Just got back from CopperCon, the second day…getting a feeling that nothin’s gonna go in the art show. Ah, well. Everything selling (and indeed the majority of the work there) was very Standard Fantasy–cats, dragons, wolves, naked women with wings/swords/whatsits. (James muttered something about it being very ten years ago, but that’s probably unkind.) So it may just be the wrong sorta crowd for my thing, which obviously tends to the…err…odd. Still, que sera, sera–you win some, you lose some. Lots and lots of fan art, mostly Xena and LOTR, which I found peculiar–I’m mostly surprised they allowed it into the show, since it violates copyright left, right, and sideways, although of course, it’s unlikely anyone will go after that kinda small fry. But still, after the strict “Thou Shalt Not Hang Fan Art” rules at Trinocon, I was surprised.

Actually, the whole con rather suffered in comparison to Trinocon, which is terrifyingly well run–this seemed a bit more haphazard in many regards, the dealer room was surprisingly smaller, and the programming was rather less inspired. However, since I don’t know anyone here, that of course makes a huge difference, so I may be judging it unfairly in relation. And they did have science related panels on space, NASA, and chipping flint tools, and that’s inherently cool.

The art show was larger. The usual run of work–any art show is usually a bell curve, of course, and you get the mediocre middle, balanced by the stellar and the regrettable. Some nice 3-D stuff. A few quite good prints, mostly brought in by agents for Janny Wurts/Don Maitz and Therese Nielson–out of my price range, but neat to see in that size instead of the dinky little reproductions in my art books. Bid on some cool cloth art that was gettin’ no love–they were neat pieces going way too cheap, and I hope someone picks up some of the others. Lots of feather painting. I dunno if feather painting really became The Cool Thing recently or what, but I’ve been seeing it everywhere–evidentally it’s really big. And hey, when it’s done well, s’kinda neat, and takes a skill that I lack utterly, god knows.

There was also a presentation on digital illustration technique.

That was…interesting.

And I think that’s really about all I’ve got to say about that.