By Amish Kumar
Danielle Dalangin-Avery has been an artist for most of her life, doodling and sketching for herself and others.
“In year six I would hand out drawings to people because they would ask me to,” Dalangin-Avery said.
Since then, she’s become a digital artist selling her work at conventions.
Dalangin-Avery, who has 71,000 followers on her Instagram account DANGODANNI, has been going to conventions since 2022.
Artist alleys are dedicated spaces for artists at popular conventions, like Smash and Supernova. This is where Dalangin-Avery and others like her sell their works.
“2022 was my first convention, I didn’t do any others until recently,” said Dalangin-Avery. “I went from doing one convention to doing nine in a year.”
The convention Dalangin-Avery went to in 2022 was Smash, featuring “tabling” by about 300 artists and attended by over 36,000 people.
Artist alleys are collaborative rather than competitive.
“What you contribute generally comes back to you,” Dalangin-Avery said. “Artists help each other out and even split expenses together when making orders.”
Dalangin-Avery’s simple tip for artist is: “Being different is the most important in my opinion.”
She said that a lot of her traction comes from the way her table looks because it stands out.
“If you make content that people enjoy, quality or content wise it will sell well,” said Dalangin-Avery. “If you make stuff for yourself, it won’t.”
Some artists like Dalangin-Avery have strong followings online. DANGODANNI content features recent works, upcoming events and live post about the event.
But she said having a large online following isn’t needed to do well at conventions.
Dalangin-Avery aspires to table as her full-time career turning her life-long hobby into a paying gig.
Featured image: Danielle Dalangin-Avery’s art stall. Photo: Danielle Dalangin-Avery.
