162: Anime Expo '10 con report
Hey everyone. I went to Anime Expo this past weekend, the 1st-4th. I wasn’t sure what to expect since the convention had major things happen this year. Most notably more than half the senior staff walking out earlier this year. It was a huge deal. So no one was really sure what to expect. I still had a great time and am glad I went. But I didn’t go beyond artist alley really, so a lot of the effects I probably didn’t see. What was painfully obvious was a serious lacking in programming after Dealer’s Hall closing and a couple dealer spaces empty, which I’ve never seen in my seven years attending.
Anyways I’ll try and actually keep this report to a minimum. XD
Day 0: Wednesday June 30th
I didn’t have to work and Taty came out that day after she got off work, we were sharing a table in the AA this year, so we figured we’d go get our badges, check-in for AA and get it all out of the way. Figured it would take maybe an hour. Heh… No. Something else to suffer from the experienced staffers leaving was a speedy registration. Oh god, it took three hours. Blah. We did run into David and Mandy though so hung out and chatted with them in line. It was good to see them and I learned about some more drama centered about my most favorite person in the world (insert sarcasm). Even though it took forever to get inside actually getting our badges was pretty quick. We then checked in to the AA and headed home… and of course hit rush hour traffic. But at least we got it done! XD
Day 1: Thursday July 1st
Oh my god we got up and left on time… It was the only day we managed to do that. XD Got the convention, parked, and headed into the AA to set up. First day’s set up was a little cluttered looking. We met out table mate to the left of us. His name is Ejen and he was selling a really nice coffee book he’d made called Cosplay in America. Taty got a copy the last day. It was a really impressive book. He watches me on dA now, so I would highly recommend everyone going and checking out his book. ^^
After we set up there was premier attendees or something like that who got to come into the hall/AA an hour before it opened to the general public. There didn’t seem to be many. This year I had buttons! :D I actually did finish my Sherlock ones I kept talking about. Ended up with 44 different buttons; 28 Supernatural, 2 Assassin’s Creed, 6 Sherlock Holmes, and 8 Hetalia. I wasn’t sure how well the Hetalia ones would do because they were pairings, but it was just the flags. They actually did the best of the buttons. Especially USxUK. XDDD It was the first thing I sold. :D
Not to much happened during the first day. I didn’t leave the table all day. XD But! I met FerioWind. :D She couldn’t get a table in the AA this year, but she was still kind enough to bring one her Sherlock Holmes prints for me to buy. It’s beautiful. She’s an amazing artist and can draw so damn fast! @.@ I envy her. XD After the AA closed we headed to a panel, the only one we ended up going to, which was Anime Triva. It was sorta lame. Then we went to look into getting tickets for the AMVs. AX decided it was going to charge people for tickets this year. $20 if you had a four day badge and $30 for everyone with anything less. Luckily the AMVs were free. If we had to pay we weren’t going to go. I’m glad we did, but for the ticketing reason we didn’t go to the Masquerade. I enjoy it, but not that much. After the AMVs we went home, stayed up way to long again, then crashed.
Day 2: Friday July 2nd
Yeah… So the previous day we left on time, everything was fine. Not so much. I set my alarm for the wrong time and Taty’s didn’t wake her up. We ended up leaving about half an hour later than we wanted to. And I forgot I wanted to get gas so we were worried we would be super late. Turns out we go there with a half hour to spare before the hall opened and because I didn’t have all my usual display stuff setup only took like a minute and a half. XD I changed how I laid everything out and it was so much better. FerioWind stopped by again to show me a couple of commissions she’d done of Sherlock Holmes and I was in love. Man I wanted to steal them. XDDD I’m also so happy she thought to show them to me because she totally didn’t have to.
The hall opened and once again My USxUK button was the first to sell. XD I didn’t leave the table the second day really either. Just to pee. XD I did get a commission though! :D A colored pencil sketch of Matt and Tai from the original Digimon anime being cute! I’d never drawn them before but I ship that. XDDD And it was so nice to be like “awww…! I remember that show! I loved that show!” I had to wait til I got home before I started it though because I needed references. XDDDD And I discovered I’m an idiot. I started to draw it on the back of another drawing. Doh! I sorted that out in the end.
Both Taty and I sold stuff, and I was having a lot of fun geeking out over Supernatural with the few fans that stopped by. A lot of them didn’t know about it being made into an anime so when I told them they got super excited. It was cute. There wasn’t anything after the hall closing that we wanted to see, so Taty and I headed home. We grabbed food then I marched off to do my commission, which again I stayed up way to late finishing. -.- But I love how it turned out and scanned it so I could share. XDDD Then I crashed again.
Day 3: Saturday July 3rd
And… we were late again. XD Half an hour, but since we knew that we wouldn’t actually be late it wasn’t a big deal. The hall opened and yeah… Definitely was a busier day. I don’t know which day I had the best sells because I wasn’t nearly as organized as usual. XD Doh, oh well. But there were people at the table at lot, either just looking which there was a lot of, buying, or trying to peek at our neighbor’s stuff. I gave the girl her commission and she was so happy. :D I’m so glad she liked it. I loved drawing it and had so much fun coloring and shading it.
I thought I might get up and walk around that day based on how busy it was. So I sat my ass down all day again. XDDD I did get to see Loki during the con before he came and visited. And we texted for a moment too. I ended up getting a second commission that day. The girl wasn’t going to be there the last day so I told her I would try and get the sketch done by the end of the day and for her to come back. I did get it finished but she never made it back. I called her but it went to her voicemail. I made sure she had my business card so she can email me and I’ll be able to mail her, her commission. She wanted Sam and Dean. ^^ She was so funny because she asked if I was okay with drawing slash. Naturally. In the end though she wanted something cutesy too. I have the sketch and will scan it so everyone else can see it. But after the hall closed we again headed home because there was nothing we were interested in.
Day 4: Sunday July 4th
We were late again. XDDD Haha whatever. We got to the hall and the first hour was really slow. I think most of us con-goers were slow to get up. XD After that though it was still fairly busy for us. We didn’t make huge sales, but we were selling and chatting and I finally left my table! I walked around AA and talked with several different artists. I never made it all the way through because I was called back to my table because Taty needed to pee, was lonely XD, and wanted to do one last look through too. But I did meet the most awesome artist, Eldanis. :D She and her friend are huge Supernatural fans and she had Good Omen fanart, which I got all happy over. We then started talking and I got a Dark print from her, from DNAngel. She asked if I would be interested in trading art at the end of the con. Yes! :D So we did trades and we both walked away with stuff we love and wanted. I ended up buying another print from her because the trade didn’t cover it, but whatever. I don’t mind! I also got a couple of Toothless little prints and an Aya, from Weiss Kruez, for a $1! :D
Sadly the con ended then. Taty and I stopped by David and Mandy’s tables to say bye, then we headed home. I didn’t really make a profit this year, but I managed to pretty much break even. So it was good. I had fun. Next con year I’m going to seriously look into going to Comic Con to sell. I think I’d do very well there since the majority of my art isn’t anime but Supernatural now. But we’ll see! So… This wasn’t really that short. Sorry! XDDDD
Anyways I’ll try and actually keep this report to a minimum. XD
Day 0: Wednesday June 30th
I didn’t have to work and Taty came out that day after she got off work, we were sharing a table in the AA this year, so we figured we’d go get our badges, check-in for AA and get it all out of the way. Figured it would take maybe an hour. Heh… No. Something else to suffer from the experienced staffers leaving was a speedy registration. Oh god, it took three hours. Blah. We did run into David and Mandy though so hung out and chatted with them in line. It was good to see them and I learned about some more drama centered about my most favorite person in the world (insert sarcasm). Even though it took forever to get inside actually getting our badges was pretty quick. We then checked in to the AA and headed home… and of course hit rush hour traffic. But at least we got it done! XD
Day 1: Thursday July 1st
Oh my god we got up and left on time… It was the only day we managed to do that. XD Got the convention, parked, and headed into the AA to set up. First day’s set up was a little cluttered looking. We met out table mate to the left of us. His name is Ejen and he was selling a really nice coffee book he’d made called Cosplay in America. Taty got a copy the last day. It was a really impressive book. He watches me on dA now, so I would highly recommend everyone going and checking out his book. ^^
After we set up there was premier attendees or something like that who got to come into the hall/AA an hour before it opened to the general public. There didn’t seem to be many. This year I had buttons! :D I actually did finish my Sherlock ones I kept talking about. Ended up with 44 different buttons; 28 Supernatural, 2 Assassin’s Creed, 6 Sherlock Holmes, and 8 Hetalia. I wasn’t sure how well the Hetalia ones would do because they were pairings, but it was just the flags. They actually did the best of the buttons. Especially USxUK. XDDD It was the first thing I sold. :D
Not to much happened during the first day. I didn’t leave the table all day. XD But! I met FerioWind. :D She couldn’t get a table in the AA this year, but she was still kind enough to bring one her Sherlock Holmes prints for me to buy. It’s beautiful. She’s an amazing artist and can draw so damn fast! @.@ I envy her. XD After the AA closed we headed to a panel, the only one we ended up going to, which was Anime Triva. It was sorta lame. Then we went to look into getting tickets for the AMVs. AX decided it was going to charge people for tickets this year. $20 if you had a four day badge and $30 for everyone with anything less. Luckily the AMVs were free. If we had to pay we weren’t going to go. I’m glad we did, but for the ticketing reason we didn’t go to the Masquerade. I enjoy it, but not that much. After the AMVs we went home, stayed up way to long again, then crashed.
Day 2: Friday July 2nd
Yeah… So the previous day we left on time, everything was fine. Not so much. I set my alarm for the wrong time and Taty’s didn’t wake her up. We ended up leaving about half an hour later than we wanted to. And I forgot I wanted to get gas so we were worried we would be super late. Turns out we go there with a half hour to spare before the hall opened and because I didn’t have all my usual display stuff setup only took like a minute and a half. XD I changed how I laid everything out and it was so much better. FerioWind stopped by again to show me a couple of commissions she’d done of Sherlock Holmes and I was in love. Man I wanted to steal them. XDDD I’m also so happy she thought to show them to me because she totally didn’t have to.
The hall opened and once again My USxUK button was the first to sell. XD I didn’t leave the table the second day really either. Just to pee. XD I did get a commission though! :D A colored pencil sketch of Matt and Tai from the original Digimon anime being cute! I’d never drawn them before but I ship that. XDDD And it was so nice to be like “awww…! I remember that show! I loved that show!” I had to wait til I got home before I started it though because I needed references. XDDDD And I discovered I’m an idiot. I started to draw it on the back of another drawing. Doh! I sorted that out in the end.
Both Taty and I sold stuff, and I was having a lot of fun geeking out over Supernatural with the few fans that stopped by. A lot of them didn’t know about it being made into an anime so when I told them they got super excited. It was cute. There wasn’t anything after the hall closing that we wanted to see, so Taty and I headed home. We grabbed food then I marched off to do my commission, which again I stayed up way to late finishing. -.- But I love how it turned out and scanned it so I could share. XDDD Then I crashed again.
Day 3: Saturday July 3rd
And… we were late again. XD Half an hour, but since we knew that we wouldn’t actually be late it wasn’t a big deal. The hall opened and yeah… Definitely was a busier day. I don’t know which day I had the best sells because I wasn’t nearly as organized as usual. XD Doh, oh well. But there were people at the table at lot, either just looking which there was a lot of, buying, or trying to peek at our neighbor’s stuff. I gave the girl her commission and she was so happy. :D I’m so glad she liked it. I loved drawing it and had so much fun coloring and shading it.
I thought I might get up and walk around that day based on how busy it was. So I sat my ass down all day again. XDDD I did get to see Loki during the con before he came and visited. And we texted for a moment too. I ended up getting a second commission that day. The girl wasn’t going to be there the last day so I told her I would try and get the sketch done by the end of the day and for her to come back. I did get it finished but she never made it back. I called her but it went to her voicemail. I made sure she had my business card so she can email me and I’ll be able to mail her, her commission. She wanted Sam and Dean. ^^ She was so funny because she asked if I was okay with drawing slash. Naturally. In the end though she wanted something cutesy too. I have the sketch and will scan it so everyone else can see it. But after the hall closed we again headed home because there was nothing we were interested in.
Day 4: Sunday July 4th
We were late again. XDDD Haha whatever. We got to the hall and the first hour was really slow. I think most of us con-goers were slow to get up. XD After that though it was still fairly busy for us. We didn’t make huge sales, but we were selling and chatting and I finally left my table! I walked around AA and talked with several different artists. I never made it all the way through because I was called back to my table because Taty needed to pee, was lonely XD, and wanted to do one last look through too. But I did meet the most awesome artist, Eldanis. :D She and her friend are huge Supernatural fans and she had Good Omen fanart, which I got all happy over. We then started talking and I got a Dark print from her, from DNAngel. She asked if I would be interested in trading art at the end of the con. Yes! :D So we did trades and we both walked away with stuff we love and wanted. I ended up buying another print from her because the trade didn’t cover it, but whatever. I don’t mind! I also got a couple of Toothless little prints and an Aya, from Weiss Kruez, for a $1! :D
Sadly the con ended then. Taty and I stopped by David and Mandy’s tables to say bye, then we headed home. I didn’t really make a profit this year, but I managed to pretty much break even. So it was good. I had fun. Next con year I’m going to seriously look into going to Comic Con to sell. I think I’d do very well there since the majority of my art isn’t anime but Supernatural now. But we’ll see! So… This wasn’t really that short. Sorry! XDDDD