AOD 2013 Recap [pt1]
AOD 2013 Recap
So, AOD2013 was this past weekend in SF’s Japan Town, and man, it was a fun and eventful weekend. Like usual, I’m going to give you a super detailed account of how it went down, and plug a lot of cool people I met along the way!
There were so many little cosplay-related stories that they’ll have their own journal entry after this one.
Day 1
After waking up stupid early (7AM in my book) to get ready and into my Sherlock cosplay, AutomaticGiraffe swung by my place and we drove off to SF. Once there we quickly started setting up everything, and I ran off and got us two large loaves of sourdough bread (plain, nothing else) that were pretty much the only thing we ate from 9AM-7PM. AutomaticGiraffe trained himself to not eat in college, but I wasn’t as ready for it.
Across from me was Kawaii Carnival. While I never actually spoke with the actual artist, I joked around with her boyfriend a bit, and he was a pretty chill dude. The moment I saw Lily Li in her Homura cosplay, I grabbed a mini print and brought one over to her, and she came back a little later and gave me two cute stickers of my choosing. I didn’t get to talk to her much until the very end of the con, but she’s very nice, and her caricatures are amazing. Hope to see her around in the future.
Stopped up and visited Seenday a few times to be mean to her, and she would sneak down from time to time to return the favor. She was tabling with her convention partner Jokerkilljoy who I’d seen before, but didn’t really get a chance to talk to until Day 2. I would slip by Spirafall from time to time and see how her booth was doing, what with it’s like…7 artists at one table. Her tablemates would see me hovering around and would say to her “It’s the Sherlock guy!” I didn’t get to really talk to too many of them, but I know some came by my table, and I don’t know which ones to give a plug here @_@
Dark-pen would swing by from time to time and introduce me to various art/photography people he’d met along his travels, including someone who I think runs Sutafuzz Photography.
AutomaticGiraffe never had a single break, or left his table all con. I would look over, and he would be doing commissions each time.
Day 1 was great. For one, people were actually taking my business cards this time. I had a few laid out in a pattern in front of the little tray, and one girl kept coming by and rearranging the pattern just to mess with me until I quickly gave up and let her have her fun. The Wreck-it Ralph/Street Fighter print got attention, but didn’t start moving until later in the day. My Casshern mini prints shocked me in how much better they did than I expected they would, proving once again that you can’t predict a convention crowd worth a damn. Homura and Madoka minis didn’t move near as much as I expected them to.
Before the day was even over, I had already broken even, and even made a profit! This was the second convention I’d broken even (I was in debt last AOD, the red at Fanime, and then finally even at SNAFUcon), but the first one where I made a REAL profit. It was super exciting, because then I didn’t really care how well things were selling, because I had already broken a record and met my goal.
Earlier in the day, AutomaticGiraffe had told me about a group of guys at Fanime who went around commissioning everyone they saw to draw something called “dickbutt,” which was a character that was a penis, with a butt, with a penis coming out of that other butt. Sure enough, those very same people came around and commissioned me to draw one for them. I charged them $5 and said it was a fee for “forcing me to compromise my moral integrity.” It didn’t turn out great—I made it look like some sort’a Gundam/robo snail.
Sometime during the day, Michael Son of Tapastic dropped by my table and I had a really cool conversation with him about my art, my styles and how I do them, and the company he was promoting. He had some of the coolest business cards I’d ever seen, but then again, I’m a sucker for colors and patterns.
In the evening, Seenday’s friend n475u hung around my table, and seeing as how AutomaticGiraffe and I didn’t want to just get dinner alone, we ended up inviting her and her friend to go with us to get ramen.
Then I came home, sent out some confirmation emails to people who commissioned me, and promptly passed the hell out.
Day 2
We were exhausted in the morning, but still managed to function. AutomaticGiraffe had several commissions he needed to try and knock off since he collapsed the moment he got home, and I wandered around the Artist Alley a bit, since things are typically slow on Sunday in the morning. Some person left little doodles on a number of people’s tables. I got a shark.
I got to chat with Cyril Belen who I saw at last AOD. He does lazer-cut designs, and I got to talk to him about how he made his stuff. I’ve always liked his Pokemon badges, and he even had these cute little wooden Totoro clocks.
Buzzed by Onihat’s table for a moment because I saw her stuff and remembered Audrey reblogging some of it earlier in the week. Turns out she’s also the person who did some of the little Pokemon keychains that are sold at Game Center, our local arcade.
In the early afternoon, one of my childhood friends stopped by with his friend, and he went around talking to other artists while his friend and I talked about the sort’a work we did.
Sunday was a lot slower, but I completely sold out of my Sherlock print! I was sad too, ‘cus I actually figured I’d trade those with some of the artists in the AA who I thought might like it. I was able to wander around a little bit, and that’s when I started talking with Mukeiroyalty, whose stuff is fantastic--completely my type of colorful and trippy design work. We talked about the different conventions she’s been attending since taking a term off from school, and what other ones I should try checking out. Definitely looking forward to what she makes next.
Chowpan is another really good, and nice artist who I got to talk with for a while. I didn’t see her on the first day, but I was told by her table partner Bopx (wonderful in her own right) that her partner “had a huge crush on [my] cosplay,” so I said “Well!” She came over and chatted with us a bit at our tables, and I imagine we’ll be seeing her and her tablemate at conventions in the future.
Every artist I hung out with was really excited to find out what conventions I’d be attending next, and if we’d see each other again, and I certainly hope we do, because I made so many cool new friends in AA this year. Hopefully we can try and keep in touch on DA/Tumblr/FB/wherever!
At the end of the con, I did a few little print exchanges with the artists I met, and made sure to get everyone’s business cards. We packed up our stuff and then met up with Seenday and Jokerkilljoy for another ramen dinner where we were introduced to their friend chikinnugets who is a damn good artist. We hung out, talked about cons, our families, and other stuff over milk tea before eventually parting ways.
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