Grand Prix, Providence

©Amy Belledin

As mentioned before, I was at a Magic Grand Prix tournament last weekend in Providence, Rhode Island.  I figured it'd be worth tossing up some pictures Amy took of the event and adding a bit of color commentary.

©Amy Belledin

This hat is worth mentioning because...well, obviously it's pretty awesome.  There were several players rocking this hat and as far as I'm concerned it was easily the best bit of player wardrobe I saw all weekend.

©Amy Belledin

So the vast majority of what I do when I go to events like this is sign cards.  I don't keep track of how many cards I sign, but I'm sure that I signed well over a thousand of them over the two and half days I was there.  I'm pretty sure I signed fewer cards than when I was in Germany last year, but then I think there were fewer players, as well.  Someday, I really aught to have a go at keeping track of the numbers.  I'm not sure if the results would be amusing or depressing.  But I guess that would depend on how much my hand hurt.

Surprisingly, folks still ask how much it costs to have something signed, a subject I've covered before (link).  Short answer: signatures are free.  I wonder if there are Magic artists out there who do charge, or whether folks in line were just confused by players in front of them tipping from time to time.  If you're still wondering, check out that link.

©Amy Belledin

Fortunately for the players and fans, I was not the only artist at the event.  Several other artists including r.k. post, Ryan Pancoast, Lars Grant-West and Cyril Van Der Haegen were also in attendance which kept lines pretty short as players had a lot of lines to choose from.

Above, Ryan Pancoast checks out my Etched Monstrosity painting, probably pondering how long I'll have correctable eye sight what with all the tiny detail included.

©Amy Belledin

Here, Lars Grant-West is letting fly with all that built up artist angst I hear so much about.  Either that, or he's putting on his best game face to scare Amy away from his tip jar.

©Amy Belledin

Aside from signing, I end up doing a lot of drawing.  Here's a picture of my artist proofs all organized in alphabetical order.  I often end up drawing on the white backs of these puppies and during this event had the good fortune of getting to draw whatever I wanted on all but one of them.  For some reason, I was on a bird kick during the event and a lot of my images included birds in one way or another — like this zombie, for example.  Can't go wrong with a zombie.  'Course add a bird to that zombie and you've got instant gold.  Zombie bird?  Too far.

©Amy Belledin

©Amy Belledin

Here's the only request on a proof that I got.  Darth Vader.  I'd never drawn Darth Vader before.  Turns out to be difficult when you've only got one color (which is ironic because he's almost completely black).  I think he came out fairly well, however.  Could have been WAY worse.

Generally, I like getting to do my own thing on proof drawings.  I think that's true of most artists.  I know a lot of folks have a stock set of images they go for, but I try and do something a little different each time.  I like not knowing where I'm headed until it's too late.  Makes the moments when I'm not signing card after card more interesting.

©Amy Belledin

Yet another way I spend my time at these events is drawing on people's playmats, something I've covered in a FAQ (link).  They're quite a bit more time consuming because of their size and they tend to be more complex image-wise.  I think if you added every square inch I did during the Grand Prix, it would add up to about four full playmats — far fewer than fellow artist Ryan Pancoast was belting out.  He did three just in the last day (that I'm aware of).  Seriously, that dude's an animal.  'Course his drawing style is far neater and more appealing than my own.  I tend to be pretty sketchy, and that likely isn't some people's thing.

Anyway, playmat drawings can eat up the hours quick.  In fact, I often have to take them to the hotel room and get them done during "off" hours in order to keep the lines moving during the "on" hours.  Not this time, though.  I managed to do pretty much every drawing in the bits and bobs of time between signatures, which I was pretty happy about.

©Amy Belledin

So, this is me on Saturday night.  Dinner outside along Providence's canal.  It was also the night of Water Fire.  I'm sure only a few reading this are familiar with it, but Providence's canal is a pretty nice place.  It's kind of like a miniature version of the Seine River.  You can walk along the canal, and during Water Fire, they light these floating braziers all along the canal's length.  Add to that performance artists and hippy music, and you've got yourself an interesting (if not crowded) time.  Of course this just happened to be the weekend of Brown University's commencement, so the place was hopping, but I'm sure it's similarly crowded whenever Water Fire happens... but that's just my guess.

At the end of the day, it was a pretty great event, in a really great town.  Providence itself is worth checking out (if only for the restaurants), and I, for one, had a great time.  I want to thank Thomas Shea and his folks at TJ Collectibles for taking care of us with constant water, food and plenty of space.  Also, thanks to the fans and players for their kind words, conversation, and support.  It's all the people involved with the game that make this gig go from pretty good, to great.  I am extremely lucky to be doing this day in and day out and can't thank everyone enough.

In just a short week, I'll be in Japan to do it all over again.  Different crew, completely different part of the world — should be interesting!  Did I mention how lucky I am?