So...yeah.

First off, the good things! Got to meet some awesome DA peeps such as , , , and , who were all awesome and got stuff from me/I got stuff from; also met and traded some art with her, cool! Met some other new people. Went to my first ever cosplay meet (will post pics later), saw a complete AMV contest, saw cosplay chess, met up with some other forum pals, actually ate breakfast one morning, won some dinky little prizes (such as a set of phallic balloons...I gave those away straightaway) and was actually RECOGNIZED in a couple of my cosplays. So yay!

The bad...

I am not attending Artist Alley for a while now. Especially not the one at AX. For one thing, it's just not my market. To hit any sort of stride in AA there, I have to be a) insanely popular online or IRL, b) draw fanart of popular series/characters, and c) have a very distinctive style. I do not qualify in any of these categories. I haven't hit it big, I'm not familiar with the hottest new shows or games, and if I am, I'm not willing to spend my time making fanart of them just to make a buck, and I haven't hit my stride as an artist yet. I'm like indie, average-level niche stuff here except I haven't found my niche.

Secondly, the cost. I spend way too much time and money on the stuff I sell to break even on selling only 1/4 or less of what I make. I work on getting quality photo prints so I have to raise my prices, which people don't want to pay. Add that to the cost of the table, which is only going to go up...it's just not worth it.

Thirdly, only 5 AA staff members? For real? Not to mention all the hoops we have to jump through? It's far too tedious to deal with and if I'm not going to break even anyway, just makes one more annoyance to bear. And I had much more fun attending panels and cosplaying. If I'm going to have a fun weekend, I want to have fun.

Also, you people who "don't have enough money" so you just go and take photos of artists' work? Y'all suck. And stop putting me in a position to say "no" when you ask if you can take a picture and making me feel like a douche. I'm not a museum. Pay up or back off.

It sounds like I'm bitter, but quite honestly God granted me a lot of peace last weekend (no, seriously, He did, and if He didn't then I'd be completely hysterical at this point), and I've made this decision in a calm and rational state of mind.

made a good point to tell me that I probably jumped too early into this sort of thing. The amount of time I spend worrying about AA and making prints and other merchandise could be spent perfecting my craft, working on stuff I care about (like Friends of the Dead, OH YEAH IT'S ON BABY) or working on new cosplay, which I really enjoy doing. So that's the end of that for now.

Oh, and my roommates were loud and messy.