Hi-Ex: A Portrait by Asia Alfasi

We tried to go to Hi-Ex today, despite fate conspiring against us a bit. Already running late, we rushed to the train station to find it was 25 minutes delayed. We got lunch. Then Dave realised he'd forgotten his wallet. By the time we'd returned home and got it, the train was gone and it was time for a bus ride in in - adding about 30-45 minutes instead of a 16 minute train journey, and landing us finally at Eden Court at 14.30.

After all of that, we didn't really see much of the comic convention - we got our goodie bags, and went to the artist area to be greeted by a vast display of comic books. At the Forbidden Planet stall (for a UK-wide comic and merch store chain) we picked a giant (pillow-sized) Domo-kun teddy and a V for Vendetta mask. I cast my eyes over the various artists doing commisioned work, and saw a few people doing portraits for a small cost.

I like drawn portraits a lot - they pick out the key features in a very inspiring way, and unlike photos, art usually picks up any imperfections and blends them in with the style. It's difficult to explain, really.

I'd heard of Asia Alfasi's work from last year's con, and really liked her work since I saw her eye-catching self-portrait for the Hi-Ex site. When we saw she was doing portraits for £5, with a little encouragement from Dave, I managed to pluck up the nerve to go ask for a self-portrait.

After standing there talking with her about 4Chan (the famously perverted image-based message board), webcomics, and my horrible reluctance to display my art to anyone because it is never up to my own self-imposed standards... magic happened!

(Scan quality is bad, sorry - I'm not at home at the moment so my usual scanner isn't available. I'll try to upload a better scan soon.)

It was great fun. Dave's going to get one from Asia tomorrow, and before we left tonight he managed to grab her for a photo.

Now we're just taking it easy at my parents house, dog-sitting and splurging our wages on over-priced but tasty Domino's Pizza. Armageddon was on, which was a pain to watch because I've seen enough sci-fi to know how incredibly inaccurate it is about everything and I spent most of it trying not to point out when they were being dumb.

According to the weather forecast I should expect sleet tomorrow - which will mean a lot of running around to keep the camera from getting soaked.

It's all paving the way for proper snow next week. Ugh - I've had enough snow to last me for a while by now.

A white Easter would certainly be odd.