Ai-Kon 2019 Mascot Winner

Hello everyone! This is a little late, buuuut…
I’m very happy to share with you all that I placed first in the 2019 Ai-kon Mascot Contest!! ♥
It’s an honour to have my mascot selected to represent Ai-kon for another year and I can’t wait to table there again this summer!! I’m feeling super motivated to come up with new merch and stuff~

And of course, congratulations to the runner-ups and all the other artists too!!
All the entries this year were so good and I think many of them could have easily placed or even won. If any of you artists are reading this, I hope you get a table this year anyway and I’m wishing you all the best for the next Ai-kon mascot contest!

As for me, I will be taking a recess from entering the 2020 mascot contests. I’m excited to see who else will place. : )

Thanks for your support everyone. ♥

About my design:
This was… an interesting one. ^^;
I knew I needed to draw in a clean digital style or Aiko rather than using my current watercolour-inspired style… so I needed to find some other way to make it uniquely my own. All I really knew was that I thought it would be interesting if Aiko had a familiar.

So after pages upon pages of concept sketches, research, overthinking and indecision, and then more research, I ended up going with a more natural archery aesthetic as a result. The design elements kept changing as I worked on it too – even as I was adding the shading. It was an experience haha but all that was worth it and I’m really happy with how she turned out~

ARTWORK, Contest Entries, Digital, For Others, LIFE WITH SLOAN