endless-whispers

I finally managed to cross something off my bucket list - selling my art at a convention. And I had a pretty good time while doing so!

Last weekend, I participated in Animangaki 2012, a small fan-organised anime convention which was just a 10-minute drive away from where I live. The idea to set up a booth was pitched by me on a whim, and I got a friend to join in. I was selling Pokémon-related merchandise while my friend sold some seriously adorable cross-stitch button badges.



The hall the artist alley was situated in was pretty small and got crowded real quick. There weren't many cosplayers around, although those that were there were pretty well done. I even saw an N cosplay, but forgot to snap a photo of her.

In the end, my sales were decent - I managed to break even, although most of the stuff which sold were the non-Pokémon related merchandise. Most of my customers were kids with their parents, while others asked if I had any Reshiram/Zekrom stuff for sale. My friend's button badges, on the other hand, were immensely popular and sold off really quickly. It was a good learning experience for me as I got a better gauge of what people go after (badges, keychains and prints), although I don't think I'll have the time to participate in another con in the near future.

As I have some leftover merchandise from my stall, I've decided to open up a Storenvy shop to sell them! You can check it out here, or you can also drop me a note on DA. I'm still new to this online sales thing, and the last time I delivered a card internationally didn't go so well, so please bear with me.

Anyway, thanks for reading til the end of my journal! To end it, here are some random pics I took at the con:

After recently returning from my first-ever(!) anime convention, I was struck by this wild idea – I should actually try selling some of my artwork at a convention. More specifically, I was thinking of selling handmade paper craft like Pokémon tags and greeting cards. However, I'm not sure if people are willing to buy handmade paper craft or anything Pokémon related. I took a look around the convention and the booths were selling printed bookmarks, badges, doujinshis and posters. There weren't many signs of anything Pokémon-related elsewhere either; I saw exactly 7 Pokémon cosplayers (mostly Pikachus) among the dozens of Miku, KHR, Bleach, One Piece and Naruto cosplayers.

So my question is this – how can I suss out the market for my potential products? I'm not in touch with the Pokémon fanbase (if any) in Malaysia, and would like to stick to Pokémon-related stuff since I'm not too familiar with other anime and fanbases. I've tried searching online for any Pokémon fanbases in my country, but with no luck. I'm also thinking that an anime convention might not be the best place either, since most of the fans seem more anime-centric than game-centric.

If you have any suggestions, or have experienced selling uncommon items at conventions, I'd like to hear them

So I logged on earlier today and noticed that I received about 50+ new messages. I figured someone may have favebombed my gallery and I didn't check it out. Logging on a few hours later, I discovered 500+ new messages in my inbox and realised that it was for a Daily Deviation!

This may sound cliche and all, but I never expected a DD. I always assumed DDs were reserved for outstanding pieces of art produced by dedicated artists, and since Feeling Zen was just meant to be a simple birthday card for a friend, it was really, really surprising.

Special thanks to rioIu and UnicornReality for suggesting and featuring it respectively. Also, thanks to all those who faved and commented on the piece!

I guess one of the problems with growing up is that you have to sometimes have to discard stuff that you had when you were younger out of the sake of avoiding embarassment. Especialy e-mails with usernames that sounded cool to you, like, a decade ago.

My e-mail username (shadow_bind) was inspired by a Pokemon TCG attack from waaaay back. Now, whenever I write it down in forms, or god forbid, say it out, people will give that raised eyebrow look. Those who are more in touch with pop culture would probably say, "So you're into ninjas huh?" (though it has nothing to do with ninjas...) Most just maintain that awkward silence. I've tried using it as a conversation piece, by joking that everyone goes through that phase with their e-mail names, but it doesn't do wonders for my image.

I still like the username though, regardless of how lame it sounds to me now. Besides, it's a hassle switching e-mail addresses. Tell me I'm not alone in this...

I've been commuting between home and my university daily for the past 3 months or so via public transport, and it's a 1.5 hour trip one way. It'd probably have sucked my soul out if not for my trustworthy Nintendo DS. For the past month, I've managed to play and (almost) complete a great RPG, Radiant Historia. Here's a few things I think about it:

- The time-traveling aspect is clever, although a bit tiring if you don't know where in history you need to go to (in which walkthroughs are indispensible).

- The soundtrack is well-produced, especially for a NDS game. It's no wonder, since the composer for Kingdom Hearts is also behind this one.

- I liked the battle system! I don't play RPGs much, but pushing enemies into one another to perform combos is new to me. It's such a time saver.

- Plenty of save points = good thing for a person who has a knack for dying easily

- Story is a bit confusing. It feels like another one of those 'you are the chosen one' cliches, but there are some nice twists and at least the characters' personalities are fleshed out a bit.

All in all, a highly recommended game!