Late Con Report!
Um so I guess I should do some sort of con report here? I wrote up something to crosspost to my gallery sites but I guess LJ deserves something a little more in depth. I really don't know why I fail so much at writing about stuff when stuff actually happens. I feel like nobody really cares anyway, so haha, why bother. But here it is anyway, some sort of con report.
Um so for some reason we decided to go set up early on Thursday. I don't know why I expected that to just be something simple, throw some stuff up there and leave. If I had thought about it past not having to bother with it Friday morning I would have realized that setting stuff up early means having to stay there with that stuff until they closed down at night. My foresight really sucked for this con, seriously. Right off the bat I found out we'd been moved across the way from where we were previously. This didn't seem like a big deal until the next day, which I will get into momentarily. I felt like me and Halo were getting on eachother's nerves in record time that night due to there not being enough room on the table for everything to fit comfortably due to there being THREE PEOPLE TRYING TO SELL PRINTS there, one of which only had tabloid size prints and a huge portfolio to keep them in. It was this night that I finally discovered for certain, yes, I was sharing a table with her and her boyfriend. Let the awkward begin!
Our display was shit. I am fairly certain a lot of people didn't even SEE most of my stuff. I didn't sell a single tote bag, and I sold very few buttons or bookmarks for that matter. Halo tried to tell me my stuff was visible, but no, that is because she already knew it was there. People who passed by couldn't have their eyes caught by anything on our table because there was just TOO MUCH. It didn't help that we also got stuck between two tables that were basically huge STORES, moving the actual table around to put in racks and shelves so they could sell steampunk clothing and accessories and fruity dragon and fairy statues. Seriously, the claustrophobia within my own table wasn't enough, you had to surround me with that shit as well? They make us tell you what our displays look like in the beginning, the least you could do is put that into consideration when placing us. I wish I'd bothered to take a picture of our display/location so I could illustrate what utter bullshit it was, but I hardly took any pictures at that stupid con, seriously. Like, I didn't even chase down any cosplayers or anything, I just wasn't feeling it at all. Below are pretty much the only two pictures taken of my table:
So that little table next to Link? It's a cut up plastic cup with a tissue glued/taped to it. At the end of the day it was missing. Why somebody would steal a piece of trash from my table and not the charm and doll is mysterious, but whatever.
In the end the table was kind of a bust. I made a little over $300, but there was the constant feeling that I SHOULD have been doing better. Like if I had been downstairs where I could stay open longer, and if I didn't have such a cluttered display, and if I wasn't overshadowed by the ridiculous displays surrounding me, I might have sold a lot more. It was frustrating going to hang out with my friends downstairs and watching them sell their stuff and make all that money. Saturday night one of them passed a commission on to me because he stops taking them Sunday, and he doesn't do color stuff in the first place, so that was kind of cool? And I ended up giving a couple of buttons to some Avatar cosplayers that night too, because I felt like I shouldn't go up to them and say "I have buttons and you should buy them." They really liked them though, so yay?
As much as the table part (Also known as the most important part of a con to me) sucked, I was strangely more social than I usually am. lupinelelio came to visit me a couple times, which was awesome even though I didn't get to hang out with her more than that. After a day or so of waffling and being too shy, I finally sucked it up and went to see rocketess to buy some of her books, and I really should have bought more stuff from her, seriously. But she was really nice and I actually ended up dropping by a couple more times to say hi and stuff. My friend frostyshark had a table right next to her, and I was jealous. D: I talked to a couple other people here and there, mostly about how much being upstairs sucks. I think the people who said the traffic made up for having to close early and open late were filthy liars. I am pretty sure downstairs was ALWAYS busier than upstairs, as far as I could tell. But yeah. I also talked quite a bit with Julie, who runs the AA for AnimeFest, when I went to give her my forms to sign up for a table there. It turns out she kind of knows who I am, which is pretty cool, so hopefully that makes my chances to get in there a little better? I don't know when I'll be allowed to pay for the table and cement my place there. I'm a little frustrated because apparently my friends already got in when they got the e-mails that the tables had opened, but somehow I fell off the mailing list mysteriously? Julie didn't know what was up with that either, but hopefully she will be able to fix that and I'll be able to set up shop there as well. I think I've always liked the atmosphere at AnimeFest better than A-kon, even though A-kon is bigger. Or because AnimeFest is smaller? I don't know.
Other miscellaneous stuff...about five people thought I was cosplaying Read or Die Friday when I was seriously just wearing my normal clothes...I swear I wore that outfit to an interview once or twice. One guy said I could be dressed like someone from the Order, which I also denied, but seriously, if it weren't for the fact that I was wearing a skirt I could have been dressed as Link. I even had my hair braided. The t-shirt I ordered from gallo_de_pelea a while back was kind of popular when I visited rocketess and frostyshark again Sunday, which was pretty cool. I got zero commissions Friday, which was frustrating, since that meant I had nothing to work on when I got booted out. I really should get in the habit of taking pictures of all my commissions in the first place, but I generally only bother with the ones I like and the ones I need to document for whatever reason, such as these two that I have posted for absentaserpis's benefit! (And now that I have gone and downloaded a bunch of pictures from that series to keep in my reference folder, nobody will ever ask me to draw it again!)
In summary, this con sucked table-wise, was okay social-wise, but was extremely educational and motivating. I have pretty much a complete table re-haul planned for future cons, including a new set-up, major change in inventory, and hopefully, a new table-mate. I haven't told Halo about my intentions to break away from her yet, which is probably shitty of me, but I really have no idea how to bring something like that up. Maybe it would be easier if I already had somebody lined up to share with, like Tracie did when she left us, because it's easier to say "I want to go table with this person" than "I don't want to table with you". My friend John said he had a friend who would message me about it on dA, but I haven't heard anything yet. I'm afraid it'll be a bit awkward to table with someone I don't really know, but somehow it seems like it might be better than having to deal with that mess again, especially if Halo intends to continue bringing her boyfriend into the picture. It sounds really bad, but I'd sooner try to go solo at AnimeFest than share, and since the tables are only $45 there as opposed to the $80 they were at A-kon, it's much more do-able. Hopefully I can get seated next to someone I know so they can help out a bit.
I'm really kind of excited to start working on stuff for next time. I want to have posters and more prints and get rid of some old stuff and make more buttons and stuff. I probably won't bother with new tote bags, since none of mine sold this time. There's just one major problem with this...I STILL don't have a tablet, and after having to give mom some money, pay the water bill, buy gas, and a minor shopping spree yesterday, my con profits have dwindled too much for me to be able to afford one, not that I felt comfortable buying one and getting rid of most of what I made in one fell swoop. I've been itching to draw ever since leaving that stupid con, and somehow paper and pencil doesn't do it for me anymore, though I've been trying. So I'm still in desperate need of some sort of income, so if anybody knows anybody who would be interested in commissioning me or buying any of the stuff I have, that'd be really awesome? I did have a couple people at the con ask if I did commissions or sold prints online, but I really don't expect to hear from them again. I'll probably put together a sales post later with more information maybe, though I'm sure it'll just be another shout into the dark. Man, I really wish I knew how all these people who regularly get commissions online do it. D:
Um so for some reason we decided to go set up early on Thursday. I don't know why I expected that to just be something simple, throw some stuff up there and leave. If I had thought about it past not having to bother with it Friday morning I would have realized that setting stuff up early means having to stay there with that stuff until they closed down at night. My foresight really sucked for this con, seriously. Right off the bat I found out we'd been moved across the way from where we were previously. This didn't seem like a big deal until the next day, which I will get into momentarily. I felt like me and Halo were getting on eachother's nerves in record time that night due to there not being enough room on the table for everything to fit comfortably due to there being THREE PEOPLE TRYING TO SELL PRINTS there, one of which only had tabloid size prints and a huge portfolio to keep them in. It was this night that I finally discovered for certain, yes, I was sharing a table with her and her boyfriend. Let the awkward begin!
Our display was shit. I am fairly certain a lot of people didn't even SEE most of my stuff. I didn't sell a single tote bag, and I sold very few buttons or bookmarks for that matter. Halo tried to tell me my stuff was visible, but no, that is because she already knew it was there. People who passed by couldn't have their eyes caught by anything on our table because there was just TOO MUCH. It didn't help that we also got stuck between two tables that were basically huge STORES, moving the actual table around to put in racks and shelves so they could sell steampunk clothing and accessories and fruity dragon and fairy statues. Seriously, the claustrophobia within my own table wasn't enough, you had to surround me with that shit as well? They make us tell you what our displays look like in the beginning, the least you could do is put that into consideration when placing us. I wish I'd bothered to take a picture of our display/location so I could illustrate what utter bullshit it was, but I hardly took any pictures at that stupid con, seriously. Like, I didn't even chase down any cosplayers or anything, I just wasn't feeling it at all. Below are pretty much the only two pictures taken of my table:
So that little table next to Link? It's a cut up plastic cup with a tissue glued/taped to it. At the end of the day it was missing. Why somebody would steal a piece of trash from my table and not the charm and doll is mysterious, but whatever.
In the end the table was kind of a bust. I made a little over $300, but there was the constant feeling that I SHOULD have been doing better. Like if I had been downstairs where I could stay open longer, and if I didn't have such a cluttered display, and if I wasn't overshadowed by the ridiculous displays surrounding me, I might have sold a lot more. It was frustrating going to hang out with my friends downstairs and watching them sell their stuff and make all that money. Saturday night one of them passed a commission on to me because he stops taking them Sunday, and he doesn't do color stuff in the first place, so that was kind of cool? And I ended up giving a couple of buttons to some Avatar cosplayers that night too, because I felt like I shouldn't go up to them and say "I have buttons and you should buy them." They really liked them though, so yay?
As much as the table part (Also known as the most important part of a con to me) sucked, I was strangely more social than I usually am. lupinelelio came to visit me a couple times, which was awesome even though I didn't get to hang out with her more than that. After a day or so of waffling and being too shy, I finally sucked it up and went to see rocketess to buy some of her books, and I really should have bought more stuff from her, seriously. But she was really nice and I actually ended up dropping by a couple more times to say hi and stuff. My friend frostyshark had a table right next to her, and I was jealous. D: I talked to a couple other people here and there, mostly about how much being upstairs sucks. I think the people who said the traffic made up for having to close early and open late were filthy liars. I am pretty sure downstairs was ALWAYS busier than upstairs, as far as I could tell. But yeah. I also talked quite a bit with Julie, who runs the AA for AnimeFest, when I went to give her my forms to sign up for a table there. It turns out she kind of knows who I am, which is pretty cool, so hopefully that makes my chances to get in there a little better? I don't know when I'll be allowed to pay for the table and cement my place there. I'm a little frustrated because apparently my friends already got in when they got the e-mails that the tables had opened, but somehow I fell off the mailing list mysteriously? Julie didn't know what was up with that either, but hopefully she will be able to fix that and I'll be able to set up shop there as well. I think I've always liked the atmosphere at AnimeFest better than A-kon, even though A-kon is bigger. Or because AnimeFest is smaller? I don't know.
Other miscellaneous stuff...about five people thought I was cosplaying Read or Die Friday when I was seriously just wearing my normal clothes...I swear I wore that outfit to an interview once or twice. One guy said I could be dressed like someone from the Order, which I also denied, but seriously, if it weren't for the fact that I was wearing a skirt I could have been dressed as Link. I even had my hair braided. The t-shirt I ordered from gallo_de_pelea a while back was kind of popular when I visited rocketess and frostyshark again Sunday, which was pretty cool. I got zero commissions Friday, which was frustrating, since that meant I had nothing to work on when I got booted out. I really should get in the habit of taking pictures of all my commissions in the first place, but I generally only bother with the ones I like and the ones I need to document for whatever reason, such as these two that I have posted for absentaserpis's benefit! (And now that I have gone and downloaded a bunch of pictures from that series to keep in my reference folder, nobody will ever ask me to draw it again!)
In summary, this con sucked table-wise, was okay social-wise, but was extremely educational and motivating. I have pretty much a complete table re-haul planned for future cons, including a new set-up, major change in inventory, and hopefully, a new table-mate. I haven't told Halo about my intentions to break away from her yet, which is probably shitty of me, but I really have no idea how to bring something like that up. Maybe it would be easier if I already had somebody lined up to share with, like Tracie did when she left us, because it's easier to say "I want to go table with this person" than "I don't want to table with you". My friend John said he had a friend who would message me about it on dA, but I haven't heard anything yet. I'm afraid it'll be a bit awkward to table with someone I don't really know, but somehow it seems like it might be better than having to deal with that mess again, especially if Halo intends to continue bringing her boyfriend into the picture. It sounds really bad, but I'd sooner try to go solo at AnimeFest than share, and since the tables are only $45 there as opposed to the $80 they were at A-kon, it's much more do-able. Hopefully I can get seated next to someone I know so they can help out a bit.
I'm really kind of excited to start working on stuff for next time. I want to have posters and more prints and get rid of some old stuff and make more buttons and stuff. I probably won't bother with new tote bags, since none of mine sold this time. There's just one major problem with this...I STILL don't have a tablet, and after having to give mom some money, pay the water bill, buy gas, and a minor shopping spree yesterday, my con profits have dwindled too much for me to be able to afford one, not that I felt comfortable buying one and getting rid of most of what I made in one fell swoop. I've been itching to draw ever since leaving that stupid con, and somehow paper and pencil doesn't do it for me anymore, though I've been trying. So I'm still in desperate need of some sort of income, so if anybody knows anybody who would be interested in commissioning me or buying any of the stuff I have, that'd be really awesome? I did have a couple people at the con ask if I did commissions or sold prints online, but I really don't expect to hear from them again. I'll probably put together a sales post later with more information maybe, though I'm sure it'll just be another shout into the dark. Man, I really wish I knew how all these people who regularly get commissions online do it. D: