Another con in the bag! Had a good time at Edmonton Expo, with only a few hiccups. Sadly those hiccups were fairly costly, and I've finally hit the point where I made less money at this con than at the ones before it. Until now it's been a steady increase of both traffic and interest in my work, and that's proven very valuable. But! Lessons were learned, and I still did well enough to make it worth my while. Even better, the 2 pieces that I had assumed would be best sellers, turned out to actually be best sellers (I've been pretty off the mark in past years). And since those 2 pieces were brand new, it feels like these last few months of hard work have been well worth it.
As for the failures, I was sleep deprived more than the norm this con, and was without my invaluable manager (my wife). As such I was unable to remember how exactly to set up the display on my table, and ended up without either of my vertical stands. That was Saturday, a day that didn't see a single sale of my new Wolverine print. Saturday night I checked in with the boss, and she mentioned that we had re arranged my table set up to accommodate 2 large size portfolio's, one for prints and one for original work. And so with her fantastic advice, and close to a full 8 hours of sleep, I set up Sunday with both stands, one displaying Wolverine, and one displaying some of my black background pieces. In one day Wolverine almost took my record for best selling print of a con, which did a lot to alleviate the concerns I had regarding my attempts at digital painting.
The other major hurdle I had to contend with, was a booth neighbour who's table set up was specifically designed to degrade the experience of those to their right or left. Instead of leaving their table open, they put together a stand that cut off any chance of a con goer seeing the work on my table unless they approached from the other direction, or walked past this giant abomination and then stopped to see what was hidden behind it. Given that line of sight is the predominant way in which artists attract customers, losing it from half of the available approachesto my table caused some problems. Again, lesson learned, and I think it's finally time to build a stand of my own. I'm thinking something that sits behind me, and has smaller wings off the sides to catch peoples eye from an angle. Of course this might cut off the view to other artists sitting around me, but what it won't do, is cut off the view to their work, cuz I don't wanna be that guy.
Anyways, here's a few of the sketches that I put together during the con, as well as the finished versions of the new prints that I brought. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get Wonder Woman finished in time to print, but technical issues with my printer ensured that I just didn't have the time. Soon though. I'm onto a new approach for the piece, and I think that when it's done it's going to look pretty damn cool. Just a matter of fitting it in amongst all the other projects that are vying for my time right now. That's not a complaint btw. Having a lot of things that I want to dedicate myself to is awesome.
As for the failures, I was sleep deprived more than the norm this con, and was without my invaluable manager (my wife). As such I was unable to remember how exactly to set up the display on my table, and ended up without either of my vertical stands. That was Saturday, a day that didn't see a single sale of my new Wolverine print. Saturday night I checked in with the boss, and she mentioned that we had re arranged my table set up to accommodate 2 large size portfolio's, one for prints and one for original work. And so with her fantastic advice, and close to a full 8 hours of sleep, I set up Sunday with both stands, one displaying Wolverine, and one displaying some of my black background pieces. In one day Wolverine almost took my record for best selling print of a con, which did a lot to alleviate the concerns I had regarding my attempts at digital painting.
The other major hurdle I had to contend with, was a booth neighbour who's table set up was specifically designed to degrade the experience of those to their right or left. Instead of leaving their table open, they put together a stand that cut off any chance of a con goer seeing the work on my table unless they approached from the other direction, or walked past this giant abomination and then stopped to see what was hidden behind it. Given that line of sight is the predominant way in which artists attract customers, losing it from half of the available approachesto my table caused some problems. Again, lesson learned, and I think it's finally time to build a stand of my own. I'm thinking something that sits behind me, and has smaller wings off the sides to catch peoples eye from an angle. Of course this might cut off the view to other artists sitting around me, but what it won't do, is cut off the view to their work, cuz I don't wanna be that guy.
Anyways, here's a few of the sketches that I put together during the con, as well as the finished versions of the new prints that I brought. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get Wonder Woman finished in time to print, but technical issues with my printer ensured that I just didn't have the time. Soon though. I'm onto a new approach for the piece, and I think that when it's done it's going to look pretty damn cool. Just a matter of fitting it in amongst all the other projects that are vying for my time right now. That's not a complaint btw. Having a lot of things that I want to dedicate myself to is awesome.
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