Hey my tender lumplings, I am back from NDK for my final Artist Alley table for a while. For those who may have missed my Deviant Journal on the subject, I have decided to take a hiatus from cons for a while in order to rest and get my fire back for working on my art. I love cons and artist alleys, but they also require stupid amounts of time, energy and money, and right now I’m much more interested in growing as an artist. I’ve also decided that I’m no longer doing fan art for sale unless it’s a commission. Doing fan art for sale is frustrating because not only am I working on someone elses’ characters and ideas, there isn’t a guarantee it will sell. Do a series everyone does and you’ll be competing with your fellow artists who have very similar art. Do a series that isn’t in fashion anymore or hasn’t gotten popular yet and you’re stuck with tons of merchandise. And inevitably, you’ll have someone ask if you have ___ series art, which of course you don’t because you don’t have time and energy to do art from every series and character ever. Lots of love and respect to the artists who do that stuff, but that isn’t my end game. My end game is for MY work to sell and my selfish little dream to one day see people cosplaying as my characters.
NDK this year was a little rocky in general because of a lot of problems getting around downtown and other snafus. Because the con is also held during Labor Day weekend, there is the annual Taste of Colorado as well as a series of Rockies games, and downtown was a zoo. Because of allergies I have to eat at home, so I spent almost as much time in traffic as I did actually at the convention. The staff at the con is still the best ever, with the best Artist Alley head and the nicest security, but until NDK isn’t during Labor Day weekend, I am not dealing with that headache. This is no reflection on the con or the con staff, just more my frustration with Denver and being able to traverse faster by foot than car, when a car is necessary to maneuver stuff for a con.
The convention itself was awesome as always. There were loads of great cosplays (alas I didn’t get more photos because I was way more drained than previous years and thus couldn’t get anyone’s photo who wasn’t literally at my table) and some of the sweetest, most darling people coming up to say hi and talk to me. I got to see my con family and catch up with all my homies from the Artist Alley as well as friends I typically only see during NDK. Also, I was completely on top of the world after hosting my panel ‘So You Want to be a Manga-ka, Too?’ I had probably three hours of sleep the night before and a really disastrous Friday (I had forgotten boxes of merchandise and setup stuff, my new display wasn’t working, which made me super late and had to set up while Artist Alley was already open, it was UGLY…) I was basically surviving Saturday on pure caffeine and willpower until the panel. The energy from the crowd gave me LIFE and I got tons of great questions from people and a good time was had by all. Sunday started out slow but by the afternoon traffic and sales picked up and I actually sold out of a great deal of my merchandise. I’m sad that it will be a while until I see everyone again, but I really do need the time off. This year has been especially hard on me as an artist, and I need to not have any pressure for a while to remember why exactly I love sharing my dumb stories and stupid characters to begin with. Part of the reason I’m not updating this week is due to that. I need rest…… Otherwise, thanks again everyone! Regular updates return next week darlings!
