Artist Alley General: Table Sharing is Caring

[Corky-Lunn !CorkyloMxc No.9513414]

Previous thread: >>9505425

>Please read the FAQ
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PpDyjw2LDxbupdvHMNsBUOBVB66Lzwf44RM1You1GDA/edit?usp=sharing
>Resources
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>Taobao/Alibaba services (broken link)
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>Artist Spreadsheet
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>How to order from Vograce (now with video on how to set up files)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18UxKnpgrmeb82NnW5e4YIEX-eZ3zHt178Mp6i0A5gME/edit?usp=sharing
>Convention List (WIP)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13o7hD5xS3sDqVptnTVGUlRae3ovEE-vPPST_QOrQwtM/

Summer cons are upon us, good luck to all you anons and make some dosh!

[Anonymous No.9513417]

Is it normal for Vograce shipping to be absolutely insane? I've been quoted $40 shipping on 40 small can badges, surely that's not right? The person I was talking to doesn't seem willing to offer other shipping options.

[Anonymous No.9513421]

>>9513417
I made 100 1" charms with them, and got the fastest DHL shipping. And they charged me about $32 for the fastest shipping. How big are your charms?

[Anonymous No.9513424]

Ah man, i was unfortunate to post right when a new thread was made. Reposting for sake of repost!

I will be tabling with a friend, but it was a last minute thing. We have TOTALLY different styles my art is digital and animu whilst hers is like traditional sketches of monsters (think giger but less detailed) and cartoons. I also have 2x the merch than her...we are sharing a table and it was because it's my first time not tabling at a local con and it freaked me out, but my friend said she would be down to table with me. Uhh would our vast difference in styles and merch affect each other's sales negatively??? I'm glad I have a friend to be with, but reading these past posts now worry me about sales...

[Anonymous No.9513446]

>>9513424
Eh I think it'll help in a way. At least it won't look like a combined art studio, you two will just look like two separate small tables. To make it less weird, maybe cover your half of the table in a different colored table cloth. Make sure to divide your stuff down the middle to make the distinction clear as to which art belongs to you.

[Anonymous No.9513451]

Reposting for the new thread! Ty all in advance
Any gulls from the EU know how much shipping from CatPrint is? Do I have many chances of not having to pay extra customs?
Or,another place in the EU that prints with the same quality and prices? Foiled and holographic prints would be a plus

[Anonymous No.9513609]

Since we were critiquing art and all that last thread, mind if I get some too?

http://angeban.tumblr.com/
Looking for advice in general because I really have no idea what makes something 'print-worthy' or something that someone wants to buy. The whole 'make what you would want to buy' doesn't work here because I typically don't like buying prints, I buy zines or keychains more often, so I'm kind of lost on that.

I put out a survey for my followers today and got a few responses which is nice but I'd still like to get more feedback. Like out of everything on my blog is there anything that would even make a good print?

[Anonymous No.9513644]

>>9513609
Alright, I went through all of your fanart, keep in mind I'm coming at this mostly from a customer perspective. You have a couple things that I think would work well as mini-prints
http://angeban.tumblr.com/post/154354513425
http://angeban.tumblr.com/post/152528239135/when-u-need-to-carry-ur-sickly-gf-home-but-shes
http://angeban.tumblr.com/post/121038716735/i-think-this-image-speaks-for-itself
All three of these are cute enough that I would at least stop at a booth with art like this, but they aren't really super dynamic and would work better as small prints or postcards.
The only two pieces that stuck out to me as "hey that could be a print" are
http://angeban.tumblr.com/post/129054522420/sinning-is-winning (with some work)
http://angeban.tumblr.com/post/101506073395/tomoyooo
The PMMM one is visually interesting imo but will also probably be a bit lewd for some people to want on their wall, the CCS one is very cute but very simple, but! It has some sort of background! Which is what almost all of your pieces are lacking. People, for the most part, don't want prints of a character posed in front of an all white backdrop, so focus on including even simple backgrounds into pieces if you want to do prints. BUT with that in mind, don't do this
http://angeban.tumblr.com/post/128493417570/a-day-at-the-beach
http://angeban.tumblr.com/post/48143125253
both of these are all background and no character, so they're not going to appeal to a lot of people. The good news is your art is very cute and has a lot of potential, you just need to work on some drawings that are /meant/ to be prints, because if you just dig through your existing art I don't think you'll be successful. Also, I suggest branching out when it comes to subject matter, I didn't see a whole lot of different source materials in your fanart

[Anonymous No.9513652]

>>9513609

Cute stuff! My only crit is that I know you're doing your own style by putting those little "sprinkles" onto of the hair, which is cool. BUT when you put little white dots on a black haired person, especially a guy (Shinji), it just looks like dandruff. I would even make them into little full star shapes than leaving them as little round dots. Make them a little more unique that way.

[Anonymous No.9513670]

>>9513644
I know I never tend to draw backgrounds, definitely gotta work on that. Thank you for the feedback!

As for source material do you mean like different series? I was planning on doing prints for lots of different things, including stuff I don't regularly draw fanart for, yeah. Unfortunately most of the stuff I enjoy is either not popular in the West or just not popular, ah well.

[Anonymous No.9513687]

I have large (11x14 and 11x17) prints from last year that I really don't like since my style has changed. Is it a bad idea to mark them down to $10-$12 just to get rid of them? Two of them I really hate while the other two aren't bad but still not indicative of my current style and look weird with my new stuff.

I have a print show coming up next month and I really just want them gone.

[Anonymous No.9513693]

Aw crap, I posted in the auto saging thread. Anyway, here's my last update. Thanks to the anon that suggested to make RH speech bubble black. I think that looks a lot better. Plus I gave the top more breathing room now so I hope it's not too jumbled with the words. Easier to read now? Now I'm going to go and start rendering the Voltron cover. Thanks for everyone's advice.

[Anonymous No.9513701]

Aw crap, I posted in the auto saging thread. Anyway, here's my last update. Thanks to the anon that suggested to make RH speech bubble black. I think that looks a lot better. Plus I gave the top more breathing room now so I hope it's not too jumbled with the words. Easier to read now? Added a back cover too. Now I'm going to go and start rendering the Voltron cover. Thanks for everyone's advice. I also asked this on the AA, but for Shiro (Voltron) should I make him a funny beefcake with a dimple-butt chin or switch it to his well toned character's sheet version from the show?

>>9513609
Your stuff is super cute. My only crit is that you should watch out for putting dots as highlights on a characters hair because it looks like dandruff on black hair. The two Eva girls look fine, but Shinji looks like he needs a new shampoo. But other than that, I dig the style.

>>9513687
Why is that a bad idea? People sell prints for 10 bucks all the time. I think people get pissed when AA booths sell super nice, big prints for like 5 bucks so that they undersell their competition. Even better, put a sticky note on your old prints with a "Yard Sale" sign or something so people won't bug you about why some of your prints are way cheaper but others are full price.

[Anonymous No.9513727]

So how's a-kon going for everybody?
I think I broke even on flight,table and hotel today but it's been pretty slow otherwise.

[Anonymous No.9513730]

>>9513727
Friend in the back reports extremely low foot traffic, very poor sales.

[Anonymous No.9513735]

Kind of a weird inspiration request but looking for inspo on promotional business stuff. Things you wouldnt really charge people for and just send for free. Business stickers, postcards, flyers, branding items, etc

I really want to make a flyer but I have nothing note worthy to say so I might just make up a free post card instead. Would a flyer with an explanation of your business/about me type thing be condescending...? I have no idea lol

[Anonymous No.9513743]

>>9513727
Show pic of your art? What are the kiddies buying? I'm currently sitting with my gal pal at a half booth with a dude who makes hats. She's not doing TOO hot, but that's cause 90% of her stuff is OC prints. Her YOI is selling pretty ok, but I warned her that every other booth will have a print of them in their blue and purple outfits.

Can't say for sure if the guy next to us has sold anything yet besides some bunny ears to an old lady.

[Anonymous No.9513748]

>>9513727
>>9513743
Several of the artists I follow are selling at A-Kon and having been posting that sales are going really slow and that they're barely breaking even if at all.

And I'm not talking shitty mediocre artists either

[Anonymous No.9513765]

>>9513743
>>9513748
It's so annoying to get to the artist alley. The layout is horrible. I'm an attendee this year and it's BAD for the artists. You have to fight the dealers' room crowd to get to the artist alley. I don't know why they put the AA behind the dealers instead of side by side.

[Anonymous No.9513768]

>>9513735
Omg. I need to do that! Just a simple rubber stamp and a cute little paper bag. Genius. Thanks for sharing.

[Anonymous No.9513777]

I have an issue, I make bows but I cut out all of my smallest size wrong. This leads to them being kind of misshapen. I can't not sell them due to it being over 100 bows but I feel bad giving customers a shitty product. I normally price them at 5 dollars, how much should I go down in price?

[Anonymous No.9513801]

>>9513701
I like the concept of this but I hate your font choices with a passion. You also have to work on your text placement. Everything looks too busy because you're not leaving enough negative space! If you're going to print them, you want to take bleeds into account too. I would make the back cover text a bit smaller so the entire design has room to breathe.

[Anonymous No.9513917]

>>9513701
Oh hey, you did it! Looking nice. And I found myself unironically laughing at the your black blurb because not only does it sound like an awful fanfiction, it sounds perfect for a an early 1980's romance. And I would know, as I used to read them for fun with my mom.

I do agree with giving both the front and back some breathing space/negative space but I don't see what you could take out from the front without losing the campyness/punch line that you're really making fun of this harlequin type novels. But on the other hand, I disagree with >>9513801 because that ugly font choice IS how the older books used to look like. Everything was curvy and quote, unquote, kinda unappealing. Try making it smaller though. Also, make your chain link actually connect in the middle. Looks like you just turned on your chain brush in photoshop and did nothing with it beside draw a straight line.

>>9513735
It's always cool to get a bag like that with the name of the artist stamped on it, even if they throw in their pretty business card in the bag too. Making a postcard would be cool too. Make a print sized one, and then shrink it down so you can give them away. But what kind of flyer are you talking about? Like a vintage looking one or just one with cool writing and font design? Do you want to make one to show off a logo or your art skills? If you can't think of anything to showcase on it, why bother making one just to give it away? Also confetti in bags is fun. NOT glitter. Big difference. Pouring out your little back of cute stickers if only fun when little starts and dears in pastel colors come out. Not a bunch of gold dust that gets on everything. I've had both before.

>>9513765
Well that's stupid. Didn't they do that for AX last year and everyone almost died because it got SO hot in there due to all the air only coming from the front of the room? There huge anime cons need to have whole floors dedicated to just AAs now a days. Too many artists now.

[Anonymous No.9513925]

>>9513777

Do people actually buy these from you for 5 bucks? I mean, to be honest, the pattern in so dull and ugly, I wouldn't even pay 3 bucks for that pre-made at a Hobby Lobby.

Do you have more fun designs? Is this one bow like one of your bottom of the barrel-might as well use this fabric kinds? Or am I just being super salty? All my bows, even the ones with simple fabric designs have at least charms hanging off them, or feathers, or shiny buttons. Something!

But anyway, if they sell, more praise to you. And yeah, it's shitty to sell not up to par stuff, but if a costumer doesn't notice AND you sell it for cheaper, meh. I would do it.

[Anonymous No.9514007]

>>9513727

Yeah super slow today :/ although surprisingly I did well on Thursday?

Hopefully Saturday is better...

[Anonymous No.9514066]

>>9513925
lmao chill anon, the bow isn't even done. I haven't added any embellishments yet as I didn't want to waste them on shitty bows. They also do sell, this is just my most basic bow. I'll probably sell these for three dollars with no embellishment since they're terrible. Thank you for your response.

[Anonymous No.9514086]

>>9514066
You're a bit pompous to think they'd sell for three.

[Anonymous No.9514109]

>>9513727
A-kon has been slow for both me and my friend but like everyone else said, I'm hoping Saturday will pick up.

But, did anyone notice that one artist was marking down her prints to $5 per print? And she is a decent if not, highly skilled artist too. What the hell is up with that?

[Anonymous No.9514111]

>>9514086
You're right, but hey, doesn't hurt to try.

[Anonymous No.9514127]

>>9514109
Who?

[Anonymous No.9514129]

>>9514109
Don't lower your prices until late Saturday or Sunday day. It's always better to do deals like buy one get one half off. But she might be worried if nobodys around Friday. You guys just wait until Saturday. You'll be rushed.

[Anonymous No.9514139]

>>9514129
When will people learn that people window shop on Fridays and Fridays are always the slowest?

[Anonymous No.9514149]

>>9513727

I am in one of the rows in the back, and traffic has been awful and sales slow. I know Fridays are always slower, but for a con of this size, it has been really bad. like I only made back table cost today, way behind where I would usually be.

[Anonymous No.9514150]

>>9514109
They didn't lower their prices these were their prices from set up. They're selling 11x17 prints for $5 and giant poster sized ones for $10. Their table is always packed.

[Anonymous No.9514151]

>>9514139
This too. Con goers how have 3 day passes dont want to blow ALL their money the first day. And also there are so many AA tables they are just seeking out what they think they would like later. Like I said, you guys will get rushed tomorrow.

[Anonymous No.9514152]

>>9513917
Anon, I love campy romance novels too but from a design standpoint those font choices are kind of terrible. I love the idea but I wish it was excuted a little more like this. (Excuse the crappy collage, I'm on mobile.)

[Anonymous No.9514153]

>>9514127
MuddyMelly

[Anonymous No.9514157]

>>9514150
she told me and a friend that their prices are so low so that customers will have enough money to spend on other artists as if that's how that works when people are leaving her table with 5-8 $10 prints.

[Anonymous No.9514158]

>>9514150
I know, anon. I'm saying its only normal to lower last day sales but this person basically sold that price from day one without batting an eyelash.

[Anonymous No.9514159]

>>9514129

Honestly, we should all go and try talking to her because she not only deserves to sell her prints at a higher rate, people around her do not deserve to get compared to a $5 price per print. I mean $5 for a 12x18" and 0.75 cents for a post card is just laughable.

Actually, she said that the reason why her prices are low is because she is out of touch and last tabled 7+ years ago at AWA but she was clearly tabling at animazement, which happened two weeks ago. There should be no reason why she thinks that AA prices are $5 on Friday and Saturday for a decent tier 12x18.

>>9514111
Her table is 2209, you guys can go and check it out and maybe try to have a talk with her into not dragging down the row's pricing because it affects us all as a group.

[Anonymous No.9514162]

>>9514157
scratch that I meant 5-8 5$ prints.

[Anonymous No.9514165]

>>9514159
Agreed her art is beautiful and has a lot of still popular running anime like BNHA and HQ.

[Anonymous No.9514167]

>>9513727
I actually broke even on travel/lodgings/table Thursday and did pretty well today. My prices tend to be on the higher end of things (the cheapest thing at my table is $12) which I think has worked in my favor? All my friends said that people have only been buying $1-$5 items at their table today which went really slow for them.

[Anonymous No.9514168]

>>9514162
If that's true, then I guess their heart is in the right place but they severely misunderstand the idea of free market and price stability.

[Anonymous No.9514175]

>>9514153

This girl? This girl is selling her prints for 5 bucks? Well, shit, I don't want to play the racist card, but she might not give a shit what she sells her stuff for if shes a Koran traveling con to con for the summer and then headed back home, where 1 US dollar is about 14 there. She'll just drop her prices the first day, sell out by Saturday afternoon, and then go enjoy the con for the other two days before packing up and going to the next one.

[Anonymous No.9514181]

>>9514159
I'm selling in the AA area and it's so congested that people can't even stop by surrounding tables. Everybody is just pushing through because of her table congestion.

[Anonymous No.9514183]

>>9514175
It looks she lives in Atlanta, which is $1 for $1, anon. It ain't that simple. Not sure what is causing her to do that $5 price.

[Anonymous No.9514186]

>>9514183
Maybe she's trying to monopolize selling all her merch?? Which seems to be working from what I'm reading here. There's the saying "a fast nickel beats a slow dime". I'm definitely not okay with what she is doing but maybe that's her business mentality, not to mention her art is amazing to boot.

[Anonymous No.9514189]

>>9514181
Everyone I've talked to on that row has had low print sales than usual and their art is not the issue. people see that bright neon $5 sign and drop money there like a reflex

[Anonymous No.9514190]

>>9514167
people have been buying a big range of prices from my booth, I just haven't had as many people even making it to my table/ buying as I am used to
. I have noticed a lot of people rushing through by the time they get to my row because they're just done with it and dont have time for all the remaining tables. I will wait until tomorrow is over to get bummed, hoping Saturday will be busy even in the back. I feel better knowing most of the tables around me seem to be in the same position, at least.

[Anonymous No.9514193]

>>9514186
It's gonna end up bad for everyone all around then. People with the usual $15 get sidelined, while she has to sell 3x as many prints to get as much revenue as an ordinary artist would selling their prints for their standard price.

She's gonna run out of prints soon unless she brought a stock of 60+.

[Anonymous No.9514195]

>>9514175
this art is good? She needs to up the price of her prints, someone please talk to her about it!

[Anonymous No.9514196]

>>9514193
>She's gonna run out of prints soon unless she brought a stock of 60+.

Something tells me she has 100+ AND she does the con hopping. It's summer time man. Time to road trip from state to state and sell out. She ain't here to make friends. Just moooooonnneeey.

[Anonymous No.9514206]

>>9514193
Like I said, I don't condone her actions. It's hurting everyone else's business, it's ruining the standards for the worth of everyone's merch/prints.
But for her, she's making mint. Con hopping, tons of prints, good art, cheap prices. Her booth is gonna be crowded and she is gonna sell a lot. It fricken sucks, but like the anon said
>She ain't here to make friends. Just moooonnneeey.

[Anonymous No.9514215]

I find it odd how anti-capitalist people are being in this thread when I've seen people get skewered for FCFS as well as jury and on top of that ridicule when people overprice as well.

Sounds like her business model is working as intended, so why complain? Personally I'm trying it with a few of my prints marked way down at my next con in 2 months.

[Anonymous No.9514218]

To Mama Anon from A-kon in the previous thread and any other kind anons:

I'm sharing a table with my two of my friends. One is having horrible sales so far and I feel bad because I've gotten majority of the sales. She literally had two sales so far. I understand what's it's like to be on that end and I just want her to leave the con with a good experience.

We're table 2019, her stuff includes charms and prints from fandom and non-fandom. Her charms are on the very right side with prints above as well. Artist name starts with an S.

[Anonymous No.9514222]

>>9514218
Forgot to mention she also sells sketchbooks and a tote bag if you like more functional things.

[Anonymous No.9514235]

>>9514218
I realized your table number is in the same row as some of my friends who are tabling so if i remember i'll ask one of my friends to grab one for me. Her charms look super cute and I hope her sales pick up over the weekend, I totally get how it is to be on that side of tabling.

[Anonymous No.9514267]

>>9514175
Didn't except to see her on cgl, but then again I also didn't know she sold prints for such low prices.

I guess it's working at least? For her, only her.

[Anonymous No.9514282]

Since the thread was dying, reposting it here : any EU anons going to Japan Expo, hit me up and I'll buy something at your booth !

[Anonymous No.9514313]

I've been thinking of getting mini ema/wish placards made so people can draw their favorite character on them and use it as a charm (if they can't draw, I was gonna shove in a piece of carbon paper or a sheet for water decals). I can also get full size ones and offer commissions on them. Is this a good idea or is it a terrible idea and/or a gate for cultural appropriation accusations?

[Anonymous No.9514331]

>>9514313

>terrible idea

Are you going to set a side part of the table so people can draw? Because otherwise you have to consider how long people can take. Imagine having people stand in front of your table for half an hour..

> cultural appropiation

You're probably going to get a couple of comments, considering it IS a religious icon currently in use. I'd ignore them, considering that the japanese will sell reproductions as novelty items.

[Anonymous No.9514334]

>>9514195
me and at least one other anon here already tried but you guys at the con keep talking to her and spread the word! I don't buy her story that she is new to AA and doesn't get pricing since she has tabled at animazement with these prices and that's in no way a small con and I don't think its fair to let her get away with this low balling and fucking her entire row.
>>9514196
Lol she told us she spent 5k+ printing but idk how much if that is true.

[Anonymous No.9514359]

>>9514334
I mean...what can you really do? Yeah, it's not fair, but if she's in it to make money then she probably doesn't care. You can't force her to change her prices. At the end of the day, it IS competitive and some people aren't going to care if they piss people off so long as they're still making a decent profit. She probably churns out enough prints to sell them for $5 and not hurt her profits.

[Anonymous No.9514369]

>>9514359
How is it not fair? This is how free markets work.

[Anonymous No.9514373]

>>9514369
> muh free market

go to bed, Adam Smith.

[Anonymous No.9514389]

>>9514369
Of course I could sell more if I lowered my price to $2 but I value my work. They're hurting themselves in the long run because people are going to cry if they ever try to raise their prices. I don't think you can do much but focus on your own work though.

[Anonymous No.9514401]

>>9514359
Obviously, you can't force her to change prices but would you feel okay about being next to her in the next AA you attended? It is going to be a problem for other people around her and you can ignore it until it all happens to you and you are the one who manages to sell 2 prints on Friday while everyone flocks to her cheap table.

[Anonymous No.9514408]

I guess the bigger issue is that the only reason her method is working is BECAUSE everyone else follows the etiquette of not selling your prints for dirt cheap.

So right now she has the monopoly on cheap good art of popular series so of course she's probably making bank despite the low prices.

[Anonymous No.9514419]

>>9514401

So for those who have talked to her, did she say she would change her prices? It's seriously affecting everyone around her and it's a selfish move...I'm not buying her excuses either

[Anonymous No.9514438]

Do most of the regulars in these threads not offer commissions or something more interesting than prints? Of course people are gonna buy nice art for $5. They'll buy an on the spot doodle for $5. It's more work than passing off a print but if your art doesn't suck and you actually enjoy making it that's hardly any work at all.

[Anonymous No.9514446]

>>9514331
I was planning on selling it as a DIY charm. You have the option of leaving it blank or drawing on it whenever. My intention was to push it towards itabaggers so they can decorate it like those "xxxxx is my wife" emas at shrines.

[Anonymous No.9514461]

>>9514419
She basically told us she wasn't going to do it because that's how much she sold her prices for before at other artist alley.

>>9514438
Thanks for the input, Melly.

[Anonymous No.9514462]

>>9514461
Sorry your mediocre prints aren't selling.

[Anonymous No.9514466]

>>9514462
No problem, Melly. You may be happy to sell your art for $5 and make money but some of us care about the artists around us and not just ourselves.

[Anonymous No.9514469]

>>9514466
So why doesn't everyone sell at $5?

[Anonymous No.9514474]

>>9514218
Gotchu senpai. Bought a couple things cause I wasn't 100% sure which were hers

[Anonymous No.9514476]

>>9514469
I don't know... Why doesn't everyone just sell at $5? Maybe it's because they weren't planning to undercut other artists so they didn't bring 100+ pieces if each artwork just to do that.

Sure sounds like a hard question to me.

[Anonymous No.9514478]

>>9514469

Because we value the time and effort put into our work

[Anonymous No.9514480]

>>9514466
Not Melly but keep telling yourself that so you feel better about your art.

Noones answered the original question though. Why don't you guys offer commissions? Is it too hard for you?

[Anonymous No.9514489]

>>9514480
Not that anon, but why do you think that everyone who doesn't condone what she does must immediately be a bad artist or having shitty sales? It is quite rude to speak to your fellow gulls that way.

A lot of us do traditional commissions but we also sell prints. But not that way and at that price.

[Anonymous No.9514492]

>>9514474
Thank you, anon! You is good people. You got it right with the first purchase. Her charms are boxed in with a gold washi tape.

[Anonymous No.9514493]

>>9514446

Not to be rude, but in that case it sounds like it belongs more in the dealer's room than in aa.

[Anonymous No.9514495]

>>9514334
That's a bit disappointing to hear, honestly.
We've talked a few times before, and she's come off as really sweet. I can understand her feelings about wanting to keep things affordable - my first time AA I was really hesitant and even guilty about the pricing - I had terrible self-confidence
but after hearing the reasoning behind it, it's less about feeling "nice" yourself, and actually supporting the artist community as a whole;; It'd be great if she could possibly compromise by dropping the price a little - by a 1-2$ - instead of half!

[Anonymous No.9514497]

>>9514489
A lot of the art gulls put out is lackluster considering how much shit they talk, so it's kind of what I've come to expect. I don't think she should be underpricing herself either. Shouldn't you be prepared with more variety at your table for this type of thing though.

[Anonymous No.9514503]

>>9514492
I love it, it's so cute. I'm really surprised it's not selling well! I guess with how big AA is this year it's tough to be seen

[Anonymous No.9514508]

>>9514478
That's not how prices are determined.

>>9514476
That's fair. Next time then.

[Anonymous No.9514512]

>>9514497
Tb h it makes perfect sense that a lot of the art posted here is more mediocre, especially as many are amateur, first-time or simply aspiring AA-ers seeking critiques. Meanwhile, 4chan having the rep it does, might not be the best place for more established, known artists.
That said, you could practice what you preach and post your work.

Glad you do agree about the underpricing though, and do see what you mean that variety could help alleviate the problem, even if it isn't the problem.

[Anonymous No.9514530]

She only had a handful of fandoms anyway, so it's not like there's THAT much competition. I recognized BnHA but nothing else there. If your table is "suffering" because of $5 BnHA prints, it's not Mel that's the problem.

[Anonymous No.9514560]

For the $5 print girl, I can't help to have the opinion of "it's her art, she can price it how she wants" It is PRINTS after all, not original art, so the "value your art" thing doesn't work the same for me as it does with commissions and what have you. If it works for her, then that's the way it goes. She doesn't owe anything to anyone else. Her booth, her prices. Yes it's a bitch when people have similar grade products for cheaper, but there is nothing you can do.

However, to play devils advocate to my own post, I have seen what happens on a more shit tier scale on Deviantart back in the day. It was common to find people selling their art for as low as five points, which is like a penny, and people would bitch if you had over 200 point commissions. I don't care how shitty your art is, it's worth more than a few cents. The cheapskates of DA expected this out of almost everyone after a while. Part of it was that DA was full of emo teenagers, but also just because of how the market is. So obviously, it wouldn't be a good idea for everyone to participate in the race to the bottom and try to fight fire with fire. "Oh well, I'll have my prints for four dollars then!"

Either way, she was going to burn out eventually. She is going to over saturate her own self market.

[Anonymous No.9514564]

>>9514497
agreeing with >>9514512 , anyone that has even somewhat of a fanbase or reputation won't post here. Even if it's innocent just asking how their art is, it's just not worth the risk.

[Anonymous No.9514598]

>>9514512
Agreed. I don't have much of an online presence, but I still wouldn't put my art here. People tend to think 4chan is a bunch of assholes (reputation is warranted), so I don't want to be associated with them. People will think I'm here to talk shit about people and post in the bad cosplay/ita threads, even though that's not what I'm interested in, and for them to know, they would have had to go on cgl themselves. I'm pretty sure tons of other people feel the same

[Anonymous No.9514628]

>>9514564
>>9514497
>>9514512
This has been something I've noticed too. I've been around cgl aa for about a year now, and I've noticed that gulls will really really encourage people with mediocre art to pursue it and give tips on how to "improve" and join the AA scene.
Yet there have been a couple people who have posted samples of their art over the year that have actually been rather good and/or having great potential that gulls will attack and put down, discouraging them to join the aa and continue with their art.

It really makes me lift an eyebrow. I recall someone saying sometime, "it's like you guys are afraid of competition."

It just seems to be a pattern I've noticed. Someone with shitty art? WE LOVE IT. Someone with good art? Go away and never draw again!

Am I the only one who thinks this is what is going on??

[Anonymous No.9514635]

>>9514469

I don't know what price everyone commonly pays for making prints, but where I get them done, they charge about $1 per 12x18 print. If I sold them at $5, that's $4 profit, but if I sell them at $15, which I can because people are used to paying that, it's $14. Prints are the most profitable item because they're so cheap to make. Often I sell more of them than anything else and they cover the costs of other slower moving more expensive items that had a higher cost to make and less profit. That's why it's really important that people don't start fucking up print prices.

[Anonymous No.9514638]

>>9514628
I don't think I've ever seen someone new to AA post good art. And I've seen plenty of people discourage people with shitty art. Last thread a gull was going to AX for the 1st time and had terrible art, and people definitely let her know about it. Don't know what you're basing this on.

[Anonymous No.9514640]

>>9514638
Yeah the last thread...that girl wasn't too skilled, but I've seen people worse than her get encouraged. And in that same thread where someone tried to redline someone art...and the redline came out worse??? How are these the people that get to decide what is good and what is bad?

[Anonymous No.9514645]

>>9513735
where do you get little paper bags like this? and what is the official googleable name for them?

i've looked in stationary shops and all i can find is envelopes, but that feels unprofessional...is it ok if you've got nothing else?

[Anonymous No.9514648]

>>9514640

The redline was dumb, but people last thread were explicitely asking for critique. Mediocre people with a lot to fix will, in general, improve with a little push - but once you're above average, you won't improve much unless you're actively looking for mistakes.

[Anonymous No.9514662]

Is anyone else tabling at Animenext right now?

Am I crazy or has it been insanely slow?

[Anonymous No.9514679]

>>9514480
I've walked through the aisle that the $5 girl is in and artists there ARE offering a variety of fandoms as well as commissions. Are you even at this con? Because you're acting like everyone around her is mediocre and that's why their sales are suffering when that's not the case. Don't be a fucking idiot.

>>9514628
I've literally never seen this happen. Most of the time the critiques are pretty warranted. Are you regerring to the one BDSM cat anon? Because that's the only time I saw people pile on another artist but even then there was some solid advice there.

[Anonymous No.9514686]

>>9514662
Yeah that's why most of us are at akon instead. Animenext sucks but akon isn't too good this year either.

[Anonymous No.9514689]

>>9514679
>you're acting like everyone around her is mediocre and that's why their sales are suffering when that's not the case.

So what's the deal? Do normies not notice bad skill or do they?

[Anonymous No.9514691]

I'm at A-Kon and a bunch of attendees just came by my table and while they were considering buying a print from me and my table neighbor, their friend mentioned that someone was selling prints for $5 at a different row and they all left without buying anything. I'm not even anywhere close to the Melly girl. This isn't just affecting only her row at this point.

[Anonymous No.9514706]

>>9514691

At that point I'd have just replied with "Yeah, and you can tell why they're 5usd." I hate customers who do that.

[Anonymous No.9514707]

>>9514691
For real. If word gets out from friends of friends, word can travel. People already feel like they shouldn't have to pay a lot for art as it is. This will only increase that idea, and it can affect cons across the country. "Well you know at A-kon, I heard that..."

[Anonymous No.9514712]

>>9514691
I feel like this con just sucks and everyone is taking out their frustrations on melly.

[Anonymous No.9514717]

>>9514712
I feel like you didn't read what the original anon posted. This con does suck but $5 prints are not going to help.

[Anonymous No.9514721]

These are actually pretty good posters and I feel super sorry for anyone immediately next to her.

[Anonymous No.9514723]

>>9514721
Her print's so cheap that a mousepad is only $1 more. Wow.

[Anonymous No.9514729]

You know the other thing is that Anime Expo is just a few weeks away, and that's the big mama con. If I got tickets to Fanime, A-kon and AX, (which I know a LOT of people do because they are all close in dates and area) I would just save my money for AX and blow it all.

Also, don't get too discouraged with her 5$ prints. They are done in a very whimsical girly watercolor style, and that's not everyone's cup of tea. Like me, for instance. Just cause I see a $5 buck sign on a show I'm not a fan of, I'm not going to buy it. Even if she DID have something I was really into, I don't like that type of art. So all is not lost AAers. It sucks, but lets hope you get your diamond in the rough costumer.

[Anonymous No.9514731]

>>9514723

Yeah but that mouse pad is ugly as fuck and is just a photo of sushi. That's the kind of crap you find at a 99 cent store.

[Anonymous No.9514738]

>>9514731
Couldn't tell if it was a photo or a drawing.

[Anonymous No.9514740]

>>9514738
*squints at it really hard* Well maybe it is a drawing, but either way, ew orange boarder.

[Anonymous No.9514742]

Akon is insane. I made almost 4k my last con and I have yet to count my money because I'm afraid I haven't broken even yet lol. Glad I came to visit family while I'm here so the trip isn't a complete waste.

[Anonymous No.9514744]

I could have SWORE people were complaining about A-kon's slow AA in the years before??

[Anonymous No.9514748]

Can we still ask for crit in this thread? I'd really love a redline of a Black Butler drawing I'm trying to do.

[Anonymous No.9514761]

>>9514645
"flat paper bags" would be the search term. You can cruise etsy to see the styles and then look for them elsewhere like papermart and such.

I think envelopes are fine, one of my favorite gallery artists is using envelopes+stamp for her enamel pins and they look wonderful packaged like that.

>>9514689
Average shoppers will notice prices first, then amount of color (for most average shoppers color = great), then fandom. Actual skill doesn't come into play until after at least those, nevermind actual quality of merchandise.

>>9514707
That's like saying Sachin Teng would have to drop their prices down to $5 a print as a result of this artist. Considering their table was wiped out by like Saturday at $30+ or something a print, I don't think that it's gonna be that big of a deal. Also I'd wager the uki-yo e artist who is at a-kon isn't dropping his prices down from this either.

The prices aren't great, but I see it as incentive to keep improving and pushing hard while working on establishing a niche market for yourself.

[Anonymous No.9514775]

>>9514419
I know many artists who have talked to her at animazement but she didn't change her prices at akon

[Anonymous No.9514795]

>>9514775
Don't stop telling her. The fact that she hasn't done anything shows that she hasn't learned anything yet. I don't want to see her doing this at any more cons.

[Anonymous No.9514800]

>>9514712
I'm actually one of the anons who said this con was going decently. I broke even on Thursday. It still doesn't change the fact that attendees are actively commenting on her print prices and walking away to find her table. The con isn't going terribly for me but it still doesn't change that fact that it's a shitty practice. I know some of the artists she's next to and they generally do really well at cons but they've been suffering this weekend simply because their prices get immediately compared to hers.

>>9514748
You can always ask for crit but keep in mind that a lot of gulls are at A-Kon or AnimeNext this weekend. You might not get a lot of people willing to redline while they're at a con so maybe wait until Monday?

[Anonymous No.9514803]

>>9514640
>How are these the people that get to decide what is good and what is bad?
Well as much cgl likes to think they are, they are not professional critiquers. They, with either good or bad intents, give advice on what they see, on a platform they don't have to be as much of a kiss ass. Other than that, opinions are opinions, and skill level is just that.

>>9514761
Ehh I disagree with you on what customers notice: I'd say eye catching (like you said colour, but skill can have a factor), fandom, then price, but it's all hopefully almost instant. You can have a sign that is two feet big and people would still ask the price.

[Anonymous No.9514814]

>>9514795

Does anyone know if she's going to be at AX? It would suck for people next to her there.

[Anonymous No.9514823]

>>9514814
christ it'll suck for the AA as a whole because there will be a giant roadblock at her table and the AX AA wasn't easy to navigate to begin with. just imagine if she was at the front of the room. no one would be able to get to the back lmao.

[Anonymous No.9514831]

Speaking of A-Kon, does anyone know if you're allowed to have both an AA table and a vendor booth? That one chibi artist that does the laminated badges and planned on undercutting everyone by making $3 acrylic charms is here and they have a table in AA AND a booth in dealer's. As far as I know, most cons don't let you do both so it seems a little shady.

[Anonymous No.9514835]

>>9514823

At that point, couldn't other artists bring it to the staff? Something like "hey, people at X's table keep blocking mine?"

[Anonymous No.9514840]

>>9514835
And what do you think they could realistically do about it? They are customers, other than telling her to make sure that no one is telling her their life story, not much can be done.

[Anonymous No.9514841]

>>9514840
if they didn't do shit to keep the firehazard dispersed they won't do shit to her table. seriously if a fire broke out in the AA there would have been a lot of trample deaths in that first section and I went on day 3 last year. I can only imagine what day 1 was like.

[Anonymous No.9514856]

I would be cool if AAs were treated like a store and had a special section in the very last row for the 5$ hand job specials. Then everyone could flock back there and not ruin the space and pricing for everyone else. Betcha artists wouldn't be so keen on selling their goods like that if they were labeled as the "cheap" ones. Think about it.

[Anonymous No.9514860]

>>9514840

Make people line up like comiket does.

[Anonymous No.9514865]

I've tried going down the 5$ girls row a few times so I could see this myself but the crowd is so large every time I pass by and it's blocking all her neighbor's tables, must feel bad man.

[Anonymous No.9514866]

>>9514480
I'm not at the con, anon, so I have no bone in the fight, but there is only so much time in a day to take and finish commissions. It's supplementary, but there's no way you can physically take as many as you would be able to sell prints of.

[Anonymous No.9514868]

>>9514438
>$5 doodle
i do these at conventions where i'm bombing, just so people amass around my table and stir up some interest.
i would never take them for the duration of a con though, and i would hope no one else does either. it's a shit ton of stress for a very small amount of money.

[Anonymous No.9514870]

>>9514717
It's not her fault people are cheap.
If you all have such a big problem with her why don't you report her to the aa head or something?

[Anonymous No.9514872]

>>9514744
A-kon was my best con last year. There were a few people complaining, but just as many that said they did well. Definitely don't regret skipping out this year though.

[Anonymous No.9514874]

>tfw I also price my prints at $5 for 9x12, $10 for 11x17
Oops! I'm not from Dallas, though. Did anyone else ever consider that their prints were maybe overpriced as fuck? It costs nothing to make prints. I know that and more importantly, the customers know that. Prints have no business being as expensive as they are.

[Anonymous No.9514877]

>>9514874
People without shit art don't need to price at 5$ to make a sale.

I dont give a shit what people price at, but 15$ is not unreasonable. You're not paying for a blank sheet of paper. The price also includes the work put into the art on it. And AA prints are still cheaper than 75% of the dealers hall mass produced posters.

[Anonymous No.9514880]

Can we all just agree that akons artist alley is simply too big?
If tables were cut in half with a better layout sales would improve immediately.

[Anonymous No.9514884]

>>9514874
>It costs nothing to make prints

How do you even run a business? Price isn't only direct costs, jfc.

[Anonymous No.9514889]

>>9514856
would it feel any better to watch people stream by your table in favor of the $5 person's table in the back?

[Anonymous No.9514895]

>>9514874
>$10 for 11 x 17
Did you miss the part where this chick is pricing her 11 x 17 prints at $5? Her $10 prints are the massive 18 x 24 ones. Your prices are a little low but it's not the same as selling 11 x 17's at a third of the cost.

[Anonymous No.9514905]

>>9514874
$10 for a 11x17 should be normal price for a deal but $5 chick slashed it in half. Unless you are legitimately bad, $15 is the price for a poster that size.

>>9514870
>not her fault people are cheap
Is it also not her fault that she chooses to continue on selling at less than half of what others sell at despite other artists asking her consistently and politely to do something about the prices since animazement and the first day of a-kon?

[Anonymous No.9514909]

>>9514905
Maybe she feels like she can't compete unless she has low prices. Stop bitching about this and git gud or cut your prices too.

[Anonymous No.9514910]

>>9514909
Take a good look at her quality of art and tell me if competition is a concern. Here is an idea, why don't you git gud so that you don't have to slash prices to $5 at a con all three days?

[Anonymous No.9514914]

Well we all know that people will go for the cheapest deal. That is why tons of people are going for merch online rather than buying it from the booths and traditional stores, even though it is more expensive to have either of those.

Seriously guys, she can price them what she wants, and there is nothing anyone else can do about it.It sucks, but that's the way it is.

[Anonymous No.9514915]

>>9514909
she's doing it to rack up the bucks and it's working. it's also triggering the fuck out of all the other AA people who aren't selling like she is. people are saying that it'll bite her in the ass but until then she'll be making money and turning inventory

[Anonymous No.9514917]

>>9514915
If she gets this rep from A-kon AA artist crowd, that's going to ruin her rep with any possibly friendly help in the future especially if she ever ends up asking to split a table with anyone

[Anonymous No.9514919]

>>9514917
>split a table with a $5 print artist

Lol, I'm not even going to be in the sane section of the artist alley if I see her on the map.

[Anonymous No.9514925]

>>9514880

Yes. I think $5 girl isn't helping, but this is really just a case of too many vendors and artists. Apparently dealers hall and membership buys for other cons are down too so it's like there's too many places to spend your money. I'm way down. I barely have made back expenses.

Would it be dickish to offer sales tomorrow? I usually don't want to encourage Waiting until Sunday to buy (and I guess I won't have to restock for my next con with how little merch is moving) but damn I want to make this weekend worth my hassle.

[Anonymous No.9514934]

>>9514917
if she's pushing this much volume she won't need to split

[Anonymous No.9514936]

>>9514925
I think this is more of a problem than $5 print girl. People in the last thread were saying that print sales were down before this girl showed up, and as big as A-Kon is, her $5 print sales are not an international artist alley affair. People are diversifying a lot more than prints, and yet people are saying they are barely making back expenses.

I am not a part of A-Kon, but I notice it a lot with the cons I go to. When I started there was less cons and less competition. Cons now are a dime a dozen if you go to them all, bigger everything (dealers hall, AA merch booth etc.) and both ticket prices for the attendees and tables prices has gone up, so it's a lose lose situation; it takes more money for me to get table costs back and less money con goers have spread out on more things. People on here just said AA is huge. Not to mention the growing "I can go online for something like this!" (even though they don't). These factors, even though my booth is better, my profits and sometimes gross sales were better a few years ago than they are now.

I think THESE are a bigger problem than one girl selling cheap prints that everyone is losing shit over.

[Anonymous No.9514940]

>>9514936
I was also wondering if anyone has experience: what's the print pricing in Europe & Asia? Like the prices in China/Korea/Japan vs USA? I heard that a lot of doujinshika don't make too much of a profit off doujins since they price it with a small profit margin?

[Anonymous No.9514943]

>>9514936
Oh shit, I mean to say people are saying at A-kon here they are barely making back expenses so far while they usually do. Obviously they are making money in general. Didn't mean to make myself sound like a dumbass.

[Anonymous No.9514952]

>>9514940
europe is complex as its so many places in one (relatively) small area. the scene and prices in germany are totally different to the scene and prices in the uk, for example.

[Anonymous No.9514963]

>>9514940
Doujins are really cheap in the East. Like what would go for $20 over here is 500 yen over there. A part of it is accessibility and production costs though. Generally though, there is not the business mentality like here in the West. The profit margin is a lot smaller since they don't want to compete with official goods or act as substitutes for official goods, they just want to show appreciation for the series and/or topic matter. Of course, some circles do make bank and people typically don't want to fall in the red or anything.

[Anonymous No.9514977]

You guys have no right to be selling prints for as much as you do when they're fanart. I'm glad that $5 artist is here. You're all glorified bootleggers. Your goal should be breaking even, not making a profit, when you're selling art of other people's properties. An 11x17 costs max $2 to print. $5 is fair. $15 is you being greedy. You're a fucking thief if you sell for more than $15.

[Anonymous No.9514983]

>>9514840
What >>9514860 said: have a volunteer cut off the line at a certain point, have people continue line up at a different and more spacious location, have another volunteer allow people to move from line 2 to line 1 when the first line is confirmed to have cleared up.

[Anonymous No.9515001]

To everyone who said not to worry because Saturday crowds would be crazy at Akon, you were right. They were crazy/non-stop. In that they never actually stopped at tables and just kept zooming along. This was my worst day of sales at any con, ever.

[Anonymous No.9515005]

Watching a bunch of Twitter friends lament how their A-Kon is going. They're not bad artists either so things must be really bad right now.

[Anonymous No.9515010]

>>9514977
Spotted the troll.

[Anonymous No.9515013]

I went and spoke to the $5 print artist.

She was very sweet. I didn't sugarcoat people's concerns. I personally don't care what she prices at, but it drives me crazy seeing an uproar like this and no one actually talking to her on even terms about it.

She basically said she had not sold in 7 years, she just did Animazement and came here. She always had her prints at this price and felt weird raising it, but definitely was going to after this con because many people told her to. She will keep the 5$ price point until the end of A-Kon, I actually recommended her to, because otherwise customers who wanted to come back will be too confused. At her next con she will do 15 each, buy 2 get 1 free.

No one spoke to her about raising her prices seriously at Animazement. She can't be aware of an issue if no one brings it up to her.

She is not some kind of evil undercutter who is rubbing her hands together at monopolizing the print market for like, 6 series'. She is someone who genuinely did not believe her art was worth more than $5. After talking, she understands the image she is giving to other artists by having such a low price point. She is a sweetheart and I hope I see her at more conventions.

[Anonymous No.9515018]

>>9515013
She always seemed nice online too which I know doesn't say much but I couldn't quite imagine her sitting at her table evil laughing about how she's stealing customers

[Anonymous No.9515020]

>>9515013
Thanks for talking to her. Hope she keeps that promise and up her prices.

[Anonymous No.9515031]

>>9514977
>>9515010
I kinda agree with this sometimes too though. Like, the way artists sell their doujinshi and merch to cover costs and share what they like in Japan (and other Asian countries from what I understand) leaves a better taste in the mouth than people making 3k in profits at a con selling posters.

Sometimes I think I miss when cons were full of stupid shit like laminated keychains and shrinky dink charms.

[Anonymous No.9515040]

>>9515031
You know a few people selling at these cons do original art in their free time, right?
Not saying everyone here is just using the money to justify spending time doing what they actually love, vs trying to make a quick buck, but you know.

[Anonymous No.9515050]

>>9515040
Duh but how many people selling original art at anime cons are bringing in that bank. I'm talking about fanart. Not even a matter of how good they are or not, fanart sells.

[Anonymous No.9515058]

>>9514721
Now that I see the size of these, I'm thinking $10 would probably be the max. They're not very large prints.

[Anonymous No.9515061]

>>9515058
They're 11x17? She's selling like 20x30 or larger prints for $10

[Anonymous No.9515063]

>>9515061
Are they? They don't look that big in the photo but it could possibly be the angle.

[Anonymous No.9515067]

>>9515031
There's more to consider then just that the base price tho. Like the other anon said, production is cheaper and imo the market is better too. Mostly when we're talking doujin specifically. Not only is there the huge amount of comic events, there's also series specific events or even pairing specific events.
I noticed massive stocks of doujin at pictures from events posted by artists themselves (just pictures of their tables) and it makes me assume they sell well. Otherwise you wouldn't produce that much.

As for keychains and such, you can get those officially easily in Japan, which is why the market for them overseas is way bigger. You can't just go out and go to some local gacha machines after all (obviously not everywhere but you get my point)

That said looking at the japanese artists I follow, there's definitely an increase in character goods instead of just doujin.

[Anonymous No.9515080]

>>9515013
>>9514495 here, thank you for sitting down and talking to her sincerely!

[Anonymous No.9515081]

A-Kon gulls, please post your table numbers and I will buy from you tomorrow.

[Anonymous No.9515103]

>>9514940
Don't know how true this is of other Asian countries, but in Taiwan prints are uncommon compared to doujin comics, fics, or art books/booklets.
But for the prints that are there, the majority are A6/postcards with some A5 and they're mostly very cheap, around $1 each, or less in a set. Special prints like double sided, or gold foil, are closer to $2. The rare, larger prints would be slightly more depending on size. Comics are anywhere from $3-10, maybe more if it was especially long or had a lot of color pages.

Keep in mind that in Taiwan income and daily living expenses are both lower than in the US though, along with printing costs and table fees (iirc, about $20 per day for a 3ft table.)

This is just my personal speculation now, but I think it's easier to get big, official art posters from anime magazines in Asia compared to here, so that 'appetite' for A4/A3 size pictures is already somewhat covered. And on top of that, homes and rooms tend to be somewhat smaller as well, so the "I have no space on my wall" problem is probably worse.

[Anonymous No.9515105]

>>9515013
If possible people should still bring it up nicely with her if they haven't already still, it would do good to re-inforce the point to her. I've confronted someone for selling inkitlab double sided acrylic charms for $3 before (2 for $5 even [i.e. you're just losing money really]), and they raised to 8 at the next con.

[Anonymous No.9515106]

>>9515105
I'm sure she heard it enough at this point and unless she doesn't change her prices the next con, I'm not sure if wasting time at her table to talk about her prices will do anything useful.

[Anonymous No.9515111]

>>9515106
yea i guess, i guess i was just paranoid she was just lying about it. i mean if akon is as slow as it seems, people are probably not wasting time walking away either. sorry akon artists.

[Anonymous No.9515116]

>>9515111
if she doesn't give a fuck she'll do it again no matter what
hell, annoying her might have an adverse reaction and cause her to go "fuck the police"

[Anonymous No.9515120]

>>9515111
She really doesn't seem like the type to lie about it. It's just that it wasn't until A-Kon the problem of her pricing really showed and it got mentioned. In the long run she'd be hurting her own business anyway so I doubt she did it with bad intentions.

[Anonymous No.9515126]

>>9515063
Those wire grids are about 14" on each side, so yes the 11x17" sizing is accurate.

[Anonymous No.9515146]

Hoping tommorow is better for all the akon artists!
I want to send a mass group email to the aa head of akon asking them to cut down on vendors and artists by 60% for 2018, anyone in?

[Anonymous No.9515149]

>>9515146
I'm in as a customer. There were so many bad artists there (no offense). It would be really nice to have a smaller AA with higher quality. Also maybe have the AA next to the dealers instead of behind. I had to fight to get there.

[Anonymous No.9515177]

>>9515149
Agreed.
I know a lot of people here are complaining about "losing" sales to Muddy because she was so cheap but the fact was she was cheap AND good.
Even if some of you had priced your stuff the same, she still would have outsold you.

[Anonymous No.9515189]

>>9515050
These are fan conventions though. Whats wrong with trying to do your best at a fan convention with fan art?

[Anonymous No.9515204]

>>9514662
I'm here! I've never sold here before so I don't know what to expect sales wise. I think I'm doing well but I don't have a frame of reference.

What part are you in? I was talking to some artists saying the back row is really slow so far.

[Anonymous No.9515220]

>>9515146
If you're in the A-Kon AA Discord, the AA head said she feels really bad about it and is working on a feedback form. So I'd wait until after con and send suggestions directly to the form since that'd make it easier for AA staff and make sure your concerns get heard.

They also seem aware of the traffic flow issue since the AA head also has a table and she mentioned that people are having trouble making it to AA because of Dealer's Hall crowds. So hopefully layout will be different next year.

I personally hated the pipe/drape walls. They completely killed line of sight in the AA which makes it harder for attendees to find people. They should consider half-drape for next year instead of these huge partitions. Pipe/drapes that come up to about your waist would do the job and I've seen comic con use them for AAs pretty effectively.

[Anonymous No.9515275]

>>9513917
Promotion anon here. Im thinking of maybe doing a postcard with info on the back
To be honest I kind of want to do a feature of my brand/about the artist type thing but I'm afraid of coming off as egotistical.

Also wtf who would put loose glitter in a bag.

[Anonymous No.9515283]

>>9515275
people who sell bagged glitter

[Anonymous No.9515297]

>>9515283
can't argue with that

[Anonymous No.9515299]

Does anyone have a link to the Anime Expo AA survey from a year or so ago?

[Anonymous No.9515409]

>>9514761
thanks! i think i'll go with envelopes this con, since it's pretty soon.

[Anonymous No.9515563]

On the subject of underpricing, it pains me to see good artists post super cheap commissions. Not so much because it hurts the market but because it's just sad seeing them work hard for such little money.

I don't consider my art great, but I at least ask a fair price for my commissions. Yet when I see what some people ask it makes me look like I'm severely overpricing mine.

[Anonymous No.9515588]

>>9515563
>n the subject of underpricing, it pains me to see good artists post super cheap commissions

The thing with commissions is that there's a HUGE gap between the levels of customers. Artists who appeal to teenagers/the tumblr crowd will have a hard time having pricier commissions because those people simply can't afford to pay $100+ for a single piece of art, while professionals can easily charge up to 1k to collectors.

Generally speaking, most artists with cheaper art make up for it via sheer volume (then raise prices gradually when they get popular enough).

[Anonymous No.9515591]

>>9515588
I don't even mean those kind of prices, I've seen really good artists post half-body drawings for $20 tops. That's just sad.

[Anonymous No.9515622]

>>9515591
I usually charge $15 for a bust and was told that's expensive... I'm not that great though. I was thinking of charging $5 for chibi sketches like this. Is that too low?

[Anonymous No.9515640]

What are the things that annoy you about Juried cons? What are the things you like about Juried AA? What have AA staff done well/done poorly in the Jury process?

I Staff for a con that is moving from FCFS to Juried next year, since this year the FCFS filled in less than two minutes (we were used to it taking a few hours to a few days). The artists who got in don't necessarily show the range of products, styles, or even necessarily the range of skill that we would like to, with some really interesting art and crafters having applied within the first hour but after we filled.

We would like keep a variety of work and products in the AA (including print, craft, and merch artists). We also as a convention really want to continue to be friendly towards local artists that are just starting out, and may not have the same breadth of work in their portfolio. So I guess what we're looking for in our Juried process isn't the best or the most skilled work at every table - but a good variety. That puts us in a weird spot as not being the way that most Juried cons are run.

Looking for advice on how to specifically relegate a few tables to newer artists without ruffling feathers. I'm considering suggesting the "Ameteur" spots be based on number of years tabled, not on apparent skill level.

I table in the AA myself, as does the coordinator in charge of the final decisions, but I'd like to cast the net out for a range of opinions.

[Anonymous No.9515642]

>>9515622
The lowest I see for Chibis are usually 30, sometimes 20. Otherwise usually 10-20 cheaper than headshots. So I'd say 5 dollars is much too low especially with that amount of detail

[Anonymous No.9515648]

>>9515622
Not to be crass, but I think $5 is as high as you can go for a sketch like this.

[Anonymous No.9515653]

>>9515640
Too many juries accept their friends every single year (fanime) instead of bringing in new artists for this reason I prefer fcfs... I would stick to fcfs becouse it's the most fair in my opinion and juries are too subjective.

[Anonymous No.9515657]

>>9515640
Just don't jurry based on your friends getting in and who you know rather than what you know. It doesn't sound like you have intentions of doing that though.

[Anonymous No.9515658]

>>9515642
Seriously? I never see chibi sketches much higher than $15.

[Anonymous No.9515665]

>>9515658
Should clarify, I mean for uncolored sketch commissions taken at cons.

[Anonymous No.9515693]

>>9515640
It's okay to say you jury to look for newbies and intersting / unique tables, YOU JUST NEED TO BE UPFRONT AND TRANSPARENT ABOUT THIS, whether it's a rubric or outright stating it in the guidelines for artists. Every I'm personally friends with do not begrudge the right for staff to define an alley how they want, but the irritation is when they ACT like it's based on skill when it's clearly not.

Likewise if you want to invite your friends every year, fine. But make them a part of the guest section or something, don't pretend they are a part of the general alley and got through a jury. A lot less salt would be spilled if they were upfront about this at juried cons.

[Anonymous No.9515694]

>>9515653
>>9515657
Oh no, of course not. Variety and fresh faces are good for the convention, it keeps attendees interested each year and artists applying. We're putting it in the procedure that the Jury will consist of different people each year - that way you won't get reoccurring biases, either because the jury prefers a specific style or has certain artists they want to get in.

Thank you for the advice!

[Anonymous No.9515720]

>>9515640
I hate FCFS for big conventions. Jury is the best option.

To maybe add variety, pick the best artists, then for a few spots make them random. That way the best artists get in and a few randoms get in too.

[Anonymous No.9515728]

I hope Akon bans attendees from carrying around fucking loud ass speakers. Having to hear a new terrible song blasted in my face everytime someone enters the row annoying as fuck

[Anonymous No.9515732]

>>9515665
I've seen 15 a few times but yeah, the least I usually see is 20.

I definitely wouldn't say 15 would be undercutting!

But also, don't price yourself too low. That's a fair amount of detail although I guess it depends on the drawings size too.

[Anonymous No.9515739]

>>9515658
>>9515665
Meant to reply to both

That's just only my personal experience though, you should probably ask some more people.
In my opinion 15 is fine, but again, I'm only one person haha. Good luck either way.

[Anonymous No.9515764]

>>9515081

1305 if you like yaoi.

[Anonymous No.9515784]

>>9515622
I'll be honest, I wouldn't pay more then $5 for it myself, though I do think some people might be willing to go for $10?

[Anonymous No.9515818]

>>9515648
>>9515784
Can you post a couple examples of chibi sketches (no color/ink) that you would pay more for?

[Anonymous No.9515825]

>>9515818
Just a random first result pulled from google images.

Honestly I wouldn't even pay $5 for these personally because there are artists who offer fully colored chibi for $10, and it's like if you're already paying for this type of thing, might as well get a fully colored version.

If you do sketches though you definitely want them to still be pretty "clean" sketches like this example.

[Anonymous No.9515843]

>>9515622
your chibi looks pretty amateur-ish:
The head shape is wonky, making it fit on the neck at a weird position
The facial features are also lopsided despite you drawing some guidelines - the (viewer's) right eye + eyebrow are way further from the nose/center of face, compared the left eye + eyebrow.
The fingers seem a little too long to fit with the "stubby" proportions of the rest of the body.

Also, you got Yato's face completely off, it took me a while to recognise him. It's pretty important to make sure your chibis actually resemble the characters they're of. The eye shading (too dark) and eyebrows (too thick, wrong shape) are way off.

A tip is to study nendoroids, which have pretty cute proportions and will help you understand how to draw with basic 3d shapes. Once you understand this, your chibis will be less flat and be more consistent. Good luck!

[Anonymous No.9515847]

>>9515825
Well these are digital. Would you be able to direct me to any traditionally done sketches for in-con style?
>>9515843
Cool, thanks I never thought of the nendroid thing before. And tbd I had no idea who Yato is and never saw Noragami.

[Anonymous No.9515859]

>>9515720
>>9515640
this. Have everyone apply like you would for a jury, sort out any bad eggs (obvious trace art or anything that doesn't fit your rules) pick out your top artists that you definitely want to have in the alley and then do everything else by lottery.
state this UP FRONT so that everyone knows what they're getting into.

[Anonymous No.9515873]

>>9515640

It sounds like you're starting with a really good mindset. The point of jury SHOULD be variety, not just looking for specific styles/qualities, because customers appreciate variety more and artists in general make more money if they all offer something different. I don't understand why a lot of juries don't take this into consideration and just end up picking all of the same style and rendering quality of pokemon art.
Also giving a little perk for people who are local and amateur is a great idea, it sucks when you're just starting out and your local cons are all huge and impossible to get into at your skill level. I'd also suggest giving a little discount for these tables, since most of them are probably not going to break even, and putting them in the same rows in the back to discourage shitheads from trying to pretend they're amateur to get that little discount. So all the newbie artists are grouped together and feel less vulnerable and less pressured.

Also PLEASE ban artists for breaking rules, maybe a 3 strikes policy. So many cons are so lenient when artists blatantly break rules and then keep being allowed in year after year just because they're skilled. It's really discouraging for people who actually follow the rules.

[Anonymous No.9515876]

>>9515204
I'm in the front row on the border of dealers. I just came from cpac and tables here last year. Last year while not amazing I sold twice as much and I was way in the back

[Anonymous No.9515880]

Lol seriously? Bitch couldn't even be assed to clean up after herself? Same chick had her stupid ass telescope pole display blocking the entire corner exit and then some.

I hope you gulls don't do shit like this at cons.

[Anonymous No.9515887]

>>9515847
Anon, I really think you are making this harder on yourself than it really is. I just copied the style >>9515825 plus your original image and shit this one out despite never drawing chibis (look at these awful feet). Just look at chibis you like and learn from it.

[Anonymous No.9515907]

All the cons I've done this year have been worse than the year before...not just akon.
Has the con bubble burst?

[Anonymous No.9515936]

It looks like Melly put up a sign today because so many artists came to talk to her about her prices. I'm hoping she follows through like she promised >>9515013

I'm not sure if the "I haven't tabled in 7 years so I'll raise my prices next time!" is just a line she feeds people though. I talked to another artist who spoke to her at Animazement and they said she told them the same thing about being out of the AA loop for 7 years and promised them to change her prices for A-Kon which obviously didn't happen. They said they were direct with her and told her how her prices were affecting people although she told the other anon that no one approached her seriously at AZ.

I guess all we can do is just wait and see if she really does keep her word? I don't think she singlehandedly ruined A-Kon or anything like that but the artists in her row looked miserable.

[Anonymous No.9515938]

>>9515936
Ngl, it would be hilarious if she said the same thing next time and then someone handed her this picture.

[Anonymous No.9515947]

>>9515013
I was at Animazement with a friend and neither one of us even saw her booth because we definitely would have noticed $5 prints of that size and no one in the AZ general mentioned it either.

[Anonymous No.9515950]

>>9515880

People like this are the same people who trash their tables at restaurants and the condiment bars at Starbucks and then say "they have paid staff here right? it's their JOB to clean up after my disgusting ass"

Fuck these people in the eye.

[Anonymous No.9515962]

>>9515907

Oh for sure. AAs back in the 90s-2010s they were magical places. You saw well made hand colored/painted/non-digital art for the most part. You were really impressed with the artists stuff. You saw some very well done popular things and if you were lucky, you would find that one piece of fandom that nobody every made but it was your favorite and you just HAD to have it. You sat aside money JUST for the AA room cause you knew you would find that one cool thing that would set you part from your friends circle when you showed it off on your backpack or lanyard.

Now people can get anything they want and just buy everything online. No, I'm not saying "technology bad and scary oooo", I'm just saying I remember I had to wait a whole year to get that Inuyasha rubber keycahin that was from Japan and the local con and I was super excited for it.

There were maybe 20 tables? You had enough room to shop and breath and just take it all in. You could brows through a portfolio or actually SEE all the charms or stickers.

Now its all the same merch, everything has a cell shaded, thick outline look to it. Nothing stands out. AAs now have 60 tables, some of the being split, so thats another 10 artists to add to the heap. Everything either looks like a company made it cause of how close it is to the style of the show, or you get your weird black sailor moon who's 500 pounds with stomach rolls. It used to be a funny thing when you saw a print of like ManFaye, a fat and very hairy man who dressed up as Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebob and you would buy it at as a gag. Now there's tables of nothing but fan gross men in pretty dresses with banner slogans that are meant to be taken 100% serious "Be Yourself. Love Your Body".

The magic of seeing that one artist do an insanely cool cross over with Trigun and Cowboy Bebop is too over done with Adventure Time and *insert cartoon name here*. And 35 of the room of 60 artists have at least one print like that.

[Anonymous No.9515970]

>>9515962

Sorry, adding onto my rant.

Also, now everyone does it. Teens with no talent take up table space cause they're parents paid the entrance fee. (Unless its juried thing of course). I don't care if your 14 and you can paint and draw like Da Vinci, but it's those 14 year olds that make crappy shit and then sell them for 1$.

Now I feel like the AAs have cooler stuff than the actual dealer rooms some times. Now that people can 3D print their own statues, I've seen some pretty cool shit. I would love for cons to only allow a few artists in, but they won't make as much money that way, so they'll let 100 people in. Everything comes to an end, and eventually, AAs and Dealer rooms will be the same thing.

[Anonymous No.9515974]

>>9515962

Not to mention there used to be a one con every few months (two in the whole year if you lived anywhere outside of Colorado/Middle America). Now I feel like there's some kind of "con" at least 3 or 4 times a month EVERY month.

[Anonymous No.9515983]

>>9515962
I feel like the scourge of Sakimichan rip offs/muddy "semi-realism" art is far more prevalent than solid lineart and cell shading, but otherwise this is accurate.

[Anonymous No.9516006]

>>9515962
>It used to be a funny thing when you saw a print of like ManFaye, a fat and very hairy man who dressed up as Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebob and you would buy it at as a gag.

Omg. I remember him fondly. I remember once when lots of people where taking his photo one guy yelled out to him "You're a faggot!" and his reply was a smooth as butter as he hit a lunge pose with his leg out and said "Only for you buddy!" and everyone laughed. Can you even image if that happened today? SWJ would start screaming His Body, His Rule, omg, don't label me with your hate speech. AKA everything is bad and ruined now.

[Anonymous No.9516010]

>>9515936
My friend also said she saw her at previous cons with the same $5 pricing so who knows, hopefully enough people talked to her and she got the point. She does seem like a nice person so hope she keeps her word.

Does anyone know what her next con is or if she's going to be at AX?

[Anonymous No.9516028]

Ah i know everyone is on the topic of melly, good ol AA days, etc. But I have a burning question. Is it normal to sell over 100+ charms (not including prints) at a con??? An artist I follow on twitter said they had shit sales at Akon and had a 100+ charms left over of ONE characterbthat they had for Akon (they have even more printed for AX) this artist is pretty popular toox it was just Akon that was horrible for sales. I wish I knew the silver lining to selling so much and making good bank :/
They were charms for just one fandom too...i can barely sell 30 of mine.. fuck. I want to con more, but my sales are so dismal at AAs compared to others I rather stick to commissions!

Also does other merch like buttons, charms, stands, etc. Sell more than prints??? What makes good cash at an AA?

[Anonymous No.9516031]

Ah crap sorry for all the typos, im on my phone and my fat fingers make errors...welp

[Anonymous No.9516040]

Hey guys, what's the average price for t-shirts and such? I know it mostly depends on the production cost, art quality, etc but I honestly have no idea of what's common on the market/in AAs.
A quick search on tictail gives me ranges like $15-$25 so is that a decent range to price them at or are those too low/high?

[Anonymous No.9516042]

I'm so disappointed that my first Akon in AA is the one where it went to shit.

[Anonymous No.9516052]

>>9516028
I can move 100-ish charms, but I carry like 20 each of popular designs and spread it out? I don't think anyone could consider having 100 of just 1 design (which means they have more designs that also have 100+ in stock, maybe they have cheap prices or good combo deals?)

I think many people in past threads have come to the consensus that prints just don't rake in the cash as much as they used to and people are opting for smaller things.

[Anonymous No.9516053]

>>9516010
Metrocon. I'll be there and let you know.

[Anonymous No.9516066]

>>9516042
Same, I was really looking forward to it but now I just feel exhausted and disheartened. when other cons don't go well, I still feel like I get something positive out of it because I have people stopping by to browse or take a biz card or talk to me or say something nice about my art, but this was the least interested audience I have ever encountered. Like they were on a race to get through the AA and didn't want to slow down for anything. They were all so apathetic and done with it all that it just made me feel like shit.

[Anonymous No.9516072]

is anyone here going to sunnycon?

[Anonymous No.9516089]

>>9516028
Now I'm curious as to what artists you're talking about that has 100 of the same design

[Anonymous No.9516127]

>>9515880
It's NJ. Don't expect much.

[Anonymous No.9516158]

>>9515962
This is what always happens when the market gets oversaturated. I'm also disappointed by how hard it is for me to find good quality artists. I used to get excited to walk through AA and now it's row upon row of the same shit. I'm always shocked when I find someone with a unique style or someone that has work that stands apart because everyone seems to be stuck on making things look like everyone else.

I get that people are getting into AA now strictly to make money so they probably don't care but it's annoying to see.

[Anonymous No.9516171]

>>9516127
I never said which con this was. How did you know it was a Jersey con?

Were you also at the same con?

[Anonymous No.9516197]

>>9515936
She singled handedly ruined a-kon for artists in her row. Everyone help keep an eye on her, especially in the upcoming artist alley. She keeps talking about AA since 7 years ago and never mentioned tabling at animazement and being told the same thing until another anon called her out on it.

For the record, we were very very firm with her on low cutting pricing and talked to her two days before this anon >>9515013 did. And I can say for sure, we were not the first ones to sit down and have a chat with her.


Do not just buy that she will change the prices next time because words are cheap and only actions matter.

[Anonymous No.9516204]

>>9516197
Idk anon I was in her row and I still made 3k, which is only like 2k profit but still not the worst. Sure it was pretty frustrating watching people line up to her booth while mine was totally empty but DESU I see lines at popular artists booths near mine at cons all the time and I'm used to it.

[Anonymous No.9516208]

>>9516204
Would you rather see super talented big name artist have lines next to you or just the cheap chick?

[Anonymous No.9516211]

>>9516208
Honestly? The cheap chick becouse the super popular artists charge $20 for a print while I've gotten quite a few people pass my booth with one of her prints in hand and pick up a $15 print from me becouse they can still afford it.

[Anonymous No.9516218]

>>9516211

hmmmm....well that's actually an interesting stand point.

[Anonymous No.9516225]

>>9516204
Interesting, that's around how much I made too. Can I ask what do you usually make at a con this size?

[Anonymous No.9516226]

>>9516218
What >>9516211 is saying was the whole "reasoning" for Melly's pricing. Not trying to defend her but if what she's doing is actually "working" as she intended as she said to another anon, maybe this isn't something to sweat over so much but just keep an eye on.

[Anonymous No.9516236]

>>9516225
I usually make 7-8k at a con this size but I make 2-3k at smaller cons (like nekocon for example).
>>9516226
Yeah it worked out in my favor, when I'm next to more established $20 print artists people buy something at their booth and then just walk past me,while this time some people actually stopped to browse.
I didn't mind her honestly, it brought a lot of people to our row, while other rows at the con saw little to no traffic ours was congested.

[Anonymous No.9516240]

>>9516204
>only made 2k profit
>only
>2k

[Anonymous No.9516257]

Is it normal to make 2-3k at 4day cons??? The first time I ever conned (i tabled with a friend) i only made $500...and thats because I literally was doing commissions from opening to close each day...is because I just suck?

[Anonymous No.9516273]

>>9516240

That's not a lot IF you paid for hotel and flight. That's a shit load for a weekend if you're a local though. ....That's still a lot of money. Good job.

[Anonymous No.9516281]

>>9516257
Post thy art and we shall tell thee is thee suckith or not.

[Anonymous No.9516287]

>>9516204
I pulled in $2k on Friday alone and I wasn't in her aisle so?

I don't know how far you were from her table but I talked to one of thr artists right next to her and they said A-Kon wasn't worth it this year. I know at least one of them does cons regularly and makes really good money.

[Anonymous No.9516311]

>>9516273
I live in LA area, and the first time I tabled was at AX and I made 500$. Local or not that doesnt seem to be a lot...well that was in 2014...but yeah sounds pretty pitiful compared to everyone making a good 3k
>>9516281
Please be gentle
Also when I made that much it was in 2014, I havent conned since then until actually this spring. (So far 2 very small school cons) this was my most popular print

[Anonymous No.9516314]

>>9516273
Not that I think it's a lot, but anon said 2k profit, not gross, so flight and hotel have already been taken out of that total.

[Anonymous No.9516315]

Same anon^
Im by no means even close to being an amazing artist. But it does suck when everyone is saying theyre making in the thousands and I'm worried about breaking even! Like I said, maybe I'll just stick to my commissions;;; cons are super fun, but I guess im not cut out for it

[Anonymous No.9516319]

>>9516315
Ah shit same anon to the MM print. I didnt think someone would post after I did

[Anonymous No.9516336]

So does anyone know how places like acorn press make charms? I genuinely curious to know how they are made. I saw a few tutorials on youtube on how to make charms, but I really don't think that is how companies do it.

>>9516257
for your first con? no. $2,000+ is what experienced people make.

[Anonymous No.9516341]

>>9516311
>everyone
Anon, if you've been reading these threads for a while you know that it's normal to just about break even at your first con. It takes a while to get into it. The people that are regularly pulling thousands have AA experience.

[Anonymous No.9516348]

>>9516171
The Animenext booklet is in the picture.

[Anonymous No.9516367]

>>9516341
That and typically they have built up the inventory to boot.
>>>9516311
My sales numbers weren't too impressive my first couple cons either, but then again, I didn't have a lot merch built up yet (still don't really). It only grew from there.

You shouldn't compare your numbers to those who have more stock and also a lot more experience, it really isn't a fair comparison.

[Anonymous No.9516370]

>>9516040
$20-$40, really depends on the quality and print job.

[Anonymous No.9516383]

What is everyone's opinion on different styles of art? For example, do you think it is okay to have some prints in a cell-shaded style and some in a watercolor style or painterly style? What about selling mixes of chibis and regular characters?

In other words, do you think it's better to try to appeal to several different tastes, or catch eyes with one particular style?

[Anonymous No.9516476]

>>9515876
I heard CPAC was really good this year, I'm sad I missed the application deadline. I heard a lot of artists complaining today about slow sales unfortunately. I think I lucked out with the merch type/series I had. What sort of stuff were you selling?

>>9516028
I sold about 100-150 charms this weekend. They were actually my main seller, but I invest most of my time into doing charms. I think your art style is going to influence what product types sell the best for you.

[Anonymous No.9516480]

>>9516040
I see a lot of shirts screen printed by the artist themselves selling for $30-40. If you're not looking to hand screen print them, I'd say $20-30 depending on manufacturing costs.

[Anonymous No.9516485]

>>9516480
My costs are like $8-10 but that's just cause I do iron-ons with cheap hanes tshirts

I probably could cut costs even lower by sourcing cheaper shirts along with bulk buying

[Anonymous No.9516488]

>>9516336
>>9516341
>>9516367
>>9516476
thanks for the input! It's just really gets to me depressed sometimes when people are like "yeah I made this much $$$" but I see my sales which aren't like that, I started to think something was wrong with me(?)
I'll defo just keep pushing on and trying to expand my inventory/merch as the years go on!!! I really want to con more!

[Anonymous No.9516493]

>>9516311
I'm no expert, so take these as just suggestions,
but a few things that stood out to me while looking at your print wall:
- your prices are way too small, for eg, should have the $10 atleast the size of the whole post-it note.
- do you have to display your prints in plastic pockets? it's not as noticeable (in photo) for the A4 prints but with the larger ones, they obstruct display of the print.
Consider adhesives on the back, and keep a set of "display" prints which you don't mind doing that to.
- draw in the dimensions of the paper (looking at all you large prints and that vocaloid one)! and crop with guillotine the white borders. They'll look just that bit more clean and professional.
- some of your text on prints feel kind of thoughtless/redundant, and aren't incorporated well. I'll let the Tracer and maaaybe the D.VA slide. Tracer works because it's overlapped by the character, incorporated more-or-less; D.VA sort of because it's written on that heart squiggle thing, but Mei's looks like it's just.. there.
Also possibly try actually handwriting the D.VA (and maybe Mei) if you want to make them fit in more.
Madoka print, could do without the huge "MADOKA KANAME", which honestly, is competing WITH the image, not as part of the overall image. She's iconic enough we could do without, and there isn't enough overlap of the character over the text to make it feel part of the whole.
I would suggest leaving out the text in both the Madoka and Vocaloid print, and resize the characters to be bigger.
Especially for vocaloid - it's a group pic and you really should show off all that detail + effort, not the boring 5 sec bg.
- It also looks like some of the bottom art come from an older time than the upper prints. Not necessary, but while you're just starting out, it might be nice to brush up your older prints with your now-better knowledge of values, colour, etc.

Best of luck!

[Anonymous No.9516496]

>>9516383
honestly I always associate inconsistent art styles with amateurs, or that some of it might be traced/copied. If you want variety I would think more about just your type of products. Like you could do all of your prints in a watercolor or painterly style but then have some charms or buttons in a more graphic and flat color style.

[Anonymous No.9516502]

>>9516493
Thank you so much! Omg I was taken aback when I saw my own table photo ahaha. Ah yeah I put them in plastic pockets because the tape ruined the artwork I was trying to salvage (it'd rip the print off welp)
Most of my smaller prints were from 3-4 years ago! I think I will brush them up!
Again thank you tons for the input, I really really appreciate you taking the time to help me and give me constructive crit!!!

[Anonymous No.9516515]

>>9516493
I feel like you need to take the Dva and Mai prints away. They seem so lack-luster and dull next to the others that it messes with the flow of the rest of the prints. Or maybe put them together and in the corner. As they say, only put your best work forward. But the "meh" stuff in the back.

[Anonymous No.9516517]

>>9516515
Yeah;; my OW prints were literally L A S T minute, I do guess that's noticeable;; Thank you for the input!!! If I ever con again I'll just like...put them not in the front lol or as discounted prints or something;;

[Anonymous No.9516522]

>>9516515
>>9516517
You could also put it in a portfolio/binder type, and have only your better pieces for display!

[Anonymous No.9516524]

>>9516502
No problem haha, I'm just a bored busybody, but I'm glad you find it useful!

With what >>9516515 said, consider postcard prints or keeping them on the bottom row of the wall, so you'll have a rough gradient (top-bottom) of detail.

Pic related is the stuff I use but I've also heard there's a double sided tape for posters you can find in daiso that works well if you want to give that a try, apparently peels off well too.
Kind of want to throw it out there to other gulls, what do you use to stick prints?

[Anonymous No.9516525]

>>9516522
ahhh everyone is really clever, I'm DEFINITELY going to do this. Especially since I tend to share tables a lot, it'll give me more room and not have to pack and squish all my prints into one place. Thank you!! This will definitely help free up space for sure!

[Anonymous No.9516532]

>>9516524
actually going to screen shot basically this whole bottom part of the thread for myself because it's all so useful!!! I'm still really beginner at this, I really do appreciate it, this really does mean a lot!!! I know I sound like a broken record but seriously many thanks!!!
that adhesive velcro / daiso stickers sound so useful. I was using scotch tape or double sided tape and it'd just ruin my prints.
I really should invest in making some post card prints, I saw a gorgeous set of them on twitter.

[Anonymous No.9516534]

Check out my rendered shoe. I'm very proud of it.

[Anonymous No.9516537]

Speaking of artist alleys having no variety because everyone's copying each other...
Besides specific series, what are some trends you're tired of seeing?

>x character as a cat when that character has nothing to do with cats
>x character in a bottle charm
>x character/creature in a terrarium charm
>chibi heads facing forward arranged in a repeating pattern for a pencil bag

I'm sure these might sell well but it's a big sign to me that the artist doesn't have any of their own ideas

Also me being a dog person might have something to do with the first one

[Anonymous No.9516547]

>>9516537

I'm getting a little annoyed with seeing character x in a "modern" outfit. But I only like it when it's REALLY out of it's element. Like my pic for example is cool because it's from GoT which is a time period piece. Seeing Khal Drogo like this is very cool (to me). But when I see like a male character in a meme outfit, like that boobwindow sweater, I cringe really hard.

I'm also tired of the bottle charms/terrarium but I DO love seeing chibi characters with food charms.

I also don't like anything facing forward. So dull.

[Anonymous No.9516550]

>>9516383
you should just to the style that would work best with your idea. I do several styles, not to "appeal" to people but some ideas execute better in certain styles than others and i don't let some weird fear of judgemental assholes stop me from executing my idea in the best possible way.

(p.s. people are usually impressed, no one accuses me of stealing art lol)

[Anonymous No.9516554]

>>9516383
I had a couple pieces in different styles because I like to experiment, but my main style is lineless which also seems to sell the most.

The other stuff (like painterly, rendered) don't move as much since people seem to prefer my lineless style (which is fine with me) so I'll be cycling the other stuff out and focusing more on lineless work and keep my experimental art to myself.

Generally if you have multiple styles, it's probably better to gravitate towards whatever sells the best for you.

[Anonymous No.9516555]

>>9516383
In regards to prints, I think having chibis as postcard prints would be OK. You could also try making them painterly/watercolour to have them relate to larger print styles. Graphic larger prints would be OK too so long as the drawing style matched the others.

All my prints are regular characters in painterly style, however all my buttons and other small items are chibis. Since they're different types of products they don't really compete and clash as they would if they were in a print wall. I find it works because people who like cute things (since my normal prints aren't) can find something to buy when they'd normally continue on their way.


I don't think it's necessarily better, but just be careful so that your display looks unified and isn't a mess.

[Anonymous No.9516580]

>>9516336
I don't necessarily know the specs of Acorn Press's machines, but I work somewhere I'm allowed to use the machines after hours for my AA merch. For Acrylic charms or standees it's a flatbad LEF Printer to print, and a CNC Laser to cut them out. I purchase UV-Receptive Acrylic so that the ink doesn't chip off, AP and other companies may treat their own acrylic in house but that's totally out of my wheel house.

[Anonymous No.9516611]

>>9516537

>random series crossed over that don't make any sense together
>almost direct copies of famous artworks with anime characters in them
>fuckin klimt's the kiss
>fuckin mucha
>holographic prints with art that doesn't make any sense as holographic

[Anonymous No.9516618]

>>9516611
god I loathe all of these, they're really tacky

[Anonymous No.9516624]

>>9516611
You hit all my triggers as I read each one. I didn't even know I hated those until I started to recall how many I've seen and then I got mad. Lol

[Anonymous No.9516668]

>>9516611
Oh yeah it REALLY rubs me the wrong way when artists rip Klimt or Mucha and sell prints of it with some random ship ugh it's basically plagiarism

[Anonymous No.9516727]

>>9516537
> crazy ______ lady products
> artists that sell their print art but slapped onto a white shirt
> chibis that basically traced over any chibi art in the Japanese market (es nino/D4/tsumamare/pentako/) pic related
> enamel pins/patches of manga panels or official art
> x series crossed over with x western meme that doesn't make sense
> lazy and bland LGBT+ products
> sprout hairclips from taobao/aliexpress (yes, some people sell these to make an easy dollar)

[Anonymous No.9516742]

>>9516502
In the future, if you keep the madoka print, I would change the opacity of background so that she pops more. From afar it all just blends and like the other anon said I wouldn't add the character names in the prints. The plastic sleeves look little cheap. Hobby Lobby sells plastic sleeves at all different sizes that you could tape together. If you don't have a local store, they offer them online as well.

[Anonymous No.9516751]

>>9516537
Meme buttons.

>>9516727
> lazy and bland LGBT+ products
And these too.

[Anonymous No.9516762]

>>9516287
2k profit is still impressive for a con where people are barely breaking even.
Do you mind if I ask you what you sell anon?

[Anonymous No.9516763]

>>9516727
> artists that sell their print art but slapped onto a white shirt

This right here. This one artist that I see often has talent but most of her shirts look like something printed off cafepress. Her Pokémon and food animal shirts would look great on colored shirts and her YOI shirt could look MUCH better if she used a font other than Arial on it. If you're selling shirts for $25+ at least make it look nice.

[Anonymous No.9516780]

Hey what are some of your favorite artists? I'm looking for new people to follow.

[Anonymous No.9516797]

>>9516240
America is fucking wild man. As an European I wish I could even bother trying to do cons all summer and actually make money out of it

[Anonymous No.9516814]

>>9516797
Ummm hi I'm European too! Where do you get your prints?everyone and their mother recommends CatPrint but since they are us based shipping would be an arm and a leg

[Anonymous No.9516829]

>>9516042
My feels. I did ok but I was expecting so much more from A Kon. I had a proxy at Anime Next and that show was absolutely abysmal though.

[Anonymous No.9516875]

>>9516534
Thats a nice shoe anon.

[Anonymous No.9516877]

>>9516797
>>9516814
as an american I wish I could get decent pay for work, healthcare, public transportation, and school assistance programs

[Anonymous No.9516899]

>>9516493
Oh hey, I was across from you at the con in the AA.

If you want to bag your prints. Consider hitting up hobby lobby or ordering ones from papermart.

http://www.hobbylobby.com/Art-Supplies/Storage-Organization/Storage/11"-x-17"-ClearBags-Crystal-Clear-Art-Archival-Bags/p/8291

They sell different sizes and always have a 40% off coupon on their site. I bought these atm since I only have one print atm but plan to order some from papermart.

Also Daiso sells the ziploc style polybags, I bought some that fit my 6x9 well.

[Anonymous No.9516941]

>>9516877
I don't see how this is relevant.

>>9516814
Gotprint is based in Europe too, perhaps try there?

[Anonymous No.9516985]

>>9516580
ooo, thanks! Just what I was wanting to know.

[Anonymous No.9516999]

>>9516941
They're saying that the tradeoff of having a consumer market that allows americans to make assloads of money off stuff like AA isn't worth it when compared to public programs that advance the quality of life.

I'm guessing the person who said that is further along in their life stages than you are, anon. Summer money means jack shit once real life hits.

[Anonymous No.9517062]

>>9516797

Agree with >>9516877, do you think "career artist alley artists" love doing this? If you offered them a real job where they didn't have to fly every other weekend and got health insurance and a fair wage (remember min wage in the USA is $7.25USD per hour with no "benefits", and for many people no transit options other than having to own a car etc.) you think they wouldn't take it? haha

[Anonymous No.9517100]

>>9517062
Um going by the AA threads I don't think many career AA artists are suffering that much

[Anonymous No.9517111]

>>9517100
Are you retarded? Most have to raise gofundmes to fix their shitty cars or pay their vet/hosp bills. Even more have to have day jobs to get health insurance. Not many are self-sufficient without some form of government aid.

[Anonymous No.9517113]

>>9517100
I don't know any career AA artists that don't have day jobs. I know a woman who has been making 4-5k profit per con for the last 8+ years who sews cat ears on her office lunch breaks.

[Anonymous No.9517121]

>>9517100
The fact that people do AA as side gigs while having full time jobs should underline how fundamentally fucked up the entire system is here. If you want to attribute it to greed or whatever, go ahead but a vast majority of us are just trying to make ends meet.

[Anonymous No.9517126]

>>9517100
AA artists aren't rolling in cash. making $3k+ profit isn't the average con, its the good cons, and there aren't cons like that every month.

>>9517113
I do this full time, but trying to find some extra money for between July and September since those months are completely dead for me.

AA is where you start, if you want to actually make money, you have to have a plan to expand.

[Anonymous No.9517130]

Since there seem to be a couple Europeans here, are there any EU cons you guys would recommend traveling for? I want to try Japan Expo next year, what should I expect?
Were any of you at Dokomi last week? I was stuck at the back so I only managed to turn a small profit after table, hotel and travel. How'd everyone else fare?

>>9516814
Where you at? Nayrt but things like customs and where to order completely depends on the country.
I'm Dutch and I order at a Dutch site. They don't do holographic or anything but their quality is good and even at low quantities they're like 50 cents for an A3. Want me to check if they ship intl?

[Anonymous No.9517142]

>>9517100
AA is my side hustle. I also work full time at what I consider a decent gig, and it's still a struggle to keep car insurance and my mortgage paid. I avoid doctor visits like the plague because I'm uninsured.

A friend I table with pretty often AA's full time because their disability makes it impossible to hold a traditional job, and America makes it impossible to get on Disability. Her husband works full time, too, and again. It's still a struggle.

We don't tend to talk about it in these threads because who gives a shit, but AA does not a stable career make.

[Anonymous No.9517194]

>>9517130
Japan Expo has a good AA but be careful, it's split in two sections, one for "Artists" and one for "Young Creators". If you sell as an artist, there's a limit to how much you can charge for an item, but young creators boothes are more expensive. Also I dunno how it is in the Netherlands but after hanging around the AA thread I'm shocked at how cheap French AAs are compared to American ones. Like, I'd never pay 15 bucks for a print, and commissions can be damn cheap too.

Also expect noise and heat, lots of it.

[Anonymous No.9517201]

>>9516476
>What sort of stuff were you selling?

Had prints, stickers, buttons, charms and commissions. Commissions were the only reason I even made a tiny profit this weekend as they were my sole sellers.

As for fanart its mostly pokemon and Osomatsu I have available atm along with originals and shows/games that are by no means hot (Sgt Frog).

Prints - pic related is an example of the kind of work I do. I decided to work with these two styles since they seem to do very well but almost all the subjects atm are pokemon related since they were the only things I drew for some time that could be prints.

Charms - Surprisingly enough my tea bag charms ended up outselling my fanart charms at Cpac and Animenext so that is a plus.

Table display is where I believe I need to work on the most. I don't believe it is abysmal but after looking around the alley I feel it is definitely on the blander side of things and not eye catching enough. Display is tricky to do when I introduced more items but am stuck with half a table. If anyone could share half table displays that look appealing. that would be great!

Stickers never sold and buttons rarely moved but that could be because of lack of variety in subjects.

Any feedback on what I can improve on would be awesome. I don't want to be stuck in amateur zone.

[Anonymous No.9517203]

>>9517201
Whoops, better file here.

[Anonymous No.9517212]

>>9517130
I'm from Spain,and since cons here are usually small(only big ones in Barcelona, Madrid and Seville,not exactly close to where I am) and most of the time don't even have AA,there isn't much of a market directed towards AAers

[Anonymous No.9517215]

>>9517201

You got an online store ? I really like your teabag charms !

[Anonymous No.9517233]

>>9517201
I think expanding the series you draw will help you a lot. There's so much competition for pokemon related merch that having all of your booth centered around it can be difficult. Your top left print looks pretty nice for composition, I'd just suggest upping the contrast a bit so things don't blend together so much.

Do you have a picture of your table display? Anons might be able to give you specific advice. I also really want to work on making my booth cuter/friendlier looking possibly with a theme. I table split too, but I'm friends with my tablemate so we try to work together to get a nice table design. I'm not sure what your splitting situation is like.

[Anonymous No.9517253]

>>9516875
Oh jeeze, m8. Thank you.

[Anonymous No.9517254]

>>9517215
Thank you! My store can be found here

http://www.storenvy.com/SkizzeArt

>>9517233
Thank you for the feedback!

I table with different people each con but my main issue is space. I want to introduce more print varieties and will need space on the table to hold both commission examples and print options in smaller sizes along with all the other things I have. I'll try to fish for a picture of my setup but basically the main theme is pretty simple, blacks blues purples and silver with clear displays.

I saw a table separate their sides with a grid cube side and thought that may be a good idea.

My next con is Otakon so I'll need more originals to balance the fanart. When it comes to fanart I only really enjoy making something from a series I enjoyed and played as oppose to what is popular. Some ideas I have in store

Originals
Witches
Lolita
More tea bags!
Gaming
Hedgehogs
Nautical/Maritime

Fanart
BNHA
Trigun
Sonic
Crash
Spyro
Zelda (BOTW) specifically)
Maplestory

[Anonymous No.9517264]

>>9517254
I definitely agree you shouldn't do prints from stuff that's popular if you're not into the series too. Your fanart list sounds pretty good as long as your compositions and colors are interesting. Most of the games you picked are old fan favorites so they might sell well still. I've also never seen a spyro, crash, or maplestory print before so that'd be interesting.

Maybe look into a photo backdrop stand for prints and keep a few grids on your side of the table for commission examples. Some people also just make commission signs and then have an open portfolio book of examples (they sell book easels too so it wouldn't have to be flat on the table).

[Anonymous No.9517265]

>>9517194
>If you sell as an artist, there's a limit to how much you can charge for an item
As in, a limit to how much people are willing to pay, or as in the convention actually sets you a limit? Might just go for a young creators booth next year, my store's been doing better and better recently.
Same here with the cheapness. Most good artists charge 10 bucks for a print but we definitely can't go higher.
Have you done Japan Expo, or any other EU cons yourself?

[Anonymous No.9517270]

>>9516534
i also like the shoe. is it sonic's?

[Anonymous No.9517272]

>>9517254
Different anon, but just wanted to let you know I think your art is really creative and amazing. Especially the Pokemon prints. You do great work!

[Anonymous No.9517279]

>>9517265
The limit is about the price. I can't remember what it was, but let's say you couldn't sell an item for more than 15 euros. The con would send people to check from time to time, so people had to do all kinds of workarounds. Apparently you could end up getting banned if you were caught selling over the limit (Yay for greedy organizers !)

I'm not doing AA myself, but I always spend a fair bit of time there and I have a few friends who table at JE every year, so I've learned stuff by hanging at their booth and chatting with them. It's all secondhand knowledge of course, and I'm sure you can find some artists that will be more qualified than me to help you.

Also don't worry about the retarded big water bottles ban, everyone I know in the AA smuggled some inside their boxes/luggage last year. No need risking a heatstroke for a dumb policy like this

[Anonymous No.9517285]

>>9517203
Nice! I can see why those teabag charms sold well! They're very cute.

[Anonymous No.9517299]

Someone paid money for these...

[Anonymous No.9517314]

tfw all your friends make it into AWA but you don't.

Its not a great con, but it is profitable. Last year I was wait listed, but got in later.

[Anonymous No.9517320]

>>9517299
Eh I've seen worse. It's not too bad, just could use more contrast and polishing. They also got their facial features down pretty well.

[Anonymous No.9517357]

>>9515970
>eventually, AAs and Dealer rooms will be the same thing
Pretty much. It's sort of weird, but it almost feels TOO polished. Like, everyone uses the same manufacturers, printers, and styles so it just seems like a normal product. I'm not feeling the "craft" anymore.

[Anonymous No.9517370]

>>9516899
Oh hello! I hope you made good sales at the con...no one was really buying lmao. But it was a fun experience neverthe less! What were you selling??? I did go to the other side to buy some cute prints i saw!!!
Also thank you! I had some bags that I purchases online, but these look better quality and cheaper!

[Anonymous No.9517421]

Huh, I was looking through old threads and remembered whiteboard standees used to be a thing. Are those still a thing? I don't see them much around here.

[Anonymous No.9517433]

>>9517370
I had very low stock. My stickers sold well at least. I was splitting a table with another artist and had the one lone, OPM print.

[Anonymous No.9517435]

>>9517421
I think people moved on to clear acrylic standees. I have seen a couple new whiteboard standee designs floating around this con season, but not loads.

[Anonymous No.9517458]

>>9517433
Ohh okay I do rememver that table! The OPM print was one of the fist rising above others i believe?? Ah I sold prints and stickers here and thete but not too much, this con was worse than AX and a small college con I went to. But to be fair, there was not a lot of people only like 300ish;; im glad your stickers sold though!

[Anonymous No.9517460]

>>9516611
>almost direct copies of famous artworks with anime characters in them

I can see WHY you wouldn't like them, but really, why?

[Anonymous No.9517486]

>>9517320
I feel like we must be looking at different pictures because those facial features are all types of fucked up

[Anonymous No.9517494]

>>9517435
It was such a nice idea, I love it when people get creative with merch like that. Drawing chibis for charms is only interesting so many times.
Are there any interesting recent trends like that? Not talking about pins, just... interesting ways to use current products, I guess.

[Anonymous No.9517507]

>>9517460
>I can see WHY you wouldn't like them, but really, why?

If you can see why then why are you asking....

They're boring and everyone does it and the result doesn't usually hold up past being a parody of the original. When people see it they're not saying "wow what a nice art" they're saying "hey it's that famous painting but with anime". It's cheap and uncreative and boring to see.

The thing you posted is the same thing. The copy lost half of the qualities of the original that made it good. The colors are oversaturated and the focal points are gone. The rendering is typical digital painting. Look at the thumbnail and how the motion of her arm and the light on her body make her central and ethereal. The red cape pops the knight and draws your eye up his body second, making him a secondary focus. It's gone in the reproduction. Link is the focus, Zelda falls into the background, and it's not balanced or masterful. It steals the reference to make sales and doesn't learn anything from it.

[Anonymous No.9517527]

As an art history nerd myself, I love seeing modern takes on these old works. Not all of them are good, but please don't shit on the concept as a whole.

[Anonymous No.9517530]

>>9517460
I can see what >>9517507 means, but I think that picture is really cool. If it was something like the mona lisa or last supper, yea, waaaaay over done.

There is parodying and paying tribute to, and I think the latter is what this image does and is much better taste.

Great, now I want to see more.

[Anonymous No.9517532]

>>9516727
Lazy lgbt+ merch is the worst especially if a fandom is crossed with it. I saw someone selling buttons of the voltron characters with pride flags behind them and I thought it was so tacky. It's a shame because I'd love nicely designed lgbt+ merch but no one ever makes it, just a lot of the same ugly bullshit to make a quick buck off tumblr fan girls.

>>9517460 >>9517507
This. The redraw is so saturated. The artist could have easily done a similar piece in their own composition but decided to copy something.
Personally, it is just not interesting or unique. It's on the same level of people selling screenshot redraws. Like another anon said, The Kiss and Mucha are the worst offenders for this but others aren't much better.

[Anonymous No.9517544]

>>9517270

I decided to keep going after you two anons liked the shoe. It gave me encouragement and hope.

Good guess! It's Game Boss Veigar from LoL. And now to take a break, I've been painting gold (poorly) for the past 4 hours and then tonight I hope to tonight Lulu who's sitting on the other side having tea with him. Why yes, I did post a sketch of this print like...2 years ago. Why yes, I am only getting to it now.

[Anonymous No.9517547]

>>9517460
Not the OP for this but these drive me nuts too. My reasoning is I feel they're lazy at the core of it. The nice ones take a lot of technical skill, yes, but all your colours, compositions, and ideas are already done for you. It's like paint-by-numbers with a bit of copy/paste on top.

[Anonymous No.9517555]

>>9517460
>>9517527

[Anonymous No.9517573]

>>9517555
Such cool designs in some of those. People just need to trust their own creativity and make original stuff God fucking dammit. Ha.

>>9517544
That's adorable.

>>9517460
Mmm I see what you mean.

[Anonymous No.9517607]

To everybody saying the 1 artist at Akon severely underpricing couldn't have possibly made that much of a difference, just look at this douche in the Texas thread, regarding why artists did poorly:

>>9517011
>Because they overcharge to shit. The AA was completely packed every time we went back there, so it wasn't location. Problem is people don't want to spend $20 on one art print. There were a handful of booths selling extremely high quality prints for $5-10 each and they had lines of people buying a ton of stuff. I bought about 8 prints and spent $5 each on them because I just can't justify spending $15-25 on a single print. Same with my friend. As much as I love buying stuff in the AA and supporting artists, they charge too much for prints and little trinkets.

See a bunch of replies in there about how all the other artists are overcharging by not having $5 poster prints.

One artist can make a big difference in justifying attitudes like this and making people feel like artists' art isn't worth shit and that it should just be as cheap as possible/not deserving of money.

[Anonymous No.9517623]

>>9517607
The 5 dollar lady shouldn't have been selling her fantastic work for so little, but generic tumblr artist #46,323 shouldn't be selling their stuff for 20 dollars. It's probably hurting them. They should improve before raising their prices. Other good artists most likely didn't have the same problem as them.

[Anonymous No.9517670]

>>9517623
Well that's a really good point right there. Hmmm do I want to spend 5$ for a really awesomely painted piece or 20$ for a hundredth Steven Unvierse print I saw.

Hmmmmmm.

[Anonymous No.9517676]

>>9517670
>Hmmmmmm
hmmmmmmm

[Anonymous No.9517679]

>>9517676
That's it. That's the icon I wanted.

[Anonymous No.9517703]

With all this pricing drama, I honestly think they should stop charging over $100/table and only accepts about 50 artists on a fair jury system (like that actually exists). It's the con runners people should be mad at. Not artists. Not $5 lady.

I understand needing money to pay for your guests and venue fees, but don't take it out of the people who help provide you with content for your con. Stop charging $300-$700 for tables space.

So many cons keep the same venue and the same guests year after year, but yet they keep upping the price of tables and badges while cramming more artists in. It's obviously the con runners wanting to make a buck more on their cons in their personal pockets, unless the guests really are demanding more payments to be there.

[Anonymous No.9517719]

>>9517703
>should stop charging over $100/table
tfw tables in my country are 200-350$

[Anonymous No.9517760]

Anyone who's done Otakon know how much and how exactly they enforce their 50% original art rule?

[Anonymous No.9517763]

I think it was absolutely ridiculous to have guests/autographs in the same space as artist alley at A-kon. Between being behind dealers and in front of autographs, people were either rushing through or tired of looking at shit.

[Anonymous No.9517775]

>>9517763
I found the traffic in the AA to be horrendous, especially on Saturday. I felt pressured to keep moving or else I'd cause a jam. The only time it felt okay to stop is if I wanted to buy something.

[Anonymous No.9517836]

>>9517775
My sales were actually better on Friday/Sunday because people had time to stop. Plus, the rows were so small and crowded! It was fucking awful.

[Anonymous No.9517838]

>>9517607
This is so disheartening. They think it's just buying pieces of paper and selling them. People are so shitty to artists.

It's not just this anon, but a bunch others who share the same sentiment. Sigh.

[Anonymous No.9517873]

Ok time for my tiny weird rant. I was tabling at AA, if you walked by 1150 and saw my shirtless Zelda guy characters, that was moi. So I had a SJW come up to me and very nicely she asked if I would ever draw a shirtless Link but with big scares on his chest. I thought she meant like battle damage, but she meant like to show he was a transgender?? So I couldn't help it, but my face must have reacted weirdly cause I was like...Umm....No. That's not my cup of tea (it really isn't. I'm one of those people that hate going into /y/ for some lovely dick man porn and then the threads are filled with trannies and it gets my jimmies ever so rustled). Anyway she got very, VERY mad and she started to like whisper scream at me? Like she kept her voice down so I bet nobody noticed. Or just saw a fan talking to the artist about normal stuff. But she said I'm part of the problem and it would be really nice to see more Transgender pieces and she would buy it, but she wont buy my straight cis male junk. Then she called me a borderline pedophile because she said Link's underage and I shouldn't be sexualizing him???? So at this point I pretty much just told her she could but my Sion print, and she can pretend that he has a big wet human vagina under his shark skin and that he's a million years old. I think she thought I was serious, I was saying it more in a "Ok, Fuck off please" manner, and she actually thought about it but then left.

I think she may have gone to other artists to ask the same question because I saw her go to a few more booths, talk to the person behind the table, stay there a little bit, and then move on.

Like...I really hate the age we live in. It's awesome in a lot of ways, but it's also at such a low point that I'm literally in some stupid argument every day either with friends IRL, on facebook or just random strangers at cafes and now cons. Ugh.

Ok, that was my rant. I just few back to NY from Akon and I'm super tired. Goodnight.

[Anonymous No.9517885]

>>9517555
Is this ic/'s post-death heaven or hell?

>>9517873
Anon if you're having fights every ten minutes, maybe the problem is you, either your opinions or your level of engagement with randos

[Anonymous No.9517894]

>>9517873
It couldn't kill you to maintain a customer service face and just say "No I'm sorry" instead of being openly transphobic?

It's not everyone's cup of tea but there's no reason you couldn't have been polite about it.

[Anonymous No.9517907]

>>9517885

No, I meant that it in a "everything in the world is now bad" type of arguments. Not that *I* myself put myself into situations or where the attention is directed at me alone. I meant more in the fact like every day I can't go to a coffee shop to doddle without having some insane person start yelling at the workers and go off into racial slurs because they didn't get enough whip cream in their latte. Just little stuff like that, but its like every day now.

>>9517894
Man I tried. I was nice for the first ten minutes, but after a while I just realized she's not going to stop lecturing me about something I'm not at fault for. Like I said, at first I thought she was talking about battle damage, so we had a nice chat about that, but when she went into her rant I told her I don't do that type of art. THEN she started the weird scream whispering. That's when I said well, get Sion.

Am I really the one at fault here? Fuck maybe I am the problem and I need to start having prints of things I don't like to make just so people like that can't find a reason to call me transphobic. Which I'm not...I just don't like drawing it, so I won't.

[Anonymous No.9517923]

>>9517873
In spite of the significant amount of doubt I have for this interaction I can offer this catch-all phrase that always works for me: "I can't do anything about it now but I'll take it into consideration." There. Now you know how to be a decent vendor and let annoying customers disengage from bitch mode.

[Anonymous No.9517935]

>>9517873

Anon you have to play the card where you agree or disagree with whatever the person with the money says. At the end of the day, you'll never see them again and you'll have their money.

No need to play your own devil's advocate. You should have sweet talked her into getting another print, OR you know what I would have done? I would have taken that shirtless Link print, took out some of my copic makers and added in some lines just for her. You could have given it to her with a wink and she would have given you her money. Boom Bam. Don't worry kiddo, you'll get your chance at the next rodeo.

[Anonymous No.9518054]

>>9517873
What >>9517935 said. I don't have the slightest interest in yaoi, nor does my booth give off that impression, but when a customer comes up looking for McHanzo art, you bet your ass I'm redirecting them to my individual hanzo and mccree charms and telling them what a great dynamic the two have. If they ask if I ship it I say "Personally no, but I respect how great their characters compliment each other!"

Maybe you don't personally like what your customer wants, but they have the cash in their pockets, and it doesn't hurt to cater to them just a little. At the end of the day you're a salesman after all, a little sweettalking even if the customer is weird is part of the job.

[Corky-Lunn !CorkyloMxc No.9518061]

new thread: >>9518060

[Anonymous No.9518303]

>>9517555
I never understood the appeal of the original painting, wasn't it famous for trying to evade pornography laws at the time?

[Anonymous No.9519322]

>>9517623
Quality and perception of value are what are important here. Nobody needs art to sustain the needs of life. It's a luxury item. It's not food, shelter, transportation, or any other particularly immediately practical material.

>>9517607
The explanation is so that the rest of the customer's money can be used towards other goods & services. That way, people who attend the convention don't run out of money/can get all of the things that they want to get. If you're not appealing to them, consider your audience and what niche you're targeting and what products you're pushing. They may not have wanted your things, regardless.

[Anonymous No.9519329]

>>9516197
We'll fix it soon, and also, no, she did not single-handedly ruin A-Kon for the artists in her row. One account of another artist in our row said that it was preferable to be nearby, as the crowd that was flocking to our table was then able to pick up a $15 print from their table (since they'd saved money from our booth).

She mentioned it a lot, & you were not the first person to approach us about this. It's as a phenomenon that she's referring to not having tabled in 7 years, because it's true; this is the first year that she has tabled since she was a regular @AWA. She's talking about it from an annual perspective.

If you warn "Do not buy that she will change the prices next time because words are cheap and only actions matter," what is it that you hope to accomplish with your words? For the record, you do not have the power to demand someone to change their prices. I'm really glad that >>9515013 showed up and shoo'ed you guys away on the 3rd day. I equate it to Mean Girls in my mind as far as your action/supposed "very very firm"ness. We talked with con staff and were informed that if anyone was giving us trouble, we could rely on them to stop what was essentially continued verbal harassment.

Meeting you the first time was ok. The second time, I was getting irritated because you're being condescending and entitled. After that I didn't care anymore, but I do still hope that everyone's able to do well. & if not, then they can recognize how they can do better in capitalism & their skillset.

Holy shit, I'm so tired of reading shit about my partner. Y'all are tiring to read. She's really nice & if you took the time to think about retail markup + how much time someone puts into their own craft, the fact that digital cheap shit means that there's also a lot of "shit shit" instead of "good shit" (people don't search for good printers/insource w/ their own materials/understand how to be unique), then it'd be easier to accept how to improve moving forward.

[Anonymous No.9522636]

Yeah. Smelly smelly sounds like a piece of shit. She knew what she was doing. the excuse that she hadn't had a table in 7 years is bs. Cons over 10 years ago still had prices higher than than. She's one of the reasons people fuck over artists that do commissions. She's not the problem, but part of it.