Hi everyone!! Since I have 16 hours to ride in a car on the way to San Diego Comic Con and can't do many other types of "work", I decided to sign up for Steemit! I've been looking into it for a while, as I've been searching for a place to blog outside of my site (HannahLynn.com) and Facebook (my default go-to).
A little background: I am a full-time fantasy style artist and have been exhibiting my artwork and coloring books at Comic Con for 5 years now! I started my art career 10 years ago, as a hobby selling ACEO's (artist trading cards) on eBay. I still sell them on eBay when I paint them ;)! Insert magical imaginary photo here since I haven't figured out how to post pics here yet and don't have access to my html codes/image links on the road
Our journey to San Diego starts at 5am Monday in Idaho Falls, Idaho, where I work from my home studio, and ends around 8:30pm in the PST time zone! It's a long drive, but in order to get all of my inventory there safely, my husband and I prefer to drive rather than fly and make separate arrangements for the merchandise.
We check into the hotel Monday night, settle in, and rest for the evening. Tuesday we head down to the convention center to get our badges and start setting up. We will then head to the "marshaling yard" behind the San Diego Convention Center to have our merchandise palletized, where it will be labeled and delivered into the convention center via forklift to our booth for set up later.
Once our badges have been picked up and our merchandise is safely palletized and accounted for, we will park under the convention center and head out on foot to the streets of the Gaslamp District-just steps off the convention center for lunch and a bit of sightseeing before returning in the evening to complete our setup. Shops, eats, galleries, the bay...squee! Since the con doesn't officially start until Wednesday for Preview Night, the streets are all a buzz with mainly exhibitors, street merchants, and large media corporations setting up their final displays like larger-than-life vinyl graphics gracing the sides of skyscraping hotels promoting the next sci-fi movie, mini-series, or fangirl show. Giant mobile walls will be erected with gorgeous graphics and big blow-up characters from games and movies will take over the Gaslamp District for the next 6 days. Many displays are already completed and ready for con-goers, and the excitement is already in the air!
We usually meet up with some family for lunch (we have family all over California as both my husband and I were born and raised in Cali, and both of our children were born there before we moved to Idaho). This year, our 2 daughters will be with their Grandma who followed us down separately, so we will be meeting up with them to get their badges as well! They are very excited as this will be the first year they get to go! At 10 and 12 years old, their badges are still free with our passes, and they will grace the halls in Cinderella and Belle Disney Princess costumes on Wednesday.
As the evening approaches, the girls will head back to the hotel with Grandma while we head into the convention center to get our booth set up. The first part of the day is reserved for all the "big guys"...the HUGE displays that require serious equipment to install. Mattel, Hasbro, TV Networks, etc have to get their massive displays in before the little guys' areas are even shaped around them. Sometimes when we check in, our area doesn't even exist yet, and we have to come back later. I can tell you, it's pretty amazing to be in the convention center when it's all coming together...like a fun VIP backstage pass! Security in the convention center is always very tight and every badge is checked before entry, with 2 officials at each door and umpteen more scattered throughout the center. San Diego has it together in every way; they are extremely organized and tidy, which I appreciate greatly (I also exhibit in Artist's Alley at Salt Lake Comic Con in September and they are only in their 3rd year with lots of improvements still needed in their operation).
Once our exhibitor area is available, our pallet is delivered to our table where we sign for it and get started setting up! The table, chairs, table skirt, and backdrape are provided. I have a table cloth and vertical banners that go behind me, and then begin setting up my table according to the pictures I have on my phone from my in-studio mock up at home. All the prep work makes it much easier at the con. It takes us about 2 hours to set everything up; we stash extra bins and such under the table, drape extra table cloths over our set up, and head out for the evening, ready for Preview Night! Of course we are sneaking peeks of all the cool displays on the way out...but we better keep moving and look like we are on a mission or we get shooed by security to move along ;).
We won't need to be back to the convention center until around 3 or 4 Wednesday, as Preview Night officially starts around 5:30. This allows me to sleep in and take it slow to physically and spiritually prep for what is to be 4 and a half days of very active exciting days! We usually have to go to the neighboring hotel to pick up our t-shirt preorders and such before getting to the table to do final set-up and prepare for the crowds. Preview Night runs from 5:30-9 on Wednesday, then Thursday, Friday, and Saturday 9am-7pm, with Sunday being the final day running from 9am-5pm. Each evening the convention ends, security is amazing about getting everyone out within just a few minutes (tens of thousands of people!), double checking bathrooms and all, checking badges to make sure those who are left are exhibitors), flooding the streets with foot traffic. Getting out of the convention center parking lot in the evening is a half-hour event in and of itself, as there are SO many people walking everywhere!
Each day will be filled to the brim with autographs, chatting, snapping pictures, laughing, sneaking bites of food behind my table, and rubbing elbows with others in the industry. THOUSANDS of my trading cards and business cards will move out the doors, along with hundreds of pounds of books, art prints, and more, making my remaining inventory load literally much lighter!
We have to be there a half hour early each day for daily set-up, and then Sunday at 5 we perform all our tear-down tasks and hand-truck all our bins and stuff down to where we are parked under the convention center for load up. We won't actually head home until the next day, so that we can rest before hitting the road for our 16 hour drive home. We are usually out by around 6:30 Sunday night, giving us some good time to go out to a nice celebratory sushi dinner!
Well this was fun, and passed an hour or two of my trip! It's my turn to drive for a bit, thanks for listening! Can't wait to share things on Steemit like art life, more Comic Con stuff, tips for artists, etc ;)! Stay tuned!! And I'll get some pics going soon =D
Hannah