Gigacon 2013

I was an invited guest at Gigacon this past weekend. This was the 4th Gigacon, and the third that I've been a guest (Gadget's 4th).

So what is Gigacon?
Gigacon is an educational based, multimedia convention sponsored by The Art Institute of Washington (AiW). They bring in professionals from around the country from all artistic fields - Media Arts & Animation, Game Art, Graphic Design, Audio Production, Fashion, and more. Students and faculty members of AiW, as well as outside visitors gain knowledge, tips, and tricks from the professionals at Gigacon.

Each year there are big panel discussions (which are always hilarious), portfolio reviews, art demonstrations, and one on one time with the professionals. It's a great arena to get to meet some incredible people, learn some new things, and have an all around great time.

This year was a let down for the head of Gigacon, as it was the smallest yet - in terms of student turnout - but us professionals had a great time.

I've met some incredible people during the past Gigacons, many of which I've become great friends with. To list a few:
David Colman - Character Designer & Development Artist
Joe Weatherly - Illustrator
Sam Ellis - Illustrator & Character Designer
Garrette Johnson - Fashion Designer & Illustrator
David Silva - Designer & Toy Sculptor
Brian Muelhaupt - Animator
Maasa Kuwana Muelhaupt - Illustrator & Animator
Mike Vaillancourt - Graphic Designer & Art Director
Phil Noto - Animator & Comic Book Artist
Ben McSweeney - Illustrator & Animator
Sara Richard - Illustrator
David Finch - Comic Book Artist
(and so many more)

Honestly, look some of these people up. Their list of accomplishments make them an outstanding group of individuals. They've each worked for some big companies - such as Disney, Cartoon Network, Various Comic Book companies, Video Game companies, you name it! I find it a pleasure to have met them all.

In prep for Gigacon, to let people know what I was doing, I made a poster (it was also a design warmup that I'm really proud of):


The demo that I did both days was "Mermaids: Illustration Techniques and Photoshop Tips" where I demonstrating how I design & illustrate mermaid characters based on real world creatures (along with tons of Photoshop tips as I drew). I had a great turn out for both demos, and I blew their minds with some odd little PS tips.

What I ended up doing for my demo was I had taken a base body (that I drew of course) and drew on top of that and showed how I design my mermaid characters, one at a time. I was hoping to do 2 or more during each review, but I ended up spending a lot of time on Photoshop tips.

Here's what I drew for the two days:


I actually like how they came out.

Thanks for visiting everyone!
Happy Wednesday!!