#mtl otakuthon

[madqueenmomo]

Will you be selling your merch at otakuthon this year?

I WILL!

I am table B331 and will be selling with @mimeowendormi and @42wv !

We are a grocery store inspired table! And i will even be selling the original water colours of my recent ff14 posters!

[yoohyeon]

Tag by @sunmiyane for this really cute poll game 🫶 I honestly don’t have a lot of cool thing in my room so I spend all day thinking about what I could put and half of it is pokemon fjsbjdbd

Tagging : @niteview @hoforwonho @lenteur @kimjunnoodle @doyeons @yunwooisms @jaebeomtual @bixiaoshi @insomtiny @wonhos-fabuloso @chlotual @taeraenomuyeppeo and anyone wanting to join on the fun ! 🫶

[bourgus]

mtl otakuthon 2024

[alicenpai]

🌟

anime north 2023 con report

finally posting this - thank you to everyone for a wonderful anime north!! \o/ this con prep season was the longest ive ever prepped for a con, and i think it was the busiest con for me ever. it makes me so happy to see people taking my art home!! 😭

so thank you for coming by anime north and chatting and supporting me! and thank you esp to the people who came by gifting their own merch?!??? - either fanart or ocs?! and im honored to see your beautiful ocs?!?? what the hell you guys are the GOAT thank you all 🥹🥹

it was so busy that i wish i had time to walk around & talk to other artists! i really wanted to get dango and onigiri at the delta too.. didnt really get time to eat so im sorry if you saw me shove 10 timbits in my mouth at the end of the con. yes i really did that .

throughout the con i kept saying "he just like me.. HE JUST LIKE ME FR!!!!!!!" every 5 seconds like an NPC. im sorry if you had to hear that more than once.

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i wasn't able to post my con catalogue for AN on tumblr and instagram... i was so busy.. dying... maybe if i do other cons this summer ill post something similar. i had a lot of new stuff this year so formatting it was rough haha. here it is! more thoughts under the cut (bc this report really is more for me, but maybe someone can find something useful)

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this is more for me honestly, so it will be really long. but i'm sharing it in case it may be helpful for others. i find that i'm always looking back at my old con reports, so typing out all of my thoughts are really useful to me. overall a great con, fellow artists and customers alike really inspire me to do better in my art.

comparisons to last year: (since i didn't end up making a con report last year!!!!!)

location: the artist alley layout was huge, and im really happy there are a lot more newcomers to the con scene. i know how much my first con experience meant to me, so i want others to join in on the fun! i don't know how the artist alley staff managed to fit so many artists in the building now! we got placed in a corner where there was a lot of breathing room, and a lot of traffic. i got lost a few times (didn't actually have time to walk around, but you know, it was to get in and out of the con centre and to the washroom/water station) because the amount of tables was overwhelming however, and the layout was super confusing. however i didn't feel as if there were any significant bottlenecks in traffic when i was taking some walk breaks.

commissions: last year it was still busy, but i still had some time to draw a handful of commissions. this year was a non stop barrage of customers! i think i may retire on the spot commissions at cons, just because ive always found it too stressful to draw right at the con, even if the traffic is slow. (and im lazy)

fandoms: last year i felt that it was... never so difficult to sell niche and old fandoms...? most people bought primarily 3 things from me at AN 2022, and not much else was touched. it was a struggle, and i even wondered if my art plateaued, if it wasn't good, if i should stop doing conventions altogether, at least for a little while. this year was so surprising with how much love there was for old and niche fandoms. two people from quebec came by and noticed the old fandoms and mentioned that if i was able to come to otakuthon, i should, people in mtl love nostalgia.. i'm gonna be honest otakuthon was pretty bad expenses-wise for me, but i heard it picked up since cons came back in 2022. it is a really beautiful city so mayhaps.. i will come for miss montreal.................

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and a separate section on the new merch i made:

the new sticker sheets i printed (one piece, baccano, breaking bad/better call saul) did so well! nts to add luffys scar bc apparently i forgot... ive seen this dumbass's face for hundreds of eps and yet i still forgot .

these are a far cry to the sticker sheets i designed in previous years. many sticker places restrict you on how many stickers you can place on a sheet due to spacing requirements... the more stickers you have + the closer they are, the higher the margin of error, which i understand is why many professional sticker printers have these restrictions in place.

the artists i worked with for my AN stickers are so genuinely nice and accommodating with my requests. I just went wild haha. the sheets with the most stickers are brba/bcs at 27 stickers and one piece at 32 stickers.

2021 (top) vs 2023 (bottom), the chara stickers on the new sheet are larger & 2x as many item stickers! the new design makes greater use of the space. my octopath 1 stickers are meant for planners but you could use it for anything!

in 2017 i could only realistically fit 6 ish stickers on a sheet (for vinyl, not cricut home printing) due to printing restrictions. these costed about $3.30 CAD per sheet from s/ticker/mule (not worth it for the price point AT ALL... but i wanted to try sheets for the first time)... and yes it's a tiny 4x7 as well. it was a hard sell for $7 in 2017. but im glad artists have been pricing them a bit higher + sheets have become much more customizable.

now on to charms:

i am so obsessed with this borderless charm look on the new charms... they look like candy... thank you guys for loving my new charms!! i tried out a new technique with designing charms. and im so happy with how they turned out. the charm manu was super accommodating and they are so much better than vograce who fucked up my order so bad in 2022 🤡👍

the soul eater charms from last year were kind of a precursor to this. last year i tried something a bit different than my usual with the transparent bgs, which require full bleed in the file setup, and that was already pretty new for me. i find that charm sales are usually pretty mid for me, so during the pandemic i took a soft break from making them, and i wanted to do research based on others' designs and really tried to improve my design sense. to me i want to design charms that aren't just a flat piece of artwork that gets printed, but something that utilizes the capabilities of the acrylic material it gets printed on 🤔

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fandoms/merch types i want to try next time i table:

more soul eater? it's one of my favourite animes and im very happy for the soul eater love this year. my partner kept selling out of her soul eater prints even though it was her first time tabling!

fma! ive been rereading AND rewatching it lately. it's one of my top 5 anime of all time so me drawing anything for it is a struggle, the bar is set so high. i never end up having the time or ideas to draw anything for it (and the aesthetics are very different from my usual taste)

shadows house has been one of my favorites recently!

dungeon meshi, the print i made was back in 2018 and i think it's time to retire it! it sold out at AN, thank you! with the way the story has developed in the last 5 years, i really want to draw something new for it if i can.

blue period needs more love!

golden kamuy.....

and many more.....

i also want to try mini prints maybe...

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administrative stuff:

next time before the con, i definitely need an organized chart i print out before the con so im not.. literally writing down each transaction... 🧍‍♀️

clamps...?

possibly new display? grids even with plastic panels are heavy... and they can be a pain to put up. this AN we had our neighbors and good friends @nappotuna & @stripeyworm helping us put the grids up, they did an absolute speedy banger job! but it might have taken way longer without 4 hands on the grid work.

if we had used tape to hold our prints up as well who knows how long it would have taken. we used magnets, apparently a lot of people were using them at TCAF. they were so easy to put up and adjustable. *jesse pinkman voice* MAGNETS, BITCH!!!!!!!

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merch i may shelve/do less of:

i really appreciate when artists talk about these kind of things behind the scenes... when products do well, when others dont, products w surprising responses, the factors that we think affect sales... the hard truth is that not everything sells, just bc the art is good =/= good sales, etc etc.

lately ive found it so fun to design sticker sheets over individual die cut stickers!! i understand now why some people only specialize in stickers!! it's also such a pain to stock individual characters and have greatly varying levels, bc of customer interest, and bc of how printing stickers works, you often get extras of random characters due to overflow 😭.. like at some point I had 7 jeannes and like only 1 of the other vnc charas bc the printer had so many extras and she's arguably less popular HDHFJSJHDJS anyways, i think i'll probably do less die cut individual stickers for my next con...

anything old that i only have 1 or a few copies left (meaning i won't reprint) i may not have for display anymore bc of space concerns... before my next con ill just post them on social media to have people claim them!

i may want to do less 3" charms in the future...? theyre a hard sell online prob bc i cant really do deals (i could but id have to be checking the stock every few hours which is not ideal), but they do a lot better in person due to deals.

it's been fun to try specialty products (I've tried scrunchies, stamps, pouches, microfiber cloths, coasters, enamel pins), but i... find they dont sell well for me... maybe my art doesnt have that wide mainstream nostalgic merch type appeal idk... maybe im just not good at designing or advertising them wahahaha. (specialty charms are still charms and i wouldn't necessary consider them a part of this)

my jojo buttons were really popular at anime north 2019 and fan expo 2019, but when the part 5 anime concluded, i noticed that interest for the interest completely moved on 😭 (or it's possible that everyone who was interested bought the buttons already?). part 6 anime didn't rejuvenate the same level of interest. it was a struggle to sell even more than a handful of these at each AN 2022 and 2023. right now they're taking up a lot of space in my con luggage that i'd prefer for newer, better art. i still love the art i did, but unfortunately, i think ill give them a go if i get into otakuthon (and maybe fanexpo too), then it'll be time to retire the jojo buttons. sometimes fandoms come and go so fast, and it's difficult to keep old merch around when they don't have any more interest and when they're occupying a lot of space.

my banana fish lollipop charms do not sell well, and i only sold 5 of them in a 3 year period, across cons and my shop. i created a bargain bin at AN, and it really helped me get rid of old things! unfortunately even in the bargain bin i could not sell a single one of the banana fish charms. maybe it's the art that's not appealing, the characters aren't recognizable, the price point for a lollipop charm was too high, i wasn't hitting the right audience, the market was slow around the time, even when it was included in my promo post... etc. these lollipops were my first time making specialty charms. unfortunately i think that's the last time making lollipop charms, and about time to recycle these charms, so that i have space for fresher and better art!

other thoughts moving on:

maybe go back to simplifying my art a lot more... if i keep making drawings like my great ace attorney tarot + zine, witch hat atelier print, and pandora hearts print, then id not only take 1 month per illustration, id also be destroying my arm 😭 i stopped stylizing my art in 2021 bc i found that my art was getting sloppy in 2020 + i was really struggling in life drawing in school. i needed to buckle down and be more conscientious when drawing poses, learning anatomy and structure... and bc getting back into anime in 2021 really helped me cope with the isolation of the lockdown, so that had a huge influence on my style. but bc of that i think it just took longer and longer to make illustrations and that's something i no longer really wish for.

i really like the period of my art in 2017 with a lot of my persona 4/5 art bc it still has structure even though it's simplified... and the style in my zelda icon... mayhaps experiment a bit more this summer if i can...

[crowsvault]

Woah woah woah, did I see that right? Your Etsy mentions you're based in Montreal? Are you going to MTL Comiccon or Otakuthon this summer? Will I have the privilege of seeing you and your merch with my own two eyes 🥺

i AM! 🎉 hai hello. I see so few of us HAHAHA

Unfortunately I'm not :(( Both cons were full 😭 I really wanted to gooooo wanted to mingle with peeps at otakuthon but alas.

[owlyjules]

Hey julie!! I miss seeing you at the montreal cons! I know you live further away now but do you ever think youll have a table at a mtl con again?

Hi!! I definitely wants to!

Before it was the pandemic and then this year it was just difficult because life stuff to go but next year i want to do Otakuthon if i can get a table!:D

[freckles-and-jalapeno]

Peacefully looking at otakuthon* programming when...

Apparently there should also be a contest to try and be a a regular seiyuu, and I think it would be so cool to participate in that! 😄

*otakuthon is an anime convention in the city that I live

[burningartwork]

Otakuthon Montreal 2022

If you're in the MTL Area and are planning on going to Otakuthon, come say hi at booth #360! Me and Nikki Illustration will be partnering up again and have a nice large table in the premium section!

[crystalmoonxo]

I’m at Otakuthon all weekend! Anyone else going?

I’ve already bought some really cute stuff! One of my fav pin makers was there (@celestialfox on ig - check her out!) and I was so happy!!

Marina Inoue is doing a Q&A today so maybe I’ll check that out too!

[emikothewriter]

Had a relaxing yet exciting time at #otakuthon2017 and bled so much money that it felt awfully therapeutic. 👍👍👍 To remember this con, here is a #conhaul #animemerch #animemerchandise #fanart #originalart to commemorate all three awesome days. #mtl #514 #otakuthon #animecon #animeconvention #persona #persona4 #persona5 #osomatsusan #kappa #spiritedaway #haikyuu #assassinationclassroom #ansatsukyoushitsu #anime #manga #mobpsycho100 #fullmetalalchemist #psychopass #idolmaster #bokunoheroacademia #myheroacademia #voltronlegendarydefender (at Palais des congrès de Montréal)

[grims0rr0w]

OOOOK GUYS For Mtl Otakuthon we did a TF shoot and it was fucking hilarious and it was my first time at a big convention and doing a cosplay i really like ALSO first time for a photoshoot SO my friend was Cyclonus and i was Tailgate AND my bestfriend @baphometal was the best Captain of all time , Roddy!!! It’s not everyone who likes Transformers in this place but we got one or two fans who loved us!!! So the photographer was so chill and funny. His page is Naredo Photo Cosplay on FB only tho but for Otakuthon,QC comiccon or other conventions in this area HE’S AWESOME.

[francoyovich]

I will be attending Mtl Otakuthon next week, come and say hi at table 307!

[merakid-0]

I saw in a previous ask that you live in Montreal, and I was wondering if you have ever been to Otakuthon/MTL Comic Con in the artists area to sell art?

Yes I have! I went to Otakuthon with a friend a few years ago though I don’t exactly remember the year haha  I think I was in third grade of highschool. I’m more of a Comic con person so maybe I’ll have the chance to go there.But It all depends of my anxiety hahahah :’D

[uncannyviolet]

Survived Otakuthon 2017

Hi everyone :D Reporting in after surviving Otakuthon!! And once again, I got sick. I don't know what it is with me and this con, this happens every year...like am I cursed? ^^; Anyways, I would like to thank everyone who came by my table!! Thank you for the support and coming by to say hi!! I really appreciated it :D Full report/rant below...Beware, I mean it.

I would say that this year's Otakuthon was enjoyable for me. It was less messy and more organized than the last few years for exhibitors and the traffic flow was so much better with the exhibition hall's layout. The organization was so much like Montreal Comic Con lol ((I got some insider info that the director for the exhibition hall took some pointers from Mtl CC's layout lol)) The aisles weren't cramped and you can actually walk around and breathe!!! The other years, it legit felt like we were canned sardines Dx ((Maybe that's why I got sick after those other years...)) Sales were a lot better for me than last year, I have to admit, but being able to make these sales took the life out of me. Don't get me wrong, I understand going to a convention as an attendee is expensive and it can really restrict your budget after getting your ticket into the show...but it really isn't my problem if you blew your budget. I had so many people who would look at my items and start haggling with me to lower my prices for them. Some people actually had the guts to ask me if I can make my works to be free if they show up with their full cosplay of a character I made art of...Like how ridiculous can you be? You're carrying a bag full of prints and you can't spare the money to pay for something? I have bills to pay too, and getting myself there to have you haggle with me is a lot more higher than your attendee ticket...Guys, I had someone say 2$ for a pin was too expensive and they'd totally buy one if it were 1$ to my face before they walked away. I also had to deal with a cosplayer who cheated something free off of me because I was both tired and ignorant of what their character does in the show they're part of...Like who the heck do you think you are?! Why are you doing this?! D; And this didn't only happen to me, it happened to a lot of artists who were in the AA that weekend. If you take anything from this journal: Please be respectful to the artists in any artist alley you go to at any convention. They are people. They are trying their best to make a living. They can hear your negative comments. Your negative comments AREN'T helping anyone! In my case, I really don't need the extra self-doubt and self-loathing, I've got plenty already...So yeah, that general atmosphere for me all weekend was really negative...which is depressing because I wanted to have more fun. Despite having to deal with the whole weekend feeling negative and discouraged, I was able to meet up with old friends and also make new ones. I saw a lot of beautiful cosplays! I was also able to meet cosplayers, and artists who made artworks from shows I liked and enjoyed!! That was always such a treat. The one thing I will never understand when I go to Otakuthon every year is how come not many people are making works for other shows besides the super popular ones and the more newer/recent shows that are airing? Like where are my people who enjoyed the shows I enjoy ;A; I know you're out there, but where?!?! Guys, let's be friends (_ Q nQ)_ Either way, I am very grateful to those of you who stopped by to say hi, and also to those who supported me by buying something! I really appreciate your support! Thank you so much! I would also like to thank @ruaaafanartblog for being a great table mate in both keeping me sane and making the convention more fun and bearable!!! Many thanks to the artists who stayed after tear down to art trade!! I hope you had a safe travel back home and a wonderful weekend :D Thank you for the cute drawing from a watcher on my dA! It was a really nice surprise~! For the next little while, I'll be working on revamping my webstore. So, if you've missed out on something you can always check it out there :D I hope everyone had a nice weekend and enjoyed the convention as well :D Until then, rest up and have a good one~! Bye for now~!

[allalternate]

Sketch for a Junkrat poster I’ll be selling at the Otakuthon (mtl) in August!

[pas-daccord]

Last day in la péninsule Acadienne today I'm so sad to leave tomorrow morning. No more beach time.. But I'm heading back to mtl right in time for otakuthon! I will have like 36 hours to finish my Misato cosplay who knows how this will go y'all better pray for me