Celebrity Fan Fest with Ben Affleck, Jason Momoa, and Ray Fisher

Conventions

 

Celebrity fan fest no photography jw marriot resort
I make my own rules.

Celebrity Fan Fest was nice enough to invite me to take part in their inaugural event at the JW Marriot San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa. Half the cast of the Justice League feature film appeared as their headliners, Ben Affleck, Jason Momoa, and Ray Fisher. I estimate that around 6,000-8,000 people attended during the Nov 10-11th weekend, but that is not official, simply my estimate.  The convention commissioned me to do portraits of all six Justice League members for prints that they gave to all the attendees who purchased the VIP package, I offered to sign them for free to anyone who came by my table, so my hand was pretty worn out by the end of the weekend.

Ben Affleck Jason Momoa Ray Fisher Celebrity Fan Fest Banner Art
My artwork on one of the Celebrity Fan Fest Banners

I did not get a chance to walk around the resort but the parts that I saw were extremely nice. If Celebrity Fan Fest hosts another event at the same venue the would be okay with me. The only downside was the resort had limited parking onsite, so vendors and attendees had to take shuttles from a parking area. The shuttles were nice and kept a good schedule, so it wasn’t a huge deal.

The Vendor area and signing area all took place on the bottom floor of the Resort’s convention center, in what I guess is the ballroom. You could spend a couple of hours shopping, 30 min standing in line for your autograph, then go have lunch or dinner are one of the resorts restaurants and call it a day.

ben affleck bob wills celebrity fan fest andrew herman batman illustration
Ben Affleck and Bob Wills posing with my illustration of Batfleck

The access to the celebrities was well control on the conventions in, but some of the famous did go rogue and wandered the convention on their own. When I saw Jason Momoa face to face, I got star struck and all I could think to say was, “It . . . it was fun to draw you.” He was like, “great . . . .” I did get a copy of all my print of Affleck, Momoa, and Fisher signed by each other actors, and Affleck even personalized mine so that was nice of him to do.

The other guests included Jewel Staite (Firefly, Stargate Atlantis), Aly Michalka (iZombie, Hellcats), and David Anders (iZombie, the Vampire Diaries). Joe Flanigan (Stargate Atlantis) was scheduled to appear but had to cancel because of the developing wildfire situation in California.

For a first show Celebrity Fan Fest did great and I will be sure to check out their next event.  I also intend to write a review for each show I attend, for attendees and vendors alike. I’ve been doing about 3 cons a month lately so I should have a good collection of reviews if I don’t get lazy as hell. 

ben affleck signature batman illustration by andrew herman
Ben’s signed a print for me, personalizing it. I thought it was super nice of him.

Also, the show organizer Bob Wills was a great guy and went out of his way to get me a pic of he and Ben holding my Batman illustration as well as my before mentioned autographed print. My favorite convention so far!

Stats

Celebrity Fan Fest

Date: 11/10/18- 11/11/18

Location: JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa

Attendance Estimate: 6k – 8k

80’s Bride of Frankenstein Digital Art Tutorial

Tutorials

Early in 2017 I was commissioned to paint an 80’s era version of the Bride of Frankenstein, which is a pretty rad request.  Below is a short speed paint video of my process and a short blog post. If you want to see a 30-minute video with narration, then head on over to my Patreon.

80s frankenstein bride drawing digital art tutorial
Underdrawing

The equipment I used for this piece was a Microsoft Surface Book with the upgraded new Surface Pen. The software is a program called CLIP STUDIO PAINT PRO (also known as Manga Studio).

Typically, my first step in a painting (digital or traditional) is to do a very detailed under drawing. For this piece my drawing is relatively rough, but that’s okay if you you’ll cover it in color and your monstrosity of a sketch will never see the light of day… unless you then decide to feature it in a blog post. Drawing is its own skill apart from painting, and unless you’re some gifted genius you’ll have to get good at that skill too if you want to paint figurative realism or anything close to it. Drawing is a blog post or two on its own but the super quick explanation to get good is: find good reference and practice every day.

After I complete the under drawing, I then create the color flats. Flats are flat shapes of color separating the major elements of the

80s bride of frankenstein color flats digital art tutorial
Flats

painting. The reason you make color flats on a digital painting is so you can select a shape, the lips for example, and paint them without worrying about color accidently getting into the areas around the lips that you don’t want to be red or pink or whatever color you’re working with. It’s a tedious and boring process but you should take your time and get it right because the effort you put into this step has a direct relationship with how useful it will be to you as you complete your painting. When I’m done making the flats, I put them in their own layer which I then LOCK so that I can always use it later. If you’re getting hung up on color selection at this stage, just use shades of grey for your flats.

80s bride of frankenstein background process digital art tutorial
Flats with background painting

The next step is the fun part, you finally get to paint. I normally like to but in at least a rough background first but do whatever works for you. My advice here is a bit vague, but if you have good reference you can look at that and see how light hits the face, or how certain colors look in shadow versus light. If you can’t find good reference online, then take your own with your camera phone and look at it while you paint. A great many people have this romantic notion that artist sit down at a blank canvas and paint intricate masterpieces from their imaginations. There’s been a few that did exactly that, but most artists, including the great masters, use reference so should you.

When you feel like you’re close to being done show it to some friends or post it online. All they’ll likely say is “cool!” or “looks

80s bride of frankenstein final version digital art tutorial
Final Product

good” or “kys noob”, but I find just showing a piece to someone else makes me look more critically at a it. And if you are lucky enough to get some feedback just take it in and decide if you agree with it or not (don’t argue with the person of they probably won’t give you any useful feedback in the future).