✨ Lightbox Expo 2022 - Experience ✨

Hello Patrons!

I wanted to talk about my experience at Lightbox expo! I already posted some of the photos on Instagram, but I thought I’d go more in-depth here!

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to exhibit at Lightbox Expo!

My first time attending this convention was in 2019! I went with my sister, and we had so much fun meeting artists, going to panels, and buying art merch!

In 2020, I applied for a table but was rejected! Then when they announced they’re bringing back the in-person convention this year, I applied on a whim, thinking I might get rejected again! To my surprise, I received an email telling me I was accepted!! I was super happy and also started panicking because it was close to my Italy trip (again, I really didn’t think I was going to get accepted haha)

Fast forward to the weekend of the convention, I was super excited and nervous meeting so many artists and art idols! My experience at Fan Expo definitely helped me become more comfortable preparing for a convention and what to expect! 😁

However, it was a little different this time since I was also doing a portfolio review on Saturday! Honestly, I was very anxious about doing a portfolio review since it was my first time doing it! It was a pleasant experience talking to students and artists about their portfolios and helping/offering them some of my advice. If there’s one thing I’d like to improve with the reviews, I hope there can be some categories for artists in different fields. Since I specialize in publishing and doing book projects, it was a little challenging to share advice for those who wanted to pursue a career in storyboards, animation, etc, since I don’t have much experience in that! But overall, I do find the event to be very organized! 😊

I was pretty happy finding out some of my friends were also my artist alley neighbours! It’s quite funny when you’re meeting artists since you usually only recognize them by their social media icons! One of my friends was wearing her icon around her neck so people would recognize her, so I thought that was so clever! 😝

I try to come in before the show starts so I can admire all the artists tables and buy some merch from artists who have their tables open before the show begins haha 👀

Here are some of the free merch the companies were giving out! All exhibitors also got a beautiful letter + print from Bobby Chiu and Jim (organizers of the event!) 😭 💞

Companies: Adobe Fresco, Procreate, Sony, Netflix, Dreamworks, Disney TV

Here’s some of the awesome merch I received/traded/bought!! I'm missing a few merch here but LOOK!! such beautiful art everywhere! 😭😭 💞💞 I really think there needs to be an extra day just to admire all the tables and buy from every one of them haha 🤣

Artists: Gretel Lusky, Lara Georgia Carson, Chelsea Blecha, Lynn Chen, Nessa Tweneboah, Jestenia Southerland (citrusfoam), Djamila Knopf, NeimyKanani, Cosmic Spectrum, KJP, Alicia Chen, Madison Yang, Papilio-art, Tee On  

Overall, I really enjoyed my experience! I've always wanted to table at Lightbox so I am just so happy I was able to do it!! I can’t wait to attend more conventions in the future!! I definitely want to do FanExpo and Lightbox again in the future and try more local ones across Canada! 😊

Love always,

Maxine