Delicious Dragon Candy
We are back home from the first FantasyCon in Salt Lake City, Utah! It was an amazing event organized by Josh Patel who is an incredible patron of the fantasy arts. He commissioned a collection of large scale paintings from many fantasy artists (including some from Justin and I) for the show. You can see my finished piece here and Justin's here. Other artists included Brom, Donato Giancola, Jeff Easley, Christophe Vacher, Mark Poole, Eric Velhagen, Heather Theurer, and Rob Alexander.
On Wednesday, July 2nd, FantasyCon hosted an exclusive charity event: The Night of Dreams with Angel’s Hands, March of Dimes, and Make-A-Wish, to name a few. They unveiled a 3-story tall dragon with the help of Sylvester McCoy (Radagast in “The Hobbit” and the seventh Doctor Who) and some of the cast of Lost Girl. It was a truly remarkable event, and the kids were just thrilled to see it!
There was a huge emphasis on art at this show. Justin was able to see his Gryphon Hunters framed and lit in a special display they made to house all of the masterworks artists.
There were also a lot of animals at the show, including a great reptile/bug booth where you could learn about the animals. I was brave and decided to try holding one of the tarantulas.
You can learn more about the animals this group has on their website here
They were definitely one of the highlights of the show for us!
We got to visit with some amazing artists from the show, including Donato, Howard Lyon, Steve Argyle (and his amazingly sweet and thoughtful wife, Kat), Tara Larsen Chang, Heather Theurer, Mark Poole, Eric Velhagen, and Kimberly Kincaid to name a few!
There were a few things I have never seen at any convention before… like a rogue ball python who tried to swipe my last remaining business cards. An amazing falconer booth where we were able to get some great bird reference shots. And a dino booth with a paleontologist who was able to give us a lot of helpful advice on dealing with ancient carnivores... advice which is going to come in very helpful as we continue to work on our secret 2014 Sketchbook.
...More on that, and our road trip through Utah next week!
