I’m back from Otakon! It was unexpectedly great and very different from my previous 2 years, I can’t figure out why BUT I WON’T COMPLAIN. The artist alley was huge and this year my idols from everywhere all came to otakon, including many people who I’ve never met before. I also got to hang out with like 4 different groups of people I knew over the years and meet a whole lot more, and in the end I walked away with an almost empty suitcase. I guess it kind of displaced how pissed off/annoyed/anxious I was a few days before lol ): I was thinking about never going to otakon again because of the stress it puts on me before the con but now I’m reconsidering.
my blog is going to be hella boring for the next month because all I have time for is work and conventions UGH. I haven’t had a chance to sketch ANYTHING but I think I will be spending some time on working on my art book next, so I may be able to bring you a few more scraps and sketches and wip lol D: BUT FOR NOW. WALL OF CONVENTION PICTURES AND TEXT IN THE FULL STORY!
I drove to buffalo (2 hours) to get a cheap flight to Baltimore on Sailormoon Southwest airlines. I brought a bag of books with me but I didn’t have a box for them so I just wrapped them around my jacket and jeans LOL. I was looking outside my seat winow and saw them TOSS MY BAG LIKE MOFOS ONTO THE CONVEYERBELT INTO THE PLANE and I was like FFFFFFFFFFF but luckily nothing happened to the books. I was going to take the lightrail but I’m a toothpick and I had 3 bags and a roll of pipes for my stand so I decided to try out the airport shuttle. It turned out to be the worst thing EVER because the van was messy, I waited forever and the people who were also going the same ay were total CREEPERS HAHA. Some white guy kept asking where I’m going, where I’m from, where I’m staying, what I do and I was just like staring out the window and halfassedly tried to turn him away. He was SO DISAPPOINTED when I got off at the convention center rather than the hotel I’m staying at LMFAO. But at least it was better than taking light rail because my hands melted just from dragging my luggage to the artist alley booth, then down to the artist alley LOL I just tossed them there and was like these better all disappear before I have to go back HAHA.
I went with Sharon‘s group of artists and RO players from Windfall. They had trouble accommodating everyone who was going to show at their table so Emily and Ellen came over to mine to display on Friday. I felt kind of bad because my table was already cramped and I could only let them put 2 closed folders and a button board on my table and people didn’t really see much of their works. Luckily they camped Saturday morning and was able to get a forfeited table for the rest of the con and sold pretty well there! This is my setup on Saturday morning before they arrived so half my table is empty XD I’m still working on stands and alignments to maek my stand not look so unprofessional LOL fff. I’m also thinking of having display panels on the sides after seeing Finni’s stand, because on top of the display space, it would also not make my stand bleed into the next table and confuse people. The guys next to me were selling decals and people kept asking me for them LOL.
I brought 5-20 of each print to otakon, less than what I usually bring because I had to bring books. I numbered them according to trends in the past many conventions which was stable, but for some reason I sold out of 2 of the prints that I only brought 5 of really fast when barely anyone bought them in previous years ): By the end of Saturday I also sold out of all 5 of the new prints I had so I thought no one would come by on Sunday since all the leftovers are my old crap prints. But even on Sunday people bought those and more of them sold out too. I was so confused because I couldn’t think of a reason why they would do well this year and this year only. I heard the Dealer’s Room was crappy and disappointing though, so maybe that’s why most of the business went to Artist Alley instead. People also seemed to like books in general. A lot of people bought the book despite not knowing wtf it’s about. They also commented about how high quality the printing was which probably helped me sell them LOL YEAH CHINESE PRINTING POWER /o/
And I hid all my mess behind the stands of prints HAHAHA
Emily and Ellen cosplayed as Tiger and Minato and they are FABULOUS. I shared my second table with Budgie and Lone-momo so we were table neighbours, and I benefited from the amazing mob of customers they always gather /PROFIT. they also let me use their stands which are much superior than my stands because they actually look professional and don’t fall over LOL DAMN DOLLAR STORE STANDS
Friday was particularly busy for some reason when it usually was slow. This year’s Artist Alley is just unusual I’m not even going to question it anymore LOL. Everyone was so tired on Friday because of trips Thurs night and all the actual setup work on Thurs/Friday. When we went back to the hotel Sharon made me wake Finni up because she is so passed out and they felt bad. I poked her and there was no response, so I flipped her eyelid and SHE STILL DIDN’T WAKE UP LOLOL I WISH I TOOK A VIDEO OF IT… I think I’m just too used to messing with my cat that I do that to people LMFAO.
I also went to Barachan‘s booth like 4 or 5 times because I was bent on buying her Gisele bag, but she was late and I couldn’t find her. The next time I went and she was just setting up and SHE ALREADY SOLD OUT OF THEM ASKDLJFASLKDJddsljfkf I was whining like a loser in front of her table LOL… because I really wanted that bag ): But omg all of her stuff is sooooo professionally designed, her table is so artsy and not ghetto like mine LMFAO. I am such a bad fangirl bothering my idols to hell HAHAHA
Saturday a lot of people came by since it was the main day! Here are people from my guild in RO. They’re probably group #2 or 3 during this con LOL. It’s so weird that some of my groups just sort of bleed into the next ones but half of those people don’t know each other HAHA. It’s coo tho I got to meet the ones I didn’t know. I met Lana for the first time!! after sooo many years she finally came to otakon. All that’s missing are those damn californians LOL
I also got a few people who read my manga come up and tell me, which was awesome! This is Flow and her sister, they’re the most awesome because they cosplayed RO LOL I feel like such an oldie when I appreciate RO this hard cus barely anyone recognizes RO ;_; I made them pose for me and now I destroyed their photo with retarded captions HEHEHEHEH
And in the middle of the day Bara came by and GAVE. ME. THIS. Apparently she just found one lying around AND SHE LET ME HAVE IT OMG I was dying inside. She wouldn’t let me pay for it but I insisted LOL except I was a dumbass and didn’t see the price sign on her bag so I kept asking her how much it was LMFAO I AM SO RETARDED. But at least in the end I didn’t accidentally underpay (even though I wish I could’ve just shoved her the $20 for being so god damn awesome LMAO) and now I have the most sickeningly cute make up bag in the world for my nonexistent makeup. I WILL MAKE GOOD USE FOR IT I SWEAR FFFFFFFFF
Finni me and Setsuna22 went to inner harbor to get food for everyone. This was the first time I went to inner harbor at night and it was very nice, especially with a little live concert going on, so I took some pictures!
Ever since chapter 5 I’ve become super interested in staring at tall ships lol… I stared at all the ship models in the convention center and this one in the harbor for a while I bet the others were like GOD STOP WASTING OUR TIME LMAO
Then I almost signed a contract with QB and got eaten by Charlotte.
When it was almost closing there were barely people around, so I went to the ~hentai room~ of the art show with budgie, lone-momo, nainsoo and crystal because I keep hearing EXCITING STORIES about the stuff in there. But it turned out to be a huge disappointment cus everything was just like wooooo tits! etc etc ]: But after we got back, I left my wallet my table to take a picture with nainsoo for like TWO SECONDS, and someone took the wallet away. I looked for it for like an hour before lost and found brought it to me saying someone turned it in, probably thinking it was a lost wallet since there was no one behind my table and I was in front of my table LOL DAMN THIEVES. They also told me they called my dad LMFAO… And things went HYSTERICAL afterwards because my dad was freaking out. I forgot to give him my friend’s contact # and I had no phone in the states, so he called like EVERYONE on my cell, who all happened to only be there for texting reasons. The next day people from RO, art, overseas etc were like dude wtf shilin your mom called me/left messages etc LMFAO I just couldn’t handle it. It’s only funny now because I got my wallet back but still I cannot express how hilarious it is when people described their phone calls/voice mails from my parents sljafdsfl
After Saturday closing everyone was tired as shit from a 10am-12pm shift. I went to look for ellen/emily to walk back together and they look so wasted in their booth from doing NOTHING (or maybe just drinking their water colour water)
Then we found this next to the elevator and I started making retarded whooping noises because it’s 1am and I was feeling swell
At the hotel room emily and ellen were making more small buttons while I worked on a commission and everyone else was just generally chillin. The buttons they were making were blank at first and THEY DECIDED TO DRAW THEM INTO EYEBALLS. And started putting them on everyone LOL. We took hella dumb pics of us with the eyes on and then with them on the prints we had in our room HAHAHAH WE WASTED LIKE A WHOLE HOUR DOING THIS EVEN THOUGH WE HAD STUFF TO FINISH. But anyway here are some photos of our amazing invention, code name derpeyes, and a terrifying picture of me
Bo Ae also came by a few times and bought stuff and gave me her crack manga! I still haven’t had time to read it BUT I WILL BECAUSE IT’S RIDICULOUS LMAO. I also bought a metal charm from Celesse of rainbowdash even though I had no idea wtf it was when I bought it… but idc it’s in pastel rainbow colours and it’s awesome
I had to leave early like usual after the con was over because my flight was just a few hours after closing ): all ma frenz and idols were just chillin and apparently going for dinner ugh I wish I could stay and go q_q… but I tried my best to say bye to everyone I remember and just got the fuck out LOL. Every year I leave before everyone else ): but I just didn’t want to have to wait for hours at the airport and waste time. I’m too efficient and boring LOL… I always feel judgmental when people write con reports and say it’s the best year ever or everything is awesome and they had phenomenal amounts of fun, because I always feel a vibe of exaggeration with these kinds of talk, but really this weekend was probably the best con I had for a while. It’s sad though that there’s no trend to how good/bad cons can be and they’re always unpredictable, I wish every con could be like this! Then I would actually look forward to them rather than stress out HAHA.
And to randomly end, here is a picture I found in my camera of my cat and some random stuff my friend bought for me from Japan. I have so much kawaii stuff right now all of a sudden I can’t deal LOL. My cat likes to sit like this on my computer chair a lot while I draw it’s sooooo cute
{ Sunnishine }
Your cat…. has a fucking boss mustache…. like a boss!
I would cry if its name isn't boss.
{ Sonya }
Cool you liked your first con. :)
Will you ever come out to west coast for a con?
{ Shilin }
This is actually not my first con, and I have been to AX before. It's just much more expensive and usually I don't make much money to cover costs at cons, so I rarely ever go far XD
{ Sonya }
Oh. haha. I guess I'm out of it then. :P
I just think… it'd be cool to see you in a booth at wondercon out in SF. :)
{ Sui }
Wow, sounds like you had tons of fun! <3 Will you be going to Otakon again next year and in the future? I especially loved the part about the elevator! XD It cracked me up so much! I wanted to chat with you at your table, but I saw someone else was talking with you, so I browsed around so I wouldn't bother you and the other person. But when I got back, I didn't see you at your table anymore! D: I also ran out of money when I got back to your table. Maybe next year! :'D I hope you'll come to Otakon next year! :3
{ Shilin }
awww I'm sorry! you could've butt in XD I was probably just chatting with my friends anyway cus I came with a huge group haha. I'll try to go next year!
{ Remi }
So she just randomly gave you the makeup bag? It's adorable. I was going to get one but I had like three quarters left by the time I came by her table.. |D
{ Kaily }
How much did you sell your posters for? I might go to otakon next year and hopefully save up to buy one of your prints ^^
{ Shilin }
I sold tabloid size posters for $15 each, or buy 2 get 1 free ^^
{ raefuun }
lul @ the googly eyes :>
{ Allexia }
maybe it's a sign that you should start coming to us conventions? (and hopefully to ones in California lol) Glad to see that you had a smashing time! *A*
{ YukiSukinomoto }
I.. am in love with your cat's mustache.
But haha, it seems like you had tons of fun!!! :D I'm jealous, I wish I could afford to go back to Otakon. D: The last time I went I got hella sick.
{ Shilin }
I do admit her stache is incredibly rad!
{ Helios }
…now I can't unsee those odd little eyeball buttons.
Anyway, glad you had a great time C: and didn't have to truck all your merch back home. Must have been a good feeling.
{ Flow }
Only a handful of people knew I was a high priest in other conventions, so my first time in Otakon was a big hit! XD Being topped off with you taking a photo of me and my sister, we feel soo honored ;____;
I would really like to see you again next year!!!! Maybe you would publish the second volume of Carciphona by then~ 8D
{ Ragnarok Private Server }
I didn't get to go this year I hope that i'll be able to go next year. I ended up breaking my legs last month so I had to sit this one out :(
{ Shilin }
awww I'm sorry ot hear that ):