Spark of Inspiration

I was in Michigan for a wedding this past weekend. At our hotel there were people in costumes. My first thought, a Comic Con Convention was in town.

Turns out, this was for Japanese animation. I had some free time, so headed over to the show. By chance, this lady was having her picture taken when I walked in. She had an outstanding outfit, perfect makeup.

JAFAX is a yearly convention in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was started in 1996 by several fans of anime. It’s grown in popularity and is now in its 27th year. They had old newspaper clippings sharing the history of the show.

They had cute badges. When my daughters were young, we would watch the Sailor Moon show every day, so I was familiar with Japanese anime.

As I walked around, I saw these two young ladies. They were sweet and posed for me. There were gaming rooms, speakers, a library of old books, ancient swords, learning origami, different speakers, etc.

The vendors were selling the plastic figures of different characters, lots of swords (wooden, plastic, metal), posters, stickers, costumes and then quite a few individual artists were selling their drawings. Many of the artists drawings looked very similar (my opinion), but then there were a few standouts, where I could see their unique style.

This artist (on Twitter @ThePartyTable) had a great idea. He made quick small drawings and sold them for $1 each. If someone wanted something specific, he’d draw it for them. I looked through his $1 drawings, here are a few I liked. I thought he was drawing with chalk, but he showed me he was using crayons, which was nice, the color did not rub off on my hands.

It’s FUN to explore something new. Sparks creative ideas!