FenCon Report and KItsune Fan

cutestpaw.com

I am exhausted.  It's been a long week and a very busy weekend, but it's been a great one.  I had fun at FenCon, and I did much better than I thought I might in the art show.  Now that it's over, I've got a ton of things to do but I'm excited to realize a dream I abandoned in my twenties.

I sat in on a couple of very interesting panels by costumer Kathleen O'Brien.  I've seen her at several of the Texas and Oklahoma cons, and her work is beautiful.  I've enjoyed every panel I've seen her on, and this con didn't disappoint.  She had a class on the history of the bustle and brought examples from her vintage collection and it was fascinating!  I took her "construct your own bustle' make shop and sadly, we didn't have enough time to complete so I've still got a bunch of wire and an incomplete bustle... for now.  She gave us written instructions and pictures, so I've got enough to get myself started and just enough knowledge of construction to get me into a LOT of trouble.

I was Mom and John DeLaughter's Minion for some of the FenKids programming.  I was happy to help out even if I have no clue what I'm doing.  Mom had a dinoKids panel where we tried to put together a skeleton puzzle (we failed) and made "dino eggs" with a skeletal dinosaur in the middle.  John was making bridges out of marshmallows, pretzel sticks, graham crackers, and frosting which was somehow amusing and terrifying at the same time.  There were a LOT of kids happy about all the sugary sweets! (John's evil.  It's part of his charm!) I helped out where I could, assisting the younger kids with the dino eggs and kibitzing with the older ones building the bridges.  Doggy Daycare is a great way to get familiar with the controlled chaos of a room full of children, but I was still overwhelmed at times!  Fortunately, there were several people there and we managed to keep all of the children safe and (mostly) happy.

OMG! OMG! OMG! I Sold Stuff In The Art Show!!!!!

(actual text to a few friends)

I arrived Friday after my day job and was very anxious about setting up my first art show.  I felt so unprepared and had no clue what I was doing.  The FenCon Art Show staff was very helpful and got me on my way with all of the tags, procedures, and everything else I had no clue about.  I was very grateful for them!  It was a great art show, and I was intimidated by the quality of art in the show.  There were so many excellent artists!  Many of the artists sold at least a piece, and I'm so glad that it was a successful show.

via/karmiphuc.com

I was popular with the Whovians and all of my Dr. Who work sold out!  I am delighted to see them go and hope they bring their new owners much joy and compliments.  I still squee a little when I think about it.  I sold my artwork!  To strangers!

I create for my own joy and to find other people who enjoy it fills me with such pride.

Onto the crafting!

AnimeFest was advertising their upcoming con with these really cute rigid fans. I thought they'd be good for a little painting.  They're useful here in Texas where it's still 90 degrees in September.

Supplies:

Free hand fan

Paints 

Paint brushes

charcoal or pencil

Paint both sides of the fan a solid color of your choosing.  I had to do several coats of white to hide the bright colors underneath, which took a while to dry. Once all the paint is dry, draw an image on the fan.  For this one, I traced the Kitsune Crafts logo original in charcoal and rubbed the paper on the painted surface to transfer the lines.  

Paint with your first color and let dry.  

Add the black outline and bits and let dry.  If you're the perfectionist type, cover up any paint that goes where it shouldn't.  Although I haven't and the fan's perfecly usable here, it's a good idea to protect your work with some sort of coat.

These fans are a versatile canvas, so play with the types of paint or markers, pencils, ink, or even decoupage the fans.  All could be really cool (erm, no pun intended.  Really.)  If you want to do my Kitsune logo, save and print the large drawing below:

Use charcoal to trace the design, place it face-down on the fan, and rub the paper until the charcoal transfers onto the fan and gives you the outline (check an earlier picture to see how that looks.)  You can lift parts, check, place the paper back gently, and continue to rub until you have lines that are easy to see.  You can paint over the charcoal.  The colors I used were raw sienna for the body, white for the background, and black for the outline.  Here's the completed fan.