Tag: Meet & Greet

2019, Allgemein

Lacuna Coil and how I met them…

Miss Escapist

Drawing Lacuna Coil as well as visiting one of their concerts was a veeery spontaneous idea. I had known they’d come to Hamburg together with Eluveitie for quite a while. But I told myself I wouldn’t go because the date was in the middle of a very busy uni semester for me. And uni is more important, right? Well, long story short: a few weeks before the actual concert I kinda lost my discipline, bought a ticket for the show and a VIP upgrade on top of that.

Because I would’ve hated to show up without having a drawing to sign for the entire band, I had to change that. So two weeks prior to the show I started searching for reference pictures of the band and ended up designing a layout that was very similar to the Powerwolf portrait I had done in 2018. After I was satisfied with the overall layout and the reference pictures, I was able to start drawing. I did most of the drawing work at uni, in my breaks between the lectures. Had I only drawn at home, I wouldn’t have been able to finish within two weeks time. I managed to finish four days before the show, so everything went well.

On the 21st of December, it was finally the time to meet the guys and lady of Lacuna Coil and show them what I had drawn (most of them had already seen the drawing online because I uploaded it to Instagram). I also took the two drawings I had of Cristina with me to get them signed as well. Of course I arrived at the venue way too early – as always. When it was finally time to go inside and meet Lacuna Coil, I got really excited (no matter how often I get to meet a band and get to show them my drawings, the excitement never goes away). We were quite a bunch of people at the meet & greet and our meet & greet location was in a rather small room as the Eluveitie meet & greet required the bigger room. The light was also quite bad which bothered me more than everything else because this way you couldn’t properly see my drawings. But oh well, you can’t have it all, I guess.

When it was my turn to say hi and to get my stuff signed, the band immediately recognised me. We had a nice little chat about how they had been following the drawing process of the band portrait online and about how cool they found my work (of course I’m always happy and flattered when the depicted person compliments my work). I got the drawing signed by all of them, got my two Cristina portraits signed by her separately as well and received a hug from Maki on top (he and I had been chatting about the drawing a bit before the show already). After the signing session we continued with the photo session (once again with bad light). And then the meet & greet was over, as quickly as it had begun. I grabbed my stuff and went to the concert hall where I was lucky enough to still make it to the front row despite all the Eluveitie VIPs that were already occupying the barrier.

The rest of the evening, I got to enjoy a really nice gig and met a bunch of lovely people. Infected Rain did a nice little opening show, Lacuna Coil played a great set (and Maki gave me one of his picks). The headliner – Eluveitie – didn’t disappoint me either as their concert was great (and I received another souvenir, a drumstick from Alan).

2018

Meet & Bleed

Miss Escapist

A few weeks before attending another Powerwolf show, I spontaneously ended up buying a VIP ticket for their gig. I had two Powerwolf drawings that I wanted to get signed, that’s excuse enough to spend so much money on it, I told myself. So I carefully packed my drawings and took them to the show with me. It was a cold, windy and quite rainy day so taking these precautions was more than necessary. Just as always, I arrived at the venue way too early and so I had a long wait ahead. A few hours later the time to enter the venue had come. We were escorted into the building and told to wait for the band there. While waiting, we received the merchandise bundles that were included in the VIP ticket. Shortly after that, the band joined us and took a seat to let the signing session begin. Everyone wanted to be the first to get their stuff signed so I went to the back of the queue and waited for my turn there – I wasn’t in a hurry and it’s way more relaxed to get your drawings signed without having a bunch of people behind you. When it was my turn I got out the drawings and handed them over to the guys, starting with the old drawing from 2015. They were all really cute when they looked at the drawings and according to what they said the really liked them. They also mentioned that they’re not really used to getting drawn and that it feels a bit “weird” to them as they don’t see themselves as someone worth drawing. When they looked at the 2015 drawing they all went “Ooooh good god, look at how young we still look in this drawing – the good old times. Very nice of you to draw us in such a flattering way.”. That quickly changed with the 2018 drawing “Oh common, now we look old and wrinkly in this one. Couldn’t you have left that part out in the drawing? No seriously, the amount of details in this one is fascinating.”. When the drawing reached Matthew, he recognised the drawing and told me he had seen it on the internet before and that he even saved it to his favourites because he thinks it’s so cool. After the signing session we continued with taking pictures together with the band. What I really liked this time was the fact that we got the chance to have pictures taken on our phone AND on a professional camera by their photographer. All the meet & greets that I had attended before included only one, not both. After the photo session, the band went backstage again and we were allowed to wait inside until the concert started.

2018

Meeting Arch Enemy Again

Miss Escapist

As I had managed to finish my Arch Enemy portrait in time, I was 100% ready for the meet & greet with Arch Enemy prior to their concert. There were quite a few “VIPs” this time and we only had a short amount of time with the band. Shortly after we had been escorted into the building, Arch Enemy already entered the room as well. It felt a bit awkward, though, as the band wasn’t really speaking for themselves but had some sort of “moderator” who did most of the talking to us VIPs. He explained the evening’s organisational procedure to us and then asked us to do something crazy to show that we “deserve” this meet & greet. In the end he even asked us to do push-ups. To me it felt like a total waste of time and money as I had wanted time with Arch Enemy, not with a trying-to-be-funny moderator. But that’s only my opinion and the rest of the meet & greet was fine. First, we got the chance to queue for getting a signed poster and for getting our own stuff signed. Once again, some of the band had already seen my drawing on the internet before and once again they complimented me for doing a great job. I quite vividly remember a little chat that I had with Michael about that drawing. When I handed it over to him the first thing he said was “Oooh, it’s you! You know, I’ve already seen this picture on Instagram. It’s great. You’re famous, you know that?” and I was like “Uuum…thanks. But I guess the only famous one here is you.”.  Then he signed as well and I felt very happy with holding the signed artwork in my hands. As soon as the signing session had begun it already ended again and we went over to taking our photos with the band. After that we all had to say bye and leave the venue again (which felt kinda stupid again, as we were allowed to get back into it for the show only a few minutes later – why did we have to get out then? Ah, never mind…). So after entering the venue for the second time I ran to get a spot in the front row (mission completed) and just enjoyed the show for the rest of the evening.

2017

How I Got My Arch Enemy Artworks Signed

Miss Escapist

After weeks of impatiently waiting for the new Arch Enemy album to be released and the signing session to come, it was finally time. I arrived at the record shop quite early and had about two hours left before the signing session was about to start. Of course, I wasn’t the only early bird and so I had some people to talk to while waiting. The time passed by quickly and Arch Enemy entered the room and took their places at the signing table. I was among the first to get to the band and I started to get out my drawings. Michael was the first one to sign so I handed him over my band portrait. “Really? You want me to sign THAT? Where should I sign? I don’t want to ruin it. Hey, guys, look at this.” … and so on. Some of them even knew the portrait because they had seen it on Instagram before and they seemed to be really interested in it. Daniel for example closely examined his tattoos on the drawing, telling me that I did a good job, and then asked me how much time it took me to draw the picture. When I reached Alissa, I got out my other drawings as well and asked her to sign them. She immediately recognized the drawings as she too had seen them online before. She thanked me for taking the time to draw all those portraits and told me she really likes them. The ballpoint pen portrait was the last drawing to get signed but I decided that I didn’t want it to get signed. Instead, I gave it to her and told her that she can keep it if she wants to. She thanked me once again and then gave me her pen, saying “Actually, I think, YOU should be the one signing this”. So I ended up signing a portrait for Alissa White-Gluz (felt pretty weird, I usually don’t get asked for signatures). Of course, I didn’t have a lot of time with the band as there were dozens of other people who wanted their stuff to get signed, too. Nevertheless, it was really cool and I just love holding a signed drawing in my hands. Back home I framed the drawings and hung them up in my little “gallery” where I can see them every day.

2017

How I Got My Epica Artworks Signed

Miss Escapist

31. of Januar, 2017. The day I had been waiting for for weeks – I’d finally be able to meet Epica and show them my drawings! I was very excited that day when it was finally time to enter the location and meet Epica – a band that had inspired me for such a long time and whose music I listen to almost daily. It was a very relaxed Meet & Greet as we were only 5 “VIPs”. Fist, Mark and Arien entered the room and had a little chat with us. The crew built up a photo wall and the table for signing while I was talking with Mark. Then the rest of the band arrived and the signing session began. I got out my artworks and showed it to the guys and lady, asking them to sign them. Simone was the first to see the artworks and told me that she was really impressed, especially by the portrait drawing of her. At first, she didn’t even want to sign it because she was afraid of “ruining” it. The guys showed a similar reaction to the artworks. Coen was especially interested in the music sheets that I drew for Simone’s portrait and examined everything very thoroughly. They all told me how much they liked the artworks and asked me a lot of questions about them – how long did it take me to finish them, what materials did I use, and so on… After the signing session we went on to taking the photos with the band – which didn’t take too much time as we weren’t many people. Then we had a last chance to take photos with singles band members and chat with them before we had to say goodbye. The concert that followed the Meet & Greet was amazing and Epica were in a really good shape. All in all: a very successful evening that I’ll definitely remember for a long time.