BIZAAM! - GalaCon 2017 part3 (Sunday, 30th July)

I've been procrastinating writing the journal about the second day of the GalaCon. This was partly because of plenty of things to be done at the moment (part of which have to do with the upcoming Czequestria ), but mostly because I was hoping that the video of my panel would be uploaded by the time I finish this journal so I could link the video directly instead of writing another journal once the video is up.

Before the gates opened on Sunday I drew the chalk drawing of Octavia as a tribute to Kazumi Evans to ensure that every voice actress guest would have one chalk image to her honor.
After the gates opened I attended the producer panel which was really interesting, but which I had to leave early to ensure that I would be present in time for my own "My Little Origami" panel. I had been looking forward to holding this panel for quite and really enjoyed it a lot. The audience was kind and appreciative and I hope I stirred up some interest in my little pony origami.
I'm not going to talk much about the content of the panel here (hoping that the video of the panel will be uploaded soon so anyone intested can take a look at it), but I want to give special thanks to several great artists who kindly permitted me to show their art alongside mine so the panel could encompass a much wider range of origami folding techniques and paper art including origami elements (since my own origami ponies require a few cuts they are not strictly speaking origami in case the use of scissors cut away the basis for the term).
Special thanks and credit for their art in the panel go to:
Hoang Tien Quyet
Cahoonas
Cyberglass
Megknucklebones
and
timsplosion
Once the video of the panel is up im going to send the link to you all so you can see how your art was included and credited in the panel.
I also want to thank the volunteers who were very helpful and obliging to make the panel a success. Thank you

The panel did not include an actual origami workshop, but at the end of the panel I sort of started a little workshop on my own by telling people that I was going to get to the KUBUS Restaurant to make use of the meal voucher panelists got and that anyone (within reasonable number limits) was welcome to join me and afterwards fold a pony with me. Eight bronies accepted the invitation, each of them folding one of the mane six after the meal

Later on I attended the Charity Auction which was really entertaining as always. I think that maybe some of the items might have been sold for a higher price if they had been previously exhibited (as had been done in 2016). There wasn't enough time to sell all of the donations (origami sets of the mane6 and the CMCs which I donated will have to wait until next years), but once again the brilliantly cosplayed Joker lived up to what is becoming a GalaCon tradition and purchased not just one but two of hats of the moderators at an extremely high price for the good cause.

After the closing ceremony I got to admit that I felt just a little melancholic. In part it may have been just because of the end of the GalaCon drawing near, but I guess there was also a little regret that I had failed to pass on the origami Octavia to Kazumi Evans (instead I had given it to a volunteer who I presumed would have a chance to give it to her during the still impending signing session for the volunteers). There was also a twinge of regret (and embarassing vanity ) that the two aforementioned origami sets hadn't made it into the auction and most importantly of all, I hadn't really mustered the audacity to ask any of the voice actors if they would have their photo taken with me and the chalk drawings I made of their characters. I didn't know that an absolute highlight of this GalaCon was yet to come for me after the official closing of the gates.

Most bronies were heading for the pub for the post GalaCon "Pub Con" there. I wasn't very hungry at the time though and there were still some hours of daylight left. Also a very friendly brony named LaikenPone had asked me if I could do a chalk drawing of Colgate / Minuette for him and I was quite eager to do so. So I started drawing her and all of a sudden quite a few bronies accepted my invitations to join in the fun. Chalk Age (literal translation of the German word for the Cretaceous Period) erruped and together we decorated the place in front of the forum with quite a few more pony chalk drawings.
The following Chalk drawing video gives an impression of the place and it includes some really nice bird eye views made by a drone.
Here are some more images showing various "developing stages" of the place throughout the GalaCon:
Early Saturday
Late Saturday
Late Sunday unfortunately this image doesn't include the row of pony posters drawn by Easterforest92
After completing the Colgate / Minuette I started a drawing of Spitfire (a character I had wanted to draw in chalk for a long time) but she ended up as the only drawing I was really not happy with. Trying to correct a misplaced eye goggle, I ended up distorting the perspective so completely that I ended up drawing another Spitfire back home after the return from the GalaCon.

All this chalk drawing had lifted my aforementioned melancholy and as the sun began to set everyone present and I made ready to follow the other bronies to the pub. We were already passing by the forum's main entrance and had we set out just a minute earlier the following highlight of the GalaCon would not have happened. I was just casting a last look back over my shoulder and according to the credible source provided later on by the ones who were walking beside me went into a frenzy
For there was Black Gryph0n standing by the chalk drawing of his OC. It is not my usually my way to get into fan frenzy mode, but when I rushed back that moment I was really exhilarated about the prospect of getting an image with him and the chalk drawing after all, which I did:
Black Gryph0ns
But the awesomeness didn't stop there. Black Gryph0n called Michelle Creber, who had retired after what must have been a cheerful but also exhausting weekend and she came rushing along (giving Black Gryph0n the record time in which she had made the distance from the hotel to the place in front of the forum). What would the Joker have said had he seen Michelle's Batman T-shirt?
Michelle Creber and Black Gryph0n at the chalk drawings.
Michelle's parents Michael and Monique joined us too. They are all really lovely people and I'm hoping very much that they will be invited again to future GalaCons. We (the whole group of bronies who had been chalk drawing up to that point, the Creber Family and Black Gryph0n) had a really good time talking and basically hanging out for a while.
It was as awesome an evening as could be and I will hold a sheet of prints for Apple Bloom origamis which Michelle signed for me as a great keepsake for that awesomeness.
When later on we (everybrony who had been there and I) went to finally go to the pup I really couldn't help but feeling a bit like I had been in a little MLP-like story myself for a while

We continued to have a great party at the pub including lots of singing and music playing. It was also a particular joy to at last have some time with Rocking Scorpion , the first other brony I turned to (knowing him from my land before time fandom) after I discovered my enthusiasm for MLP
Thank you very much for the awesome print you gave me

When at long last redhatbrony and I headed back for our hotel we got into torrential rainfall the likes of which I have seen but only once in my life (at least as far as seeing it from outside without a roof over your head is concerned). The rain was so extreme that papers in plastic pockets inside plastic folders inside my backpack got wet and the banknotes in my wallet in said backpack were soaked. Luckily the really irreplaceable keepsakes (the origamisheet signed by Michelle and the Silly Lyra comic I had been given by remained completely respectively almost completly dry when almost anything else was soaked).

After such a weekend one would expect that things couldn't get any better anymore. However, on my way home I got a text message from my sister who is currently living in Argentinia. She asked me when I would get home because she would like to tell me something. I had a very good clue (and hope) for what that something might be. And when, during a stop at a brony friend's home on the way back five brony friends and I finished watching the (highly appropriate) episode "A Flurry of Emotions" I told them: "I think I'm going to become an uncle!"
Later on I skyped with my sister and sure enough she will have her first child next spring and I WILL BE AN UNCLE!
BIZAAM!!! Life can be so beautiful