Well... Holy shit. What an adventure. I picked up my shirts on Tuesday, the 3rd. Decided that I will not return to Aladdin for any more work. Which means I have to find another printer for t's, which is awesome beause I might be able to work out a better deal or have more work printed for the same price. Anyways, I didn't like the interaction from Troy as a new customer. He was extremely rude to me and the things that stuck out to me the most is that, yes, you've been printing in Tucson for many years, and sure, you have a lot of artists asking for you to do their work, but I'm new, I don't do the printing stuff, I don't know how things work, which is why I fucking asked you and told you when we first started talking, that I needed guidance and help in this situation. =)
Anyways. It was cool.
Thursday - We set up our booth with minimal cost. Learning a lot about how things work with the cons. I guess, from what I heard, people with big booths need that time to set up for Friday, and even then they were complaining that Friday was even a thing because it's a preview day. They didn't want to be there. So it felt like a waste of time to them. I just laughed. It was cool to set up and see what was missing or find things to improve the presentation. We set up two wire racks with our work hanging from it behind us and had all kinds of stuff on the table for show.
Thursday night I was up all night hand inking stuff for people to buy. I was worried that I didn't draw enough stuff.
Friday - We got there late because of poor planning, but it was in the air. Everyone was late, or just messing around. I guess because it was just a preview day. I took it pretty serious though. I didn't want to miss a chance to meet someone or sell something. We ended up just getting to know the people around us. No one was really interested in buying anything we had.
I was told by several people that I was the only artist with anything related to Rick & Morty and Undertale which was a really cool vein to tap into. Lot's of people dropping by and seeing our stuff but no real sales. Which is fine. I was like, shit... We should figure something out to get people to the table. I decided to start doing $1 sketches for people. Which ended up being pretty fun and successful for the booth over the next few days.
Saturday - It was a total madhouse. everyone was there. So much awesome cosplay, so many awesome comic enthusiasts, but no real gamers. Which kind of hurt our market since our art is mostly video game related. I drew stuff I didn't think I ever would. Comic Book characters, peoples own created creatures and characters, mythological gods. It was awesome. I was supported by people I know and love, and by people who I didn't know but discovered me through the con. It was a long day but it blazed by. Drawing for people was one of the coolest things I've ever done. It was cool to see people enthusiastic about me and what I thought was the lack of talent I had.
Sunday - Much more of the same stuff happened, I just drew for people and caught up with a lot of friends. I think the biggest highlight was that some one was super interested in my shirt design and got it. It was flattering, rewarding and exciting. I was just so happy to sell something I created to someone I didn't know who shared the same level of enthusiasm and joy over a game. I need more of that in my life. It was just too cool.
The con ended and we packed up with our boxes of stuff and left tired. But it was so worth it.
I learned so much about myself as an artist and as a person.
It was extremely rewarding. I basically made enough money to cover the cost of the booth so I got to do that for free. Which was even more awesome.
I took notes on what people had as far as prints and drawings went, so that the next con I could have more art and stuff that people will want. I'm excited to go on this adventure again and hope to have another booth at the next con.
No comments:
Post a Comment