ISCA Minicon Nagoya 2014 Recap
Article Transcript
The fourth Mini Con in Japan was held on February 11- 14, 2014, at the Chubu Centrair International Airport, located in the beautiful city of Nagoya. The weather was pretty cold the entire time, with a big snowstorm falling on the last day of the convention. Outgoing Japan Chapter President Masashi Anraku and his team did a fantastic job organizing this event, which went down in history as one of the largest Mini Cons ever, with a total of 95 competing artists and 25 guests in attendance!
The airport was indeed a unique venue, one which proved to be ideal for an ISCA convention, with a designated meeting hall used as the primary hub of activity, and a large room available for everyone to work on their artwork during the main competition. The Departures Hall of the airport in particular became very useful as the spot for the retail competition, as regular patrons quickly became paying guests who wanted their caricatures drawn. This highly successful event was held on the convention’s very first day, and attracted lots of attention from both the media and the general public. Folks lined up to purchase tickets, then had their choice of artists, each of whom had his or her own display, complete with samples and a sign stating how long it took each artist to draw one person in color. There were two heats of competing artists, with 40 artists drawing at a time, and each heat lasted for two hours. Best of all, attending artists as well as paying customers were encouraged to vote for their favorite artist, and all votes counted towards who would be announced as winners at the end of the week! This was easily my favorite part of the entire week, as it allowed ISCA artists to do what they do best, while simultaneously creating attention from the local media, public awareness about the art of caricature, fundraising revenue, and―of course―lots and lots of smiles.
A film crew from TV Tokyo was invited to witness the entire week’s events. Their programming focused primarily on foreigners who visit Japan, so they wound up spending a good deal of time talking to me, my girlfriend Tara, Aaron Philby, and others attending the minicon from outside the country. If anyone in the Tokyo area happened to see this TV segment, hopefully it turned out well, and shed a positive light on ISCA Japan!
For the most part, many of the week’s events followed the familiar, tried and true pattern of an ISCA annual convention. However, there were a number of minor tweaks to give this minicon its own identity. For instance, the likeness and speed competitions were mashed together into a single event, featuring three rounds with three different models. For the first round, artists were given three minutes to draw a live subject. In the second round, we had one minute, and the third round gave us a mere 15 seconds! The finished results produced a large variety of artwork, and the winners showed an amazing ability to capture a likeness during such short time periods. For the studio competition, all participants were asked (in advance) to draw a single celebrity, baseball player Ichiro Suzuki. This made voting for this competition a tiny bit easier, since all artwork featured the same person. And a live caricature demonstration featured eight artists (handpicked by the Chapter’s Board of Directors) all tackling the same model, while everyone else was invited to watch the various techniques from start to finish.
The categories for the main competition were a bit more streamlined than those seen on the ballots at the Annual ISCA Convention. The most notable difference was the addition of an “Outstanding Kawaii Style” award (kawaii, of course, is Japanese for “cute”). There was also a special “Tomo Award”―hand-picked my Mr. Tomokazu Tabata―that was given to one lucky artist. But otherwise, most of the categories were familiar to me. However, this particular competition was―by far―the most DIFFICULT time I have ever had voting on artwork during ANY of the caricature conventions I’ve attended over the years. The quality of artwork was so incredibly high; it was mind-boggling. To try and choose the BEST pieces out of ALL of them was a task that seemed nearly impossible. Yet, in the end, Tomo, Yusuke, and Satsu emerged as the top three winners, and several others took home major awards as well. The entire awards banquet was very exciting, as the artists in Japan work extremely hard in order to earn their prizes. It was thrilling to see so many great artists be rewarded for their efforts.
The 2014 minicon in Nagoya was, without a doubt, my favorite out of ALL the ISCA conventions I’ve attended during the last 16 years. It gave me the opportunity to hang out with friends both old and new, many of whom I had been fortunate enough to meet at previous ISCA cons held in the United States. Sharing the week with someone special by my side, whom I could introduce to many of my friends from Japan, Korea, Singapore, and other places overseas, was icing on the cake for me. Japan is such an exciting place, and the artists there are such a strong bunch of dedicated caricaturists. I continue to be inspired by and in awe of them. Thank you so much to EVERYONE who planned and put together this event; I had the time of my life, and I’ll never, ever forget it!
Lorin is a former ISCA President and Vice President and has recently returned to his home state of Texas after spending two years in Seoul, Korea. His website is www.bernsenart.com
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