(Reposted from what I blurbed at Facebook. May not really mean anything to any of you...Just wanted to post.)
This weekend I learned that other stuff happens at Anime Boston than just the Artist Alley, and that headaches and stress are minimized by not sitting in a florescent-lit ballroom for 12 hours a day, 3 days straight.
During one of my total of 2 full passes through the Alley, all I saw was digitally created artwork on shiny paper on PVC piping over almost every table, row after row. Do people even draw with pencil anymore? Am I really that much of a goddamn anomaly now in a Photoshopped environment?
I saw this years ago too, and I called people out on it then, that being that the art was dying...that what was once a labor of love, of me spending hours slaving over my drafting table with pencil and ink has become nothing more than tracing on a Wacom Tablet and a little burn and dodge. It's disgusting...I'm not even talking about Ramy and Silvia (though they are the forerunners of the shiny desu bullshit,) it's everywhere. No one is original anymore. No one TRIES. If it's not digitally created artwork, it's plushies, jewelry, and annoying fleece hats that Genki Hats started doing TEN FREAKING YEARS AGO. Everyone does the exact same thing, and because of this is why no one wants to buy originality. No one understands the price of a true pencil original that I spend hours on, or why I charge nothing cheaper than $20 for a 9x12" colored sketch.
Artist alley isn't what it used to be...It isn't the fraternity of nerds down the hall by the dealer's room it started as when AB was moved to the Hynes six years ago, it isn't me losing my voice as I snag everyone coming out of the side door or Nikki running around like crazy 8 months pregnant trying to make sure that everyone who had a table was well-taken care of. No, not anymore. Now it's a subsidiary dealer's room of fanartists and people who can put beads on friggin' wire. There is no more originality or camaraderie, it's just a competitive consumerist nightmare where money is taken from the hands of people who truly deserve it. It disgusts me, very much so.
I'm not saying I didn't miss it this year, because I really did. I missed my friends and broke a tradition of 7 straight artist alley appearances; but on the other hand, I feel like I didn't miss much. I didn't miss sitting there, hungry and tired, getting annoyed by immature little brats who have no respect for anything as they would knock something off of my table or the value of a dollar when they sneered at the idea of paying $45 for one of my originals. That amount of stress is no longer worth the price paid for the space. (Which 8 years ago was $40...it's $120 now.)
Heck, I went to Hentai Dubbing at Anime Boston (PAC doesn't count) for the first time in YEARS last night. Yeah, it's a ridiculous perverse game show, if you will, but being able to sit there in the front row (Ka-ching! Press pass!) laughing my ass off for 2 hours was well worth NOT being exhausted and homicidal at 10pm.
Seeing friends I would have otherwise had to blow off was a huge plus mark. I was able to assist the 501st with recruiting for the blood drive instead of sitting, hungover and probably already nursing a rum and coke at 10am for sanity at my table.
I was able to focus on my panels, and learned that it's pointless to rush when you don't have to go back to potentially no waiting customers. I walked around dressed in Roman garb on Good Friday asking random congoers where Jesus was so we could put him up for the night. (He of course, made his appearance after I was changed, bastard.)
I was able to be social, and make new amazing friends and just...relax. My back doesn't hurt, I don't want to curl into a ball and cry after reviewing my sales ledger...I'm tired, sure, but I'm feeling happy and chill. Good company kept helped this for sure, because I probably would have gone insane otherwise.
I don't know how much longer I'll be going to Anime Boston, being that I told myself that I would stop doing anime cons when I officially hit 30 (this gives me 2 more years.) Shit, I don't watch anime anymore, and the stuff that I was looking for in the dealer's room didn't even seem to exist.
I'm going to continue drawing in graphic novel form and getting back to the comic con circuit with them after printing, but as far as anime con alleys go...consider myself retired.
Maybe I'll make my [threatened] grand comeback to the masquerade scene after all.
Pencils killed hieroglyphics. Computers have killed pen & paper.
In 30 years, people will be upset that hologram sculpting has ruined digital art.
(Just kidding...In 30 years, we'll probably be back at hieroglyphics.)
Good, I'd much rather start carving pics into stone again.
Comments were made (audible to those at the tables, if they were paying ANY attention at all) that, "wow, didn't we just see this stuff over on the last aisle?"
Imagination and creativity are discouraged today. It could lead to the wrong kind of thinking. The discipline of using things other than a keyboard has also stopped being taught. It's not just anime, it is every aspect of life that requires using tools and creative thinking.
Heck, I have trouble writing in front of a screen... Yeah, it's easier to edit as you go, but... My brain doesn't want to kick in as easily. The Nessie stuff had to be written out by hand and retyped in just to get anything up.
If my art doesn't make at least my hands dirty, then it's not art.
Quote from: Luna on April 25, 2011, 03:44:53 PM
Comments were made (audible to those at the tables, if they were paying ANY attention at all) that, "wow, didn't we just see this stuff over on the last aisle?"
"Anime."
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on April 25, 2011, 04:56:48 PM
Quote from: Luna on April 25, 2011, 03:44:53 PM
Comments were made (audible to those at the tables, if they were paying ANY attention at all) that, "wow, didn't we just see this stuff over on the last aisle?"
"Anime."
If I'm not an anime artist, then what am I?
Quote from: Suu the Infallible on April 25, 2011, 04:55:53 PM
If my art doesn't make at least my hands dirty, then it's not art.
if it has some form of asthetic quality that one or more people enjoy,it's probably still art, even if it is shitty art.
not that i don't agree with your sentiments. two of my favorite media to work with are charcoal and clay.
Quote from: Canis latrans securis on April 25, 2011, 07:10:11 PM
Quote from: Suu the Infallible on April 25, 2011, 04:55:53 PM
If my art doesn't make at least my hands dirty, then it's not art.
if it has some form of asthetic quality that one or more people enjoy,it's probably still art, even if it is shitty art.
not that i don't agree with your sentiments. two of my favorite media to work with are charcoal and clay.
We need an art detector, so we can protect our families from poker-playing dogs, bad sculpture, and manga.