'Ello Lovers,

  So, Sakuracon was AMAZING. How did it go by SO FAST? It was weird for me doing Sak the very weekend after ECCC, as I felt like I had already just had a 'con experience', but doing Artist Alley is so very different than just attending a convention. I don't know how many of you know this, but this Sak was the 10th anniversary of the very FIRST time I ever attended, all the way back in 2002... I was 10, WHAT?! Mind blown... quite severely actually. It's amazing to see how far I've come since then.

  One thing I didn't expect was just how POPULAR my mohawk was going to be... even without wearing any cosplay or anything, I literally had people stopping me to compliment and take pictures of my mohawk... What is this? I don't even...

  Anyhow, I need to write everything down right now, while it's still burning fresh in my mind.

Thursday:

  I caught a ride down to the con with my dear friend :iconkasu0236dev: and her sister. Once I dropped my gear off I went to the pre-registration area and made quick work of getting my "Attendee" badge (which I learned later they shouldn't have given me) and they sent me off to room 203 to get my Artist Alley badge. Their information was wrong however, as that room was filled with badges for Staff and Industry, not Exhibitors. So then I got sent up to the sky bridge to pick up my badge and start setting up my table. I got my table a bit set up before catching a bus back home to grab some more gear and print off all my business cards. Then I bussed back down to the Con and finished my prep for the night. Didn't sleep well that night.

Friday:

  I was up at 4:30 after a very short and very tumultuous attempt at sleep. Getting myself prepped into Reno, I headed off to go line up to get into finish setting up my Artist Alley at 7am. When I first got there however, the guards said we couldn't go in... WHAT?! Thankfully about 10 minutes later we were given the go ahead so we brushed past them and into the empty Exhibitor's Hall. It was really, REALLY nice being in the Exhibitor's Hall instead of that hidden location from last year. The doors opened to the public at 10am, and my day "truly started". I didn't have much to do right away, so I was just trimming my business cards, attempting to have them appear as professional as I could. But it really wasn't long before both :iconFaust-Obsesseddev: and  I started getting commissions, keeping us obscenely busy. Those of you who have seen me at Aki Con know how much I hate leaving my table, so when the AA closed down at 6pm, I felt like I was practically being punished... So I went to the rave for a few hours before working on some more commissions and finally going to bed around 3am...

Saturday:

  ... Only to wake up at 7am. I had promised to do a staff member's zombie make up, so I rushed out the door and off to turn her into an undead Ezmeralda from "The Hunchback of Notre Dam", which was fun. Then I booked it into the AA early to finish a commission for Liran, which went a little eschew. Rob picked it up later in the day. I got even more commissions throughout the course of Saturday, and with selling posters, I pasted my "breaking even" point of about $350-$400.

  I had thought to decorate my table with my Jareth and Alex Mercer figurines, and they were a wonderful draw of attention, with Jareth using his hypnotic, plastic powers to draw many a man and woman to our table. Faust even got to do a commissioned key chain of Jareth for one of her patrons! Then Alex Mercer decided to work me some magic when he attracted an Alex Mercer cosplayer to my table... I was so extatic.... you have no idea! When I told them that I was planning on doing Elizabeth Greene at PAX, and found out that they were going to do Mercer again at PAX, I decided to adopt Mercer as my son. It was a beautiful thing; especially when both Mercer and their wonderful 'girl friday' both commissioned me for Prototype fan art!

  Needless to say I worked my butt off to finish those commissions as qucikly as I possibly could for them, although one is a digital commission, so I couldn't really work on that one at the con.

Sunday:

  No sleep for the weary. I stayed up the entire night working on three commissions, a Reno and TWO Alex Mercer commissions. While I was sitting in the Convention center, working and socializing with the natives (I had a wonderful time talking to Kelsey! Best of luck figuring all of that out, hun.), I ended up perhaps getting one of the most unique and amazing commissions ever (because of the story behind it!).

  So, there I am, sitting there, slowly colouring in Reno's skin, when a VERY drunk Malcolm Reynolds plops down next to me. He looked at my art and then pulled out his wallet. "I want you to draw me!" He said with much gusto, that sort of confidence that only a drunken Mal could have. "I need this moment immortalized! Draw me," He slid onto the floor, laying on his back and closing his eyes, "passed out on the con floor! I'll give you twenty dollars." I informed him that I was sorry, but I already had 3 commissions I was working on and simply could not do a commission for him at that moment. However he wasn't to be dissuaded; sitting back up he slapped two twenty dollar bills down on the ground. "Fourty dollars, for a drawing of me passed out!" Again I tried to explain the situation to him, but he still was having none of it. He slapped a third twenty on the ground, "Sixty dollars, that's all my money I've got. Draw me!"

  By now I was more than a little uncomfortable, thinking that a commission from me was no where NEAR worth that much money, even IF I had the time, and I didn't want to take advantage of his inebriated state, so I told him such. However another man who had been sitting and talking with me, while watching me work on my art, pulled out his wallet and tossed another twenty on the steadily growing pile. "Eighty dollars! And I want to see this drawing happen now, too!"

  What was a poor, starving artist to do?

  ... I caved.

  I probably worked for about an hour and a half, but I did the darn best 'realistic' portrait that I could for the poor drunken Mal and made it as much worth that tremendous amount of money as I could. Every so often the con staff would walk passed us, and we would have to assure them that the man was not, in fact, sleeping on con grounds, but posing for a commission... The moment I finished the drawing, the staff swooped in like well trained fighter pilots and roused the sleeping man, ousting him from his chosen patch of floor.

  It was epic!

  Sunday was a blur of working on a HIGHTLY detailed picture of Alex Mercer's sword arm (... I got a LITTLE carried away) and starting a commission of Stocking and Kneesocks (if I remembered their names correctly). And then the Artist Alley was closed and we had to tear it all down, the past three days nothing more than a delirious blur of sleep deprived productivity.

  ... HOW DID CON GO SO FAST?!

  Here's a low down of some of my sales, proving that I will get a table at Sakuracon again come Hell or high water!
~Sold out of my 10 Gaara posters
~Sold out of my 8 Dr. Horrible posters
~Got 18 commissions
~Made nearly $700 over the weekend, half of which was actual PROFIT!!!!

  WOOOOOOT!

  To everyone who stopped by my table, talked to me, bought art, or just wished me well... Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. It is for each and every one of you that I continue to do this.

Sincerely,
Liger