(This article is an adaptation of this entry [link] from my personal blog.)

Last Saturday (that was yesterday), there was a deviantMEET in Paris. It was awesome. Many members of dA staff were there (that is, many Americans, including +spyed, founder of dA, in other words, "God". =kalistina fangasmed since she got to shake hands with him, but I, on the other hand, didn't realize who he was until a while later (I had figured out that he was important, but not much more...).

Here's what we did : first, get nametags (those stickers were quite impractical btw, but well), say hello to many people we knew but didn't expect to see there (K had told me that ~DragonChameleon was to be there, but I had a good surprise seeing *UmbreoNoctie and ~Aegis-L, who is really nice. I met him once in real life before, but I didn't know him yet at that time), talk with the developers (one of them is French !), and after a while, sit and draw. I started by doodling a Spiritomb on paper, then I had quite a weird idea, which ended up as a (small,) totally improvised conceptual art installation ([link] - the little blue thing is my card, I had made a few of them so that I wouldn't have to scribble down my contact information everytime someone asked. Eventually I didn't use many but they were a great thing to have). I quickly took a picture of it with K's iPhone so I could post it to dA that same evening, but the photo I thought was most interesting turned out to be unworkable - I saw that later and so I had only the close-up left to work with. DeviantArt-ception, anyone ? xD And in the end, I took out my netbook and pen tablet to doodle again, and this time I drew a Mudkip. Since neither that one nor the Spiritomb are too developed or well done, you probably won't see them unless I do a sketch dump. (Makes me think, I probbaly have enough doodles by now to make one). And as everyone was leaving, the last people who stayed got extra goodies (emoticon buttons - which I'd probably have bought sooner or later had they not given them away for free to anyone had a chat with them - and more stickers).

Also, a giant group photo [link] was taken in the street. Since I was in the back, I am barely visible, but I was there. K was there too, but she was even farther back, since she was chatting with someone (or some people) at the same time (I don't remember who they were, but apparently they weren't too interested in the photo being taken).

I had more or less expressed the idea that I could take advantage of the creative atmosphere and all that to WRITE (I NEVER write in public or even when I'm with a small group of people, seems like a self-confidence issue). I intended to push myself a little, so as to "unblock" myself, but I eventually didn't have any opportunity to do so - first because I didn't have any idea of what to write to begin with, and secondly, because there was too much noise around.

In the end, I was able to point out two issues that I have. They aren't new issues at all, but this day I was able to become aware of them again. The first issue is that I won't get any better at art unless I practice regularly. Someone was saying this about drawing skills, but it also applies to writing, for instance. I would have liked to have more stuff to put up online at the end of the day, but meh. The second issue is that I don't have any "big" artistic project at the moment, and as a consequence, when asked what kind of art I did, I had a hard time finding what to answer. I ended up saying "Pokemon fanart and conceptual art", but it made me sound much less interesting than those semi-professional to professional artists, or than K who was distributing flyers [link] in order to promote her webcomic [link]. And now I WANT to start some projects, so that I can say "This is what I'm doing right now", but I don't have any base idea yet. I feel like I'm not advancing at all, but I don't mean to remain stuck at this step forever.