Katsucon 2016

Over Valentine’s weekend I was fortunate to be a part of the Katsucon Artist Alley.   Katsucon is a very large Japanese culture and anime convention.  The event is held at the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center at the National Harbor, right outside DC.  The area is beautiful, the hotel has a crazy atrium, and the event was massive!  This has been the largest convention I have attended so far with Sotare.

I’m always excited and humbled when someone buys my artwork.  To have a total stranger who has only recently been introduced to my art decide on the spot to drop $20 on a shirt means a lot.  I’ve had people come up and get so excited they buy multiple shirts and accessories.  At Katsucon, I sold a lot of shirts and framed mini art prints.  The decision to begin selling the mini framed prints has proved to be successful, pulling in a good chunk of sales at each event now.

The favorite shirt has been the split-fountain Zombie Joey.  I’ve almost sold out of my second printing of this shirt and will have to order more before the next event!  I’m stoked that so many people have enjoyed the design!

I was driving back and forth for this event, waking up at 6:30 in the morning and not making it back home until 11:00 at night.  By the end of the weekend I was more exhausted than I realized.  It took me a few days to catch my breath… but it was so worth it!

Looking forward, I plan to do Katsucon next year (and I want to do MAGFest).  In preparation for next year there will be some different art and also giving the booth a more detailed and professional presentation.  This year I kept things simple, basically repeating my booth set up from the Charm City Christmas show.

I will post photos here on the blog and Instagram as I work on improvements for the booth.  I haven’t been posting as many behind the scenes as I used to, so I think I’ll start getting back into that!

Leaping forward,

Adrian Black

Owner // Designer // Artist