Event : Comic Fiesta 2017 + Things I Bought

I thought I prepared myself for my first Comic Fiesta. 

I did, but it was not enough. 

The event was huuuuuuuge, huge as in 2 big halls in KLCC convention center, not including people outside, waiting at the park, super-packed alleys that you need to slowly walk, long queues of people waiting to meet their celebrity cosplayer or take turn to try out games, or even buy things. This was my very first huge event. The biggest one so far, and I've never seen such crowd :F

My booth was located at B-B01, so it was among the first booth at basic art booth, next to the premium ones. We bought extra ticket for Af as my assistant of the weekend, so we could take turn to walk and find nice beautiful things that people made. 

New things I prepared for Comic Fiesta :

• 2nd version of 'Game Nerd' enamel pin (almost sold out before the event)
• 1st version of 'Book Nerd' enamel pin (sold out before the event)
• 'My Doodle Book' zine (not so many people bought)
• Sticker sheets x 4 (so - so, people like the Harry Potter fan-art sticker)

Things that were sold fast :

• The remaining enamel pins sold out in the first few hours
• Japanese sticker pack version 2 + 3
• Laser-cut 'Game Nerd' keychain
• Laser-cut charms 
• and several more MesinWood + Eureka stuffs.

From this event, I can conclude that the audience love movie - series - anime related fan-arts. I didn't make as many fan-art stuffs as other booths, so we didn't get as much hits. If I want to attend more events like this : Comic Fiesta, Comic Art Festival KL, Animangaki, etc - I need to make more fan-arts, it is what sells compared to original illustrations. Some people even came and asked whether : "There are characters that I know of ?" or keep calling the 'Game Nerd' stuffs inspired by the original Game Boy as "Beemo" from Adventuretime. I never felt so old. 

But anyway, the sales was so great - we reached the highest sales for any events I've ever attended so far ! It gives us hope and kinda show me that my hard work almost paid off. I love selling my stuffs and creation to people, even how 'syok-sendiri' it might seems sometimes. But without people keep on buying and supporting, I would never be this far.  

Thank you - for every support, every money spent on buying the things that I made, for every visits, for every 'hello - I'm a fan'. You have no idea how hard I work throughout this year as a full-time independent illustrator and designer just to pay my bills and prove that I never wanted anything so bad. I love every single day I'm working for the past 9 months, creating, planning, and making stuffs. I am so happy guys, thank you. Thank you for the wonderful 2017 journey !

PS - You can also support me on my Patreon : https://www.patreon.com/azreenchan ❤ Where I share more detail stuffs on the projects I'm working on, on current life and thoughts and tips + tricks.

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And here's for the things I bought from illustrators and comic artists at Comic Fiesta !

You know, I took so many short trips to finish both 2 halls :

• because the halls were so big
• and there were too many people, so it was a slow-paced, taking turns kinda thing
• and sometimes so many people came to our booth, I can't just leave Af alone :F

But I told Af, that I've been waiting to join these kind of events and it is just once a year thing - so I need to explore and find great illustrators. It was the only chance to be surrounded by so many inspiring people ! Here I bought a LOT of printed stuffs to be added into my doodle book. This made me so happy ❤ I tagged almost all comic artists and illustrators, please do follow their work on Instagram.

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Like chibi stickers by Foxkunkun and name card from Meyoco (there was nothing that I can buy from her booth that was not out of my budget) :

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Lokamade was everywhere in bookstores, so it wasn't as exciting as meeting Ashionglee from Indonesia in person ! He is an Indonesian National Graphic Illustrator and I asked for his signature. Super inspiring. I also bought the 'Passion Pays' sticker from my partner ; Eurekartstudio.

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A colouring book from the legendary Kidchan/Cyanparade !
Two things that I love from this series :

1. Black/White stroke - no colours, so I can see just the beautiful strokes without getting distracted by colours
2. Symmetry 

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I also bought a 'Thor' sticker and an art-print inspired by Rogue One from Machodoodle/Amelia Lo from Indonesia. She got a lot of cool stuffs, but I had to limit my budget and not get too many things at one place :

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Weiliwonka and Pottetto were 2 local illustrators that I found from the previous CAFKL. I was super excited to see different kind of strokes and styles being used in illustration (because most booths were anime/manga-based style). I didn't buy anything Pottetto because the sticker set from her 'Stranger Things' fan-arts were sold out (too bad) :

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Hope to see you guys again next year !

❤

Event : Urbanscape x NicheMarket + Week 2 Video

Urbanscape x Bookit's Niche Market :

Last minute event ! The organizer contacted me and asked whether I wanted to open a booth for that Sunday. It was a last-minute fill up so I wasn't sure, but they gave me a discounted booth fees because it was last minute and I told her I can't afford pricy booths for now. So I just joined the event :F

Preparation :

I was busy because of the client-based project I'm currently working on, but I had to steal some time here and there. I managed to finish up the version 3 of Japanese foods and snacks ( I think that's it for now, we'll move on to different stuffs after this ). We went to print out the new and old stickers, and also did the cutting and packaging in short amount of time (+ a lot of Pretty Little Liars series).

Most of my postcards and greeting cards were destroyed so I don't have those to sell anymore T^T I sold mostly sticker packs and the latest Eid money packs. Pheww.

Event day :

The event was held for 12 hours (one of my longest event), it was mostly slow paced (because of the crowd - there wasn't enough people for such a big event), so basically, it was a boring one. Af was sleepy throughout the whole day, and I managed to cut all my Japanese stickers (there are more than 40 new packs - so can you imagine the time I was having).

Also in the building : 

Photography exhibition and arts classes on the third floor, and exhibition on the second floor, music and lights exhibition on the first floor. We were on the ground floor : Niche Market and open mic sessions.

Their branding illustrations are the best : you can see event's posters, signage, labels all around the place, and they are definitely inspiring !

After-thought :

Even though the event was super slow and long, I think it was a success because any booths with sales over RM 500 is a big success to me. Imagine I just sell mostly sticker packs guyyyyys.

Sales : Rm 526
- Booth (last minute discount) : - RM 100
- Parking (Central Market) : - RM 26
- Foods : +- RM 50

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Here is a video compiled for this week's activities : 

Singapore Trip 3 : Things I Bought from the Trip 02

This time I managed to wake up before 4.30am. I went to our small kitchen to make hot Neslo that smells so nice in the morning and ate a banana. It started to rain. Early morning, hot drink and rain, a great combination to start a day.

I'm continuing to list things that I bought in the previous Singapore trip - because all items deserve the mention :)

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NoemoArt/Pooi Ning Chia postcard :

Her booth was located right behind my booth, so I went to look around many times. She is an illustrator from Johor. One postcard that caught my eyes was a printed illustration of her hand-drawn Pekan Nanas (1950-1960s) map. She mentioned that it wasfrom an old map of her hometown - I'm guessing in Johor. I really love hand-drawn maps so I finally bought one from all the coins I collected during the first day of the event. The postcard costed $2. 

I also asked her to sign the card and took her cute little namecard as well. She packed it in a nice transparent matte envelope. Loooove.

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Evangelione's postcard :

When I walked past Evangelione's booth before the event started on the first day, there were rows of her cute little hand-sewn dolls lined up. The next time I walked past by again several hours later, all her dolls were sold out :o This happens several times already as I met her in other previous events.

So there's nothing else for me to buy except for $1 printed postcards. I bought one as a support, 3 small ladies in teapots. It is so adorable I love it. I asked her to sign it in the back of the postcard :

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MiniFanFan namecards :

I met her ! She stopped by at my booth and told me that she recognized me T^T I was at the verge of crying + sweating nervously. She told me that she already joined the event several times and chatted with me for a few more minutes, but I can't quite remember what she asked or said because I was too nervous.

I didn't managed to buy anything at her booth because I didn't have the budget :F But because I already bought her postcard from her previous event, I guess that's okay then. I took 2 of her namecards though, because it was so nice to see and collect.

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Other links :

EEChing's Handmade (Malaysian Crafter) | Chris Chew Yi Wei (Singaporean Illustrator)

Heimlo (Indonesian Designer) | Dodolulu (Hong Kong Illustrator)

Mossery (Malaysian Planner) | Paper Therapy (Indonesian Crafter)

Muffinsaurs (Illustrator) | HappyDoory (Malaysian Illustrator)

Tiny Supplier (Singaporean Crafter) | When I Was Four (Singaporean Illustrator) 

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I saw/met a lot of illustrator/designer/doodler/crafters in this event. Quite an impressive crowd. The event was not solely focused on design + arts, but more to various of things that we can do ourselves : independent clothing lines, pottery/ceramic makers, personal coffee maker, hand-sewn items, jewellery makers and so much more. 

If you want to go to the event, please do. It's quite an eye-opening experience for me to see how many people from Asia came down here to open a booth together :)