Artist Alley General: My Little Dramu edition

A-Kon artist, post what you got! I'm going to stop by every single one of your tables. Got my sneakers ready and everything.

>tfw cleaning out house
>dad accidentally throws away all of my print paper

>>9487298
>accidentally

>i'd buy more your stuff if it had a woman in it

i should probably care about this more than i do, but also i feel this guy missed the memo that i am incredibly gay. if he wants me to draw a woman he can fucking pay me or go to the numerous sakimichan clones.

>sage for faggoty bitching

>>9486818
Probably 1280px width, since that's the largest the site will display. But any multiple of 540px should be ok.

Is your image really tall though? Tumblr never works with those, so the only workaround is to separate the image into multiple shorter ones.

A customer bought something from my online store but is asking me to mark the package down and say it's a gift. Am I a shitty person for not wanting to do this? I don't want them to get hit with customs but I also don't want to do something illegal.

>>9487380
I personally wouldn't mind, but it's up to you to decide what you're wiling to do.

>>9487335
Companies pay for market research like this, so I always appreciate customers letting me know what they want.

>>9487393
oh, i like feedback, but i guess you could say my "schtick" is that i fill a gap in the aa by drawing gay shit that's not waif fujobait. and i have merch of women but it's a minority.

the guy was just an ass.

>>9487393
don't even joke around saying that, some people will take it seriously and think it means they can trash talk all the artists.

>>9487380
>Am I a shitty person for not wanting to do this?
Nope. Let them know that you're not comfortable doing this and offer them the option of either having the actual value marked or getting a refund. I don't sell to Europeans because they can't wrap their heads around the concept of people not wanting to break the law for them.

>>9487432
Being european is suffering. Half the people won't even ship to us because the prices are high even if you want to pay them.

That and even if you properly follow the law you get fucked in the ass with custom fees.
Don't get me wrong I wouldn't expect anyone to mark down, but I've never heard of any follow up for doing so and if someone gets their ass kicked for it, it'll be the buyer not the seller.

>>9487451
>it'll be the buyer not the seller.

uh, no.

>>9487346
thanks anon!

it was taller than it was wide, which i thought tumblr liked? i'll keep that in mind for future reference

>>9487467
Yeah, pics that are somewhat taller than wide (e.g. a typical 11x17 inch print) are usually ok. If those are blurry, then the problem is probably the image being slightly off from the 540px multiple, like 1300px instead of 1280, so it resizes poorly.

The "too tall" issue comes into play for stuff like long webcomics. I'm not sure about the exact aspect ratio, but maybe around 1:3 and higher.

Anyone going to Anime north? I'm in dealers this time and wonder how that compares to normal comic market.

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>>9487432
Break the law, that's hilarious because the only people who ever get in trouble are the europeans themselves. Trust me, we know what we are getting into when we buy from you guys. It's always on our skin not yours so don't act so uppity. Everyone I know here has gotten fucked by customs at least once, but never ever EVER have I seen a seller get in trouble for something the buyer asked. We all know it is on us so stop playing the victim here. Like you would get in jail for selling a charm overseas lol

>>9487753
It doesn't matter if the seller gets caught or not. If they're not comfortable doing something, they don't have to do shit for your rude ass. There are enough buyers from the US to not have to deal with you guys anyway.

>>9487762
wasn't saying you didn't have to mark it as gift if you didn't want to. also marking it as gift really does nothing anyway, its the price lowering that may avoid customs, but it in 70% of the times where i am from it doesn't. imagine having your shit stopped randomly for months. sounds fun. but ofc a privileged american wouldn't even care to understand this and prefer to catter to their own kin.

To the print artists; would you do bigger prints if I asked? How much more would you charge? I like really big prints but artists almost never have them at cons and many times not even online. Something like 18x24 inches or more.
I'm not a print artist so idk if it costs way more to order just a few larger prints of if a 30% larger print only costs 30% more.

>>9487776
Just buy from someone else if it's too expensive, jfc.

>>9487792

The reason many people don't carry those is because it's hard to transport and those sizes are usually wide format which means more expensive to print.

Usually if someone asks me for a bigger size I will charge them more for it.

>>9487753
it actually is on the seller. they can be fined for lowering the price on customs forms

also stop whining about customs as if you're the only place on earth that deals with it. i'm in canada, and our limit before customs is 20cad which is about 13eur

>>9487747
I've never sold in the Dealers but a couple of my friends have. Make sure to have a flashy display because you're going to get dwarfed by all the store booths with all their merch. But sales wise my friends prefer it because they don't have to worry about the CM vs CC split so they can take all their merch with them.

>>9487776
I sell through etsy and I don't think it's even possible for me to mark down packages and send them as "gift". Does this make me a privileged American.

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Hey all, first time posting here, and just wanted to say I've learned a lot from the AA threads (as aggressive as it can be here lol).

Got my first batch of Vograce charms recently, and I'd definitely recommend the clear glitter epoxy charms--they're a lot sturdier than I expected, more so than most other charms I've bought in the past 5 years or so of con-going. Sorry for the shitty phone pic, but you can see it's pretty thick. I've kept two on my bag so far and they've picked up a few small scratches that I can rub off fairly easily, though that'll probably ramp up in the future. I don't think the designs themselves are gonna chip anytime soon though, since they're basically protected on all sides right now like with the double-board ones. The glitter itself isn't too shiny, it's more of a subtle few shiny flecks in the light which I think has a broader appeal (and that I like more myself lol).

On that note though, what's the general call on combo deals with differently priced individual items? I have some 1.5" double-sided charms left that I've been selling at $8 each and $15 for two. These new keychains are way bigger at 2.5", but they're single-sided and sorta less detailed so I'm planning on selling them for $10... Wanted to do $18 for two but my friend pointed out that that sounds less appealing than $15 for two, even though it was only a $1 difference for the smaller charms (nicer numbers I guess). How weird would it be to let buyers mix between the $8 charms and $10 keychains..?

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to get some second opinions and contribute after lurking for a bit lol. I haven't seen many reviews of Vograce's glitter charms yet, though I may have missed something since I haven't been on here very long.

Also, shoutout to Vicky who put up with the fact that I was a dumbass who didn't understand what transparency meant here and basically reprocessed my entire order after I sent over the wrong designs at first.

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Anyone in here only make original artwork?
I do and it does pretty decent. But I cant help but feel from time to time wanting to make fan art for that quick buck. How do I deal with/suppress these feelings. Not that I have anything against people who do fanart, its just for my overall brand image I want to stay away from it and focus on original stuff.

>>9488038
Even Sakizou does fan art. Don't act so high and mighty.

>>9488053
If I was a print artist Id probably have no problem with it but I mainly like to make manufactured merch. And its this weird feeling like, is it OK to do this or is this borderline bootleg shit.

Its honestly just this weird standard I have for myself and literally 0 other people because I will buy fan made merch from others and have no problem with others making it. (well except maybe the times indie creators say dont do that and then AA people do it anyways, thats kind of not cool)

>>9488038
in this day and age having fanart does not really impact your 'status' as an artist whatsoever, unless you are doing fine art

>>9488059
What do you make? We can't help you come up with fanart ideas that aren't bootleg-y if we don't even know what you make.

>>9488059
I know this feeling. I have a handful of manufactured products, and they all feature original art - which I would eventually like to be the focus of my brand. At the moment, I still produce fanart prints and small handmade fanart items (stickers and badges mostly) and the sales for those dwarf my originals so it's hard to let them go.

https://twitter.com/hawberries_/status/866535140498956288

just spotted on my TL, this artist just wrote an AA guide

>>9488217
interesting and refreshing to see someone be blunt about their earnings and prices

>>9488217
wow they did not waste any lines they could putting links in for their shop or work. now that is smart publicity. also that part about "don't make stuff only because it sells" but also "do less detail and more design shapes because it is easier to sell", hmmm okay there i get when you're coming from but yeah. still a good read though.

>>9488254
theres a big difference between focusing on having good design sense over rendering tiny spots for hours and making soulless fanart of shit you've never even watched/played for a quick nerd dollar

>>9488254
I definitely regret pretty much everything I have ever done that I spent a lot of time working on rendering because in my experience those extra hours don't result in extra sales, and I could've spent that same amount of time finishing more pieces that aren't as rendered/polished. It's still a struggle to try to force myself into a more graphic style, though; I think it comes more naturally for some people.

>>9488254
They were saying "don't make stuff only because it sells" about choosing what series to draw, not anything to do about your print design. They're still completely right about both points.

>>9488053
I really want to know who this salty anon is that gets all salty whenever original art/prints is brought up. What happened? Who hurt you?

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Could I request table setups using a photography stand? I just bought one and would like some inspiration, haha.

I'm about to get into selling some prints. A couple of my pieces I like the background work I did, but I want to update/change the character(s) in the drawings for the prints.
Is that ok to do? Or would it be considered lazy, especially if the original is floating around online.

>>9488370
I've not had the same experience at all. My well-rendered semi realistic pieces do loads better than any of my more anime style stuff. Only one of my anime-style prints competes with my rendered style, and that's because it's Overwatch.

If we're working off of the link that was posted, their example of a "well rendered" piece is pretty mediocre. Not to slam them, I think they do good work, but it's just being honest- The rendering works against the piece rather than with it. Anyone who is actually proficient in rendering will do well- Hence, why people who have entire booths of single characters rendered in dynamic poses turn over pretty good profits.

Of course, I suppose the advice is pretty good for beginner artists, which would be the majority of people reading the guide. But I definitely don't think it's a universal truth since I can't say it has any bearing at all to me and some of my friends, my rendered pieces do so well that I'm slowly transitioning out all my anime prints for rendered replacements. (+Also has the bonus of selling well at comic cons, where my anime prints don't move.)

It's good they put a guide out though. I support them.

>>9488890
>Harvest moon print
Any idea who this artist is? I can't recognize the style but I want that print.

>>9489039
It says their name on the sign, anon - Jojostory

>>9489039
Jojostory

>>9489061
>>9489063
Doh, my bad. I was looking all over the table to try to squint and read their business card when their name was right there. Thanks!

>>9488217
honestly this made me feel so much better about how my sales have been. I've only tabled twice and the most I was able to make was about $400, coming to these threads and seeing people throw out numbers like 1k-3k+ made me feel so discouraged. Thanks for sharing anon!

>>9489087
Don't feel bad anon. A lot of people don't make much money the first few times they table. People who throw numbers out here of 2k+ the first time they tabled are the exception, and you only notice because people are fine throwing out "high" numbers but get self conscious throwing out low numbers. I'd say the more common earnings for most people's first convention lies between $100-700.

Not only that, but it's getting harder for people to make that kind of profit when they get into the con scene as paper good are becoming less and less popular. Charms and other physical merchandise require a lot of investment, which many new AA tablers don't have. So I can see the climb to higher profits being much slower for newcomers.

>>9489087
Yeah, same. The most I've ever made was $450....I'm rly curious though, if anons aren't lying about making thousands, what is it that you sell that gets you that much? I doubt any of you would post your art....but I'd love to know how good you have to be to make that kind of money.

>>9489122
No offense but does your art suck? I've never made under $1000. I actually love going to cons as an attendee, so I wouldn't do AAs if I was making any less than that.

>>9489122
Nobody is lying about making thousands. Making over a thousand is common at larger conventions, here's a survey (done by the wonderful Kiriska every year) that records people's AA profits. You have to pay to get the shiny charts, but you can scroll down and see the raw data instead:
http://kiriska.com/blog/2017/04/2016-artist-alley-survey-results/

The key is... Well, being good. Being good, knowing our markets, having diverse merchandise, and being active behind our tables. But mostly being good at art.

>>9489087
>>9489122
The people making thousands are people like me who have been doing AA for years. I didn't believe people were actually making $3k+ until I did it. My very first con I only made like $400. I didn't make over $1,000 until like my 5th convention. I didn't make $3,000 until my 13th convention.

It also entirely depends on the con too. I made $3,000 at a con in January. The next month I went to a con and didn't even break even, making less than $400.

I'm a craft artist selling animal ears and tails.

>>9489148
>I'm a craft artist selling animal ears and tails.

And I am a giant weeaboo who loves supporting fellow seagulls. You got an Etsy?

>>9489166
PokuPoku Studio

>>9489148
When people talk about stagnating at $400 or making $400 on their first convention, I wish they'd add whether the convention was big or not. It makes a huge difference to make $400 at a convention where there are over 15,000 congoers vs 500.

I only made ~$150 at my first convention, but it was really small and local. Just did two more small local ones and made $400-500 each which sounds decent (to me) for 300-500 attendance and splitting the table.

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Hello, I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to design rubber straps from Vograce? I understanding ordering from them and I'd like to get a very limited run of straps made, but I was wondering if any gulls had some it themselves.

Is file set up similar to acrylic charms? Sorry if this is more a question to ask Vograce themselves.

>>9489196
*Done it themselves.

>>9489087
>>9489122

I'm someone considered mediocre and this will be my fourth summer doing AA. I usually only do 1-2 cons a year and consistently make about $1500 profit per con. Total sales can be upwards of $2500 but I've had some cons where my expenses were rather high leading to less profit. I've been making the same profit since I started even though my art has gotten better. I'm in a marketable niche, but it's still a niche and I knowingly put myself in that corner.

On some levels I'm frustrated not making as much profit, but I'm trying to keep expenses down (or at least use my online shop to fund my expenses instead of having to shell out upfront) and work on better art. But an extra $3k ish a year still helps out and basically pays for my vacations and I'm 100% drawing what I like so I can't complain too much.

>>9488038
If you're going to do any fan art, make it of something you actually enjoy. I rarely draw fan art and don't really consider making things to sell unless it's a series I REALLY love. If you don't like drawing fan art then don't, especially if your original work already sells well

>>9489122
>>9489187


My very first convention was AX and I was woefully unprepared and shared a table with two other artists. We barely broke even on costs and tables and made about $10 each.

I added a lot of smaller prints and made about $400 profit at my second con which was ALA back when it was still at the Marriott.

It's not uncommon to not make a lot when you first start out. From there I went onto make $1~$2k per con until I hit $3~5k regularly. I plateaued one year (2013-ish I think?) where I only made $1.5k at AX when I had made $5k the year before. I realized that I had gotten complacent and kicked my ass into gear and started cranking out new merchandise and prints. My sales had been declining/plateauing for about a year and that AX was the wake up call I needed. I think it's one thing a lot of artists fail to take into account - you need to be constantly updating your inventory and be willing to keep up with market trends if you want to be successful. Ever since I really started pushing myself to have at least 2-3 new pieces (whether they be charms or prints or whatever) at a new con, my sales have consistently gone up. Now I regularly pull in $5-8k at most cons I've gone to. And I hit a new sales record this year that I'm hoping I can match at AX.

Like the other anons said, it's a matter of having the experience and time to build up merchandise and know-how. I've been doing this for about 7 years now and if you told me back in 2011 that I could make as much as I do now, I wouldn't have believed it. I would consider myself a mid-tier artist because I lack a lot of technical skill re: shading and rendering but I stick to my strengths and really try to push the graphic design aspect which gets me a lot of customers. I'd probably label my work "cartoony" but it works for me. You don't have to render like sakimi-chan to make thousands at a con. I have friends who have simple, but strong styles that bring in thousands as well!

>>9489187
It was a smallish one day con. I did $800 at my first 3 day not tiny convention that had 2,000+ people.

Attendance is important, sure, but it doesn't mean too much. I made $1,200 at AWA with 20,000+ people. 6 months later I went to Annicon with ~1,000 people, one day convention, and made the same amount of money.

>>9489122
Prints, stickers and badges are where the money is at. I don't know any artist who makes their primary profit off charms/notebooks/boob pads/bodypillows/lanyards etc unless that's ALL (or the vast majority of their stock) they sell.

I make 3k-5k profit each time i table at a con with above 10k. I do sell alternate merchandise like listed above, but it's honestly more for my sake than for profit...I like having a variety of goods, but they maybe get me 300-400 profit per con because the profit margin is much smaller.

>>9489338
I'd argue on stickers and charms. Stickers sell well but go for low prices, so they don't total much profit. Maybe $200.
Each convention, charms alone compose about 1k of my profit. It's not the vast majority of my stock either, I just have one board with maybe 30 different charms on it. I think investing in charms is a good idea for any AA-goer.

However I can agree on notebooks, body pillows, boob pads, lanyards, and notebooks. They're more to have a variety than anything. Though having all of them together can provide a pretty good turnover.

>>9489357
This anon's right. Charm sales are pretty solid for me too. Stickers have such a small profit margin that most artists I know do them as a labor or love or to test out new designs before turning them into charms.

>>9488890

I wish these things weren't on trend right now honestly. I get how they're easier to set up, but their tripod feet are such a nightmare for other artists. Particularly if some dumbo decides to put it behind their chairs rather than up against the table. Kinda wish AAs would just ban that practice and police the spaces between tables more.

>>9489357
fair, I sell only 10-15 charm designs at any given convention and a folder of stickers, so i'm a little biased

>>9489459
How are your charm sales so low? I can never seem to bring enough with me. Do you mind sharing photos or describing them? They're very profitable and customers can't get enough of them,

>>9489210
What do you mostly sell? Prints?

>>9489463
10-15 designs, i sell out of the 15-20 copies per design I bring. Charms are also not nearly as popular as products here, i'm not american.

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She looks pretty tiny and pretty high, but I've always wanted to paint actual portraits features in games and shows(although I have to consider whether that is drawing a line or not, even by AA standards), and Xenogears is one of my favorites.

>>9489523
Fixed a little and drafted a Rose Quartz. I wanna paint them drills.

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>>9489570
Dammit.

Anyway, these are like 16x20 or something.

AX table placements are out? Where is everyone sitting?? Thank god im in the first block. Hope AC is on full blast this time.

>>9489712
Front block here too. Can anyone make sense of the map they gave out?

>>9489712
>>9489752
I'm either in the first block or the second block depending on which one is labeled correctly because my number is on both of them for some fucking reason.

>>9489891

Yeah the map they gave out is really unclear and vague. Seems so lazy since they also should've shown rows instead of one huge block.

If you're in the back that really sucks :/

Heard some veteran artists were given shitty spots at the back of AX aa. That sucks. Hope the final placements don't fuck the rest of us over though.

So how do you seal stickers? I bought some washi tape like sticker sheets but when you peel it from the surface the ink will come off. I printed it with a laser printer.

>>9489933
Well there's your problem, laser printers use toner which only sticks to the surface of the paper and can come off. You should use an inkjet printer when making stickers since that ink will actually sink into the paper. If you've already printed a shitload of stickers though, I used to seal my stickers with transparent contact paper.

>>9489712
I'm in the third block, but it's my first year so I'm not surprised. As long as there's not a giant pillar in front of me, I'm good.

>>9489490
Prints and charms. I've added other merch like zipper pouches and such recently though. When I did strictly prints, I could still pull in about 3-4k. I noticed an increase to 5-6k after I introduced charms.

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Planning to give this away free at Fanime. What do you guys think?

>>9489391
I bought one without tripod feet for this specific reason, haha. Are they a bother to other artists for any reason other than that? I don't want to be a nuisance.

>>9490356
Well if it's free, it's free isn't it? People will take anything that's free.

>>9490356
You could shit on a bag and someone would still take it if there was a "FREE" sign on it.

Have any of you ever tried selling embroidered patches or enamel pens? What would be the best website to look into for those?

>>9490747
pins* oops

>>9490376

Like I mentioned, as long as artists don't put them behind their chairs and block the walkway, I couldn't think of another reason they'd be annoying. The tripod feet are my particular hangup because I'm a giraffe and my feet go everywhere when I walk and almost always catch onto them even when I'm careful. Particularly because most are black and it's harder to see.

>>9490747
Yes. Alibaba, if you don't mind language barrier/experimenting with new suppliers. If you prefer having your hand held/fluent English - use one of the many U.S. based patch/pin places that you can just google. Don't go through Zap unless you're UK based. They take forever and give you terrible results. Keep in mind pretty much all Western enamel pin places are middlemen and you will be charged more but if you're the type that doesn't like direct communication, they'll take care of talking w/ the Chinese manufacturer for you. Embroidery is much, much easier to find and most of your local t-shirt shops will be able to do them cheaply.

Pin and patches are common enough normie items that you don't really need to look far. Just google a place and shop around for quotes. A ton of clubs/scout troops/government departments need to have them made so there are a ton of U.S.-based places.

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>>9489196
Ive never made them so I dont have much advice. I have image related saved on my computer though if its helpful at all (probably not lol)

So that acorn press thread on anni? Are they really that much of a cluster fuck right now?

so I have sold at two cons so far. AMW last year and ACEN this year, with AMW lined up again even though I know its rapecon now.

I sell ONLY hand made, one of a kind art pieces for honestly less than I should, and I would like to know what kind of price ranges you all think people would really spend on art at a con. I managed to sell a single piece for 75 this year but a table down the row had body pillows mass printed for around that too.

Is this really feasible enough? I do share table space with other artist friends who do traditional stuff, and we have all broken even each time, but I am just wondering how far I can push this. I honestly think I can push it farther.

Its really just something I am good at and enjoy. I get a lot of great comments and shit but both times the con started very slow for me.

>>9491060
short answer, yes I think its feasible. You may not make as much money as others, but you can still make it worth your while.

If most of your transactions are larger ones, then you dont have to worry as much about being slower then other artists. The large profits you get make up for it. My recommendation would be to make sure to offer smaller sizes and items that are cheaper then your high priced items so that people who like your work but cant afford something large may still purchase something small. A cool idea if you or a friend has a button machine would be to do OOAK buttons and maybe even button commissions at your table.

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>>9491071

Keep in mind I'm not considering this as a full time job or anything stupid like that. any profit is good profit if I enjoy it I guess. I was more curious about how far I can push the envelope on prices before I leave the credit limit on their daddy's cards behind.

Thats a good point, also. I have been working on a few smaller pieces for this purpose. I just naturally tend to go bigger.

I actually have access to a button machine, but the con rush made me completely forget it.

anything I make with a button maker or on paper wouldnt really match the style of the fine art, but I actually did make a cool 50 just selling "$1 bad memes" at a smaller con. literally just drawing random silly shit for a buck caught right on.

I guess I should have added some examples or something before I posted last time. They're like cut paper shadow box things. the biggest one sold for 75 and the cheapest was 45

>>9491081
I think your art could translate really well to print, actually, as long as you photographed it right. I'd buy your Charlotte as a print in a fucking heartbeat. I don't think it'd cut into your profits on the originals because the originals are in such a different ballpark. You'd have the advantage of being distinct from pretty much all the competition.

fffffffuck anon I want a print of that Charlotte

>>9491089
I actually had a couple people come back after she had sold looking for her or if I made more of them. I've been fighting with how to photograph them even just for reference for a while. They look way better in person.

I didnt consider selling prints though!

>>9491092
Yes! Sell prints of your favorite/most sought-after work! Those people coming back wanting her are dollars falling out of your pocket.
If you start with the ones that have already photographed well like Charlotte and that yellow guy, you'll probably make enough dough to rig up some better lighting for your other work.

>>9491092
Have you looked into building a lightbox? It might be your best option to create the optimum lighting setup.

>>9491081
Your work is absolutely ducking amazing. I agree with everyone else about prints. And you sell some of these for $75? Good lord anon please charge more. Depending on the piece and size I could easily see myself buying one the these for $200

>>9491081
Also link to social media plz

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>>9489572
I'll slow down on the spamming and get to posting more updates when something significant actually happens.

The take-out box in the corner is a painr palette. I promise I'm not that much of a cave monster.

>>9491307
canvas anon. Do you have a way I can contact you about buying a painting after you finish your cons? I desperately need a squid sisters and rose quartz in my home.

>>9491342
Sure thing! I'm currently Cargodin on Twitter, although I plan on making a proper Facebook/Tw/Instagram handle by AX. If you add me on Twitter for now though, feel free to message me and I'll add you back. I'll announce there when I make the proper handles.

>>9491410
can't message when we're not following each other, but I just followed you now and my username is similar to my trip.

>>9491108
That looks like what I'll have to do. I don't think the photos I have are substantial so I'll rebuild the ones I know are good and get print quality photos of them.
I'll probably get a photo friend to actually do them to assure quality.

>>9491124
I'm in the process of building a website, but I'm aberrant on Instagram, which is where I've been posting WIP and stuff

>>9491123
Are you serious? I was terrified of going home with them all so I kept my prices really basic but it felt bad because I knew they cost me more on time and stuff.

Ocktavia was 75 because she was like the width of my torso. I knew the Madoka ones would sell because Madoka.

Any suggestions on how to make my table not inviting to children? I can't stand kids and the least interaction I have with them the better.

>>9491666
Unfortunately you're going to attract kids as long as you sell merchandise that can appeal to them.

Otherwise, have displays that prevent them from being able to touch your merchandise.

>>9491666
i have borderline gore on my table and it still attracts kids
i don't think there's any way around it

>>9491666
Cons will always have kids. Why they don't have an after hours artist alley at some cons boggles my mind. Why can't some big cons close to the public at 5 or so and then open to 18+ at 9 or something? I wanna buy porn in peace.

>>9490911
Thank you so much anon! That's really helpful. I was going to look into Zap, but now I'm glad I didn't waste my time with them.

>>9491880
>>9491912
how are either of these things relevant

>>9491921
Because she's petitioning to only let asians be allowed to participate in artist alley

>>9491666
add bed risers to the feet, so the table top is 6-8" higher.

>>9491934
Who gives a fuck? When have petitions ever done shit? They're just a lolcow that will quickly fade back into obscurity in a couple weeks

>>9491939
not if anon can keep finding a way to bring her up lol

>>9491934
how did you get that out of her post

>>9491921
idk what >>9491912 meant but skimlines always tries to fight with artist alley coordinators and it really sours the relationship between future artist/coordinators. Bad apple fucking up the bucket sort of thing.

>>9492057
It's less that post and more previous ones she's made stating that she thinks anime cons should be preferential to Asians when selecting Artist Alley participants. That post actually doesn't seem bad, though.

>>9490933
This gives me a pretty good idea as to how to design them which was also something I was struggling with. Thanks so much!

Whats the best place to get a decent amount of generic bubble mailers? For mailing prints.

Can anons share some inspiration pictures of displays that have a lot of acrylic charm designs?

I'm table sharing so I can't take up as much space as I like so I'm trying to think of a better way to display my charms.

>>9491623
Yes. The Octavia I would gladly pay 200 for.
I also super love that Kirby one but I don't know how big he is.

>>9492131
depending on the size of your prints
dollar trees have them, big ones too
Meijer has packs of 3 for like $2?
Probably a UPS/Post office as well

>>9487753
Lying to customs is a federal offense if they catch you.

Come over here, I wanna see you try it.

>>9492131
ULINE

>>9492213
>hur durr

>>9492131
Ebay in bulk. You'll have to do some math to keep from overpaying uline prices.

>>9492213
>>9492216
not that Anon but what's wrong with Uline? Oh unless you're shatteredearth and boycotting them for their political views.

>>9492182
I need to get ones to fit 5x7 prints as well as 8x10

>>9492131
I kind of just googled what was in my area. I found a local place and got like 300 bubble polymailers for a good price and picked it up at their store front
>in canada so probably not relevant to where you live

>>9492254
What did Uline do?
If they're shitlords I will probably buy from them.

>>9492254
>>9492426
It's not even political views, their CEO thinks lunch breaks are fucking stupid and won't allow their employees to have them.

idk about you but if you don't see anything wrong in that you is part of a satan i dont wanna mess with

How can you tell if it's worth making things for a booth if you have no internet presence?

>>9492449
Signing up for twitter is free, anon. Start having an internet presence.

>>9491684
>gore
link me your shop pls

>>9492449
I'm somebody who has no internet presence or following despite my best attempts at posting constantly and with good tags/timing. In my experience, there's no way to know for sure if a certain product will be successful, honestly, since you have no way of getting feedback beforehand, but the best thing you can do is look at what other people are doing and make sure that you don't stray too far from that, or make something in minimal quantities/for minimal costs and go to a small, cheap, local con to test them out.

>>9492449
What a bunch of people say they like isn't always what they'll cough up money for either. There's no surefire way of knowing other than testing the market directly.

>>9492884
Seconding this. I've had tons of people swear they would buy a charm/sticker/button if I made it available, and they're almost always talking out their ass. You might get thousands of notes on something and have it not sell well anyway.

When you guys get tablecloths for your tables, what size do you guys get? I found some cute designs for 60 x 102", but that's pretty short isn't it? I'm guessing at least the front part of the table should be long/ covered up since there'll be stuff under the table, right? Sorry for the newb question, the last cons I went to provided tablecloths so I haven't really paid attention to this info.

>>9492898
I saw this in action often with a friend of mine back in the day. This is why I personally don't sweat the internet presence stuff and just make and sell regardless of what interest/ lack of interest online is. People's money is much more important to me than their words are, sales wise. Just order logically, be honest with your work and watch trends, and a good portion of the time you'll be fine.

>>9493043
I've been using big sized fabrics for table clothes, especially one of mine covers at least 6ft tables but not 8ft tables. To remedy the 8ft tables, I thankfully had two pieces of fabrics that covered opposite ends of the table where my 6ft one can't reach.

Sorry I have no dimensions, I just try to look up the tables commonly used around here and try to aim for the largest table size. I see it like:

(length of table + OPTIONAL height of table if you get a corner end table)
x
(width + height of table; height to cover the front of the table so no one has to see my suitcases underneath)

Using a piece of fabric, I can fold it into smaller sizes to accommodate half-table displays. This year will be my first year for a half-table actually, so I'll see how I do...

>>9491606
anon, please get a twitter! I would love to follow you there too!

>>9494319
I have a private one but I'll make an art one tonight then!

>>9494456
It's a good idea. I made an art one since I had other artist trying to add my private one.

>>9494456
Alright I'm @aberrant_art on Twitter now too

Speaking of twitter stuff how would you guys recommend using tagging/gaining followers on twitter? Instagram makes sense to me bc you can just tag a ton of things, but any strategies for getting off the ground on twitter?

>>9494875
You can tag things on twitter, too. I'd also suggest following other artists who post similar things to you and retweeting/liking their art and interacting with them through comments, and if they like your stuff in return, you'll probably get a bump through them.

Is Fleet Collection/Girls popular at US cons?

>>9496229
Who the fuck calls it that? Yes, KanColle is popular.

>>9496229
boatsluts are quite popular in the US

>>9496635
Oh man, this is just like when you follow a webcomic and it goes on a "short hiatus". Rest in piece, AP. You were good.

>>9496650
I doubt a profitable business that's clearly in demand is going to end up the same as a free online comic that the creator isn't interested in anymore.

Besides this isn't the first time they had to stop taking orders iirc.

>>9496701
Personally I skipped through the first parts of acornpress to get to the troll arc. Much better. Forget the intermissions.

I'm halfway through my first AA experience at a US con and it struck me. How do you convert your small bills into larger ones without it looking like suspicious funds? I'm worried I'll be misjudged.

>>9496777
underrated post

>>9496802
By not being a fucking autist? Do you think anyone cares that much about you and what you're doing? Because they don't.

>>9496929
On a related note, for those of you that make high 4 to 5 figures and fly to cons, have you ever got flak from tsa agents carrying large amounts of cash? It's not like I can drop it off at the bank over the weekend.

>>9496802
>>9496973
I've made the same joke about 5/6 times now at both airports and banks. All I say is, "I swear I'm not a stripper." It gets a laugh every time. No one asks about why I'm loaded. And if they do? Who cares. Just tell them you're a freelance artist.
They don't have the time to investigate or care.

>>9497018
That makes me feel better. I hear a lot of civil asset forfeiture horror stories and it makes me nervous.

>>9494875
Just follow other artists that you like/met thru artist alley or online and interact with them. Most artists RT their friends, which leads me to following them if I like their art & fandoms that they tend to draw. I won't follow someone who hasn't posted in the last week. Also when you are tabling at a con, change your screenname with an added @FANIME 420 or something like that, also post updates on your work using the con name so you show up on a basic twitter search. I tend to do a quick twitter search of a con before I go to get a preview of the artists that I might be interested in checking out (which is important for HUGE AA at cons).

Speaking of twitter, Design Festa also happened this weekend! #デサフェス or #designfesta for inspiration on booth layouts and designs

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>>9497062
>design festa
Yess lots of good inspo! Actually this was my first time hearing about it because I rarely used Twitter until this year. I only checked it out because of some anime artists but stayed for all the weird and wonderful stuff.
Pic by @2mikaduki

dunno if this is the right place to ask, but are vograce keychain prices always so ridiculous or did i just find a bad seller? I ordered 2 custom acrylic keychains and the shipping is 20 dollars and they're asking for payment before i even sent my designs.

>>9496802
try being a 21 year old male with long hair wearing cheap clothing going into the bank to deposit $1,000+ in cash regularly.
>>9497033
Same.

>>9497888
Vograce is the company, not a keychain type. WTF do you mean a bad seller? There's only one.

>>9497972
oh wow, i'm an idiot LOL

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WIP it

>>9497888
Yes, shipping is going to be 20+ dollars even if you just get a sample. And the less you order, the higher the unit price.

A-Kon artist map and list is out on the website.

Maps in general: http://a-kon.com/a-kon-info/maps/

Artist Alley map: http://a-kon.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/artists.pdf

Artist Assignment: http://a-kon.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/artist_assignments.pdf

You really can't tell that the arrangement was done based on the rating just from the map, which is good. Nothing is very obvious to customers here.

The location is good, too. Right between the dealers and the autograph area. There will be lots of traffic like in previous years. I hope they do the thing where they force people to cross through the artist alley to get to the dealers. That was always a good way to get people to look around.

I guess we were all worried for no reason.

Has anyone ever sold at AA at San Francisco Comic Con? What was your experience like?

>>9498291
The only thing I heard from last year was that sales were surprisingly good because the biggest guests bailed so no one had anything to do but wander around vendors hall/AA and buy stuff.

Any artists from Anime North in here?

Just curious to see what your sales were like this year and the overall experience of the con.
I was staffing this year so I have nothing to contribute.

>>9498550

I was in dealers and it sucks compare to CM. I made wayyyyyy more in CM last year.

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>>9498633
do you sell original art?
I had a friend in dealers room receive a letter saying they're sending all the artists back into the Comic Market/Crafters lottery next year because they consider it "bootlegging".

I hope this means all the bootleg dealers booth stuff is leaving too.

>>9498685
Knowing AN, probably not. I actually wouldn't mind Dealers being official art only, but is CM going to keep its print-only rule? One of the reasons people ran to dealers is because of how restrictive AN is.

>>9498206

>I guess we were all worried for no reason.

No? Placement was only half the concern. The main concern is that there are 300 artists (a huge jump from last year) creating a lot more competition. Yes, A-kon had some huge numbers last year but they're moving locations and the jump to 300 artists doesn't fully seem justified. Maybe the overall location of AA is good but are attendees really going to go through all 300 booths? Probably not.

I won't stop being worried until the con happens and I suddenly see if and how much I'm making.

>>9498694
>is CM going to keep its print-only rule?

Most likely. I miss the days where it was just one large artist alley.
I've always wondered why it ever split.

>>9498694
I'm on west coast Canada and their insane AA rules are honestly why I will never attend. Im so fucking confused as to which branch I fall under. It's really weird how segregated they made the whole thing.

>sorry I mentioned I'm west coast because I'm always looking for cons in Canada to travel to. AN seemed popular but jeez those convoluted alley rules really kill it for me

>>9498745

Suck a little less maybe? I don't know what to tell you. There's a lot of competition in all big cons. A-Kon's AA is finally matching the size of the con. Attendees are going to be walking around the AA a lot. Stand out. Make a cool booth set-up. Let your art do the advertising. Don't blame your mediocre sales on the size, though.

>>9498818
But anon`s whole point is that it doesn't matter how cool their setup is or how much their art stands out if attendees don't even make it to their table because of the huge size of the AA. Like with the entrance being on the bottom right, I wouldn't be surprised if all the artists in the top 4 or 5 rows on the left side see very little traffic bc attendees will burn out or buy out before they ever make it that far. Getting stuck in a shitty spot isn't an akon specific problem, though, just part of the gamble of any AA layout.

>>9498833
It's a room, not a vast and neverending open field. Also consider that most of A-Kon's attendees tend to be younger and new to cons. It's not like A-Kon brought in any amazing guests or anything, so there will be a lot of time spent wandering around the con. You'll be fine.

> Getting stuck in a shitty spot isn't an akon specific problem, though, just part of the gamble of any AA layout.
I agree with you there. It's just part of any con that's going to have more than 50 or so tables. Nothing A-Kon can do about that other than having a tiny AA for a giant con, which makes no sense.

I checked the doc and didn't see anything, how long is the turnover time for vograce? From first contact to receiving the final items? Sorry if it's written somewhere really obvious, I can't find anything about it.

>>9498913
ask them

>>9498913
> how long is the turnover time for vograce?

depends as this is busy season.
But last year I ordered last year and this was the timeline:

June 26th-28th: contact and discuss shipping, keychain type, quantity, etc. Sent files on 28th

June 29th: Vograce sent confirmation, mention unit price each, and jpeg of outer cuts of keychain shape/hole placement. Same day Vograce tells me total price with shipping. Asks to paypal money to random e-mail address and screenshot payment confirmation to start making order. Another e-mail confirming shipping address.

July 4th: e-mail saying items have been mailed with tracking number (I did DHL)

July 11th: keychains arrived

>>9498942
last year last year redundancy, please excuse as I think I'm coming down with con crud

>>9498942
That is a LOT faster than I was expecting! Thank you for the breakdown of it too, this was very helpful!

>>9498989
No problem.

Keep in mind I told them I needed them in hand a week before the con (in case there was 1 or 2 days delay I wouldn't panic) and they confirmed I could have them by then.

Maybe let them know when you need them by so you can sleep at night not worrying too much

>>9498913
Took around 1.5 weeks in between sending them the psd files and receiving the charms . It got here a bit late for Fanime just in time for A-kon.

>>9498685

I sell both fanart and original art. Was in a bad spot in dealers with towering displays from both vendors on each side :/ it was hard for people to find me.

The good thing is they guaranteed us a table in CM next year, but we pay dealer prices. It's a good deal since dealing with AN lottery is a headache every year.

>>9498818

I'm in the better half of the A-kon roster and I'm just pissed that they suddenly felt like they could reasonably have 300 artists just because they hit 30k. I've only ever tabled in-state so I don't know what the numerical size of other top 10 cons are but it seems like a really large jump, particularly considering the move. A-kon seems really certain they'll grow whereas I'm thinking we'll be lucky if they retain the same numbers. Yeah the A-kon crowd is younger, but can they even afford badges at this point?

I'm not saying there isn't still the potential to do well as an artist, but there are a lot more barriers now than there have been at A-kon before, coupled with the higher table costs. None of that can be swept under the rug with a "you have nothing to worry about."

Ok, so should I care about this? The person that pointed this out to me was upset and thought I should be mad, but idk?

So I sell costume animal tails in AA and what I do differently is add LED lights to them, its what people know me for, selling light up tails. So I went to AWA and noticed another artist selling a few tails. I think I talked to them? idk. Anyways, a few months later at momo-con someone pointed out that they were at this con selling light up tails and that they stole my idea.

Its obvious they stole my idea since they didn't start doing it until after went to the same convention, but I don't own the idea or whatever.

>>9499770
I wouldn't be upset. It's not like you can even copyright something like this. This is how trends start in the first place (not just in AAs but in fashion, tech, everything!). You're right to not be upset. Congratulations on being a rational individual.

Anyone have any experience with stickers?
I've been looking for nice, glossy sticker paper that I could just print my designs on at home but everything I seem to find feels cheap and looks even worse. Any recs?

>>9500159
Easy solution would be to buy sticker paper and add a laminate on top. Otherwise, look into vinyl based sticker sheets.

Anyone else notice a sharp decline in print sales recently? Prints used to be my main product but now they don't even make up 30% of my sales even though I have improved significantly and keep up with fandom stuff. I'm in the east coast if that helps and my prints are $15 buy 2 get 1 free.

>>9500570
I wanted to start doing artist alleys soon... and I only am able to do prints
am I fucked?

>>9500572
You can still do charms/enamel pins and buttons those are still relatively cheap to do and my best sellers now. But honestly at every con I've been to this year I've gotten the reaction of "these prints are so cute too bad I don't have any wallspace" and they buy a smaller item instead. I can't move prints the way I used to.

>>9500584
I have so many prints from years of buying them, I'm considering buying one of these binders for artist portfolios and putting them in it so I can easily leaf through it when I want to look at some art

>>9500570
Yes. It's weird. Prints used to pull me in about ~3k profit a con, but now they're averaging 500-1k for the past four cons I've gone to.

And it's strange, the change was almost overnight for me. I went from my best print selling con to my absolute worse, and they've been at the same low for the past four cons.

I know people keep saying that wall space is being filled, but AA's have been around for years, I find it strange that sales would tank so suddenly because EVERYONE'S wall space filled at the same time.

I want to make more educated analysis, and a bunch of things come to mind.
1. There is more diverse merchandise readily available recently. The shift to more material goods has been pretty sudden, and thus, buyers are more interested in the more creative merch than pieces of paper.
2. There has been no big "normie" series recently to pull in buyers and newcomers to anime conventions. A few years back was Attack on Titan. After that was One Punch Man, and more recently has been Overwatch (though it's not an anime, it definitely would pull people to conventions.) This year has not had a big "thing." Persona 5 and Nier are more recently big "things", but nothing as popular as the ones I listed before.
3. This is just a natural market shift that I haven't been around long enough to have good data on because I've only been doing anime cons for ~3 years, and prints will be on the rise again eventually.
4. Or everyone has just been having absolutely terrible luck at the same time for some reason.

One or two of my friends still have stable print sales, but overall from everyone I hear about more friends/AA artists print sales suffering rather than flourishing. Just my personal input from my own experiences.

>>9500638
I went to a con recently where some sellers had switched to Forex only. I hated it because they only had huge ones and this shit is way more difficult to store than a thin print.

>>9500638
I personally think it's a combo of 1. And 2. That and several cons I've been to this year did not have a rise in attendance and some had a decline. I think the people that do attend have been going for years therefore might actually not have wall space or be more interested in other merch bc they already own so many prints.

>>9500638
Personally I'd say it's 1 and 2 with a focus on 1. From a customer perspective I think prints are nice, but charms and other material goods are easier to carry around and I personally feel like I have more of an use for it rather then just another print. I can easily display a bunch of charms with little space while with prints it's a lot harder.

Also don't forget the popularity of itabags!

>>9500609
That's what I do. I straight up have a 4x6 photo album for that size and binders of varying sizes for other sizes. I believe I may have a shopping problem.

>>9500638
I'm going to say 1 as well (can't give any input on 2 since I've only ever bought/sold what I'm personally interested in). When I'm the customer, the last thing I want is a print. They're so annoying to carry around during the con. Sure, I could bring a hard plastic file case to protect my prints during the con...but then I'd have to bring a hard plastic file case to protect my prints during the con. You can fit max 9x12 in those things, so posters are out. I can find a whole lot of uses for makeup bags, keychains, charms, stickers, stamps (those are starting to get popular- really love them), etc. though. At the last con I was at, someone was selling pillows for around $20 a piece. That's the same price as most poster size prints. Pillow > poster in terms of usefulness.

I only buy prints from my favorite artists at this point.

I wish there were a rule in AANI on Facebook about easily googleable questions or barely AA related "tfw" posts. The group has thousands of people in it, it's a little obnoxious seeing people use it as their personal blog, especially when the posts show up on my normal news feed.

>>9500638
I definitely see #1 as the biggest factor. It's ironic that print artists have kind of hurt themselves by trying to diversify, leading customers to prefer other merch over prints entirely.

I think that most people just logically prefer to buy something they can use in some way over art to just look at. When the price is the same or cheaper than a poster print, it's hard to justify buying a print over something else, unless the art is really spectacular.

It sucks for artists because it takes a lot more work/space to make up for the loss in profit margins, but I definitely see this trend continuing in the future.

It's only after selling in AAs that I realized I'm the exception to the rule as a buyer because I have no interest in charms or postcard sized prints, and my #1 must-buy is big prints to frame and display.

>>9500638
I think 1 is a factor, 2 possibly. I also think the following may also be contributing:

a. AA expansions: More artists in the market = more competition, more difficult to stand out. As prints are majority default, that's where the most competition is while charms are becoming within reach but not as saturated as prints. This might change within the next year or two though, given how quickly everyone's spooling up on making them so that will actually tell us more about what's happening with the market

b. General shift in trends: This one's much harder to gauge, but there are definite trends in art styles and "looks" that are more popular one year than the next, so it could very well be a shift in tastes and preferences; it's possible that there's a bunch of artists with similar styles caught in an older wave while a new one is moving in

c. Re: wall space: I've heard it before too but about 50% of people who say that to me either come back and buy after browsing the alley or I see them walking around with another print about the size of what I sell, so I'm not entirely convinced that it's always the truth. However, if you look at the broader market trends, people who are in their late 20s and 30s now who are looking to be homeowners generally can't afford to have as much space as before, so there's also that as a factor

d. Spending shifts: I've been seeing multiple articles about the spending habits of millennials (ugh) where it's purported that people are more conscious about their spending, less likely to be wasteful, etc. so that may also be translating into the AA market. Brick and mortar retail has been getting a hell of a beating, so it wouldn't be entirely surprising if it's bleeding into other retail spaces

>>9500875
Kind of agree with d. A lot of my peers would never spend a dime in something like a print and I myself as a millenianal question every purchase I make/budget myself and am really into sustainability and minimalism. I also do all of my shopping except food online.

>>9500638
>>9500875
I think you guys are right there. especially with the 1 and a. Personally for myself, I filled up my walls to where I'm satisfied with, but that shouldn't be the trend overall because of new blood coming in. Overall, people like new "stuff" and charms/ pencil cases etc are still relatively new for the market. Eventually it's going to run it's course too. I already see it with comments like "wow everyone's selling pouches"

Also artists giving advice to newbies are shooting themselves in the foot competition wise because now anyone with any talent has heard you can make money in AA without much effort on research or risk of making mistakes and make good sales right away. It was different when I started.

However, especially for d, the millennial spending, I'm not so sure it's a generation thing and more of an economic thing, especially in my area. I'm mean, when my parents were my age, they didn't have a lot of extra money either and it can be argued that we spend even more on "useless crap" (like keychains, many different prints etc., I am well aware of useless crap spending before too but it was different crap) than before. Though the smaller sized houses I think it probably a trend in our generation. However, a few years ago or so in my area was the golden age imo for conventions. For how much the tables were, you could sell very well. Then the economy tanked and everyone was suddenly more conscious with their money and buying it on more "useful" things. Around here it still hasn't recovered to what it was. I don't know how much it is used just as a scapegoat, but that is what everyone (artists, attendees, vendors etc.) always says. Is the economy worse now than before in other areas too?
To add:
-more conventions: People probably feel that they can always get a print later because it's easier to find, but keychains would be a pain to find again, so better get it now mentality.
-Everyone's not changing print stock fast enough; it caught up.

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Do people not know how to use google or do they really think a 16k+ member group is the best place to ask these kinds of things?

>>9501207
Are you honestly surprised? There are people in the group with about as much common sense as a brick.

>>9501217
I'm not surprised, I'm mostly irritated. I want to see posts from the group but there is so much garbage with no moderation I'm considering hiding the group from my feed altogether.

Has anyone tried selling frames along with their prints or is this a misguided idea? One of my prints involves a popular character with a voice actor coming to my next con. I figured some people would buy a print just to have it autographed.The frame would be optional to buy, of course. My print is basically photo size.

>>9501266
I think the weight and the bulkiness would outweigh the benefits and any profits you would get out of it, personally. I have only ran into one person irl that frames prints, and he only has a couple.

>>9501098
>Everyone's not changing print stock fast enough; it caught up.
I personally think this is a huge factor along with other stuff mentioned like running out of wallspace and the increase in variety of fanmerch available. I had a period where my print sales absolutely tanked because I had mostly the same prints for about a year and a half or so. I started making new prints to stay on top of trends so my display is always changing, and my print sales shot back up again.

>>9501266
I like picking out my own frames. I'm sure others either feel the same OR the cost of a framed print would have them consider just buying a frameless print.

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>>9501266
If you did something like cheap cardboard type frames, I think more people would be interested/appreciate the idea. It would keep the print straight and is lightweight, easy to just tack on an extra dollar for it too.

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You can smell the drama building up from a mile away.

Wait a second, is the person in >>9501489 the same person as >>9488038?

>>9501512
That's a really weird reach.

>>9492350
Im in Canada too!! Pls share

>>9501489
>copyright, trademark, fanart
person doesn't understand how those words work lol. kids.

>>9501653

He doesn't, but coming from someone who took copyright law, he's not exactly wrong. There is really less of a grey area in the infringemens than people think. It's not a grey area so much as copyright and trademark rights holders to certain IPs in the west not having the time/pr/monetary resources to pursue this stuff effectively.

How did everyone do at fanime? I noticed some people were being asked it lower their display heights. I feel like the bigger issue were dipshits who took up more space behind their table than they should. Saw people were trapped in one aisle due to one asshole using those huge grid wall setups behind their table. It was either table 803 or 804. Must've sucked for those artists.

>>9501601
Yessss another mapleleaf.

I got them from this place which also has their online storefront http://www.canadamailers.ca

But I mainly chose them because they were in my area so I just went and picked them up at their warehouse. It was kind of weird iirc because their warehouse has no sign of the "Canadian Mailers" on its building. So I walk into the right address and I'm like "um.... is this Canadian Mailers?" And it is! They sell other stuff and run another business along side the packaging supplies I guess.

I bought 300 of a smaller sized poly bubble mailer and it was under $60 CAD iirc

What is a good place in the DC metro area to print a single con-quality print?

Friend Artist would like to give Friend Birthday a sketch as a surprise gift. Friend Artist lives overseas, and it's cheaper to print here than print there and ship here. However, I don't know anything about print shops. I'd appreciate any advice you have to offer.

>>9501718
it was my first time tabling at fanime! I definitely noticed certain stands being super tall lol but I don't think the tables were as big as the other cons I attended either so, I don't think it's fair on either end.

I'm just working through how to file the tax return for california state right now. The website is a steaming pile of crap and I can't even navigate to the filing page.

>>9501718
>huge grid wall

Huge grid walls weren't an issue, it was those FUCKING PHOTO STANDS.

ALL CONS need to ban those fucking fire hazard shits. They take up the entire aisle. Did you guys also see the collapse of someone's 7ft or so off the table display? It fell so hard it knocked their neighbor's display behind them too.


Speaking of fanime though, there were so many empty tables, The entire 2 back rows were empty and there were blank table spots randomly throughout the con. People who were on the artist alley website roster didn't even show up. I hope the Fanime 2017 survey comes out soon because they need to go back to FCFS or at least FCFS with a jury. They're losing money from no-show and drop outs, at least that'd guarantee a full room.

>>9500570
Definitely noted, but more so in Juried cons than other ones. :v If you're drawing the same composition / series as an artist with far more skill, then it's gonna hurt iirc.

I saw the same exact yoi posters with the wedding theme with various degrees of skill and all sales going to the best one.

>>9501855
> The entire 2 back rows were empty and there were blank table spots randomly throughout the con.

Are you fucking serious? It was like that last year too. When are they going to actually fill their AA? If I knew there were going to be empty spaces I could have gone to fanime (which is local for me) instead of flying out to a different convention and paying tons for airfare and lodging. Fuck, man. I got in last year but I didn't even get on the waitlist this year.

>>9500875
>>9501098
In addition to print saturation, I think content saturation is a large part of it too. I only had 3 fan-art prints ready for Fanime: D.VA, Megumin, and Rem.

D.Va sold okay, Megumin sold really well, and Rem didn't really sell at all. At the last day I walked around and took a look at all the other artist tables, and noticed that it seemed like every other table had a D.Va or Rem, whereas I saw maybe 3 Megumins that were prominently displayed.

So if someone was looking for a D.VA or Rem print, they'd have a HUGE variety to choose from, not to mention some big artists like Sakimichan and Jiuge also had their versions to throw into the mix. So my D.VA print had to compete against ALL of that, whereas my Megumin only had to compete against a few others.

>>9501864
I heard that they couldn't sell extra tables die to some accounting bullshit or whatever else from higher up. Most cons will sell day-of so locals can at least try for something but I guess fanime just had no need for several hundred to thousand dollars from extra aa tables

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>>9501855
The photo stands with weight flat feet and a bottom support rod are a lot more stable and take up way less space than the ones with the tripods. I had one set up at 8 feet tall and even when I accidentally fell against it it didn't fall over as the feet kept it grounded. It also doesn't stretch into your neighbor's space or block the center aisle.

>>9501855
>>9501864
FCFS probably wouldn't have solved anything.

They didn't have payment ready until like 3 weeks before the convention. Another artist I knew couldn't pick his table due to a server issue until the week before Fanime. I bet a lot of artists just went to another convention again since Fanime handled payment and table selection so late and never bothered to cancel.

If they actually got everything setup and working 3 months ahead of time the people in the wait list could probably get in and there wouldn't be so many empty tables.

>>9501882
one of my friends last year just showed up and set up on one of the empty tables and no one asked them what the fuck all weekend. Made some good bank.

>>9501864
wouldn't have done you any good since they do not sell tables at con

>>9501882
>>9501889
Thanks for letting me know. Good to know I didn't miss out on an opportunity, but it raises so many more concerns about how the fanime AA is handled. Are they just okay with having so many empty spots? I know last year I had a friend who picked their spot in the back (they just liked it), and no one around them showed up and they were basically alone. They need to get their AA organized way earlier to give people on the waiting list an opportunity to get in.

>>9501885
That's hilarious. I'm applauding for your friend.

>>9501855
>>9501864

This is so depressing. I'm local and didn't make waitlist either as well as a few other pretty skilled artists I know (we all do flat style rendering instead of painting, I have a suspicion that makes a difference with the jury). We could have picked up and gone with even just a few days notice and we wouldn't have brought down the AA quality at all. It feels like almost any change would be an improvement on this vague judging system where you have no idea why you're being rejected and then a bunch of tables aren't even being used. It's like telling everyone who didn't get in that they're worse than a blank table.

I wish more attendees would complain about the empty tables, maybe Fanime would listen to them if they're going to keep ignoring artists complaints...

>>9501855

I'm so happy I'm not alone in my hatred of those photo stands. I hope AAs start cracking down hard on them. I feel like most AAs used to have a rule about standing structures, which was why so many people clamped to tables, but now it seems everyone's switching to these pain-in-the-ass stands...

>>9501895
I have a feeling skill had little to do with this jury, as many of my friends who are RIDICULOUSLY skilled artists got turned down. I've never gotten rejected from a Jury personally, but I'm nowhere near as good as them and understand that there's a possibility I wasn't good enough- /except/ for the fact I got accepted to fanime last year.

A couple of my friends do flat rendering and they got rejected, but I also have a few friends who do a flat-render anime style as well and got in. I personally am half and half on the style so I can't speak on it.

I heard a rumor they're trying to only accept AA artists who draw in a more anime-focused style, which makes some sense from their choices. I have a style that is more semi-realistic than anything. My skilled friends who got rejected have very western styles. My friends who do a flat cel shaded style and got accepted all have an anime style. However this is just a rumor so I wouldn't put any substance to it unless anyone else has noticed the same trend.

>>9501892
It's hard to tell whats going on exactly since they stopped communicating with artists publicly a few years back. The best guess people have is they wait too long to get payment processes up so they can't go through their waitlist fast enough (people were still getting off the waitlist a week before the con) and some of those back tables are given to guests that aren't there all the time, it's similar to how akon has lots of empty tables in the back because guests are only there for certain times in the weekend?

>>9501892
>>9501907
I'm going through my e-mails and they didn't get the first part of AA registration set up (after you've already been picked by the jury) until April 1st.

They also didn't have payment correctly set up until 4/22 and I didn't get to pick my table until the 25th (they took a while to validate my seller permit). They also didn't tell me that they had validated and I could pick my table so I only found out after I decided to check my status manually later, after which most of the good tables were already selected.

A friend of my never got the docusign and sent in his form manually, but they didn't bother to actually update his registration status so he didn't get to pick a table until the very week of Fanime.

>>9501900
The thing is that some AA's started having rules about tabletop structures recently. I've seen a couple of cons where if your display was on top of the table it couldn't be over 4ft but if you have a freestanding display it could be up to 8ft from the floor which gives you about an extra foot and a half of display height.

There's also the fact that photo stands are much, much easier to set up and take down - especially if you don't have a helper. You're right in that the legs are very intrusive though - but I don't think a lot of people realized that when they bought theirs. And the caveat with tripod legs is that you CAN make them go higher to take up less space but it makes them way less stable. So it's really a choice between not infringing on your neighbor's space but having a wobbly stand or taking up space but being stable. It's a lose-lose situation. It's not too terrible if your neighbor also has a photo stand because then you can stagger the tripod legs but if your neighbor doesn't... it kind of makes you feel like an asshole. I'm probably going to buy one like this >>9501883 instead since the legs don't get in everyone's way.

>>9501906
>I heard a rumor they're trying to only accept AA artists who draw in a more anime-focused style

That lines up with the people I've seen rejected as well... I don't like it and I think it's shortsighted to intentionally stifle diversity like that, but it's hard to argue since it's after all, an anime con... It wasn't hurting them to allow HQ juried western art though, was it?

who was talking about vograce upping their charm prices last thread? i forgot exactly the numbers but vograce is charging me $1.40 per 2 in double sided charm which is a big increase from my previous orders. anyone else getting this? the quantity i'm ordering is 400 so i don't see this as being an issue of quantity is too low

>>9501973
I just got a quote replied to this morning, 70 cents per 2.5 inch double sided double acrylic board charm with a quantity of 700, about 40 designs. Not sure why your quote is so high, strange.

>>9501973
Got similar quotes for my order--heard they've gotten a machinery/equipment upgrade so they're making up for the quality increase with a price increase.

>>9502006
>>9501973
I've heard from an artist that their most recent batch of charms order has a noticeable improvement in quality over the old ones.

>>9501906
I dunno, I hate to sound salty but there were definitely booths that had lower-quality tumblr-esque art scattered around. Their standards are just as enigmatic as they've always been.

I'm probably gonna just go for dealer's next year and split with a friend. Seems like a lot of attendees liked the diversity in the dealer's hall as opposed to the AA so they did more of their shopping there. I've also heard dealer's is a lot more communicative and the guy running it is pretty chill, so that's always a plus.

>>9501953
But Kurot, who has an anime style and worked in japan got rejected

its not about style, its luck and preference on the judges

Fanime seemed to use the last empty section of AA for random guest cosplayers/cosfamous people to sign their prints and meet their fans as well.

>>9502077
Holy shit what a blast from the past. I used to love their art so much.

>>9501906

You know, I heard a rumor awhile ago that the list was divided among the jurors so most artists only got rated by one juror each. I wonder if it's possible that some were just not rated at all. At first I thought they must at least give everyone an equal consideration but this rumor is seeming more and more possible to me the more I see who was declined and who was accepted...

>>9502108
Fanime aa staff can't even handle emails, of course they're lacking the capability to fairly judge thousands of images, webpages, etc. for the submissions.

>>9502130
Now that Fanime is over, are they opening up submissions for 2018? Sorry, first timer here.

Going to splitting a table at AX and it'll be my first AX AA. Been there as an attendee before. Anyone have any suggestions for how much stock of charms/prints i should bring? Haven't tabled at such a large con before.

>>9502089
ntayrt but same, these days it's not really my thing (it's good art but the style isn't that interesting to me anymore) but damn back then they were my goal.

>>9501706
nevermind the fact that most fanartists actually fall quite solidly within the transformative works fair use rules AND fan art serves to only improve their sales. Cracking down on fan art sales only hurts the original copyright holders.

The people who this does help are the artists who exclusively do original work, but if they are trying to sell stuff at an anime convention then they're very misguided. People don't go to anime cons for original work, if you want to sell original stuff then you should be going to small press expos and art shows.

>>9502152

Post your art work and we'll be able to tell you if you'll sell out like hotcakes or if you shouldn't get your hopes up.

>>9500584
I'm getting that too and I have been a primary print seller. I've done various other things but prints have been my best bet.
I think it's time to move onto other things, or maybe convince people to start new wall collections. I dunno.

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do sketch commissions sell well? inking gives me anxiety but i can draw this sort of thing quite fast

>>9501995
who did you ask for a quote? i've tried contacting coco but she hasn't responded and i got a response from a different person

>>9501861
Yep. I am mid-tier skill level in most cons I go to, and I've accepted that no matter how hard I try on my prints, there is always going to be someone else in the alley who did what I wanted to but at a better skill level. I just try to be smart about it and use my prints as more of an advertisement for my table, like if people see a series they like in a print I have and drift over, they're more likely to see I have non-print products of the same series and buy that, since they're definitely not going to buy the print.

>>9502365
It was some random name I didn't recognize. I just sent them a message from their listing on alibaba. This is my first time ordering from them so I don't have any past experience with the company.

>>9502082
seemed but not confirmed. At one point vampy, a cosplayer, had such long lines in the artist alley that they just gave her two tables in the back.

It's more likely they were not used for guests because throughout the day I would see the tables full of kids just hanging out and taking breaks on them.

That is a terrible look for the AA and Fanime

>>9502152
Really hard question to answer. Completely depends on how your art looks. People sell anywhere between 1 to 100 prints at a convention, so we can't answer that easily.

Here's just some numbers I'm going to throw out to try to help based on an estimated skill level.
Beginner: 10 of each, Intermediate: 20 of each, Advanced: 30-40 of each

I personally sell anywhere between 10-35 copies of each print at AX. Of course as people have mentioned in the comments above, print sales are going down, so this AX may change the averages.

An update on Fanime's sharing rules

I reported a user who blatantly broke the rules in 2016 and Fanime told me they "issued them a warning" and would take further action if it happened again.

They broke the sharing rule again in 2017 and Fanime said "We will issue them another warning". When pushed further to clarify if this would mean they could attend 2018 they said "we will be taking what you've told us into consideration, but you should have reported during the con". Which is business talk for "we won't do anything"

SO

TL;DR

FUCK FANIME, GO AHEAD AND SHARE YOUR TABLE WITH FRIENDS. THEY HONESTLY DON'T GIVE A FUCK AND DON'T ENFORCE THEIR OWN RULES.

>>9502246
Depends on your placement in the alley. I've been at cons where people were disappointed they hadn't seen my table earlier but don't end up buying, and then there have been cons where I get around 40-50 commissions in one weekend because I was at the front.

I'd say skill has something to do with it but at the sketch level average buyers can't really tell what's good and what's bad.

>>9502871
Name and shame them. Which user was it?

>>9502885
Emily Hu

She got issued a warning this year so she didn't let tim(t1mco) or karen(@coyfish) put prints up on her table. (Emi didn't get to freeload lodging off of tim because of this). This year she let Karen sneak some charms to sell on her table. This is such blatant disrespect to fanime staff and they're going to let it go, smfh.

>>9502903
Yikes, Emi again? Thank you for reporting the offense anyway, anon - even if Fanime's staff isn't doing anything about it.

>>9502903
She always comes off to me as someone who just takes everything for granted. So disrespectful

So what's the juicy bits on Anime North? Heard some artists got banned or some shit.

>>9502871
Another anon said earlier in the thread that someone who didn't even get into AA just came in, set up shop at an empty table, and sold the whole weekend without staff batting an eye in their direction. I get your vendetta against Emily Hu but Fanime has shown us consistently that they give fuck all about running a fair or legitimate artist alley.

>>9503540
I'm going to give the not so TL;DR version.

>AN is full lottery and has a print section and craft section separate from each other (can't sell acrylic keychains in the print section and can't sell prints in the craft section, etc)
>some artists say fuck that and go sell in dealers hall
>all dealers hall vendors get notice at end of con saying artists are getting kicked out of dealers (because they consider it "bootlegging" but every other dealers booth is bootlegs) but artists can buy their way back into the print or craft section & skip the lottery by paying dealers table costs
>ONE artist said fuck that and spent 3 hours going to find AN con chair and speak with him about this situation
>artist ends up talking to a staff member and claims everyone left on good terms and artist was given next steps on what to do
>today con chair sends e-mail to artist saying he's banned from AN and given refund on table claiming artist was "harassing" staff and wouldn't leave

This clustercuss is why I refuse to sell at AN anymore, the money was good but not worth this.

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question. Do people add a white layer to charms to make it not image transparent? Like a double sided transparent acrylic image, you can see the other side of the image from one side and adding white layers prevent this?

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>>9503575
wtf. especially
>(can't sell acrylic keychains in the print section and can't sell prints in the craft section, etc)
Is that serious? What does something like stickers count as? That is so stupid.

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I'm mainly concentrating on getting in new charms for AX. I also find my prints don't sell as well as my charms although I think my prints have more time and skill spent on them. Here's so me charm designs I have (they're all double-sided and have a different back image)

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>>9502210
posted some charm designs
>>9502718
even this general info is pretty helpful. Thank you for the info. I'd consider myself intermediate, but I don't normally sell as many prints as I do charms. Posted some charm designs above.

Posting some of my prints too, but some I've never sold despite thinking I would've been able to.

>>9503627
>>9503630
Oof. Not gonna lie, unless you have a lot of inventory, I think AX is gonna be a tough con for you. All the fandoms you've got here are oversaturated in AA as it is, and there isn't anything especially outstanding or interesting about your charm designs.

Print-wise, your compositions are ambitious, which is pretty cool, but your foundations could use a lot of work. The facial anatomy is wonky in a lot of places, and you could use a lot more line variation . Your colors are oversaturated and hectic too, especially in the Mob print.

I could be wrong, because I think AX is one of those cons that's so big it's fairly easy for everyone to make some money at, but the competition is really, really steep. If you're next to any halfway decent artists who have the same fandoms as you, you're fucked. Good luck, though.

>>9502903
Can you recall the table #?

>>9503636
i've a more charm designs than just that. these r just examples. I'm looking for some idea of what # of stock to bring. I am in the very last row though, Row J, so that's something to consider too.

>>9503630
>>9503627
nyart but i'd put you at beginner level. thinking too highly of yourself is just going to cause you more hassle by printing more prints/charms than you're ever going to sell

if it helps, i think your charms might do okay, because i do see basic weebs but some charms regardless of art quality. i'd focus on which of them sell all right and order accordingly, and work on improving your art in the meanwhile

>>9503653
*buy not but, sorry for autocorrect

>>9503650
Bring more of the smaller stuff than your prints. Like the other anon said, small stuff generally sells well regardless of quality.

If you have a button maker, I'd probably bring some of those too, just because they're impulse buys so you'd be able to make money on a lot of small sales.

>>9503627
Honestly, your art looks really amateurish, and since your charms are of really big fandoms or already outdated flavor of the month, i doubt they'll sell well compared to more popular or better artists. People at AX have the luxury to go through the aisles and choose to buy from the best artist that sells merch of a certain fandom, so you're stuck trying to compete with people of a much higher skill level.

>>9503630
Okay, so anon from >>9502718 again. I'll go ahead and try to give you an estimate of how many to bring without adding in critique since you didn't ask for it (But I recommend listening to the critique of other anons in this thread, even if they're a little coarse, because in the end it will help you out.)

For your charms, I estimate you will sell 5-10 of each. If you want to be safe, print 15 of each except for less popular characters like Hunk. (Sorry Hunk fans.)

For prints, I estimate you will sell about 5 of each. Probably 10 of the MP100 one since it's a cast print and has an interesting composition. Print 10 of each, 15 of the MP100 to be safe. It's definitely worth considering what other anons said, that you will have a L O T of competition for Mystic Messenger. Basically every pro artist ever has done it, and people will probably only pick yours up if the concept strikes a chord with them in particular or if you have a buy 2 get 1 free and they don't know the other series' at your table.

I would definitely recommend investing in a button maker. You will not have the same level of competition with buttons since people don't care what button art looks like usually, and will buy buttons if they like the character since it's only $2.

>>9502903
Why not just go through their social media to find problematic stuff so that the con will just ban them for those reasons?

I had a friend of a friend recently comment to our mutual that he liked my art, but then accused me of copying other artists because a lot of my pieces look different, and I really don't know how to take it.

My character style, construction, anatomy, and rendering is always the same, but I tend to use a lot of different compositions (generic, pin-up, full scene, intense angle) and different styles of color schemes since sometimes I like pushing myself for something I care about, and sometimes I just want to draw something cute and take it easy. It's pretty obvious all of my stuff comes from the same person, and doesn't look very similar to any other popular artists out there, but I still don't know how to feel about someone thinking I'm "copying" just based off comp and subject variation. Could not having a distinct style of print be offputting or potentially be hurting sales? I've never heard it before this, but it's really bothering me thinking that I could have missed out on a sale because someone thought I took part in plagarism. Is there anything I can do to help deter that notion?

>>9503598
If you're doing Vograce, your art is automatically opaque/solid.If you want your charms to have transparency, the transparent art needs to be on another layer set to 50% opacity.

Other companies have their own templates, but most have a "WHITE" layer where you use black fill on the section you want opaque.

If you're talking about preventing a double sided design from showing through, you can ask for double/extra white.

>>9503676
Thanks, this is actually helpful and the estimates don't sound too far off from what I was thinking of. In fact, I'd be pretty happy if I was even able to sell 10 of any one print. Your advice is greatly appreciated.

Most of the critiques aren't really helpful, just points out obvious stuff like ___ fandom is over saturated/popular, my chibis aren't anything special. Cool, I can see that. Heck, I don't like drawing chibis that much and haven't drawn chibis a ton till recently.

>>9503677
anon that's fucked up, what are we, AX?

>>9503642
c/p'd from the site
"Emily Hu
Table 1416"

She didn't register as a shared booth with karen if thats what you were thinking

>>9503694
The fuck? Where's his fucking proof? If someone has a bunch of different styles I usually consider them to be higher skilled than someone who samefaces their way through sixteen of the same composition and color palette.

>>9503732
Different anon. But, I always worry about that kind of thing since I have an inconsistent style. Mostly because I'm constantly trying new stuff and haven't really found anything that has "stuck"

>>9503738
same

>>9503694
I wouldn't worry about it. People buy bootlegged art all the time thinking it's original and the number of people who DON'T buy something because they suspect it's bootlegged is negligible. Maybe once every 5000 people someone will pry and ask questions to check if you're copying or not, but that's not even a problem if you aren't.

Not even worth fretting over desu.

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>>9503718
It's less so that your chibis "aren't anything special" and more you lack foundation in your drawing as several other anons have pointed out. If you want a more specific critique of how you can improve, here's a quick edit of one of your chibis. Your anatomy is entirely off for a chibi body. You need to make the body smaller/limbs shorter. You space your eyes too closely together which gives everyone a goofy expression. And in general, you need to move facial feature placement down a bit.

I get that the other anons are being obtuse but don't brush their critique off as unhelpful. Telling you to brush up on anatomy is actually pretty solid advice. There are certain people who can get away with wonky anatomy as a part of their style but you're not versed enough in stylization to pull it off.

>>9503744
if you'd like to redline it, that'd be great. The edited version looks weirder to me, but maybe redlining it could help. I never really got the hang of chibis and I understand I need to improve on anatomy, but that's obviously not gonna happen overnight and it doesn't mean I'm gonna stop drawing stuff just cuz I am not the best at anatomy. I'm not brushing them off, but there's not really a helpful response beyond practice more and isn't everyone trying to practice more/be better?

>>9503627
If the maid is supposed to be Tohru, there is a lack of horns?

>>9503754
they're double sided. She doesn't always have her horns/tail out. The other side has the horns/tail. I do make my back and front sides different. There's also a white bg, but since it's on a white canvas you can't see it.

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>>9503744
>>9503753
I don't know anon, I gave it a shot and other than a few changes, I wouldn't say the proportions are THAT off. There are so many different chibi styles that I think it can still be plenty passable for chibi.

It's the OP's lack of fundamentals that put it so firmly in the uncanny valley imho. The eyes definitely were too close, and if you're going to go for a more elongated body, everything- especially the clothes, needs to be "rounder". You're still halfway between a chibi and a fullbody with a big head just in the way that the shapes are drawn.

OP, if you're looking for more immediately useful advice, just looking at your Tohru, your uniformly thick lines around the hair/face and thin lines everywhere else is immediately offputting to me. Make sure your legs connect correctly to a pelvis. A lot of things look really flat, like the skirt and the bag, but that's something that you're just going to have to grind fundamentals for. Your body anatomy for your chibis (minus the male with blue hair? and ladybug was on the right track, but a bit off since you were giving foreshortening a shot) honestly aren't entirely atrocious, it's the oddly placed facial features and lack of form that makes the pieces offputting.
I'm not sure how well you can really hold your own at AX, since the pieces are definitely on a beginner level, but I wish you the best regardless.

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>>9503627
I saw your wip post on aani and like the other anons have said you really need to work on your fundamentals.

Your sketches are really stiff and despite chibis being so small you still want to have some kind of movement/fluidity to them. Tbh yours feel like a bunch of legos just stuck together.

Hate to beat a dead horse but go back to basics. Do some figure drawing, even some quick gestures can help. Study basic shapes/their volumes so your figures don't look so flat.

Honestly practicing is the best advice anyone on this board can give you. You can read advice/tips all you want but that won't mean shit if you don't actually practice.

>>9503627
>>9503630
I'd recommend you get a refund from AX and come back in 5 years or so

Not only is your art not good, your attitude is lacking. This is a wake up call, study more.

>>9503828
That is harsh and completely unhelpful, anon. Everyone starts somewhere. And of course they're going to act defensive, they just asked how many they should print and everyone started giving unsolicited advice. Yes, critique is good, but not everyone can handle it well- Especially when it was not asked for. Attitude and artistic skills are both things that are learned.

... And the mindset that people need to be a certain level of skill before doing an AA needs to die. Some people will learn by falling down. Stop perpetuating the "don't even try it" mindset.

>>9503836
AX Is a really expensive con to try and fail at though

>>9503836
What the fuck did they expect. This is 4chan, not a hugbox. This anon >>9503744 took the time to alter their art and give advice and they just brushed it off. They have a high level of delusion that needs to be broken NOW so that they can get onto the road to improvement. Babying them isn't going to do shit and is probably the reason why their skill level is so poor.

>And the mindset that people need to be a certain level of skill before doing an AA needs to die
And you think letting them spend a fuck ton of money and fail is any better? I'd rather they learn the same lesson without the financial jeopardy anon. YOU are doing more harm than good by letting OP think that their art is okay. Stop enabling this type of shitty mentality and GET REAL.

>>9503846
>>9503851
It's too late to refund an AX table.

I never made any comment about their artwork. Earlier in the thread I provided them critique. I don't know why you're assuming things. In my post I said they could improve, I even implied they were less than experienced with "everyone needs to start somewhere."

I don't think this is a hugbox either, but you're absolutely not helping anyone. You're saying I'm doing more harm than good by trying to be kind, but you are absolutely also doing more harm than good by being completely unhelpful aside from telling them to quit and come back.

>>9503627
>>9503630
y'know, sometimes i feel like my art is too shit to sell at an aa. and then i see things like this and don't feel as bad.

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Hi, wondering if anyone could share images of badge or keychain designs with multiple 3+ characters?
I've never drawn more than 2 characters together, but am planning on drawing a group keychain, and wondering how other people have approached it and also to see how it looks in general.
So far, I've only found attached pic.

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>>9503956

>>9503599
yep, it is stupid. Comic Market is the print section, and Crafters Corner is the non 2D section.
Paper stickers are allowed in the CM *unless* they're the nice laminated type.

>>9503976
Why these rules??

>>9503627
yikes, anon...

>>9503996
that's what that one artist is trying to show the con head when they got banned. All these rules and separation in the AA is hurting Anime North's AA

>>9503996
Because powertrip. Buttons are okay in CM, but magnets are not. Wew.

What con sign ups is everyone waiting on?

I lurk these threads because I sell stuff at craft shows. I never thought I was good enough to make money at an AA. Maybe I should reconsider now, seems like the talent threshold just got a lot lower.

>>9503956

Its not a ton but here is what I have saved with 3+ characters. Hope it helps!
http://imgur.com/a/lVBAH

>>9503744
Yeah but they didn't ask for artistic critique, they asked for advice on how much to bring. Artistic critique for a con they're already going to that they can't back out of (wherein the critique is just that it's bad anyways) is dumb. They can't back out or change all their art in time. It's clearly for the sake of being "honest" that everyone's ragging on this guy. Like, come on.

Also, your critique is worded like you don't know shit anyways.

>. And in general, you need to move facial feature placement down a bit.

Right idea, wrong explanation. In the human face, eyes are half way down the head (and depth of hair should make out look like more on top). Eyes when straight on have the width of one eye separating them, obviously doesn't work for anime eyes or 3 quarter view, but better frame of reference for how far apart they go.

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>>9504105
source for attached? i need the mouse charm

>>9504186
>implying they can't apply critique to further prints
Even if you don't ask for it, it's still useful. Unless you're okay with where you are in terms of skills right now (which would be pretty sad in anon's case, since they're firmly in beginner-tier), any outsider's opinion helps.

Posts like >>9504070 >>9503919 are just assholish though, I agree.

>>9504105
Did you know that you're the best imgur-anon? Because you are totally the best imgur-anon.

>>9504193
@riibrego on twitter!

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>>9504220
Haha thanks anon. I just happen to hoard images on my computer for inspiration and I thought it'd be helpful for others. My collection is 4ever growing so I will try to update the other albums once in awhile too <3

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>open new tab
>go to facebook
>see this on a tictail advertisement

welp has three characters, I guess I'll just put this here

>>9504186
oh okay

HEY ANON, YOU SHOULD BRING 0 OF EVERYTHING CUS YOU AREN'T GOING TO SELL SHIT

how's that for you

>>9504395
Honestly, its artists like that that allow the rest of the good artists to make bank off essentially empty tables. I don't mind.

Hmm curious what beginner, intermediate and pro is like now and what separates them.
And how one would rate shit-tier newb artists that are below even beginner status

>>9504064
Nekocon
AnimeNYC

>>9504186
Uh, thanks for reiterating anatomy 101. That's some obvious as fuck shit. Like the other anons have mentioned, art quality can absolutely tie into how much stock they should bring. I have friends of varying art skills and how much stock I would recommend them to bring to a big con like AX would also vary. Even when I'm considering how many of my own prints to bring, I look at which prints are more popular/executed better and print more of those. AX is still a month away - there is still time to make edits to prints and even charms if they haven't ordered them yet.

>>9504425
This, honestly. I've been next to a low-tier artist with a similar print idea to mine that was priced way below market average and I still sold more of my print than theirs.

>>9504459
We already had this discussion like a thread or two back. It really comes down to everyone's preferences, there wasn't a solid agreement last time.

>>9504459
ask this on sps where we can pick from whatevers posted

Has anybody tabled at Kin-Yoobi con before? How'd that AA go? I don't have enough stock for a full-weekend con yet, and I've only tabled at Berkeley's Anime Destiny before, so thought I'd give this a try since it's local too.

Went in its early years way back in 2009 or something as an attendee when I first started going to cons, and it seemed pretty good, but not sure if that's just middle school me's nostalgia talking

>>9504565
It's like Anime Destiny except smaller and stuck a couple years in the past. For the price of admission/table I guess it's ok if you're new to tabling and local, but it's not a con I would recommend otherwise.
I went for my first time last year, they split the AA into two buildings that shared space with the stage or a panel/discussion area. I hope you enjoy screeching mics and loud bass if you chose the stage area.

(I heard it used to be really good until they attempted to expand and failed. Apparently they're trying to pick themselves back up?)

How do you guys calculate your breakevens?

I put everything into my breakeven, parking, hotel, food, even the production cost of my merch to make sure I make everything back.

Some people say they don't consider the production costs of merch since it'll pay itself off in time, but I don't think really know if that's a good idea. Especially if you have an expensive merch item but you're not sure if you made enough to pay it off yet.

It's easy to say you're profiting when you make your breakeven really low, but what do you guys think?

>>9504607
I calculate everything.

If I'm making merch for multiple cons I count those separately since I usually don't make new merch for every single con. If I reorder more stock I just add that to the merch cost.

Breakevens for one con - Travel, Room (if applicable) Food, Table, Pass

Beginning of con season breakevens - Merch, Office supplies, (Displays Luggage and Equipment if starting out)

>>9503727
There was plenty of other artists who snuck friends stuff/sharing, and it was pretty obvious too. Way to just vendetta.

>>9504352
Ughhh I love wooden charms. I get that they tend to be more expensive but I wish more artists would make them.

>>9504658
Fuck off, Emily. Name some of the other artists then if there were "plenty" of them.

>>9503964
>>9504105
>>9504352
Thanks so much! these are great!

>>9504607
I subtract gas, hotel, parking, and table from my revenue and have a separate list for total merchandise and supplies expenses.

>>9504638
>Food
why food? Its not really something you spend specifically for the con.

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>>9504715
hmm wooden Aku aku charms.

I may have to make those

>>9504722
>why food? Its not really something you spend specifically for the con.

eh idk, I have a habit of calculating absolutely everything.

>>9504722
Food can be considered a deductible/business expense on taxes

Curious question, are any of you here part of the jury for AnimeNYC

>>9504589
The problem is they over extended the same year JapanExpo happened and their old venue at the hotel also raised their rates. It was about the perfect storm to nearly kill the con. They're really chill guys though that actually care about their con even if it's small and growing.

Although I can't really recommend the con if you're an established artist or have other things to do the day the event is, you'll make your table cost back for sure but there really isn't a ton of profit to be had.

>>9503828
>>9503851
Honestly people like >>9503836 is the reason why I still support you girls as an attendee.
And it's on the topic as to why print sales are going down. Maybe it's because people have learned what cunts most artists are that we don't want to give you our money. I'll only buy little things from artists now, nothing over $10. I'd even stop going in the AA all together, but then I remind myself that a couple of you bitches are decent people still, but mostly artists are just self entitled snobs who don't give an actual shit about one another.

>>9504754
Curious question, are you retarded?

>>9504658
She's popular and under the eye of scrutiny, she should've been more cautious.

>>9504826
>support you girls

did you just misgender me to cishet FUCK

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>>9503836
>Everyone starts somewhere

High School Basketball hopefuls shouldn't try out for the NFL in their spare time with hopes of getting drafted. Beginner artist shouldn't take up tables at a top tier AA in the biggest animation convention if the country with their sub-par, crappy art and wonder if they should bring extra copies in the hopes the sell out.

>>9503851
>And you think letting them spend a fuck ton of money and fail is any better?

They're also taking the space that, sorry don't know how else to phrase it, "real" fanartists can't get with their amazing art.

>>9503919
You need to stop comparing your shitty art to other shitty art and going "well mine's not THAT bad". You need to start comparing your super good art to the God tier art from the best of the best.

>>9504186
That's a dumb way of thinking. That's like not telling your fat friend she's fat and should maybe not have the third ice cream cone just because you're friends.
Your friend shows you their very "MEH" art and they want to sell for the real human money and they are wondering if they should bring extra copies? You don't encourage them and tell them to being 100 copies cause they'll out for sure. You say they need to really work on their style/proportions/coloring/line art/everything and maybe they will make a new print with those suggestions in their head.

>>9504395
This

>>9504425
Also this. Play the market my friend.

All in all, just get better artanon. Don't let others stop you from creating art if you enjoy it, but you can't go into this stuff in hopes you'll make a buck. AAs in small towns can make you some good coin even if your stuff isn't jaw dropping WOW. But when you come to big boy town like LA, and to AX, well, get ready to feel really crappy when it's all over and you only sold two or three things while thinking "But all my friends told me my stuff was amazing!"

We're not just 4chan, we're gulls. We're an extra level of prissy. But we still love you. Good luck.

>>9504589
>>9504792

Thanks for the heads up to both of you! I'll try it out, since yeah, it's close and I'm definitely still an AA newbie. Any profit/experience is good right now before uni starts up again.

I'll avoid the stage area if they're doing that setup again lol. Will report back if they've improved, sounds like they're making an honest effort so here's hoping.

>>9505074
kinyoobi people are very good and kind, just keep your AA expectations low and its a good con. There 's not much foot traffic so get ready for slow times

>>9505066
>get ready to feel really crappy when it's all over and you only sold two or three things while thinking "But all my friends told me my stuff was amazing!"


>yfw this happened to my best friend's kid who cried on the car ride home because nobody bought her really, really, really, really shitty Nauto kitty art. Not even a pity buy.
>yfw my best friend said to me "Don't worry, those anime nerds will buy anything." after you very carefully mentioned that maybe, JUST MAYBE, her daughter's art isn't as amazing as you think it is.