This year I attended SDCC with a good friend who is really into artwork. This is out of my normal realm of expertise at comic conventions. So I took him up on the chance to walk around and talk to several artists. It was all good fun and ultimately I decided that I would get a drawing commissioned by Patrick Ballesteros on Artist Alley. We talked to him on Preview Night, but I didn’t have any immediate ideas of what to have him draw. We talked about it for the next day and went back to his booth.

Here’s something I hadn’t counted on. His commission schedule had filled up quickly. He didn’t know (Thursday afternoon) if he would have time to complete the drawing in time or not. He requested that I check back and find out on Friday evening. We checked back a few times and finally Friday evening he told us his schedule had cleared enough he could take on a few more. My friend and I commissioned drawings.

We both requested multiple characters, somewhat complex and paid our $75. I requested Iron Man pulling a wagon with a toddler version of Thor. I hoped that by commissioning a drawing of my only son that my wife would decide that it was an acceptable use of cash. Patrick requested I email a few photos of myself and my son.

My friend requested a Spiderman/Juggernaut drawing. Both as children, which is where Patrick really excels.

He texted me back within about a day saying that the drawings were done. We went to get them and we both couldn’t have been happier. They were fantastic and now I’ve got a cool piece to hang on the boy’s wall. In fact, I liked it enough that I think I’m going to have him cosplay as Thor for Halloween this year and maybe Salt Lake Comic Con. We’ll see how it goes.

If you get a chance, go check out Patrick’s site and swing by his booth. He did a great job and was fun to talk to.

His Facebook page is fun too since he shows alot of pics of comissions he’s working on.

Trevor Nielson

Writer & Photographer at ComicCon.tips

Trevor began his forray into nerdom as a kid peddling his bike all the way to the local bookstore to purchase comic books. The boring superhero comics weren’t good enough for Trevor, he wanted the real ones. The ones with ducks. Now who's laughing while he’s on his way to cash in all those valuable Ducktales comics. Soon he’ll have his own money bin full to the brim. These days, to fill the time before the money bin construction completes (and begins), Trevor fills his time with photography, movies, television and comic book conventions. You can find his cosplay Meet & Greet mini-shoot and articles on this site as well as prints of his photographs being sold by cosplayers throughout the land.
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P.S. Trevor converted to Marvel & DC comics and movies later on, so no heartburn on that one, right?