rowyn

The thing about a furry con is that, even when you leave the actual convention, a lot of the attendees are still readily identifiable as "with the con". It's the cat ears and tails, if not the badges.

shaterri,

koogrr and I walked to the Subway that John and I had missed in the darkness the night before. (It was probably closed anyway.) There, we bumped into a lively young woman whose furry connection was an online chat-based game called, if I recall correctly "Furcadia". I'm sure John will correct me if I'm wrong, since he not only recognized it but had done one of the models for it, several years ago. I got her name but have since forgotten it, like too many other names of people that I met at the con and had no other context for knowing.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel, and I got changed into one of my umpteen black dresses. Then John and I hung out in the lobby and drew for a few hours. We'd run into Chiaroscuro (

mongologue in the dealer's room earlier, and he'd given John his sketchbook along with a detailed request for an image. It was a cool idea but I, personally, had no idea how I'd pull it off on a single page, had I been the one who had to draw it. John worked on it, while I worked on a Kinshasa sketch in his collecting sketchbook. It's a lot more fun for me to draw in someone else's sketchbook. Probably because it makes me feel like I'm doing something nice for someone else. Except that I'm also embarrassed to have my art show up in the same sketchbook with fifty other people who actually know how to draw well.

While we were there, a couple of students/recent graduates from the Art Institute sat down near us and started drawing, too. After a little bit, we started talking and exchanging sketchbooks to look in. The woman went by KrystalRose, and her badge read "Lost Arctic Fox", which was also the name of her DeviantArt account. Her friend was identified as "Billy Awesomo". Their art was well-done, showing a definite anime influence. Billy worked in a variety of styles but most of the stuff he had with him was goofy-cute and chibi-like, while Krystal's tended more towards pretty and elegant. She had some neat comic-book layouts in her sketchbook, too.

I was rather embarrassed to be showing around my sketchbook to people, for several reasons. First, I'm not all that impressed by even my best artwork. Second, my sketchbook is relatively new and doesn't have much in it. Third, my sketchbook not only doesn't have my best artwork, it doesn't even have my second-best artwork. It's all third-tier stuff: thumbnails for larger projects that I redrew elsewhere, a few of the one-hour pages, occassional random doodles, and some of the icons that I did for

sandratayler and

sophrani.

While KrystalRose was looking at John's sketchbook, either he or I commented on how good the two of them were. Krystal blushed and said, "I was just thinking how much better John's art is! His anatomy is way more accurate than mine."

We chatted a little more, and then Krystal leaned over and handed me her sketchbook. "Here! You draw something in mine and I'll draw something in yours."

I laughed, "All right," I warned her, "but I'm telling you now you're gonna get way the better end of the deal." And then I blushed and corrected myself, "I mean, I'm getting the better end!" while everyone laughed.

She asked me what I wanted, and I said a mermaid, because her sketchbook had several neat-looking mermaids in it, and I like to ask people for something they're good at.

I asked her what she wanted. "Oh, anything!" she answered.

"Noooo!" John cried. "Not 'anything'! Anything is the kiss of death! Must ... have ... restrictions!"

That made me giggle, too. "It's all right," I assured them both. "I can draw 'anything' just fine."

I was delighted to be asked, in fact -- no one's ever requested an art trade from me specifically before. I drew a woman looking over her shoulder, with a little dragon-like head at the end of a long neck in the foreground. She did a lovely mermaid leaning against a seahorse for me -- I've emailed her and will post it if she gives me permission. And she seemed pretty happy with the drawing I did for her. In any case, it was all quite cool.

John finished the pencil work for his drawing for Chiaroscuro, and did a great job of it. I hope Chiaro scans it in.

Many people who know John from LJ who saw his sketchbook at the con (myself included) scolded him for not scanning and posting more of his work. He has quite a few good sketches that are buried in it, but every time I ask him on the phone about his art, he tells me "Oh, I tried to draw but didn't get any where." Alas, I have not yet figured out what motivates John to scan and post art, but I'm sure scolding isn't it. (This is just a note, Koogrr! It's not a scold).

The two other artists took off shortly thereafter. They planned to come back the next day to try to get space in Artist Alley to promote their work, but I didn't see them again at the convention.

John called Shaterri, who was at an impromptu Puzzlebox party that had just broken up. He and

ladyperegrine came down a little bit later and we talked for a while. Around midnight, John and I called it a night and went to bed.