After a weekend at con, I realized many things. Some of which require some assistance from others.

1. I love anime and manga. I'm somewhat more selective about my viewing now, as I have far less time, but I love them. And japanese video games. And cosplaying! I love the con scene too, and I certainly miss it. I wish I could attend more cons, but it just doesn't seem feasable when I can't even cover my costs! And to do more cons, I'd need dedicated helpers (for those times I do need to leave my table), so much planning, so much getting ready . . . lots of driving, living in hotel rooms, having to take a ton of fridays (and even thursdays/mondays) off of work (and I only get 10 days of vacation, and I wanted to go to england . . . haha, thats not happening.) Plus, I wouldn't want to leave my kitty alone every weekend, and I couldn't make my parents cat-sit him all the time, especially if I'm not even heading that direction! . . . but there are times when I think it would be way more interesting (and rewarding) than my regular job.

2. My style has evolved to some kind of proto-anime or pseudo-anime or even anime-influenced, but it doesn't seem to be anime any more. Which, I actually love my style. Its mine. its me. But it doesn't seem to sell well at cons. So many of the people at sugoicon AA were selling chibis, or characters so . . . I couldn't even tell who they were, they were so featureless. The only differences were what color hair tey had, or even what they were wearing. It was the same face on every one. But I want to believe that my style, though its not perfect, really can capture faces, and is detailed enough to really be art.

3. I'm not very popular. I have over 400 watchers, but on any particular image I submit, I might get 20 comments, 18 of which are "its good" or "I like this." The other 2 are actually helpful constructive criticism, or people actually saying WHAT they like about it. Come on guys, let me know what you really think! Give me feedback, input!

4. DA, elfwood . . . I'm not sure these are really the best places for me to be. So does anyone know a good place for pseudo-anime artists to really promote themselves? Because I'm somewhere between illustration and anime, I don't seem to have a place. Conceptart looks down on the anime style, DA has its 'celebrities' and everyone else is more or less ignored . . . Like life, where I feel like I'm constantly moving around, I wonder now where in the world of art I truly belong! (please, help!)

5. a friend suggested taking copies of my manga along to sell, but the one con I tried that they didn't do very well, and I've sold a grand total of 0 copies online . . . I think people just aren't interested. And its hard to justify purchasing $100 or even $50 worth of books to sell when I might sell 1 or 2 . . . At least I sold a few (very few) posters. And the ones I didn't sell, I can put on my own wall :/


I complain a lot. Sorry all. But thanks so much to the 5 of you who ever read and respond to these.