#conreport

I was at Abunai last weekend and it was a lot of fun honestly. I was in a deep artlow this whole year but this con really helped me crawl out of it.

This con was my first time standing alone, my usual tablemate Cheriin couldn't make it sadly. Afterwards it may have been for the best because I totally forgot how little space there is behind one table. One thing which was a good improvement from previous editions of Abunaicon tho is the addition of airconditioning. Abunai has a notorious history of heatwaves during their weekend (I remember wearing a tanktop and shorts in the 2016 edition and still melting), but the wheather was actually pretty doable this time. Granted we’ve had a gigantic heatwave this summervacation.

I went shopping for some new cool stuff to display my new A5 artprints ánd to buy more of those adhesive poster gummies.

Friday

I was up early to make some last-minute buttons, like the good planner I am. Dealerroom didn't open until 6pm so I had a lot of time.

I arrived at the Central Station and guess what I forgot… the adhesives gummies. So I had to buy super expensive new ones at the station.

It wasn’t over yet however, when I finally arrived on the con I noticed I also forgot any form of paper, my comissionpricelist, my portfolio folder, all the display prints and a pair of scissors!

I nearly finished when the doors opened and I already had a lot of customers before I even sorted everything out behind my table, which is actually a pretty good thing to be honest.

A LOT of musical fans came by and were stoked to finally find some musical fanart. Also quite a lot camp camp fans, which was supercool.

(One of the commissions I made as well)

I also talked to an old friend I hadn’t talked to for a longer time again! He bought me fries because I was bound to my table and was starving. It was supersweet ;;

Late at night I arrived at my hotel, which was pretty secluded. So I was walking along in the dark when suddenly a duck quacked and flapped his wings and I almost screamed.

I had a double room for myself at the hotel, which was luxurious on one hand, but it was also pretty expensive. They also had this really scary wallpaper depicting a black-and-white groupsphoto of some old people. It creeped me out a lot, especially when the lights were dimmed. The whites of the eyes were hardly visible and it looked like they had black sockets where their eyes should’ve been. It didn’t help that the faucet started leaking suddenly and there was a weird mechanical sound appearing from time to time.

I quite literally had a nightmare that night..

Saturday

I searched around on google maps for a supermarket and I was in luck! I bought some bread for breakfast and an ice coffee. Also a chocolatebar for my lovely table neighbour Marlon from dreamchaserart@instagram, because she went and got me some watercolour paper to do my commissions! Saturday was a lot busier. I introduced myself to the other neighbours and they so happened to be organizing a brand new con. They were discussing hiring an artist for promowork and they seemed interested in my work. So I really hope I can do some work for them, it would be so awesome to represent a con!

A lot of people came back to buy some more, even on the same day haha. And there were quite a lot comments on my artstyle, that really brightened my day. I had a few good (and pretty long) conversations and overall it was a good day! Spongebob cosplayers also visited my stand and it was amazing, they even had a skit which another spongebob cosplayer recorder for me and aahhh, it was so cool, I got all emotional!

When I was about to go home (I only booked a hotel for one night) I met up with Marlon again by coincidence and we decided to get diner together. We had pokebowls and they were suupergood.

We talked a lot, it even got dark by the time we finished up! I arrived home pretty late and immediately jumped into my bed.

Sunday

Due to my work at my parents takeaway I had to leave early today, I still had a commission due from saturday and since I didn’t expect too many customers in the four hours, I wasn’t in too much of a hurry. Nothing that special happened this day. Tho I had a pretty long conversation with a customer while I actually should’ve been packing up. No surprise I missed the bus, but it was cool.

I’m really sad I didn’t have time to talk to a single other artist this weekend, since I didn’t have anyone to cover for me and I had to leave early. Other than that it was a fantastic weekend and I really got my excitement for cons back. I’m considering making a sort of minicomics to sell at conventions, so I’m really excited about that!

I was actually totally not mentally prepared for this con. The con was set the weekend of my assessment week, causing me to not think about the con at all. I really didn’t have the time to draw anything new as well. It just so happened that I went through an enormous South Park and Spongebob phase (still going through actually :”D) which led to me having a TON of fanart for those two fandoms. I was unsure how many people would actually buy those tho, but due to timestress I asked some friends of mine which they thought looked the best and I printed those. I also printed a little Spongebob print just because I liked that one myself a lot :”D

Friday

Friday was actually only building up the table. I don’t have any pictures of that ;-; but I’ll try to remember to take more pictures next time. There was a long line for the check-in, we stood there for half an hour. After that we heard there was already a possibility to register for the next DCC edition and that was another long line! So we stood there for half an hour again, but by the time we got to the front, the last Artist Alley table was taken, so we took one next to the Artist Alley, which was only 13 euros more expensive.

So after an hour of queueing we finally got to build-up our table. It took us three hours!! Mainly because we both printed many new things (and I have a lot of A3 prints) so we had to fit everything while making it look good and displaying little goodies as obvious as possible, since some people are really blind at cons haha (I don’t blame tho, its such a chaos all around you).

After that we surveyed the rest of the dealerroom for a bit, but most of the stuff were hidden from sight. I did see a South Park set I really wanted to buy!

Saturday

We heard we needed to bring our own seats, if we wanted more than one, and since we are with two, it was needed. I live about ten minutes from the con so I brought a little portable chair with me. I arrived at the con with my chair and I almost dropped my chair the moment I saw a row of gigantic South Park plushies. The seller was really nice! He said it was 39 euros and I could have it for 35 instead. So the con hadn’t even started yet and I already spend 35 euros on a gigantic Kyle plushie.

When I was finishing up my stand I saw a Plankton and Karen cosplayer walk past! I was in literal shock and I just couldn’t believe it was really them and before I realized they were gone and didn’t come back the rest of the day ;-; I regretted not talking to them so much!

The day started really slow, we both didn’t make a single sale the first two hours, but after that it started to get quite busy, I met a lot of South Park fans, which I honestly didn’t expect. A few people also recognised the spongebob musical from my print and every time someone wanted to buy it I was just grinning like a freak.

At the start of the con, a person with a microphone came by to interview me and Cheriin, but we were soo awkward, I really hope they cut out my awkward screw-ups :”D

Someone I met on the previous DCC also came by to get a signed spongebob print and he gave me a South Park mug and that was sooo sweet!

A really cute girl with an amazing outfit also came by and she said she loved my art so much she wanted it on a totebag and that was honestly so sweet <3

After a while Qiseki came by and we somehow agreed that she should crash at my place since she had to travel really far. So after the con I put my Kyle plushie in my suitcase (which fitted perfectly) and had dinner at McDonalds with Cheriin and Qiseki.

When we arrived back at my home we decided to watch Silent Hills Revelation, I was really afraid I would be too scared, but honestly, it wasn’t scary at all (and I get scared quite easily) and the story was all over the place. Pyramid Head was precious tho.

Sunday

We arrived at the con on time (wow) and I got to talk to the other artists for a bit finally! Koekjen and I did an arttrade (got super cute Mob Psycho stickers omg) and I got to make her watch Spongebob the Musical (and draw it as well :”D)!!

I also art traded with @strawberrysympathy, I fangirled because I had seen her art  on previous cons and I loved the heck out of it!

AND there were more Spongebob cosplayers at sunday!! I lost my mind, I didn’t expect it AT ALL. This time I ran up to them and asked for a pic (the Squidward had the fourleg pants and made it themselves whaatt) they even came by later to buy my prints aaa!

A lot more South Park and Spongebob fans came by, I was so blessed. I loved how there were multiple Supercraigs and Wondertweeks walking hand in hand stopping by to buy my Creek keychain and an amazing Hiccup cosplayer (I loved their cosplay so much) stopped by to fangirl with me about the Spongebob Musical and we were almost screaming at some point.

At the end of the day my Creek keychain, Link keychain, Majoras Mask print and Wirt print were sold out, so business was so much better than expected! The South Park print (with the kids on the hill) got sold quite a lot as well and the Spongebob print sold so much more than I ever would’ve guessed. I was also shocked at how the Danny Phantom keychain sold better than the Kenny keychain!

I ran around for a bit afterwards to talk to and buy some prints from other artists and ended the day again at the McDonalds with Koekjen and some of her friends.

When I got home I got to talk some more with several people and I even made a poor random new follower watch the Spongebob Musical and made them live-react it to me LMAO, it was really fun tho, we had fun :’D

All in all, I loved this con so much! Not only did I sell a lot more than I expected, I also felt like my two biggest fandoms got validated by the amount of love for the prints and the amount of cosplayers I saw. I’ve always felt a bit stupid for being so much into South Park and Spongebob but I’m so glad I am now! This con also gave me the motivation to keep drawing and making lots of new stuff for the cons to come!

Thank you all who stopped by and bought something or even just chatted a bit so much! It really made my weekend <3

Some commissions I made: