Welcome to my world. I'm a interactive designer working in the Seattle area. I love anime and have been an anime artist for about 4 years now. I love meeting new people and commenting on work. I also love receiving comments and criticism too. I want to be a better artist and The Otaku is the place to do that.

Making the Jump to Artist Alley

Hello everyone!

I was at Sakura Con 2009 this year. I've been going to that convention for four years now and every year I have been there as a fan. As I am sure many of you know conventions are wondrous occasions where we as fans can all gather and share our common interest. There is NEVER a dull moment at a convention, especially if you are there with the intent of making all you can out of it. There is the always-money-devouring exhibitors’ hall, gaming rooms, panels, rock band contests, singing competitions, cosplay, concerts, autograph signing, and finally Artist Alley, which brings me to my point. Though every year I have been at this con as a fan, this year I was also there with the distinct honor to be a part of the Artist Alley. What a HUGE difference that made!

Die-hard fans may be at conventions the full 72 hours non-stop and for that I am truly amazed, but in regards to us mere mortals, there is probably a hotel room, maybe a pillow and the desire to sleep every once and a while. This was true for me. So let me give you the numbers first. With 6 hours of sleep a night I would arrive early in the morning to start setting up my booth. I worked 35 hours in three days. There are only 25 tables for the Artists and the convention boasts 17,000 in attendance (per the badge numbers I saw).

I have been working on my art and my style for 5 years now, I am a graphic designer by trade but I have always been interested in illustration. Making the jump from fan attending a convention to artist working a convention is one of the main goals I have been striving towards since I first started drawing. Last weekend was a dream-come-true for me! I wouldn't trade it for anything. However, not ever being in an artist alley at a large convention before I found out some important lessons that I’ll share with you now:

1. You are there to work.

It was the most difficult thing that I really had to grasp this weekend. You will miss things like the Anime Music Video competition, opening ceremonies, even closing ceremonies. You can maybe sneak into the exhibitors’ hall for a little bit and buy some DVDs or figures but that’s about it besides bathroom breaks. Every minute you are away from your table, you aren’t selling. You might have a friend there with you that can cover your booth for you but if you aren’t there then that means the artist isn’t there. One of the main selling points you’ll have is that the customer can meet the artist.

2. Make friends with your neighbors.

Once the reality sets in that you are going to be at the same place for just about the whole con then look to your left and your right. These are the people that are going to be sitting with you the whole time! Get to know them! Immediately you have something in common, you are both artists. I got to know the girl sitting next to me pretty well and we had a lot of fun. Her art work was great and we traded Photoshop tricks as well as artistic tips. As the con goes on you'll become closer to even the artists not around you. Take a moment and realize this, art is subjective and everyone is going to have different tastes, therefore don't look at the other artists as competition but as fellow companions.

3. Customer Service is Key.

Putting yourself out there as an artist and saying to the world, "this is what I can do, judge me" is one of the scariest things there is for an artist. With that said you can be the best artist ever and you still won't sell anything if you don't put on a smile and open yourself up to people. I saw other artists fail because they set their art out in front of them and then started reading a book. Let’s say you see a piece you like but you are on the fence about whether or not you are going to buy it. You look at the picture and you think, “hmm, I wonder how he/she did that”. You look up to talk to the artist and ask a question but instead the artist is ignoring you reading a book looking bored like they don’t want to be there. This is not a good atmosphere to be in as a customer or an artist.

4. Balance will make a comfortable environment.

It wasn’t until Saturday afternoon that I really picked up on this lesson. Like in lesson 3, being attentive to your customers will help your sales but being too attentive can scare them away. Even though you may be extremely nervous to have someone looking at your art, judging what you made, don’t watch them looking at your stuff. Let them enjoy your work on their own time. Keep their actions in your peripheral view and if you see them slow down or look like they are finished then give them your attention again. Perhaps they have a question or need more information. A great way to break the ice is say, “if you find something you like let me know”, or “if you have any questions I’ll be right here” or even quote them your prices “all prints are $5 or you can get 5 prints for $20”. If they are interested they will point something out, otherwise they will probably smile and move along.

5. Don’t argue with your customer, ever.

If I haven’t made myself clear yet, ART IS SUBJECTIVE! Some people aren’t going to like your work. It’s ok. Let’s say, someone came up and said one of your pieces was too skinny and that she was anorexic. Ok, don’t argue with them. You aren’t going to change their mind about it. Just smile and shake it off. The worst thing that can happen is that people will look up and see you in an argument and then someone who might like the piece will skip your table and you will lose a sale.

6. You aren’t the best artist in the alley.

Even if you are the best artist in the alley don’t think like that. If you go to the convention with the attitude that if you sell one picture that you made or get one commission then you will leave so much happier than if you set minimums like, “I have to sell all my prints”.

These are the six lessons that I learned at my first big con artist alley experience. If you’ve been an artist at a convention before I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences too! For me, even though I might have missed a lot of the convention’s events, it was the best Sakura Con I’ve been to. I can’t speak for everyone in the alley but I left feeling accomplished and that my little hobby drawing comic books and anime characters actually means something. I feel like a worthy artist/illustrator and it really was the experience of artist alley that gave it to me. To all the artists out there in the Otaku, I encourage you, when you feel ready, sign up for artist alley at your local convention. Put yourself out there and if you follow these six lessons you’ll have a great time!

The Space Cowboy

My Sakura-Con Review And Experience!!!

Here it is: MY SAKURA CON REVIEW

I've been putting this off for a while because I am in the middle of making a new website for my new business. That's right I bought a business. Hypergate Studios. We are a web design, video, and digital art firm. But thats beside the point.

SAKURA CON DAY 0 (Thursday; day before the show)

I arrived with my staff (my roommate from college) at 2:30ish in Seattle. I had a hotel reserved for three nights and four days so the first thing we did was check in. Our Hotel was... ok. Kinda smaller than I wanted and there was construction on the floor above us. It made it hard to hang out with other convention goers. Because this was the first time that I have gone to a con as a presenter and for selling art, we darted over to the convention center to check in there ASAP.

Once checked in, which took an hour and a half, we headed down to where I was going to sell my art. It wasn't set up yet. Not that it was a big deal but we had to kill time and come back at 9pm. We started to set up and I realized I didn't have any materials promoting my business or me as an artist. There were just prints laying on a table. So in an act of desperation I opened my dying laptop and whipped a little promotional screener together as fast as I could. We put it on a cd and ran to Kinkos and luckily had it printed.

That night I couldn't sleep. I was going to give a presentation the next day on Photoshop and there were going to be at least 100 people there. Yikes. Eventually I fell asleep on the floor in between the wall and the unmovable bed frame. Ouch.

SAKURA CON DAY 1 (Friday; Opening Day)

I was a wreck. It was 9 am and we darted to the convention center to finish getting some of my art sales up. Then the waiting. I had to wait 3 hours until I could begin presenting so I found a chair and parked it. We were sitting right outside the room so I could see as people arrived to the presentation. I wasn't identified as a presenter so I sat in the crowd and listened to the people talk about the presentation before it started. There was a lot of talk about the convention and people saying what they wanted to do for the day. But I caught one girl and guys conversation that really stuck out.

:Guy approaches:
Girl: Hey dude, what are you doing here?
Guy: Oh I just wanted to see what this was all about. I figure I have to get started somewhere. What are you doing here?
Girl: Just sitting here. I want to grill the guy who is giving the presentation.
Guy: Gonna laugh at him huh? Well you do know a lot about Photoshop

I didn't know how to react... I just slowly backed away and thought, "oh, I'll show you." It's funny because I know they didn't mean to do this but it gave me all the confidence in the world. I wanted to prove to this girl that I knew way more about Photoshop than she did. I mean come on, I've been in college for almost 5 years learning this stuff and 3 years in high school before that.

The presentation started off late. The woman before us was presenting on Origami and she needed a few more minutes. She was really nice about it so it didn't matter. When things got started though there had to be more than 100 people in there. This was supposed to be an introduction piece to Photoshop, but when I asked who had used Photoshop before all the hands went up. Still I was committed to giving the best presentation I could.

I started off with Digital inking, moved into base colors, shading and so forth - all the while watching the girl who thought she knew more than I did. Nothing yet and I was running out of time. So I shot for the moon. I went off the lesson plan and showed how to color and shade your lines to match your perspective and shading done in earlier steps. By the time I finished I heard her lean over to her friend and whisper "COOL".

I did it; I had won my little mental battle. Oh it was amazing. Afterward I was interviewed by someone from the press and met an associate from Adobe. Really awesome for a college student. The rest of the day was devoted to spending money and watching the AMV show. I was on cloud 9.

SAKURA CON DAY 2 (Saturday; Busiest Day of the Convention)

All the joy and awesomeness that was yesterday was gone. I had another presentation to give today. This time it was on creating your own fan web page. It was a pretty easy topic for me to cover but things didn't feel right to begin with. It took us 3 hours to finally find someone who could tell us how to buy an internet connection. This was going to be mandatory for the presentation.

It worked outside in our chairs from yesterday which was great. The first part of my presentation was going to be about the WORLDS here at THEOTAKU.COM!!!! I still felt like something was going to go wrong so I took screen captures of all the Otaku world pages.

Of course things did go wrong. Only 30 people showed up because there was a huge learn to draw presentation going on next door. Also THE INTERNET DIED in the presentation room. AHHH panic! Thank goodness I had the screen captures.

I showed what I could without internet but after 40 minutes of doing everything I could think of I was out of content. Too much of a technology gap between the audience members. So I finished early.

It was sad because I couldn't show anybody anything. In the end though a little boy came up to me about 10 years old and thanked me and shook my hand. It was SOOO COOOL. WOW... it was totally worth it.

Next I ran down stairs to THEOTAKU.COM meet and greet!!! Ahhh so cool I finally get to meet everyone. I met Someguy and Panda, and got to see the recording of the podcast live from Sakura Con. I even got some SWAG. Free DVD set from The Otaku!!! My thanks to Gail, Someguy, and Adam. I was very appreciative and Special thanks to Gail for recognizing my screen name with my work. She said that it was very good. Thanks Gail!

With both my presentations out of the way it was time to party. We hit up the Seattle night life and also enjoyed taking some pictures of awesome cosplayers and danced out at the anime rave! By the end of the night I was exhausted and I slept amazingly.

SAKURA CON DAY 3 (Sunday; Final Day of the Convention)

Still exhausted from the other day, we trudged into the convention center. Not a lot happened on this day. I checked out of my art show table. I made about $200 on sales! That was a great feeling.

I was waiting anxiously for closing ceremonies to find out who had won the mascot challenge. I couldn't wait. I entered three pieces. Check them out below.

The closing ceremonies started and we waited to see who won. Then over the speakers they said there were technical difficulties and that you would have to check out the website to see who won.

UGHHH!!!!

We hopped in the car and took off for home. I had a strange sense of unease. I didn't know if I had placed at all. Slowly the convention feeling faded and I remembered what real life was going to be like.

Late that night back home I check the website and sadly I saw that I didn't win. Oh well. Either way I was happy over all.

Sakura Con was a lot more work this time around but I was so happy I went and most of all people liked my art enough to buy it. WOW

Just WOW.

I'll have pictures up soon. (updating at work has its limitations)