Hey Reader!

I hope your weekend went fantastic! Mine was super intense, as I attended a 3-day convention full of cosplayers, unexpected events, and 143 happy customers!

In this issue, I hope to give you a fun peek into what the event was like :)

How we turned our living room into a sticker factory

In this convention (my third one now!), my big new item was a massive sticker sheet, with over 60 designs on it!

I talked at length about the drawing process in last week's newsletter, but what I didn't tell you is what comes right after: the outline process and the final print/cutting!

Drawing where the sticker will be cut took a good amount of time already, and I needed to work on my girlfriend's design as well. We sent the final design to the printer, which came back to us right on time... one day before the event!

We also paid a bit more than we expected, and for a good reason: we printed more than 4m² of sticker sheet, and the print shop owner also accounted for the time and strain on the machine: it was absolutely struggling with the tiny details of my massive sticker sheet!

Now we had an evening to prepare everything; that sure was a tight deadline, but we worked all evening to cut all the sheets and her individual stickers and pins. Our living room was absolutely filled to the brim with materials, foil, and loose pieces of paper.

In addition to my sticker sheet, which are A4, I decided to also print it in A3 to have individual stickers to sell on the side. I only cut 2 of them, but that meant... 132 stickers exactly, just for mine!

That was very intense work, hours straight just cutting hundreds of stickers - But we made it! :)

But as we made our way to the venue the next day, we realized: I haven't heard back from the other print shop in a while, where are all the prints I ordered?

Indeed, the week prior I ordered 150 new prints, A6 and A4, including my latest illustration; but they couldn't make them on time!

We actually picked them up yesterday, the day after the event was over. How frustrating!

But thankfully we had some stock left, and we needed to make the most out of it!

The massive event started - and with a very funny issue

The event was taking place in a massive venue, Tauron Krakow Arena; and this was definitely intimidating to approach. After passing security, we had to walk a long time to finally figure out where our table was.

And when we actually found it, that's where we realized an unexpected issue: The tables were way bigger than we thought!

We were only four of us sharing the table, and while we had a lot to offer, we were worried that we wouldn't have enough!

To me that was a very funny problem to have; definitely better than being too short on space!

After almost 3 hours of table setup, and some extra items delivered by a friend, we finally had our table fully ready for the grand opening!

But that's where, looking at our table, we realized another big issue: We were completely in the dark!

The light wasn't so great overall, but we were in a very dark corner of the hallway, without any light directly on top. Our stall was visible, but very gloomy.

And we didn't have any plug to add a lamp, or so we thought!

During the application, we didn't pay the extra to have access to a socket; but we thankfully found a hidden electrical panel right beside our booth! 🙏

We were able to add some fairy lights the next day, and later our table neighbors, a friendly plush store, lent us a massive flood light that completely solved the issue! It's so nice to make friends during those events, even if I'm shy this is one of the most rewarding parts of doing conventions 😊

Here is how our table looked like in the end!

I'm super happy with how it turned out, especially the wall: this, if you remember, is the rabbit cage I received last week!

It was so satisfying to see my bigger art being displayed properly (some people even bought them :) ), while still having a large space open for us to greet visitors and chat. A good balance in my opinion!

Another big win on our side: I made a web app to keep track of our orders!

In case you don't know, my day job consists of making websites; so when I saw that we were struggling to write down each item and split the earnings, I had the idea of creating an app to solve this exact problem!

I'm happy when my nerdy side can also help with my art passion 😄 And

Overall, we did very well at this festival; but in my case my sales didn't pay back my share of the table... And that's partially because I ran out of my best sellers far quicker than I expected.

I'm a bit disappointed about it, but remember that I'm doing all of this for fun and to learn after all! I'll take what I learned to heart (mostly setting clear deadlines with my printer haha), and continue to improve next time!

Until then, I don't have any convention planned for this summer; I can now move on to other things!

A new illustration is on its way 🍃

After such an intense weekend, fueled by coffee and free noodles (I got one for free in exchange for stickers!! >:D ), needless to say that I need to wind down a bit.

As we were in the Uber back home on the final day, I kept thinking about one specific illustration sketch I did months ago, and shared with you in this newsletter!

Here is the subject I've chosen, and how it looks like right now :)

This time, I want to do something simple, but evocative; something close to how I felt once such a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders.

It's an imperfect sketch for now, but I'm excited to discover the final piece with you 🌸

Thank you for reading this new entry in my little journey! Those conventions have been very intense so I'm happy to focus on something else for a change :)

I hope you've been well on your side, and enjoying the summer; whether heat or rain.

I'll see you next week, at the usual hour this time!

But until then, as always,

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Take care,
- Nighten

This email is part of my art Newsletter. Invite a friend to join the club: https://club.nighten.fr​

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