I thought it might be useful to Exalted players and storytellers so here it is.

Thank you to my neighbor Julie for posing for this!

To keep up with the progress shots, here are some of the thumbs I sent Chris.

First set of thumbs, where I propose some layout ideas for a vignetted character.

This illustration goes with a very disturbing and sad story and it’s not clear until the end who is the bad guy and who is the good guy (or girl…) and so I wanted to keep the illustration neutral so you would get the point that it’s sad, but you wouldn’t know the end of the story even before reading it.

Second set of thumbs with more refined poses.

Vanessa, the main character is a normal person in a bad situation and I want readers to have some sympathy for her. She has a knife but it’s not clear what she intends to do with it. Suspense suspense.

Finished illustration of Vanessa...

There were a few challenges, for one, we never get to see Strahd’s feet on the Caldwell illustrations, in fact, we don’t see a heck of a lot of his feet even in the more recent images. Also, I like Strahd because he looks dignified and melancholy, his whole point is that he  made a choice that turned his existence into a tragedy, so even if some of the new Strahd illustrations are perfectly competent and enjoyable, I can’t imagine Strahd as a young punk in colorful clothes. It’s hard to speak of dignity and tragedy with a short big-headed cartoon silhouette but I’m doing my best. I also decided that Strahd is not Strahd without a billowing cloak, so I decided I would sew a tiny cloak for him. I’m a pattern designer by training but I have never done anything like that. We’ll see how that turns out.

I'm Strahd, I eat sparkly emo vampires for breakfast.

I’m not convinced I will keep the Louis XIV style buckle shoes, I feel that they might clash a little with his end-of-the-19th-century type suit. Strahd was a forward thinker, always before his times.

I also did some research on DIY toys and found a lot of advise. But I’m not entirely sure the figure I have is vinyl, I don’t know much about those but I was under the impression they were slightly soft and rubbery. The little guy I have is hard plastic, he’s also light gray and not entirely all of the same color, unlike the blank Mighty Muggs I saw on Hasbro’s website. Maybe he’s a production Mugg who just didn’t get painted? Nevertheless, I have figured that plain gesso should do the trick as a primer. But first, he got a dunk in the sink with dish soap and a good scrub to make sure the chemical stuff that goes into mold to make the plastic release easily is gone.

The mighty mugs...

The next step was primer. I used regular acrylic gesso that I already had instead of buying something specific that I might never re-use. I just brushed it on in 4 thin layers letting him dry properly between layers. Then I gave him a light sanding with 220 sandpaper and when he was cleaned of gesso dust and dry, I drew the lines on him with a colored mechanical pencil.

Reproducing my design on the figure.

I never entirely assembled the figure because I didn’t want to pry it apart with a knife or something if it got stucked, but I did assemble it partly to have a good idea of how the parts fit. I painted him with normal acrylic paint. I was careful to mix enough of it that I wouldn’t have to remix the same color, since I wanted him in rather flat colors. His body parts were stucked on skewers to dry.

Strahd gets skewered.

Strahd's torso and legs

Finished head of Strahd, doesn't sparkle in the sun.

Painting precise lines on a curved surface is harder than it looks.Now I just did a layer of varnish and in the next installment, I’m going to show what he looks like assembled, and I’m going to figure out how to give him a cloak.

I’m also planning a complete Mighty Mugg how-to for Jon’s ArtOrder blog.

Now I want to figure out what to do with it. Do I want to go old school with 2nd ed. type characters from my days playing (but mostly DM’ing) AD&D or do I want to go more contemporary and look at the new races and hipper designs.

Perfect Match? I think not.

My boyfriend Sylvain suggested I do the character I was playing until recently, a female dragonborn warlord, but the dragonborn anatomy is not very well adapted to the shape of a Mighty Mugg and it’s my first figure so I want to do it relatively simple, no Sculpey attachment or reshaping of the molded parts. Elves are not a good match either, Mighty Muggs don’t look lean or graceful, so doing the elf warrior I painted for the Dongeon Delve challenge doesn’t seem like a good idea. That means that Drizz’t Do’Urden, the most iconic D&D character ever isn’t that good a match either.

A terrible scan I found on the internet of my favorite Strahd illo of all time.

And then it striked me; Strahd Von Zarovich is both one of my favorite D&D villains, and the old school Clyde Caldwell renderings of him were some of the most influencial illustrations for me. Along with the Dark Sun Brom’s, they are some of the paintings that made me want to paint fantasy. So I want to do a classic blue skinned dignified Strahd in his billowing cape. Let’s see how that works out (especially the dignified squat bobblehead part.)

More info:

Jon Schindehette (Senior Creative Director at Wizards of the Coast) and his blog Art Order
Dongeon Delve challenge on the Art Order.

Mighty Muggs on the Hasbro store. Exemples of custom Mighty Muggs on Flickr.

Nous avions un défi au travail de prendre un dessin d’enfant et de le peindre avec nos capacités d’aujourd’hui. J’ai choisi un Goldorak que j’ai fait quand j’avais 3 ans. Certaines choses ne changes jamais.

An announcement/ Une annonce

I’m a relative newb when it comes to being an exhibitor at conventions but I’m  working hard at it. I’m sure I’m not the only one. I had the idea when I was at the Mini Comic Con on Montreal a few weeks ago to start a Facebook group for dealers and artists who go to cons. The goal is to get feedback on which conventions are good for dealers, tips for setting up tables and pricing and find people to share tables with or maybe car pool. Most of the conversation happens in french and it’s mostly centered on cons accessible for people in the eastern parts of Canada but if you are a dealer or an artist in conventions and you are interested, drop me a line on Facebook!

Je suis relativement débutante comme exposante dans les conventions, mais je travaille fort quand même. Je suis certaine que je ne suis pas la seule. Pendant le dernier Mini Comic Con de Montréal, j’ai eu l’idée de fonder un groupe Facebook pour les exposants et les artistes qui vont dans des conventions. Le but est d’avoir du feedback sur les différentes conventions, d’avoir des trucs pour les tables, les prix, de trouver des gens avec qui partager une table ou avec qui faire le trajet. Beaucoup des conversations sont en français et on est surtout concentrés sur les conventions accessibles aux gens dans l’est du Canada mais si vous êtes un exposants et que vous êtes intéressez, envoyez-moi un message sur Facebook!

Some Friends/Des amis

I meet all kinds of wonderful people when I go to cons, and I see al kinds of surprising things. Here are some new friends.

Mike Rooth.

Mike was our “across the alley” neighbor. He spent a lot of time working in front of con goers, I think this might explain his success.

EveChat.

Eve was my tablemate. I think our themes fit well together without competing. For some reason, she has a lot of cute stuff, but her zombies were the most popular.

Catherinette Rings.

One of our neighbors was Catherine of Catherinette Rings. Her partner crafts the jewelry and she helps a lot with the sales and logistics and some of the design. We had time to chat and I had time to look at their beautiful steampunk sculptures.

Kanthara

I also had the pleasure of hanging out with Kanthara a.k.a. Karine Charlebois, comic artist and storyboarder extraordinaire.

Eve at our shared table

The Mini Comic Expo, or Mini Comic Con or however you want to call it is almost more of a fair than a real convention. There isn’t any content, just dealers and artists. I was expecting visitors would be there wanting to buy, and some did buy, but it wasn’t very profitable for me or my neighbors. I’m sure some of the dealers made money and I’m not blaming the visitors. It partly confirmed my hunch that people who go to comic conventions want to see characters they know. It’s not the perfect place for fantasy art. I don’t know that I would have been much more succesful even if I had been working on well known fantasy IP’s. However if I was working on M:tG, I sure as hell would have tried to get next to the card game stores’ booths.

Me with the table

I’m still learning how to address passersby without scaring them into thinking that I’m trying to pressure them to buy. They truth is, I often just seek their impression of the con itself and want to know what they have enjoyed so far. It’s far more general market research. I have also learned from other dealers that this is not a very good event for artists who do anime. I’m also learning that 10am to 5pm is a long time to spend at a table if things are going slow. By 3, a lot of us were looking at our watches and many of the younger attendees and cosplayers were starting  to act up and show their wariness, including but not limited to a game of tag, some acrobatics, lots of noise and some drama in the ladies’ room.

Finally, I’m glad I went. It was not very financially rewarding but it was a good place to practice my salesmanship, and the FSM knows it needs practicing.