, concentrated awesomeness. (Sadly, I did not manage to get close enough to =SHADOBOXXER’s costume to get the full effect of the awesome—I didn’t have my glasses on at the time.) Still, =exileddelusion, regrettably, beats us all for accuracy. I mean, she IS freaking Del. You can’t get much more accurate than that.

We all took some awesome group photos (one of which you can see here --> ) before we split off into little groups to take other random photos. I didn’t get to see very much clearly, because I had to take my glasses off whenever someone wanted a picture of Lilith (I messed up the first couple times), but it was still awesome.

We stayed in this little corner across from and to the left of the fountains for quite a while, until ~ConcentrationMoon left with his own little troupe to wander the Alley and sell his merchandise, and Del went back to her table with her Rellik-butt. (Sorry, ~kemonoart.) At that point, I think, it was around 12:45, and the rest of the group pretty much split up into two groups—I went with ~Luxatrum and =dragonack27 to try to see what a panel was like (I think it was called “Best Deaths in Anime” or something. Actually I found out later that they cancelled it on short notice because it was apparently 18+ but not labeled as such), and the rest of the group went to get ice cream at a little place a couple blocks from the convention.

As it turned out, there was a huge line for the panel, so we sat and I Drew Stuff. We saw a very energetic Billy Mays cosplay sitting behind us ([link]), and I also tried on Chimbley’s hat.

Unfortunately, the panel was full, so we wandered slowly back to the meeting place at about 2:00, at which time we met up with the rest of the people who had gone to get ice cream. We promptly split up again and I went with the same group to try to go see a panel on Fullmetal Alchemist. We got into this panel, but ~Luxatrum and =dragonack27 were less than thrilled when we realized it was a Q&A with no video, so we left after about five minutes and did some more wandering, this time down to the Artist’s Alley, where we wandered around and bought stuff. I picked up my first commission and also ordered commissions from *zelas and =Lavender-Ice. Then we sat for a while and I Drew Stuff before we went back up to meet with the rest of the group again.

No one in our little trio had eaten yet at that point, so even though the others had all had ice cream, we all went back to that little food court to grab some lunch. I ended up splitting a pizza with Steffi and Chimbley.

As is to be expected, Chimbley pretty much took all the food he could get. He really liked that pizza.

(I’m kidding. ~Luxatrum was very adamant about asking each of us whether we wanted a third piece. We were both full though.)

During lunch =dragonack27 came up with a good idea that I think five or six people participated in: We all put our names into her hat and then drew something for the person whose name was picked out for us. I drew =dragonack27’s living puppet character Issac, and ~Haunter-360, Mizuno himself, drew me Mizuno --> [link]

Once we were done, we went back to the convention and our trio that had stayed together most of the day tried to make it into a chibi sculpting panel, which—you guessed it—was full. So we walked through the Dealer’s Room instead, and waited for the rest of the group, who had headed off to Artist’s Alley again, at the Dealer’s Room exit. I—wait for it—Drew Stuff.

Eventually, we found out that the rest of the group was waiting for us at the Entrance to the Dealer’s room, so after it closed, we went over there and sat in a circle near the Area of No talking about what to bring to picnics. We decided on *Unknown-person, an onion and a shovel. Trust me when I say you had to be there.

We went around to Artist’s Alley yet again after that. (On the way there, Karl killed Clarice and I shot it all on a camera phone in a manner which proves that, yes, I have in fact never owned nor operated a camera phone. You can check it out as part of this video: --> [link]) By that time, ~ConcentrationMoon had managed to snag himself a table! Huzzah! So we got to see his cool spread of merchandise and tons of little signs. (I hope you got to keep that DS you found, Ian. You totally deserve it.) I got a commission from him at the last minute, as well as one of his “Chimbley Was Here” stickers—the problem being I don’t know where I’ll stick it yet. If any of you guys have any ideas of where Chimbley ought to have been, I’m open to suggestions.

We took a few more pictures in the same area as we had in the morning, and Karl and Chimbley played leapfrog in a very faily manner, which you can also see on the Youtube link above. After that, ~Luxatrum, ~Rizzah, ~CrawlerKat, etc., had to go home, so *BloomBlitz and I pretty much went right back to the hotel, where We Drew Stuff for the rest of the night. (I still need to ink that comic for her….)

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Sunday

This wasn’t too much of a day, really. *BloomBlitz and I got up, packed up, and headed over to the convention for about an hour before we had to check out of the hotel. So we headed back to Artists’ Alley, where I bought a Jack Skellington pin for $2. (He is, currently, pretty much the only popular “non-OC” character whose merchandise I will buy. I just like to collect Jack Skellington stuff. I was wearing my Jack tank top at the time too, so the guy running the booth didn’t even need to ask which I wanted. XD) As we did for a good portion of the convention, we hung out around Del’s table and met ~tymki, ~Haunter-360’s little sister. (She was so cute!) I was able to toss off the Law of Talos CD I’d burned and illustrated on her, as I hadn’t used it at the con for lack of a boombox, and had no need of it myself since I had all the songs on my laptop, so it’s probably somewhere in England right now. I also picked up my commission from =TheCrowchan, which she says looks ‘gay’ and ‘flouncy.’ Internets, you be the judge:

[link]

Personally, I love it, not only for its delightful squishiness and enthusiasm, but because tea in the hands of the right person is in fact awesome, and I don’t even like tea. But having it just makes you feel so darn British.

Del had sold out of her Law of Talos books by then (yay Del! 8D), so we got to hang out behind her table talking to her and =TheCrowchan and discuss why =SHADOBOXXER makes babies cry, before it was eventually time to leave.

Then it was back to the hotel where, sadly, my parents helped pick up my luggage and whisked me away from an absolutely rocking two days. ;a;

Also on the way out of Baltimore Ian called me to see if I could come pick up my sketch. |D DX I’m sorry, Ian! On the up side, I now have your number. …..Mwahahahah…ahem. >_>

==============================================================

So that was Otakon in a nutshell. A very, very large coconut shell, that does not even include all of the awesome popular cosplays, Dealer’s Room items, and other weird events I saw going on, like Link and Willy Wonka buying coffee from the Starbucks in the Otterbein Lobby. Let’s face it, when you get a whole group of otaku and other nerds together, the results are pretty awesome.

And now it’s back to not running around making sure everything is ready, not pricking my fingers with sewing needles, and not highly anticipating the biggest event of the summer. I am pretty psyched for my weeklong Disney World trip come August 1st, however. And beyond that, I’ve also got to think about what classes to take next year, whether I should go to graduate school or get a job in this flailing economy, and buying new clothes for the year.

One thing’s for sure, though, I’d definitely be interested in going to another Otakon, especially if it meant a chance to see most or any of the cool DA people I met there again. One of the things I discovered during Otakon, though, was that cosplaying definitely opens so many more doors for the Otakon-goer: When you’re cosplaying, there’s a sort of camaraderie that seems to magically appear between you and anyone else who recognizes whom you’re cosplaying. Thus I’ve decided that if I am able to go back to Otakon, I really ought to cosplay—which will leave me searching for the next fairly-simple, really-popular, perfect cosplay for next year. Got suggestions? I’d love to hear them.

Next year, Baltimore. :crossfingers:



P.S. If anyone has any better pics of me than what I have, I’d love to see ‘em. ^u^ Here's my album so far: [link]

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- Thanks for hanging out with me and =dragonack27, even though we didn’t make it into any of the panels we wanted it was still really fun. You’re awesome for mentioning me every time people came up and recognized your hat, which was bar none the coolest at the con. Hope to see you next year! Oh, and thanks for the pic, too. ([link])

- Your Round 4 LoT entry freaked me out like no other, but you’re actually a pretty cool guy. I’d never have guessed someone so occasionally wacky and irreverent could be so immediately nice to someone they never even met. Man, did you prove me wrong. You are awesomeness put into a concentrated package, and I loved your table setup. Glad you got one, you deserved it. Hope you got to keep the DS—you deserve that too. Thanks for complimenting my costume—I was on cloud nine for like five hours after that.

- Aaaagh another awesome person I never got up the courage to talk to in DA. I’m so glad Del convinced you to come along. Thank you for taking commissions on the spot like you did—I still love mine. And thank you for being such a good sport about pistolwhips too. P.S. -Your feature is coming, hopefully from Florida.

- So full of win, it leaks out of her pores. Zany, friendly, loyal, and a damn great artist. Congratulations again on selling out of your LoT books; I shall place mine on the shelf with my other two volumes of manga with pride. You know what that means? It means that your work is one-third of my manga collection (even though yes yours is not technically manga). Because you rock. I really hope I get to meet you again at another con someday.

- If you read the journal, need I say more? XD Best Mizuno ever. I hope you enjoyed your stay in the states and we didn’t freak you out too much by wearing giant hats and hugely long wigs and poking you with swords.

- For letting me crash in your hotel room, borrow your Climber doll, and hijack you for most of the con, as well as helping me out with my cosplay. You put up with me and that was of the main reasons I was able to go, which is in turn the only reason I now own a cool Lilith outfit (wouldn’t have made it if not for the trip). I hope I didn’t annoy you with my…uh…annoying-ness.

- I know I didn’t talk all that much with you, but you deserve a personal heartfelt thank-you for organizing such a TOTALLY AWESOME event, as well as for being Karl. (Seriously guys, you should have seen the way that coat flowed while she was running. It was freaking magical.) Good luck at getting a booth in 2010, and I promise if you do, I will do everything in my power to come and hang out a lot more next year. Thanks for being such a good sport about doing that Lilith x Karl pic, too.

~

Decided to make a new journal entry to get that other one off my page. Many thanks to all those who helped me out, especially *Kaitokalvi, who offered up a ton of new words and very much earned that subbie. ^^ For an example of one of the words I used for this project, see the end of my journal.

In other news, school is winding down--one more week before exams, and then blessed summer freedom and--hopefully--a lot of time to draw. Which is great because I have kiribans I really need to be doing. XD Ack, I'm sorry guys. Or girls, since you're both girls.



We had assessments for my art class yesterday. Highly unprofessional class. XD But I was able to use some DA-related work for part of my final project: A series of comic storyboards for Rise. Now, as you might imagine, at my university this sort of thing is sort of looked down upon--After all, leaving a display of soy sauce packets in the middle of a room is much more artistic and shows a lot more thought! </sarcasm> No seriously, that was part of one of the final projects one of our grad students did.



Nevertheless, while absolutely nobody jumped at it with the FIERY PASSION of the OCT crowd (Did I mention I love you? XD) I did get some highly amusing comments on it, namely on the character of



Art Teacher: He kind of reminds me of, I don't know, that guy, from Sailor Moon.
Me: ......o.o'' What, Tuxedo Mask? *shocked her art teacher even knows this character*
Art Teacher: Yeah, that's the one.
Fellow Student: Oh, so, like, he comes to her? Aww, that's so Peter Pan!....And he's got a top hat and a cane? That's so Willy Wonka!

CONGRATULATIONS, MR. TEA. Mr. Inverted is Tuxedo Mask, Peter Pan, and Willy Wonka, all rolled into one. NO WONDER EVERYONE LOVES HIM. XD

I pretty much loled over that for the rest of the night.

Also, if you're wanting to join an OCT, GO JOIN RISE, PPL. WITH ALIENS.



In other news, I've developed a pocky addiction in recent weeks fed by my local grocery shop, although I hope to get out of it soon as it's rather expensive. Thank goodness I'll be moving back to Virginia soon where these items are not available to me. To further cement this new image of myself as otaku I have been seriously considering going to Otakon this year. Unfortunately that can't happen unless I find a roommate. So if any of you know anyone, preferably girls but I'm getting less picky as time goes on, who's going to Otakon and maybe has a spot available, let me know, please! Reservations need to be made way in advance for this kind of thing.

And finally as a reminder...



ONE WEEK LEFT FOR EFN, PEOPLE! I'm expecting good things.


~C.T.

P.S. (Oh my Gooooood, Law of Talos. Tell us the winner already. I'm actually kind of irked that people were out for blood wanting to know who was in EfN after just one week, yet seem fine with the fact that judging a single match takes this long. )

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That Homework Example I Was Going to Show You

O•C•T — n. 1. An original character tournament held on DeviantArt. OCTs are long artistic endeavors, mainly for comic artists, in which a person creates an original character ("OC"), a reference sheet and an audition comic, and is judged by a small group assembled for the purpose of judging. From the auditions, usually comics created according to a preordained storyline, a number of contestants, usually 32 or 64, are selected based on artistic and literary merit and are pitted against one another tournament-style, producing a comic in which their character defeats their opponent’s in a preordained setting, for every round, until one person is declared the winner.

The word belongs primarily to a very exclusive artistic community on DeviantArt, but this group is quite passionate about their work.

This word is an acronym, always spoken as an initialism, never as, i.e., “oct” as in octagon. As one might guess from the definition, it is created from the first three letters of Original Character Tournament.

OCTs existed as early as 2006, when they were undertaken primarily on forums such as [link] In 2007, OCTs moved to DeviantArt, where the community provided a good setting in which to display the results of rounds to the public and to a much larger audience than is found on the forums. They were still referred to as “Original Character Tournaments” or “OC tournaments” until 2008, however. With the rise of the Winter Brawl and Endzone, both hosted in late 2007 ([link] and [link]), the term “original character tournament” had become popular enough on DeviantArt to merit the initialism OCT—"OC" already having been known and widely acknowledged. People would have known what an OC tournament was—it would have been transparent—but for a long time before Endzone had established the OCT the actual term OCT would have been opaque.

Unfortunately, I can’t find a precise date for the first instance of the use of OCT—with so much to sift through, though, that’s hardly surprising. Google hits seem to show a sharp rise in May 2008 (when searching “OCT” “original character tournament” “May 2008;” however, and unfortunately, “OCT” is often misrepresented as “Oct” for “October” by Google). However, I was definitely not aware of the term, and was still using “OC tournament” or “OC tourney,” as of March 1, 2008.

Examples: "People who try to compete in two OCTs at the same time are just insane."