What began as wanting to catch up with 2 friends that I haven’t seen in a while evolved into a 20+ person community meet with artists recently!
If you’re an anime-oriented artist based in Singapore, Doujin Market (affectionately known as Doujima) is no stranger to you. This event grew from a small market 12 years ago and now holds a prolific position as a premier Doujin event here. Artists from all over the world travel to Singapore to booth at Doujima, and I had the honour of having a booth at it over the years too:
Doujima 2023
Doujima 2024
Doujima 2025
2026 is the first year in a long time that I hadn’t held a booth at the event, so I had the pleasure of roaming it and saying hi to lots of artist friends. I noticed the most commonly exchanged phrase was “Long time no see! We should hang out!” and that’s how we decided to open up our initial 3-person meet and make it an open jio (open invite), bringing back the chill art meets we used to hold way back in 2014<.
I made a little poster and extended invitations through DMs and by publishing it on my Instagram page. I was surprised that so many people expressed interest to join! Honestly, when the group grew I felt really nervous. But the encouragement from my friends helped me overcome the initial jitters, and soon, the day arrived.
Our first order of business was meeting up with Gwaguwa (one of the initial 2 friends I wanted to meet) early to get some gyoza and other snacks to lunch on and share. Then, we headed to Scape. We didn’t book a formal venue. Instead, we utilised the bean bags, crates, and grass patch meant for the public to hang out at. We occupied a corner of the venue and it was nice to be surrounded by food and drink options. All the attendees knew it’s a chill art meet so there’s no formal reporting time or event ending time. People were free to come and go as they pleased or needed to.
The meet was surprisingly productive! An optional art trade was held secret-santa style, so that participants could have something to work on while with the group, and I prepared a physical art collab template for anyone who wanted to participate~ It was so nice making art for others and together. The casual chatter and feeling of coworking together in person was refreshing. As the host, I made it a point to get to know every person at the meet and try to help them break the ice with the others. It was very very nice.
To more meets in the future! <3
