First, what is an artist alley?
It's a part of a convention where independent or local artist sell their own art. An artist alley usually has its own section of a convention and sometimes it's housed in a separate hall. Artist Alleys range in the number of participants based on the size of the convention. Anime Expo has about 500 artists and they are all placed in a tightly packed separate hall. While Wondercon and LA Comic Con whose AA has about 100 participants and share the space with the exhibitors. Some events like Harajuku Day LA will only have local artists while the bigger ones will have artists who fly in from all over the country or even abroad. There are some artist who have an online store and this would be your chance to check out their items in person, saving on shipping costs.
What you can find in an Artist Alley depends on whether you're attending an Anime, Gaming, or Comic Convention. You may find the same artists who attend multiple conventions in your area bring different items to better curate to the attendees. The most common items you will find stickers, charms, buttons, posters, and prints of various sizes being sold of many different characters and fandom made in the art style of the attending artists. If there is a hit show, a hit cartoon or anime, you will find merch for it any convention you attend. Sometimes you will find people selling their Original Character (OC). Be prepared to spend your entire paycheck at one booth or wanting to buy one of each item an artist has.
In Comic Cons you will find people who work in the comic book industry in the Artist Alley. The same can be found in Anime conventions, artists who have credits in the animation industry or who have made their own book. People who have made their own comic or have credits in various different comic books. They will be selling their comics at a discount. If you love comic book characters this is your chance to get more In those type of events people bring wagon full of comics to be signed. Another popular item that you will find are blank comic covers that you can ask an artist to illustrate in for a fee.
In Anime conventions you can also find artists who make commissions. The price of a commission ranges depending on the amount of details and colors you would like. I've seen some go up in the thousands for a full color fully detailed art piece. Not all artists will have commissions and the ones that do will have very limited amount of slots because they want to finish before the con ends. You can sometimes prebuy slots if you follow an artist on social media.
Here's an example of one.
Some artist will also sell clothing, shirts, sweaters, jackets, hair accessories, and bags. They will have limited sizes and if you like one I suggest getting it as soon as you can. I've run into the problem where I like a shirt or sweater and look at other booths and when I come back either my size is gone or the item is sold out completely. Beanie's, caps, and bucket hats fit in this category, not all artists will sell clothing items.
Artist Alleys are a great way to do some gift shopping. Ceramics can be found, mugs and plates, you can find tumblers with art that you would have never thought of. Get yourself a poster for your room or another sticker to decorate your laptop. The first thing I do at a convention is visit the Artist Alleys because that's where I will find the most unique, most colorful, most artistic pieces for my collections. For example, in LA Comic Con 2022 I found a booth in the artist alley that sold wands and staffs made from real crystals that I was so close to buying. If you like convention exclusives some artists only make small batches of certain artworks. My wall currently has WonderCon poster limited to 15 that I am happy to own.
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