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Post-Anthrocon Journal: Part II
12 years ago
General
As promised, I am here to offer a Part II to my Anthrocon experiences. I apologize for how huge this is. The writing is awful and the content is mainly for my own records, but those of you with too much time on your hands could pretend you were me, I guess.
Clients: please bare with me. I accidentally left my receipts in Columbus, so tomorrow you should expect to have an email ready!
Believe it or not, here's the short version of this journal that doesn't include absolutely everybody:
It's easy for a typical convention attendee to assume Anthrocon prep starts a week beforehand, but for most artists that couldn't be further from the truth. That's why I chose to start this journal entry a solid month away from the start of Anthrocon.
After buying prints, frames, figuring out poster orders, travel itineraries, and scheduling family time across the state of Ohio, I was left with little time to complete older commissions as promised. I try my best to make my word my bond, even when it's inconvenient for me, but sometimes I miss that mark, and for that I'm truly sorry.
After picking up orel/veter-/Vet from the NKY airport on late Tuesday afternoon, he started his almost complete tour of my immediate family. By the end of AC he and I visited three generations of my family. Naturally, they were all charmed. So much so, in fact, that I'm fairly certain they prefer him over me. While in Canton, Mom and Vet really pulled through to help me make the most out of the remaining days before the con.
The drive to Pitt was great—no traffic, no confusion, and no settling for expensive and distant parking!
The two of us were able to relax before the rest of our room arrived. After getting my name on the board, something that is likely to change as more friends arrive, we met up with awesome clients mish-mash and nexu, who generously provided a delicious Korean meal and great conversation! They were as kind to me in real life as online. What a winning couple!
With even more time to spare, Vet and I went to complete registration. After making fun of how long his line was, it turned out I was waiting in the wrong line, myself. The end of my line brought about a brief but delightful conversation with another awesome client/friend, derecho. I drew a really lame drawing in his sketchbook, which proved that I could do lame drawings all day if I had to. That was foreshadowing.
Eventually I met up with Toulouse, and together we spent several hours working on our Dealer's Den table, a poetic tribute to the dichotomy of the blue-collar on in an internet subculture (read: finger-painted sign).
The Dealer's Den wasn't what I expected. Thanks to some tips from Vantid, I'm prepared to have my posters in a more easily sellable format. But even with that guidance, she and I agreed our more popular prints weren't the big sellers. For example, this is an image of all of my poster orders for pickup (That one wash't picked up, which makes it even funnier). Guess The Westin had something in the water! During Friday afternoon, I fell ill from fatigue and overworking, and had to exit the Dealer's Den early. This would mark the pattern of needing early evening naps to sustain myself.
When I wasn't hawking off prints, shooting the breeze, or getting commissions, I was getting questions about badges. Most everyone knows my doodles are pretty crappy, but that didn't stop me from trying color badges. If you want your badge, you have to bring me any object that is primarily a colour of my choosing. linkcannedtalent: and coyox thought I was drunk when they heard about this, but I don't blame them in the least. The Zoo is a breeding ground for stupidity, and "Hey Matt. You have to commission me. It costs one green," at 12:30AM is a suspiciously good deal.
Saturday's DD experience saw the most inter-artist socializing. I'll give a list of some highlights from this time, though there were many more:
- Every. Single. One. Of my commissions were of cool character designs and exciting concepts. I am so incredibly spoiled by these clients!
- centradragon was kind-enough to visit our table not once, but twice!
- shanerefus isn't Pac, but everyone agrees Pac should still come to a con, so get on that.
- One night ago I told a couple of my friends that Keovi was an asshole (I name dropped in a moment of weakness). But when she visited my table the morning after I realized I paired her name with another face, and got to meet her/apologize in person! She is so kind, and not an asshole at all. You go, Keovi.
- riptideshark and kellervo had us thinkin' 'bout sharks all day, all day. It's true. We chanted and danced. Someone got a video, I think.
- Orel, Rampack, Knuxlight, and Analon were tables I was able to visit in the AA. I missed the others, regrettably, but their setups and wares were excellent!
- ianjay and chickenteeth were killing it. They're comic powerhouses that make the DD so much better, and I can't wait to communicate with 'em later about my own comic-smithing endeavours!
- thewanderingangel, v-smok, cisqur and plenty of other people regularly checked up on me to make sure I was bouncing back from my illness and stressors.
- trek, rucksack, and yumil Three people I first knew outside of the fandom had surprised me in the DD!
- When Jasonmiller answered this by saying "When I was in preschool, I wanted to be a snake and a criminal."
- Anything deviantterra
- All the previous clients that wanted to say hello!
Saturday night, many of us met at an overpriced restaurant, where exactly 50% percent of the service was horrible. I assume of this party, one person left this skeleton hoodie. It looks awesome, but it isn't mine. Hook a brother up with an address! At the Zoo, Maybemantis/Suchamantis/mightbemantis/definitelymantis premiered her partial, which was ridiculously cute.
Sunday, xyphoid/Doug invited me to dinner with our FWA circle, which was incredibly delicious and fun. But on my way down to the restaurant I was able to say a hello to lone.companion and bosshog! Dinner conversation was great, but near the end I was especially interested about talking of Weasyl's potential. Exciting furry things could be on the horizon!
I want to wrap this up, quickly, so apologies for not doing the last days justice. ke joined our room last minute, and he's swell. Also turns out I relate to Vet on a disturbingly large amount of things! Despite this character flaw, Justina and I really enjoyed his company, and in the few days he was visiting we felt really encouraged by his presence. A++ guest, would house again.
PS: I have more AC videos to upload. One is of me making a creeper face at malkyru, and it's delicious.
Clients: please bare with me. I accidentally left my receipts in Columbus, so tomorrow you should expect to have an email ready!
Believe it or not, here's the short version of this journal that doesn't include absolutely everybody:
It's easy for a typical convention attendee to assume Anthrocon prep starts a week beforehand, but for most artists that couldn't be further from the truth. That's why I chose to start this journal entry a solid month away from the start of Anthrocon.
After buying prints, frames, figuring out poster orders, travel itineraries, and scheduling family time across the state of Ohio, I was left with little time to complete older commissions as promised. I try my best to make my word my bond, even when it's inconvenient for me, but sometimes I miss that mark, and for that I'm truly sorry.
After picking up orel/veter-/Vet from the NKY airport on late Tuesday afternoon, he started his almost complete tour of my immediate family. By the end of AC he and I visited three generations of my family. Naturally, they were all charmed. So much so, in fact, that I'm fairly certain they prefer him over me. While in Canton, Mom and Vet really pulled through to help me make the most out of the remaining days before the con.
The drive to Pitt was great—no traffic, no confusion, and no settling for expensive and distant parking!
The two of us were able to relax before the rest of our room arrived. After getting my name on the board, something that is likely to change as more friends arrive, we met up with awesome clients mish-mash and nexu, who generously provided a delicious Korean meal and great conversation! They were as kind to me in real life as online. What a winning couple!
With even more time to spare, Vet and I went to complete registration. After making fun of how long his line was, it turned out I was waiting in the wrong line, myself. The end of my line brought about a brief but delightful conversation with another awesome client/friend, derecho. I drew a really lame drawing in his sketchbook, which proved that I could do lame drawings all day if I had to. That was foreshadowing.
Eventually I met up with Toulouse, and together we spent several hours working on our Dealer's Den table, a poetic tribute to the dichotomy of the blue-collar on in an internet subculture (read: finger-painted sign).
The Dealer's Den wasn't what I expected. Thanks to some tips from Vantid, I'm prepared to have my posters in a more easily sellable format. But even with that guidance, she and I agreed our more popular prints weren't the big sellers. For example, this is an image of all of my poster orders for pickup (That one wash't picked up, which makes it even funnier). Guess The Westin had something in the water! During Friday afternoon, I fell ill from fatigue and overworking, and had to exit the Dealer's Den early. This would mark the pattern of needing early evening naps to sustain myself.
When I wasn't hawking off prints, shooting the breeze, or getting commissions, I was getting questions about badges. Most everyone knows my doodles are pretty crappy, but that didn't stop me from trying color badges. If you want your badge, you have to bring me any object that is primarily a colour of my choosing. linkcannedtalent: and coyox thought I was drunk when they heard about this, but I don't blame them in the least. The Zoo is a breeding ground for stupidity, and "Hey Matt. You have to commission me. It costs one green," at 12:30AM is a suspiciously good deal.
Saturday's DD experience saw the most inter-artist socializing. I'll give a list of some highlights from this time, though there were many more:
- Every. Single. One. Of my commissions were of cool character designs and exciting concepts. I am so incredibly spoiled by these clients!
- centradragon was kind-enough to visit our table not once, but twice!
- shanerefus isn't Pac, but everyone agrees Pac should still come to a con, so get on that.
- One night ago I told a couple of my friends that Keovi was an asshole (I name dropped in a moment of weakness). But when she visited my table the morning after I realized I paired her name with another face, and got to meet her/apologize in person! She is so kind, and not an asshole at all. You go, Keovi.
- riptideshark and kellervo had us thinkin' 'bout sharks all day, all day. It's true. We chanted and danced. Someone got a video, I think.
- Orel, Rampack, Knuxlight, and Analon were tables I was able to visit in the AA. I missed the others, regrettably, but their setups and wares were excellent!
- ianjay and chickenteeth were killing it. They're comic powerhouses that make the DD so much better, and I can't wait to communicate with 'em later about my own comic-smithing endeavours!
- thewanderingangel, v-smok, cisqur and plenty of other people regularly checked up on me to make sure I was bouncing back from my illness and stressors.
- trek, rucksack, and yumil Three people I first knew outside of the fandom had surprised me in the DD!
- When Jasonmiller answered this by saying "When I was in preschool, I wanted to be a snake and a criminal."
- Anything deviantterra
- All the previous clients that wanted to say hello!
Saturday night, many of us met at an overpriced restaurant, where exactly 50% percent of the service was horrible. I assume of this party, one person left this skeleton hoodie. It looks awesome, but it isn't mine. Hook a brother up with an address! At the Zoo, Maybemantis/Suchamantis/mightbemantis/definitelymantis premiered her partial, which was ridiculously cute.
Sunday, xyphoid/Doug invited me to dinner with our FWA circle, which was incredibly delicious and fun. But on my way down to the restaurant I was able to say a hello to lone.companion and bosshog! Dinner conversation was great, but near the end I was especially interested about talking of Weasyl's potential. Exciting furry things could be on the horizon!
I want to wrap this up, quickly, so apologies for not doing the last days justice. ke joined our room last minute, and he's swell. Also turns out I relate to Vet on a disturbingly large amount of things! Despite this character flaw, Justina and I really enjoyed his company, and in the few days he was visiting we felt really encouraged by his presence. A++ guest, would house again.
PS: I have more AC videos to upload. One is of me making a creeper face at malkyru, and it's delicious.
OK, two comments. Looking forward to the videos.
...Ok three comments. Your color badges are fantastic. Fan. Tastic. I would easily have paid, say, 2 green for one.
Would be curious to hear what you learnt from being at the DD there and cross notes from what I learnt from FurDU.
Hope to be at this next year!!
Also, based on the weather, the reflection in the convention center made my sleeved prints just look like they were squares of white something.
new fursuit.
ps. reading your journal again filled me with memories and now im sad, you should be ashamed.
i want ac to happen alwayyyysss.
i cant wait for next year and watch us take 2 hours just to make those boxes.
And great!
Yeah, FWA was a better friend con. Another reason I wasn't anticipating AC to be so draining.
Glad you had an overall good time, though!
Glad you had a good time! Sleep is such a rare luxury at a convention... I think I got 2-4 hours a night, yuck. Hopefully you got more than me! Taking time off of work before/after a con can help too!
I found from experience (and firefeathers schooling me) that people do like a lot of tactile things at tables. If they can go through random objects (for me, print packs and little metallic prints on the table) and pick out ones they want, they're more likely to buy it because they found this neat thing no one else had. Fire had a lot of buttons she sorta spread around, and she sold a ton of them. I'm sure there's a way to get people to want those posters, and maybe some sort of sweet display would work well.
I'm sure Vantid had waaaay better advice than I do, but I figured saying something wouldn't hurt. :D