A path of Discovery - Part 6 - Illuxcon 2015 Meeting Greg Hildebrant

The banner for Illuxcon.

As many of you know, I'd been part of the Spectrum Fantastic Art Live show every year it has been running, and I had heard of another similar show that was it's forerunner, Illuxcon.

(Left) The show program booklet. (Right) A character concept I did later in the evening of the first night of the show.

Overall, I think I am very much partial to Spectrum, at least as far as organization for the weekend show was concerned. But that's something I'll cover in a podcast later, and update with a link to it on here. I'm of the mindset that no matter what capacity I may or may not be involved with a show, even if I am just an attendee, I try to keep a positive outlook on my experience while there.

(Top) The weekend show setup at the hotel. (Bottom) Julie Bell and Boris Vallejo and many other industry pros were milling about the showroom floor.

The high light of the second day was getting to watch Anthony Kosart work his make up effect skills live at the show. I had spoken to him earlier about stuff like Rick Baker shutting down shop, to the most recent Jurassic Park utilizing cgi more than ever in it's dinosaurs. 

This was held at the far end of the exhibition room.

At one point I noticed a familiar face in the crowd jump up on the stage and keep on filming. It was none other than freaking Greg HILDEBRANT!

There are many moments at shows when I have enjoyed just being around pros like these two, this is a moment I will always remember.

Greg is one of the artists that influenced my early love of Tolkien's work (along with Alan Lee and John Howe), I picked up one of his books, had him sign it, and finally got a chance to tell one of my childhood idols just how much his work and art were true foundations of my love of fantasy art.

I know it sounds crazy, but I got choked up telling him this. It's kind of an odd thing, normally, I'm very very introverted, but I have always wanted to meet a lot of the people that were parts of my childhood. This was a very cool moment for me. Greg, you are an awesome guy, and thank you sooo much for the time talking and the impromptu art lesson on light study and theory.

I was literally getting teary eyed in this photo again. KEEP IT TOGETHER MAN!!!!

I was glad to see my friend Felipe Echevarria at the show. If you're not familiar with his work, for pete's sake, go check it out...

These are some of the great things I picked up at the show.

Justin Gerard has some pretty cool sketchbooks at his table. The 2014 had just the right number of dwarves in it. A Greg Hildebrant signed copy of the Tolkien Years!

I met David Thierree a few years ago at Spectrum, and we had a great conversation about languages. Aside from being great all around intelligent and nice guy, he's also an incredible illustrator.

Chris Seaman is without a doubt, one of the hardest working illustrators in the game out there. A whole month of my work ethic up against just ONE day of his is not even a close comparison. Sometime next year I'll be able to show off the original work from him that is now hangs in this house. It's incredible, I can tell you that. And he does it all with craft paints!

I also picked up Goddess, a nifty little independent comic by creator Mike Sullivan, and got a copy of Fem Drops 1 from Felipe!

The show is really kind of a social event for those people who are in and are fans of the sci fi and fantasy industry. I can say that it seemed slow, maybe a little under attended, and from some of the people there at the show who had done it years prior, they all thought the same thing.

Next year, it's got a new location lined up, and not but a week earlier, Spectrum will be debuting on the west coast in it's own new location.

Should be an interesting beginning of fall next year.

A bit of a sidenote...

I love finding places to eat that aren't the over advertised ones, and truthfully, I try not to take pictures of food for reviewing sake, but this place had this great little subtle gem on it's menu...

A local pizzeria is always a great thing for me, but they had this one item on there... buffalo sauce coated mozzarella sticks with ranch dressing. *drops the mic*

So again, I'll have a podcast up soon, that has to deal with artist respect, not only because we often don't get it from the public at large, but how important it is between artists, in ways that may not always be that obvious. Speaking of podcasts, you can listen to the latest episodes on the player there on the right column, I just released episode 14 last night, and I have a slew of them coming out. Thank you again for all of you listening and messaging me about the show. It's been a lot of fun to do them, and I hope to have even more unique ones up very soon.

On the way back after Illuxcon, I hit a few more places that I'll talk about over the next blog update or two, and then by that time, the two last holidays of the year will be upon us.

It's less than two months until the Star Wars movie comes out, and I am very very very excited!

Until the next update, be kind to your fellow beings, support your local artists, and keep drawing! I'm Mario, the Artisan Rogue, and I'll see ya next time!