IX Showcase - Then and Now

With IX a couple of weeks behind us now, I happened to stumble upon photos of the first IX Showcase and, with that, my very first Showcase table setup. In 2010, the third year of IX, they began setting up tables at the hotel on the evenings of Friday and Saturday of the event. This was new to the show and was a more organized version of what happened the previous year. People had set up tables in a common area at the hotel where they shared their collections and had art for sale. Now that there was an official Showcase, a ballroom was set aside, which allowed artists to set up and leave their items for the next night. It was an exciting time as the (often) younger artists could now show their work at the event, and many of our heroes were also exhibiting. Many cut their teeth at the IX Showcase as they figured out how to booth and share their art effectively. There was a lot of excitement built into the Showcase, as those exhibiting in the Main Show could now walk around and take in art. Thirteen years ago, I started doing conventions, and it all started at the IX Showcase. That said, here is my Showcase table from 2010 and my Showcase setup from 2023.

Illuxcon 3 Showcase November 2010

I had a little D&D work under my belt, a couple of binders of drawings, a few prints, some canvas prints, and my first self-printed sketchbook. I sold a lot of sketchbooks with criminally underpriced drawings in them. I spent most of the night drawing in sketchbooks.

IX Showcase October 2023

I have a LOT of client work under my belt, boxes of drawings, prints, enamel pins, many framed and bagged painted and mixed media originals, MtG artist proofs, and my first illustrated novel, stats guide, and coloring book from my Grand Bazaar series. I would hazard to guess that any single transaction that I had this year was greater than the entire sum of my sales in 2010.

I think it is essential to be objective and realistic about yourself and your work. To that end, you must know that it takes time and effort to do the things in this world that are worthwhile. Nothing worth doing is quickly done. I could never have reached 2023 without starting in 2010, and we all have our own 2010 that we start at. You can not start at 2023 - sure, you can try, but it will end up more like 2010 than you want it to. I have shared my journey in all of this here on the blog since 2009, and I hope it has shown that if you work toward a goal, you will find yourself moving in that direction. It takes time, and it takes a lot of work. I am not sure I would have ever believed the 2023 booth was an option for me. Even if I had shown a photo to myself of what my current booth looks like, I would not have believed it. Even now, I find it important to see these images side by side. I need to remember where I started and where I am now because there is always room to grow and new directions to explore. This is our art, and this is our life, and it is ours to enjoy and explore.

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog. See you back here on Friday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability, head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Gen Con 2013 - Day 4

All good things must come to an end and that includes Gen Con...

Gen Con Day 4! The last frantic fleeting moments of Sunday in Indianapolis. A lot of last minute purchases and wheeling and dealing are to be had on the last day. There is that weird moment when the closing hour arrives on the last day and the final announcements come over the intercom and the event hall roars with cheers and applause from the retailers and those working the con. We all survived another Gen Con and all that remains is packing up and going home.

For me, the most important events and happenings at Gen Con do not take place in the event hall... and sometimes don't even happen in Indianapolis. The seeds may be sown at Gen Con, but the real treasures that I get out of Gen Con happen in the personal interactions off the show floor and through out the following year. It is important to make sales and to have a great looking booth but for me I keep my eye on the long game. Selling a print to a random attendee dwarfs in comparison to strengthening friendships with fellow artist and art directors that I may only see once or twice a year. The people I go to see at Gen Con are more then just peers, clients, and friends... we are all doing this crazing art thing and all share common interests, experiences and up and downs in our lives. My wife talks about having "derby family" with those involved with her roller derby team, well, I have "art family" and it is so great to reconnect and have some fun with them. I guess that is really what Gen Con is for me...

Here are some images from the last day of Gen Con...

The booth is going through some changes on the last day... which is always nice.

The Three Dragons are going off to a new home and I wish them well!

So this is a thing apparently! Who knew? I certainly didn't... until now... RAWR!

The one and only Sam Flegal is taking home a certain Wookiee. A Wookiee I have not even had a chance to share here on the blog... I will remedy that soon. AND I totally stole this image of Sam's blog.

It all comes crashing down. I never think to take some photos of the con during tear down... until NOW.

Another view of a vastly different looking Gen Con.

Here we are at the end... Another successful Gen Con!

That is all for another exciting Gen Con wrap up, see you back here tomorrow for a return to normal blog activities! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Gen Con 2013 - Day 3

Day 3 of Gen Con 2013! The big long day of Gen Con. There are so many more people, more events, and just more of everything going on Saturday... or at least that is how it feels to me sitting at my booth in artist alley. There is definitely a bigger crush of people moving through out the exhibit hall. The day flew by as I was kept busy sketching, talking to people, and people watching. A lot of families faces and many more new ones. The day started off with being able to get into the Fantasy Flight Games booth (finally) to have a look at some things I worked on that I have not seen in person yet (more on this below) and concluded with being one of the judges of the L5R costume contest. Not a bad day at all!

This year's Gen Con was filled with so many new and interesting things and happenings. Just when I thought I knew what to expect from Gen Con and thought I knew what was going to happen... POW! New and exciting change of plans! ...that lead to enjoying Bike Week and light up hula hoops. Not really sure what these things have to do with the best four days in gaming, but they were shared with friends and a good time was had. I think wandering around the first night and seeing all that was going on and everything I had been missing opened my eyes to what else Gen Con has to offer.

Day 3 of Gen Con was a good day indeed. Here are lots of images from the day's events...

My Trandoshans are finally in print! (more on this SOON!)

More of my Star Wars secrets revealed from Edge of the Empire! (more on this SOON!)

The BEST OF SHOW Aaron B Miller's booth.

The extremely talented and all around great guy Scott Murphy's booth.

Drew Baker stops by to have a chat with Ralph Horsley.

Kiaju attack! RAWR!

Dragon angel sketch card for a collector of angel sketch cards.

It was a weekend of beholder sketches on play mats. Here is but one of many... RAWR!

Monster battle play mat! My contribution to the fray is the top tight flying mouth monster. Had to take up monster arms with Sam Fegal and his fire giant.

Some of the participants in the L5R costume contest. Great job everybody. You all can't win a prize but you are all winners in my book!

I for one welcome the coming of our new balloon Elder God of madness... Ia! Ia! (balloon) Cthulhu Fhtagn!

An omen! Unknown to me at the time this bison was showing what the future held for me after Gen Con was over... Con crud... YAYS!

You can find reference and inspiration everywhere. Love what the light and patterns are doing when these hula hoops are in motion. Almost like... MAGIC!

That is all for another exciting Monday on the blog, see you back here tomorrow for a look at the final day of Gen Con 2013! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Gen Con 2013 - Day 2

Well... the con crud finally caught up to me and knocked me out. I felt the first signs of it Tuesday morning while traveling home from Gen Con and I gave it the good fight... but it finally took me off my feet. Which is why this post is going up uncharacteristically late in the day. Hopefully I will fight through it quickly, since I have a lot to take care of right now! I guess there was too much fun had at Gen Con this year... or patient zero stopped by my booth...

Day 2 of Gen Con 2013! I find the Friday of Gen Con a weird one, it is not the frantic first day, it is not the super huge main day of Saturday, and it is not the frantic last day... it is just there in the middle. There felt like a lot people had shown up and there was a lot more activity. For the artists, there is the award show Friday evening and as in past years there is the Fantasy Flight dinner where the attending FFG art directors and artist all go out to eat and talk... which is super fun. Before all that post con fun there were musical interludes, steam punk things of all types, and lots of cards to sign.

I don't have as many pictures to share from my adventures on Day 2 of Gen Con but that does not mean there were not plenty of adventures...

This steam punk C-3PO was really weird...

A nice selection of my cards to sign. When asking for signatures...

...bringing extras to give to the artist, especially when they are card the artist does not have yet makes you a SUPER AWESOME person! THANKS!

A little musical interlude for the afternoon.

A look around the convention from my booth, Brom was over at that area to the left with the white cloth queue.

Aaron Miller took home best of show for Gen Con 2013!

Congrats... try not to eat your award...

FFG dinner! Seems to get bigger every year. Fun times!

We lifted up the king of all Gen Con artists and paraded him through the streets of Indianapolis as if he was a God on earth... or not... we may have just been posing for silly pictures...

That is all for another exciting week on the blog, see you back here on Monday for more coverage from Gen Con 2013! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Gen Con 2013 - Day 1

Gen Con begins! The first day of Gen Con (a Thursday... and serendipitously, exactly one week ago) can be so unpredictable. Usually those there are on a mission to get an exclusive, play a specific game or item, or meet a specific person. There is not a lot of browsing... or so it seems to me. A lot of familiar faces came by the booth the first day which was nice... though it sometimes takes me a moment to put the face into context.

Gen Con is great for people watching and having a chair in a fixed location allows for a steady stream of interesting folks to engage with, talk to, and watch. This is one of my wife's favorite con activities. The day progressed in the usual fashion of frantic spikes in activity and creepy quiet moments. The evening turned out to be much more interesting then the usual Gen Con evening of hanging out in a bar. We began wandering about the evening and night event that the con had to offer and quickly released that we have been missing a lot of events and activities at the con. Then there was Wil Wheaton playing a giant game of Star Trek Settlers of Catan... There were also AMAZING cupcakes and converted even the more stoic and cynical of us into giddy piles of confectionary joy.

All in all, it was a pretty good start to Gen Con 2013! Here are some pictures from the first day...

The booth is now completely up and functional... with hidden spring loaded wife for surprise sales pitch action!

Play mats for all your play mat needs... RAWR!

I am told that next time Steve will oder the BIG banners...

The man, the myth, the Bradly... with super classy tip cardboard.

Noodles & Co was doing Gen Con RIGHT. These came with your take out.

Sketching in sketchbook 4! RAWR!

The most massive of miniatures... the Skorne Mammoth that I designed.

Everywhere I looked... P'an Ku...

Even MORE sketching in sketchbook 4... RAWRx2!

A look around Gen Con from my vantage point.

For me, THIS is the stuff of nightmares...

Not sure what is going on here, but I am PRETTY SURE it is illeagal in Indiana.

Hey kids, it's TV's Wil Wheaton!

That is all for another exciting Thursday on the blog, see you back here tomorrow for more Gen Con 2013 coverage! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Gen Con 2013 - Day 0

There are back again... Gen Con 2013. Due to limited (no) access to reliable wifi I am now posting my adventures from Gen Con 2013. I had planned to post while at the con... but the best laid plans... SO, I am posting it all now over the next several days.

Over all it was a really great con and hopefully the photos I took express that. It felt like there were always days and days ahead of me for the con and before I knew it... it was all over and I am home again. Met loads of people at the con, some new, some old and had some great interactions. Already looking ahead to Gen Con 2014!

Before I get ahead of myself, let's have a look at Gen Con 2013! As previously mentioned we drove as far as Nashville on the first day. We then made a caravan with the Flegals the rest of way to Indianapolis. Set up went smoothly and I am really happy with how the booth came together this year. Each year I learn to do things better and better, and I think it is starting to show... to me at least. Everyone was rather tired from travel and set up so there was now a lot of adventures the evening of Day 0, but there was plenty of time ahead of us for that!

Here is a look at Day 0...

TOTALLY saw a real dinosaur on the side of the interstate on the way to Indianapolis!

(Sorry for the bad photo, it all happen so quickly... like big foot.)

Upon second inspection on the way home it turned out to not be a REAL dinosaur... /sad

Crossed a real cool bridge as we left Kentucky and entered Indiana.

The booth! Almost completely together. There will be some additions and modifications before the start of the con the following day.

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here tomorrow for more Gen Con 2013 coverage! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Gen Con 2011 - Wrap up

I have returned home from Gen Con more or less intact. I am ridiculously tired still which is to be expected after running on a sleep deficit since last Wednesday. There are still boxes I had shipped out from the convention center to wait for so hopefully they will arrive intact in the not too distant future.

Looking over everything that has happened over the last six days I can not be more pleased with how my first Gen Con turned out. I had a great location in the artist alley and got to meet a ton of cool people. I was really impressed with how well received the Anglerphant was. I was not expecting it at all but people really gravitated to it and responded well to it. It's popularity actually crossed all age and gender line which was huge shocker... apparently I came up with a horrific monster that responds well to teenage girls... who knew? With all my planning, with all my stressing over the details, with all the questions and investigating I did to fully prepare myself for Gen Con, nothing was more informative then actually being there and actually being a part of it. It was not until half way through Saturday that I finally felt like I had my table set up correctly. It was a real learning experience to finally see that predicable unpredictability of a convention first hand.

I want to thank everyone that came by my booth at Gen Con, it was super fun and would not have been the same experience with you all. It was also so much fun to hang out with all my artist friends and peers. I am finding myself having these opportunities more and more these days and I could not be happier about it. Enough of my chatter, I have just a couple more images to share to close out my coverage of Gen Con 2011...

Vinod Rams has added his art to my Monster Manual 2! Too bad so many of the remaining artist I need to sign my book are outside the US. I don't think I mentioned it before, but I was asked to sign a copy of a con attendees MM2. It was the first time I got to do something like that, which was super cool and an honor.

I hope this little guy finds his way home. He was in the middle of the sidewalk outside the convention center Sunday night. Little squids should not be discarded so easily.

Back to the normal blog posting schedule as of tomorrow. Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Gen Con 2011 - Day 4

With all things there is an ending and Day 4 marked the end of Gen Con 2011. It was a shorten day on the showroom floor, but there was all the tear down and packing to be done after the con officially ended at 4pm. Not sure how I would have managed the con without my wife being there to help me. To tell you the truth she was a real con trooper and helped out many of the other artist who had no one else to relieve them at their booths. Many asked me how the con was for me and I stick with the answer that it was a learning experience. Did not know what to expect, but I was surprised at every turn. I went into it expecting to fall on my face and as far as I can tell I did not… so that is a really good thing! At this point I think I very well may be doing this all again next year! Now on with the images…

More tentacled beasties on the game mats! RAWR!

One of the many sketchbooks that I put original drawings into…

and here is another! RAWR!

Now silver on black for a play mat. Looking back at my photos of the day I was a drawing fool. A lot of interest in my drawings and my monsters.

For some reason this image turned out horribly blurry… but the booth continues to change and evolve… for the better. Less is more.

POOF! The con is over and the booth is torn down and packed up. Thankfully there is a UPS center on site that helps with shipping home from the con.

Another shot of the now empty booth. You can see some of the clutter and activity of the rest of the showroom in the background.

And so concludes my coverage of Gen Con 2011! I hope you enjoyed the images and coverage of having a booth for the first time at a convention. I learned a lot by the experience and I think I am all the wiser for it!

See you back here on Wednesday. Not sure what I am going to post yet… but in the near future I have a TON of work that I can finally share with you that I produced for Fantasy Flight Games! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com