Miss Teen/MN USA Weekend Round-Up

So once again, my favorite time of the year is here--Thanksgiving weekend! Not for the holiday--I don't care for it, quite frankly, for the same reason I don't care for most holidays: everything is closed, the mail doesn't come, and it's yet another excuse to hang around the folks' house (which I already go to somewhat regularly). You can't hang out with friends because of the aforementioned closings of things public, unless you want to hang out with their families.

But I digress...it's still my favorite time of the year because 1) it's my birthday weekend (not that I really do anything because I'm a loser who works all the time), and 2) it's super pageant weekend in Minnesota! That's right, Future Productions' Miss MN USA and Miss MN Teen USA will be held at a new venue in Burnsville (where I grew up) this weekend. Yes, I still maintain that I'm the only straight guy who gets into pageants as much as I do. So what? I'll be toting around my original Wendi Russo (Mrs. MN America 2008) original painting to give to her when I see her this weekend. Catch me before I see her and I'll let you see the original up close--I don't bite :) Hell, or just find her if I've already given it to her.

The contestant photos went up this week. Numbers are down from what I'm guessing is a tough economy. Competing ain't cheap, yo. Anyhoo, here are my Top 10s for both the Miss an Teen division:

Miss
I will right off the bat say that one of the competitors is my friend/model RaeAnne Gleason. That said, this is a no-win situation for me: if I pick her as the winner, I am accused of bias; if I don't, I look like an unsupportive ass. In fact, as I get to know more and more competitors every year (whether in person or online), it's gonna get harder to be objective with my lists. That said, I do think she has a shot and of course I will root for her. I worked with her recently and WOW she's in the best shape I've ever seen her! And she looks like Brooke Kilgarriff--Miss MN 2009, if that's going to be any kind of push.

So for this division I will do a Top 5--with the girls listed in alphabetical order to show that any of their placings could be interchangeable. Then I will do a 6-10 prediction based on the headshots posted on the Future Productions site. Remember, anything can happen with gown/swimsuit choosing and presentation.

Brianne Anderson-annual competitor, places fairly well every year. Last year she placed 3rd, a drop down from the previous year where she was 1st-runner up. It's been documented that I think she's a snot.


Danielle Epps- she got 1st runner-up last year! She was also 1st runner-up at the 07 MN USA pageant, while capturing the Miss MN International 2007 title. She's also a local radio personality!


RaeAnne Gleason- a veteran to pageants, she's been a Top 10 placer at the MN USA pageant as well as the 2005 MN Co-Ed winner (was it '05? I forget now).


Casandra Moore - I remember her competing before and she looked great. Good to see her back.


Arielle Peterson-- It's been a while since I last saw her compete as a Teen at the MN USA pageant...but I do remember that she was a contender, and looked stunning! Now she's back as a Miss, so this will be interesting to see.



6. Ava Bielke --I remember her from last year's pageant. She looked nice.


7. Kristina Ferdig - Perennial competitor that usually places well. Last year was the best I've seen her, although she didn't crack Top 5. In fact, I don't any of the 3 Vikings cheerleaders did last year.


8. Chrissy Zamora - I do like her headshot!


9. Ali Schulz- All I remember is that she had crazy awesome abs. Nice!


10. Courtney Agar- I have to say I think she looks better than this headshot.


Teen
There always seems to be more Teens than Misses competing. Regardless, they always seem to have crappier headshots as a whole compared to Miss. Ha. Not many standouts, but I'll do what I can:

1. I think it could go either way with Ashley Johnson and Danielle Joiner (shown in respective order). Perhaps I'm leaning slightly in favor of Ashley Johnson, who got 1st runner-up last year and looked great!


3. Which brings us right to 3rd place, and I have Tyler Bramwell--as long she covers up what seems to be hideous star tattoos on her back. She better cover them up really well, or watch the placing drop. Girls, why do you do this to yourselves???????


4. Amanda Mathes - she got the 2007 MN National American Miss Spirit Award for Junior Division.


5. -Kelsi Schuelke


6. Rebecca Reller


7. Elizabeth Lindemann


7. Tatum Miller - I could see Tatum interchanging with Elizabeth for 7th.


9. Alexandra Meuwissen


10. Vanessa Davidson --as long as her hair is pizzazzed up better than what we see here, I can see her placing.


So there it is. Let the hate begin, BIZNATCHES!!!! >:P Inevetibly, I get secret emails from contestants telling me either "Thank you!", or "Nyah nyah, I showed you up!!!" I also get a flood of Friend Requests after the pageant, but I'm sure it's 'cause I have a ton of pics.

I'm so exhausted writing that I'm too lazy to post anything else. Ok, fine, here some quick doodles of my Vietnamese celeb (only in the sense that she's a celeb only in Vietnam and nowhere else in the world) crush, Ngan Khanh:

Oh yes, she shall be mine...

PS-- I hate the Blogger's way of formatting the blogs I write...(especially the way they handle photo uploads).

Another Sketch Vid From My Signing...

Boy, am I on a roll....here's a Joker sketch for a fan that I did at my signing earlier this week at Limited Edition Comics:



Herd of Moose(knuckle):

Kilowog Sketch Video...

This week I got back from my store signing at Limited Edition Comics in Cedar Falls, Iowa. What a fun time! Rob, the owner, made sure my time there was comfortable and very enjoyable. I highly recommend stopping by his store--which is also a hair salon, if you can believe that!--if you are in this nice little college town area. It is one-of-a-kind, and I have never seen a store owner treat his customers like his own friends the way Rob does. I can see why they keep coming back.

Here is a video from the signing...it's of me doing a sketch of Kilowog for a fan:




Green Lantern-related sketch requests have gone through the roof since I started helping out Doug and Pat earlier this year. This coming Wednesday will see Green Lantern #48 hit the stands by Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke, Christian Alamy, and myself.

I'll post more stuff up from this signing in the next blog.

Camel Toe (courtesy of my friend Thomas):

Store Signing on Wed., November 18....

I'll be signing autographs next week on Wednesday, November 18 at Limited Edition Comics store in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The session is from 1:00-6:00 pm. Please come by and say hi, and don't forget to bring your Green Lantern/Green Lantern Corps to have signed--they've been selling like hotcakes! Of course, the store will have plenty of Nguyen-related merchandise for you guys to get if you don't already have any.

Store info:
Limited Edition Comics
2225 College Street
Cedar Falls, IA 50613
Ph: 319-268-4094

Camel Toe:

Caricature Video, Bat-Commission, and Pageant Time!

Here's a new video of me messing around in Photoshop drawing some random chick I found on Model Mayhem (yes, she actually thinks she can model):



Admittedly I think I kind of missed her here; there's a couple things I would have done slightly differently if I had to redraw it to help me nail her likeness a bit better. I was so overwhelmed by her features that I just wanted to rip on them. Kind of mean, I know. Oh well.

Art

In the last blog I showed you the 3-head commission for a gentlemen I met at Wizard World Chicago this past summer. This week I finished another one, this time of Bat-Villains:



Pageant Time


Later this month will be ever so fun as it's my favorite time of the year: the annual Miss MN/Teen USA pageant during Thanksgiving weekend! It's also my birthday weekend, which makes it extra sweet. :) My friend/model RaeAnne (shown below in my painting) will be competing, so I will support her. There's some more repeats from last year as well. I'll probably go through the annual rundown right before showtime.


Professional Sports Camel Toe: