Soooooes…. for those of you that want to know how A-Kon went.

Well, I went into it knowing it was going to be a learning experience, it was my first Anime Con.  Both to go to and to sell at (whee)! So didn’t really know what would sell best and what I should bring. So I prepped.  By prepping I made magnets, got a new display for the magnets, which I tested at home, made prints of a lot of my originals, and added more originals to my book, made a new binders specifically for my skulklan work, as there got to be too much of it and I wanted to seperate it from my originals for sale binder, and ran off a lot of ACEO prints that I needed to have extras of.  Oh, yeah, and I made stickers.

Verdict from all of this was that the display didn’t work when I got to A-kon (I don’t know, guess there is too much aluminum in the metal so the magnets didn’t stick AND it wasn’t readily apparent that they were magnets, so I really need a better way to do that).  The stickers sold really well! I should print more!  Some prints still never made it in the binder, which was unfortunate and I don’t know what happened to them.  My ACEO’s were a hit, and the Editions were really popular (CHEAP) so I had to reprint quite a few.  I NEED to get a button maker… need need need.  They will sell.

Trying to figure out if I should do any fanart… I just don’t know.  It’s not really my thing.  But it would sell?  How much of an art mercenary am I?  I mean, I could really only fanart Studio Ghibli stuff, bleach and cowboy bebop, as that is all I have seen… I don’t know, it is still all up in the air.

I realized AT the con, that I didn’t have prints of some of my favorite/darker/large pieces.  So I need to bring them for next time.

Oh so the fun bits.

I LOVE watching people so A-Kon was awesome for that.  So many cool costumes, so many ummmmm…. different costumes.  So MUCH to see!  Lots of awesome vendors too!  I got a chance to meet Ursula Vernon (check out www.RedWombatStudio.com – her work is amazing), and get her to sign the various books of hers that I own.  Even my poor abused copy of Nurk, which my dog chewed on.  And we nabbed dinner at Cafe Brazil after Iron Artist (which she grabbed me to work in on Saturday night – and was great fun to do).  Also met the peeps from Scuttlebutt (http://www.scuttlebutt-inc.com/ ) who are full of win!  Awesome badges, and just cool to hang out with, wish I had had more time to get to know you guys.  Sat beside a great draftsman and another cool peep – Tom Mucha, and the fantastic Diesel LaForce (http://shadowcastings.samsbiz.com/) whose sculpture is something you HAVE to see.  Just stunning in detail and realism, he is also a very cool person.  So check out these fun peeps.

Things I wish I had seen include – the apparently awesome outfit of the guy in stripes from Ponyo (I suck at names, sorry), the whole Doctor Who crew that was there Saturday, getting to go downstairs to check meet Jennie Breeden (http://devilspanties.keenspot.com/ ) and the people from Redstring (http://www.redstring.strawberrycomics.com/ ).  But hopefully I will run into them at a later con.  (The webcomic peeps at least).

Soes… all in all, a FANTASTIC convention.  Big thanks to everyone who put it on, and I hope some of you who are visiting this site met me there.  If so drop a line.  I’d love to hear from you.

Oh, and next stop is ANTHROCON!  It’s in Pittsburgh the weekend of the 24-27 and I’m taking preorders for badges.  If you order your badge or sketch or whatever NOW instead of at the con – I’ll throw in a free 5×7 print of your choice (has to be something I make prints of, of course).

Filed under: Conventions, life by Laura