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Since con has sadly now come and gone I had a few questions that I wonder if any of the other congoers had answers to. I was floor'd by how busy and lively that the Ex. Hall 1 was this year. And how fierce the competition seemed this year as well among the artists. I've personally been doing artist alley since 2000 and I was really pleased with this year. So to help maybe some artists that might be a little bit intimidated by all the hype and competition that I saw this year I decided to try and get some feedback for what the artists liked this year and what the congoers liked about this year as well.

So to the congoers themselves:

What was your favorite part about the Artist Alley/Art Show?

What would you liked to have seen more of?

What could you have done without?


And to the artists...

Where do you get your prints made?

Do you feel like you made out well this weekend?

What was your highest selling items?

Do you have anywhere where people can buy prints now?

Also, people would be able to leave their stuff and setups behind because the room was locked up at night when they were finished.

And stuff still got stolen despite everything being "locked up". I NEVER left ANY of my stuff there in the Alley. Ever.

My one gripe (and since I was there most of the time, I suppose it's my only gripe) was Artist "Row". As an artist this year was SO HORRIBLE. If I completely stretched every nickel and dime I made I MAYBE hit half of what I made last year. Maybe.

The set up for it was awful. I looked back at some of the tables and lots there were 3 or 4 tables empty between artists. I know why they had the seating chart and all but it seemed like everything was... too organized? Some artists may have not come back because of having to get the permit since we all have to report back on our sales and pay taxes on them. That was something we never had to do before. We also had to pay $5 a table or $40 for a 'powered table', which hasn't been done for years either (especially the powered table thing). It almost seemed they put it in a bigger room so they could maximize profits from the tables, as if you could by $5 a table... but still. It felt very empty. I know it was the guy's first year who was running it this year, and no offense to him since I don't think he had any control over where it was placed or anything, but I sorely miss Ted.

I don't think that I talked to any artist that didn't take a hit on sales this year, or any that were really happy with the way that anything was set up, or that we were in a different room. There was even a petition (which I signed, of course) to try and get it back out on the concourse (but, as a staffer said it won't happen, but it never hurts to let someone know how you feel!). The person with the petition informed me that there were many people with artwork stolen this year, some even from the Artists Gallery! I was really shocked since I thought it was stupid to even have a lock up time of 7pm for the "Row".

Perhaps it was because of my sourness at the Artist's "Row", but this year... just didn't feel like Fanime. Which is sad since I've moved across the states 2 years ago when I got married and last year and this year I've flown back just for it. Maybe I'm just better off sticking to Otakon 15 minutes away. :\

~ Jen Brooks
Studio Eternity Artist

Anyone else watch it?

I'm an avid watcher, I download the raws as soon as they are available. Here is a site where you can download the subs: http://www.tv-nihon.com/

It's interesting... different from both the manga and anime. I like the new twists. It keeps it fresh and alive imho. That and it makes SO much sense that the girls look like actual japanese schoolgirls until they transform. Took me a while to remember the faces of each senshi so I could keep them straight though!  :lol:

Ag, first anime was Sailormoon way back in 1995 when the only anime on TV was really was either SM or DBZ. I've branched out ALOT since then, but any art style is affected by it, I very much tend to draw very shoujo-ish type of art.