ISCA con wrap-up...

My final post on this year's ISCA con is a mishmash of memorable moments and art--my favorites from other people's walls, and some of my pieces with their owners. 

First up: the two caricatures I received from artists I really dig!

Mine is not a face that usually nets me a ton of great drawings each year at the con. Along with Court Jones, Debbo Burmeister and some others, I have what's considered a tough face to caricature: no obvious stand-out features or proportions. That's not to say it can't be done, but I've always thought the hallmark of a really good caricaturist is how well he or she can capture the likeness of someone with more subtle features. Mike Tofanelli and Lar DeSouza took on the challenge and succeeded! I love both these pieces and have hung them in my studio already.

Below are some of my week's works. At the end of the awards banquet, each artist gives them to their new owners and it's always a crazy, hectic but happy chaos!

Above: Wayne Savage, Mike Tofanelli, Bob East.  Below: Wade Collins, Jeff Redford, Hilary Cole.

Below, in no particular order, are other artists' pieces done at the con that I was especially taken with. 

 Mikey Shields by Michael White. Those are real glued-on googly eyes! Trippy, huh?

 A very Sam Gorrie-y Sam Gorrie by Seo Kim. The difficult-to-get Court Jones by Seo Kim.

Alisa Grodsky by a talented, hilarious artist whose name I don't know, unfortunately.

 Caricature silhouettes by Karel Op De Beeck. An oily Jeff Redford by Klaas Op De Beeck.

 Andy Urzua and his girlfriend Cloudy by someone with impeccable linework.

 Another one of Andy from an amazing award-winning rookie:

 This is Andy's reaction when he first saw it!

Lar "Maple Bear" DeSouza, in a digitally-done escort card by Celestia Ward. Yes, we were in Vegas...

Two masterful oils by Court Jones, of guest speaker Bill Plympton and the omnipresent Lar.

This is kinda cool: you can see the same lady, ISCA manager Tracey Iverson, both above and below, as seen by Court Jones and Lorin Bernsen.

Court also gave a very informative seminar on the muscles used in smiling, that at times was more like a college medical anatomy class. Below is Bob East's award winning (for humor) take on it.

Below, Glenn Ferguson had a whole wonderful wallful of airbrushed Star-Wars-themes caricatures and netted Master of the Year for it.

Glenn also had an award-winning Studio entry. Check this out:

It's made of Sculpey and a whole lot of talent and ingenuity, and it got my vote.

(My own studio entry was a somewhat revamped Kate Gosselin-and-family that I'd digitally done earlier in the year...)

If you're interested in more photos from our convention, check out the public ISCA page on Facebook. where you can see more award-winners and their works. :-)

After the awards dinner, many of us went to an after-party in the (much more happenin') hotel across the street from our convention --the famed Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel. Would you believe we were STILL drawing caricatures? Cathy McMillan seemed to be another one with not enough caricatures of herself! So a bunch of us passed around a clipboard so she'd have a whole collection. Can you tell which one I drew?

Next year, the Gulf Coast of Florida will host ISCA! Til next November!