I usually give talks (20-25 mins or so) as part of a program for festivals or at bookstores. But this was the first time that it was just me, yup, JUST ME alone to sustain a 2 hour session consisting of a 45mins talk, 10 mins demo and 15 mins QA session. The venue is far from shopping malls and their restaurants only serve Japanese Association members. So people who came were really there for my talk only.
That explained why I was stressed because I wanted to do my best in order to not disappoint my fans and attendees who came specially to hear me talk and watch me demo. To appear the best, I even arranged an appointment with my hair salon to do my hair. But when I left my house, there was a HUGE downpour and I got drenched!!! So I had to go back home and ask if my friend could fetch me to the Japanese Association directly and have lunch there. However when we got there, the restaurant refused to serve us because we were not members!!! WHAT!? So we had to drive out to get a quick lunch (which I only ate half) then rush back to prepare for my presentation and mini-store. I thought my day was doomed since I had a bad start, probably an omen... (artists-think-too-much-syndrome) but the turn-out was better than imagined, the ballroom seats were almost filled!
I admit I could have done a better job and panicked less if I had arrived earlier (curse the restaurants there) to prepare the demo setup and mini-store. I even brought some matcha kit-kat to give to my fans. Thank god I have an assistant and help from
Simplifi3D!
I didn't expect people to just laugh at this emoticon, haha...
I talked about my beginning on the Taiwanese blogging platform.
I also shared about how I started drawing comics and my experiences in Japan, including my love and hate relationship with my scholarship and how I landed up drawing Kopi, my imaginary pet dog out of my extreme boredom at the Japanese school. I also did a quick demo on my Cintiq 13HD. Sadly, I forgot to import preferences and the resolution was unfavourable to do the work. (I think my drawing is getting a bit rusty too because my time now is 60% marketing, sales and admin and 40% drawing). I wish I have the luxury of having a manager or an agent so I can just concentrate on managing my social media sites, writing and drawing...
I think there were around 50 attendees, of which most were my fans, including a few from Indonesia! I was also thrilled to meet my high school junior who still look very young (like me eh? HAHA). The rest were my friends, JUGAS members and their family. Some said they enjoyed the talk and someone suggested that I do a caricature demo or extend the demo session into a workshop in the future. I'm not sure, what do you think? :P
My next public appearance will be a booth at AFA and a talk+book signing at Popular's Bookfest! Stay tuned for more information on my homepage and facebook! The best support is to buy my book if you can, or recommend my work to your friends! Thank you :)
You can join JUGAS if you have graduated from any school or university in Japan!
Wow! That was a great step! Soo awesome Eva. I am glad...I feel so happy that things start to change for the best for you!
ReplyDeleteOh BTW, that emoticon indeed made me laugh as well...I bet that was how you felt when you were told you were not a memeber therefore you had to get out and started thinking your day was gonna be ruined
HAHA ya... We were like WHAT!?
DeleteSo I guess that is how a "clubhouse" is like... only for members.
I think I will use the money for a a fitness club membership instead...
I'm looking forward to attending one of your talks in the near future. Love all your comics. :) ~Grace
ReplyDeleteThanks Grace! Congrats to your book too! Hope to catch you on one of the public events :3
Delete