/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

>>8903846
What do you sell? PVC piping is usually the alternative, but they're better for hanging things like prints. Wire cubes have the advantage of being able to actually hold/store stuff if you're a plushie or large craft maker

>>8885225
Yeah, they're strong enough! I use both in my pvc display which can get kinda tall.

>>8885070
Build up and go from big (top) to small (bottom). Reserve the table-top for your buttons and mini-prints.

>>8805028
Tbh it's not that bad, it's just not the best place to go for tourism despite the hype around it. Like I said, there's a bunch of really great restaurants/bars there and it's pretty close to other neat neighborhoods. If you're a twenty-something looking to explore and do cool things, you'll be right at home because everyone else there is like that too (aside from the homeless people). You'll probably end up liking it ok.

Just be careful where you park, or better yet, don't bring a car at all.

>>8805156
Will probably never get over a booth I saw at YaoiCon my first year there. The guy had almost an entire wall to himself full of heavily-rendered, graphite drawings of every imaginable male fictional character from a very wide range of fandoms just standing their in various poses with their exaggeratedly large schlongs out.

I mean, if I saw the table now, I'd probably think it's pretty funny, but when I was younger, and despite being at YaoiCon, it was a bit much to take in. I noticed a lot of people awkwardly trying to avoid his booth, which was hard because it was right next to the entrance/exit.

>>8805231
They're both /cgl/-tan. Her defining characteristics are her bright pink hair and utterly shitty attitude regardless of the situation.

>>8805036
There's a Japanese lifestyle store called Muji that has stackable storage cases like this.

http://www.muji.us/store/storage/acrylic-cases.html

Not ebay-related, but it looks similar to what you're looking for.

>>8803378
Would you mind posting or listing the stuff you got anyway?

I feel like Medium and Large sizes are fairly popular with IW anyway, so I don't think it should be too hard to sell them.

>>8804207
The Mission is a neighborhood in San Francisco, kinda toward the southern part of the city. It's getting pretty heavily gentrified by techbros who think it's a cool and hip "up and coming" neighborhood that's actually full of disgruntled lower income/homeless people/hobos. There are a lot of cool restaurants, but you have to fight through insufferable hipsters, angry homeless people, and a pervasive smell of human excrement/sewage to find them.

If you live there, you know the ropes and it's fine, but it's just not really worth it for tourism, especially since there are a bunch of more polished and traveler-friendly neighborhoods with other things to offer.

Realistically, you're more likely to get shanked in the Tenderloin than the Mission, but as long as you're not alone out night and being a complete fuckwit in the 'Loin, you'll be fine. In the Mission, people will break into your car while you're getting a latte.

>>8803920
Yeah! Thanks for the corrections.

>>8801370
P. excited for PersonaCon, not gonna lie.

>>8802400
In addition to the other anons, check out the boba store near the AP store- it's called Plentea and it's fuckin delicious.

Japantown is great for weeby shit. Baby is in the New People building which has cute J-fashion boutiques and a pretty decent high tea parlour (Crown and Crumpet). The Marina near Embarcadero has a lot of picturesque museums too, like the Legion of Honor.

For high tea, check out the Rotunda in the Westfield mall at Union Square or Lovejoy's.

And yeah, don't go to the Mission

>>8802410
>Art is a learned skill

This is key.

I think one reason why it seems like more Asian artists draw "better" than Western artist isn't inherently their ethnicity but their training. At least in Korea, lots of art schools and art training schools have a very heavy emphasis on draftsmanship, fluidity, composition, anatomy, and just general artistic discipline. As a result, your average Korean who's gone to a cram school for art or art school is probably very competent at general drawing, drafting, etc. and has a skill set that translates pretty easily into pretty anime drawings. I imagine it's the same for a bunch of other Asian countries.

Compare that to your average Western artist and your "average" Western art school. In general, there's more of an emphasis on expression and creativity than there is on discipline or any "hard skills" that help tremendously when creating an appealing drawing.

But, again, these are just very rough generalizations. When you get more specific and start looking at very specific types of training programs, you get variations in style. For example, someone who's done a program like Concept Design Academy in SoCal or gone to an atelier art program will probably come out with excellent painting, lighting, and compositional skills- less "anime" shit, but probably way better at concept art, illustrations, backgrounds, etc. They'll also be leagues better than an artist who just went to a place like Institute of the Arts or even more general art schools like SCAD/SVA/Academy of Art/etc and went for a more general degree like illustration or comicking.

>>8802493
I think this is last year's Morning Tea/Lolita gathering, just fyi

innocent world, here we go

>>8800650
There are 3 main theme parks in Seoul

>Lotte World
"bootleg disneyland." Pretty mild rides, lots of cute shit and fun performances. Something about one of the biggest indoor amusement parks in Asia/the world, idk.

>Seoul Land
Good mid-tier theme park. Rides are fun.

>EverLand
The best one, arguably. Has the most features. In the summer, they have a waterpark called Caribbean Bay which is super fun. I think most people think either Everland or Seoul Land has the best rides/rollercoasters. Everland is also next to the zoo, if you're into that.

Other stuff:
>Dog and Cat cafes
Every major shopping district has one (or several). I've heard good things about the one in Gangnam. The one in Myeong Dong is fun (it's often advertised by someone in a dog fursuit) because it's very hands-on. THey give you towels to place on your lap so puppies can come cuddle and play with you without getting fur everywhere. Bauhaus in Hongdae is all right. Great breeds. Haven't been to the puppy cafe in Hongdae, but I've heard good things.

>Shopping
Hongdae for cool/trendy/hipster/weeb shit, Myeong Dong for make-up and skincare, Myeong Dong/Dongdaemun department stores (Migliore, Doota, Maxtyle) for cheap but still pretty cute/fun clothes and accessories (and haggling!), Gangnam for more highend stuff, Ewha Women's university for cute clothes/feminine shit/probably some lolita stuff, Insadong for artsy shit and crafts, Coex Mall for just a really huge fucking mall. Sometimes the Coex convention area has cool events or exhibits too. Coex Aquarium is also pretty fun.

There's also a chain of thrift shops call Vin Prince (I think) in a bunch of the bigger/more popular subway stations (I'm almost positive there's one in Gangnam station). Worth a look if you pass one while traveling. I always find a lot of Liz Lisa stuff there.

>>8800241
My master/cooperating teacher had a rule that she wouldn't become facebook friends with her students, former or otherwise, until they were 18 and graduated. Might be good to wait until either you or both of you are no longer affiliated with the school, just to keep it safe.

It's most likely not a big deal, but I guess that also largely depends on your community/context/etc

>>8799267
No because it was awful

But yes because it was kind of hilarious how awful it was. I've been looking for pictures online because I'm morbidly curious and want to see if I ended up looking like shit or not but it might also be for the better that there is no photographic evidence. It would've all been flash photography anyway.

>>8799089
Idk if it'll be super helpful, or if you've already thought of this, but record your sales. It's helpful for keeping inventory, figuring out sales patterns, and counting money. I'm absolute rubbish at doing it, but a lot of my friends are fucking awesome at it and it helps them stay organized and on top of business. A system like this works well-

>Steven Universe Print 15 15 10 15
Where 15 is a purchase of a print at full price (if you're selling prints for $15 each) and 10 is a purchase of this print in a bundle or sale (in this case, buy 2 $15 prints, get 1 free, making each print worth $10 in this particular bundle)

So in this case, you've sold 3 SU prints at full price, and 1 at a discounted price. You can also do it symbolically

>Steven Universe Print x x o x
Where the X's are full-priced prints, O is discounted, etc.

>card reader
I've only ever used Square and it's never fucked me over. Yes, you can pass down card fees to customers. Most customers expect or at least don't have a problem with a $1 surcharge per purchase. It rarely goes over that.

>till
Depends on the con. I'd say $100-$150 in change for smaller cons, and about $300 for larger ones

>payments
What do you mean by this?

>>8798447
Visit nyc for the city and sf for lolita. I'm a slut for innocent world but Tokyo rebel was kind of meh in comparison to the new people building/baby store, and a majority of the store was sweet/baby stuff anyway. Someone also mentioned maruq, which has a lot more weeb stuff and is nicer to look through. Ap store is next to a ballin boba joint (plentea).

>>8798471
Go to the department stores at dongdaemun (doota, migliore, maxtyle) or myeongdong, and hongdae for cute clothes and accessories. Hongdae also has a bunch of cool themed cafes including a hello kitty cafe, if you're into that. It's more expensive for shopping, but also has cooler stuff.

>>8797078
>How many of you have done this hardcore, as in, taking a plane to go multiple states away to sell? Do you make enough profit for it to be worthwhile?
Every time I've flown out of state, I've made my costs back and then some. Furthest I've flown and invested in a con was probably Otakon a couple years back. I think flight was like 800 and I had like 400ish more in other costs and made all of it back+2kish? I'd say it's worth it. Otakon not so much because it's a corrupt shithole of an AA, but most other larger out-of-state cons I've been to have been profitable.

>Success with selling non-anime stuff?... I bought a Wes Anderson fanzine from one girl's table a couple of years ago and have been musing bringing a lot of not-typical fandom and whatnot to sell. Honestly, I've not had much interest in recent anime so I'd probably suck at pandering to young fangirl types anyhow.
I do way better with Western fandoms than I do with anime. Most of my stuff is like Marvel/DC capeshit and recent shows/movies that I'm into. I think comics especially are on the upswing because of all the movies.

>Commissions? Worth it or not? I used to do them and prints, nothing else. Seems like lots of people offer commissions now, so no idea if you even get enough customers to bother.
Depends on how bored I am, how desperate for money, and if I feel like drawing. Just make sure you're charging a fair amount. I feel like you shouldn't spend more than an hour on a single commission at-con, and if you are, you better get paid reasonably for that hour (i.e $10 for a fullbody color is bullshit, don't do it when you can make that same amount slinging caffeine at a starbucks)

>>8796060
My first time I was a cocky little shit.

I had gone to the local con before to scope out the competition to see how I would fare and didn't feel especially threatened, so when I got a table, I was feeling pretty confident. That all dissipated pretty quickly when I saw other people making sales while I didn't hahahahaa. Then my mom came to visit to support and fiddled with my display a little. Suddenly people started buying my shit.

I made like $20 in profit, but that's kind of exciting when you're in high school. Took it as a learning experience and did better from then on out.

A little anxiety is definitely natural, as usually there's no "guarantee" that you'll actually make money, but the more you do it, the better you can gauge crowds and figure out what people will almost always buy. You get over the anxiety with experience, mostly. At-con, it's important to stay focused on the positives. For example, one con you might not make a lot, but maybe you'll meet cool people or find a new artist buddy. Focus on that rather than the negatives and it gets easier to power through poor sales and learn/grow from the experience.

>>8795282
It wasn't about how he looked, though. He was super in-character (from what I know) and just really spot-on in his character nuances. He pretty much pranced away from me after I asked for a picture and his voice was super goofy and over-the-top jaunty.

The con he was at had enough Undertales to dwarf even a Homestuck presence at the fandom's peak but he was honestly really charming with how in-character he was.

>>8795602
Fingers crossed! I'm also pretty active on twitter, so that would be perfect!

>>8795198
If you're getting them done professionally, something like 20 lb or w/e is fine. I think thin paper+laser printing yields the best look. If you're printing at home, same deal on the paper, but the actual printing might be a little fuzzy just because of the nature of inkjet and because buttons are usually small so even minor details are pretty visible (unless you have a color laser printer)