STLCC-Student Hillary Woodall expressed herself through a unique form of anime. She also helped form and lead the summer anime convention NastuCon.
Clinton Borror
– Staff Writer –
STLCC-Meramec student Hillary Woodall, founder of the summertime anime convention, NatsuCon, expresses herself through drawings. Anime is a style of Japanese animation that is popular with viewers worldwide.
“I believe that her passion for her art and her passion for anime led her to start a convention. That’s what I believe,” said Woodall’s fiancé Carl Wallace.
Woodall said that with anime the plot is always clear.
“One of the things anime usually has over American cartoons is plot,” Woodall said. “Occasionally you’ll get some back story because it was funny, but with anime, there’s always a plot. There are exceptions.”
Woodall’s drawings appear similar to anime cartoons with exaggerated features, large eyes, and commonly minimized noses and mouths.
“I actually have my own art style,” Woodall said. “I like comics and cartoons, so I find styles that I like and try to adapt them into my own style.”
Woodall made a drawing of a character from the anime series “Sailor Moon.”
“This, for instance, is Sailor Mars. When you compare it to the original you can tell that my style of drawing is completely different,” Woodall said.
The original image is of an adult. Woodall’s drawing has a body that is more childlike, with an enlarged head, and small appendages, and a different face.
Woodall improved her skill by drawing frequently. She has taken Drawing I, Figure Drawing I, and Design I at Meramec.
“I draw on myself. I draw on my papers. I draw on my homework. I drew on my schoolbooks. I had to erase those,” Woodall said.
Woodall carries sketchbooks of drawings made with pencils, pens, colored pencils and copic markers. She carries them to anime conventions, comic conventions and videogame conventions.
Copic markers use pigment suspended in alcohol.
“Since it’s pigment it doesn’t fade out as fast, and because it’s suspended in alcohol you get the really smooth transitions,” Woodall said.
Woodall has colored multiple drawings using copic markers.
“You can do bleeding like that, where the colors fade into each other,” Woodall said. “You can do sharp lines. You can do soft lines. You can let it bleed. You can do lots and lots of stuff with it.”
Woodall also uses Adobe Photoshop CS3 to make artwork by computer. For some of these drawings she uses a Wacom Bamboo Pen.
“It works like I’m actually drawing using pen and paper, so it’s being drawn directly in Photoshop,” Woodall said.
Woodall has a gallery of pictures at the art gallery website http://deviantart.com.
“I post them online so people can see them,” Woodall said. “Being successful, for the most part, is based off how many people see your work.”
Woodall assisted in founding NatsuCon summer 2009 and ran the first convention.
“There was nothing to do during the summers, so why not?” Woodall said. “It was obviously something people wanted.”
Woodall did not lead NatsuCon 2010, and will not lead NatsuCon 2011.
“I don’t run it now because I’m busy with real life, and school and work and stuff,” Woodall said. “The people who helped me start it the first year are running it now.”
It took approximately six months to prepare for the first NatsuCon.
“It started up in North County in a janky little hotel called The Best Western,” Woodall said. “We had to fight tooth and nail because they didn’t want us even though we were paying them.”
Approximately 650 people attended the first NatsuCon and a cap of 500 people per day. Some were turned away because the attendance cap was reached by noon one day.
“About six people started it up, six people in charge of 500 people,” Woodall said.
In one event a game show called “The Gong Show” was re-enacted.
“It’s kind of like ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?’ where the points don’t matter,” Woodall said.
“The Gong Show“ re-enactment took place in 2009 and 2010.
“This last summer we had a girl who sang opera and won with a score of ‘It’s over 9000,’” said Woodall.
The current sole proprietor and Chairman of NatsuCon is Matt Lankford, who is running NatsuCon 2011. Lankford assisted in starting NatsuCon in 2009 and ran it in 2010.
“I graduated high school in 2008 and went to Kansas University for a semester and decided it wasn’t the place for me,” Lankford said. “I decided I needed to do something to not go insane.”
Lankford said it now takes about one year to create NatsuCon.
“About two weeks after NatsuCon 2010 I started working on NatsuCon 2011,” Lankford said.
Attendants pay admission fees based on the number of days they attend NatsuCon. NatsuCon workers are unpaid. Money gained through admission fees goes to re-compensating workers for expenses and improving the convention next year.
“It’s an interesting hobby and it’s a labor of love,” Lankford said.
Lankford said when NatsuCon began, Woodall paid for NatsuCon to become a limited liability company,and Lankford paid for the deposit at the Best Western Hotel.
The first NatsuCon was paid for out of pocket until the founders received registration fees.
“We originally thought we might not break even, and it was overwhelmingly successful,” Lankford said.
Before NatsuCon in 2009 there was one anime convention in St. Louis and it took place during spring.
“Hillary said ‘Why don’t we make another one?’ We won’t be competitive. We’ll be small,” Lankford said.
“She did it, and she was proud to see her idea make it all the way to a full-fledged event,” Lankford said.
NatsuCon 2011 is scheduled for Aug. 12 to 14 at the Gateway Convention Center in Collinsville, ILL.
