A budding anime artist is already sketching out her future.
Lilah Harmanmaa — who goes by Peach the Anime Artist — is heading down south later this month. There, she'll be showcasing her artwork in the Artist's Alley at FanExpo, a five-day event at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
The self-taught artist just celebrated her ninth birthday and is going into Grade 4 at Centennial Public School.
Wearing a Nezuko costume (a character from Demon Slayer), she shows off her sketches kept in a purple binder, each protected by a plastic covering.
There are characters from Spy X Family, Stranger Things, The Umbrella Academy, Sailor Moon, Demon Slayer and The Promised Neverland.
“Most of the time I use a sketching pen and sometimes to blend in I like to use a Q-tip to add shading,” she said, explaining she learned to shade herself.
Lilah draws about once a day in the sketchbook.
After choosing a character, she references a picture to draw her artwork.
“What made me want to start drawing was basically just that … when I was way younger, I liked to draw. So now I think …. I’m good at it because I practised for years,” she said.
FanExpo is her second vendor event.
The first transpired earlier this year.
About a month before the Northern Ontario Expo in Timmins, Lilah showed her parents a picture she drew.
“We took a close look at it and kind of said ‘Wow, Lilah really has something special going on here.’ So we applied to get into TimminsCon, which they told us you’re late at applying, we’re already full,” recalled her dad, Michael Harmanmaa.
When a last-minute table opened up, Lilah took it.
Vendors she met from down south recommended applying for the Fan Expo.
In Toronto, they're hoping to share Lilah's talent and possibly connect with people who understand the business and may take her under their wing.
The father-daughter duo will be attending together and have matching costumes for each day.
She's really looking forward to meeting the voice actors. As a horror buff and Stranger Things fan, she also really wants to meet Robert Englund, who played Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street series.
For her booth, copies of Lilah's top work will be made to give away.
"What we’ll ask is if people would like to donate, they can. What we get in donations, half of the money goes into her education—whatever avenue that takes her, whether it be art or anything else— and the other half will go into her account to show that working hard and doing art can pay off and that it can be made into something more than just a hobby,” he said.
With her first pay cheque, Lilah bought a sword for her Tanjiro costume. Having recently started collecting Funko Pops, she's already excited about looking for new ones to buy at the Toronto show.
The Harmanmaas have looked into different avenues to help with the cost of attending the expo.
"(We) quickly learned that there’s a lot available to support young entrepreneurs, but she’s too young,” he said.
To help offset the cost of attending the expo, they've started a GoFundMe and are looking for community support.
You can support the campaign here.
