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==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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ISCA Minicon Nagoya 2014 Recap - Revision history

TheChairman: Created page with "==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. Th..."