#118! (and a few other details...)

We've got some big surprises planned this next week... you'll just have to wait to see them all, of course.

For those debating whether or not to get the $15 conbadges I started offering last week, you'll be glad to know that I should be at MomoCon as well as FWA, so if you're in the Atlanta area and too cheap to pay for an admission fee to FWA (or you'd just rather go to an anime con than a furry con), you can still get your fix and enjoy picking them up there.

As far as the rest goes... you'll see. You won't be able not to. ;)

Bonus Comic Wednesday!

The news is good, the money is counted, and whoever left the pills in my tip jar... well, I sure hope those were prescription. (EDIT: Plain old ibuprofen.)

Long story short, we've hit the bonus threshold so everyone gets to see the bonus comic update on Wednesday. Images will be updated to reflect this as soon as I get to a computer that has 'em. Actual con reports come later.

Enjoy! (And for those who're fresh from MomoCon... say hello?)

Ready for MomoCon!

Things are finally falling into place. I've done what I can to get ready - prints are printed, sharpies are purchased, and I'll be getting my badge in not too long.

Just as a reminder to those who'll be seeing me in Artist's Alley, convention sales also count towards bonus updates -- so those of you telling me to update more? Here's how you can speed stuff up while getting some good art in the process.

See you there!

Jigsaw's Convention Plans

Just a quick reminder that next week is in fact Momocon, and those who have oh-so-coincidental Spring Break time should consider checking out one of the most awesome conventions that you can attend for free. It's only for next Saturday and Sunday, though. I'll be somewhere in Artist's Alley, so feel free to stop by and keep an artist company.

And for those paying attention to the Twitter feed; there's another convention after this, and it's not what you'd expect; Outerz0ne is right on Momocon's heels, and the con head talked me into spending some time behind a table there as well! It's a security conference, so it's not the usual audience, but it wasn't like I didn't have plans to head there with a few of my friends anyway...

... although it helps that I'll pretty much be the entire Artist's Alley for that one. Really, how was I about to turn that down?

17 Things I Learned from the Furries at Furry Weekend Atlanta

Well, I've been back from Furry Weekend Atlanta for a while already, but there's no time to waste; MomoCon's only a couple weeks away! The good news is the artist's table was free at this one, but I need to actually make money back this time around.

I had a great time and I certainly had plenty of fun beside the point (The posters were awesome!), and fortunately I made sure to take plenty of notes from some of the other vendors, so in the hopes that I actually follow some of my own advice... It's getting posted here.

1. Bring more material to sell / give away at the next con.
   Selling art at conventions is a given, but as far as actual material for people to take away from the convention goes, there were only two items I really had available: my pre-made buttons, and the Moo minicards. This was a BIG mistake that I didn't account for, and I need to try to at least have more materials I can shed off at the convention itself to have more after-convention influence.
   
2. Having loose sketches has a purpose.
   Not having a theme is bad, but maybe having things too 'tightly' organized is also bad. Most people who lost interest in the comic stopped flipping through the binder after the third page or so. And that's not including the big mistake of requiring people to flip their own pages; some general art sitting out couldn't have hurt.
   
3. Bring more example badges!
   Most of the other artists I saw offering badges usually had at least four examples of each badge type available. By comparison I had only two -- my own, and Llearch's "Box" badge. This was clearly not enough to encourage badge sales, because the sample size involved was also decidedly low. More examples (and possibly even new badge types) would have been useful.
   
4. Next time, get static, guaranteed convention space.
   A good portion of the tables available in Artist's Alley were squatted quickly by those who could wake up extra early to get down there; as a result, I rarely had a chance to work the tables for more than a couple hours at a time. More time to spend at the table -- or more importantly, rented space where I could freely return to rather than having to wait several hours for a space to open up. This is solved for the next upcoming convention (MomoCon), but this may be easier said than done for other conventions.
   
5. Adult Artwork -- it's more useful than you think.
   I'm still not about to draw anything pornographic (for many reasons, not the least of which can be summed up in two words: "Hi, Dad") , but one of the more interested passers-by made a good point: drawings involving nudes provide a good 'standard' for comparing a given artist's grasp on general artistic concepts like anatomy, shading, and so on, and let's face it; nothing quite reveals an artist's pathetic grasp on anatomy quite like nudes. Fortunately, it gives me a chance to try out those ideas on pinups I had a while back, so maybe I can still use this tip without having to resort to full-frontal.
   
6. Freestanding Price-List
   Letting everything I have lay 'flat' against the table was a mistake; lots of folks had freestanding sheets to help announce their tables, and often had the price lists on them! By comparison, my price sheet was in the back of my binder (so only those who read through to the end or were there when I showed them the list were able to see my prices!) Having made a sheet in advance would have been an exceptionally good idea...
   
7. 3D Artwork!
   This sort of goes hand-in-hand with the free-standing price list idea; 3D artwork stands up from the table and provides additional physical presence. This is a little difficult for illustrated artwork, but in my case at least, I have one ace in the hole: I crochet. While I don't want to be known for just crocheting, it does give me a chance to use this for my advantage.
   
8. Mechanical Pencils
   Sketching with pens sucks. It just does. Pencils allows me to make my sketches more 'legible', and while pens have their own charm, I still sketch too wildly for them to be easily understood. (read: While I can follow it for later, I draw over my other drawings too much.)
   
9. More stuff that can be Made at the Convention
   See the stuff about "Take-away material". The more I can make, the more I can sell to others right there while they wait. Plus, everyone loves to see an Artist at Work, and people walking around with my art already on them is just good advertising.
   
10. Moo Cards are good.
    Yes, as business cards go they are a bit more expensive (and all the more so because they come from freakin' England), but they offer several advantages over other business cards in that they have really high print quality and allow you to put whatever images you like onto the back (and they don't even have to be the same image on every card)! As an artist, that can be incredibly valuable in allowing you to show off your work - it even gives prospective card-takers a chance to rifle through them all to take the one they like best. It also worked quite well for referencing with other artists, and helped me stick out that little bit more.
    
11. The Binder was good, but...
    So apparently there's such a thing as "making a too tightly themed portfolio". Worse, when people decided they weren't interested, they just stopped reading rather than noticing the improvement in the art in the later sections. Having some random pieces for people to look at (or at least SOMETHING that deviated a bit from the comic pages!) would have been good. This goes in with my earlier statement, but it seems to indicate that I need a bit of both; some fluff stuff for the passers-by, and some real meat for the interested ones.
    
12. Need to make a new Jigsaw Model Sheet!
    In trying to gain some of my own artwork, I forgot one of my own rules: I didn't have good references for my own "personal character", Jigsaw! Granted, I had comic pages with her in it, and I had her face on some of the business cards, but I didn't have a full-body character sheet. More to the point, when I tried to direct folks to this sheet, one artist didn't read it closely enough and put wings on my character without realizing that she had not only drawn them improperly, but that they were a later development; she had considered it a mistake later on and refunded me the $3 for my trouble, but this was still something that could have been fixed if there was an updated sheet for only the "current" form that had left these wings out!
    
13. Offer Model Sheet commissions
    Well, if I need a new one, other people probably do too... plus, it isn't like I don't need the practice / don't do this already, even if I don't always color the stuff in. Even my concept sketches for commissions seem to trend towards this sort of thing anyway, so it's basically taking more of the sketches I already do anyway and pulling them into a finished product, right?
    
14. More variety in merchandise / commissions!
    Statement speaks for itself. More variety gives the consumer ideas, so they take credit for finding some great use for your talents when you planted the suggestion in their heads in the first place. Also, having different price ranges for different items also makes the cheaper crowd more willing to part with their monies.
    
15. Photo Viewer worked quite well!
    Well, when it got used anyway. It was slightly impressive, since it was something most of the other artists didn't have (if only because they weren't allowed to have devices that needed to be plugged in), and it did show off some of the later pieces in a flattering format, the same way as the Moo cards did.
    
16. Wear the right thing to the right convention.
    The stupid thing about conventions? If you're not dressed up for 'em, you tend to turn invisible; and there is still a definite switch between "Normal, mundane outfits" and "what you wear to a convention". For more general conventions, this is pretty loose, but for a niche convention, the rules are tighter. This doesn't mean "get all dressed up in a fursuit", but it does tend to mean that the more you look (sort of) like everyone else, the more likely folk are to remember who you are among the crowds.
    
17. Furry cons are not like normal conventions!
    Sci-Fi cons are all about running around to see the movie stars. Anime conventions are all about the merchandise and the manga-ka and whoever else we can throw in. Furry conventions... everyone's running around to see what everyone else is up to. There are so many artists / creators there that everyone is basically trading around with everyone else, and there's a huge level of community there that other conventions just don't have. It's tightly-knit, communal, and really it just reminded me more of what would happen if you mixed a hacker convention with what people usually think of cons. It's a difference I wasn't counting on, and it's one to definitely keep in mind.

Some other ideas I'm probably going to try out given the chance (which given my likely workload going into the next couple of weeks, may have to be trimmed down a bit):

• Tip Jar: Maybe not in the literal sense, but having someplace where I can let funds accumulate is good, and ties in with the website nicely. Plus, it allows me to keep the $50 per update thing going, so it might spur some folks to buy more if they know I have a general convention goal.
  
• Getting my hands on a laminator: Okay, having one (or at least access to one) would really open up what I can do with art stuff. I know that there are some portable ones I can get for about $50-100 and so it may just pay off to go ahead and get something reasonably professional. The main thing keeping me from asking for one outright is that I know how little use my scanner gets now and I'd want to be reasonably certain the laminator would get enough use to justify its purchase.
• More Personal Commissions/Badges (for me!): This may have just been an artist's Alley thing, but a lot of the artists there were using their badges to hang off of the tablecloths there to better announce themselves... and it's certainly an idea worth trying. Besides, it's not like I'd mind a few more personal drawings like that.
  

Now, the real challenge is to see how much I can turn around from what I did at FWA... and it'll certainly be a little more difficult to prepare for this time because of midterms. I have a decent baseline, though, so I can 'probably' coast on what I did for FWA along with what I do special for this one, but it'd be stupid not to at least try a few new things.

On the other hand, if anyone's got a special request or two, now's the time to speak up...

Week In Recap

The donation image should be changing soon to remind people of MomoCon coming up next (March 15-16 in Atlanta, once again... oh, and did I mention it's a free convention?), but I'm still sorta feeling it from Furry Weekend Atlanta last week, especially as it congealed together in my brain along with the last two weeks of school as "Lots of Running Around". The fact I had fun does not change the fact I still feel worn out.

In the meantime, I'm gearing up to try and get another fistful of cast pics and pages done. Feel free to speculate on the story behind this picture when you get a chance. Past that, I assume I have some work to do for MomoCon based on what I learned from this previous convention.

... and one of the lessons is to put out a tip jar. (I'll probably post the rest later, but that's one that's worth remembering either way.)

The Convention Checklist - Artists

Running tables at a convention may very well be an artist's dream, but it's not easy! There's a lt of merchandise to deal with, convention stress, the whole "You're sitting out here to make a spectacle of yourself" kind of problem... To say the least, artists (and wannabe-artists) have a special checklist the average congoer doesn't!

Only yesterday I managed to get my ducks in a row enough to feel like I can take on FWA, so in an attempt to assure myself I'm doing it right, Here's a good rudimentary checklist for anyone planning to work conventions who wants to know how to run an artist's table:

• Do you have multiple works to display?
  Not only does having more than one piece of work available make sense (in case any one work sells out), but multiple works allows people to develop a better sense of your style so in the case of commissions, they can go ahead and try to imagine what a piece done by you will turn out like!
  
  • Know what your table allows! If all your work is on the internet, you're going to be high and dry if the artist's alley doesn't allow for continuous power consumption, let alone an internet connection! Likewise, there may be restrictions on the rating of works visbile, so if you're drawing adult work, you better censor it before someone else censors it for you!
    
  • Is there a theme in your work? Theming helps create a cohesive identity to your work, which may be important if you're attempting to appeal to a particular segment (comic readers, anime fans, etc.). More importantly, it helps hook passersby into viewing more and more of your work. If you're doing a webcomic, you've already got this in spades - just print out a short storyline (or an excerpt of a longer one, as long as it's all contained) and you're good to go!
    
• Are you going to be able to create any art at the convention itself?
  This is a BIG thing to remember. Customers like Instant Gratification. You'll like not having to ship shit after the fact.
  
  • If you're going to make art on-site... have all your tools available for working. Your convention art shouldn't be lower quality just because you left your nice drawing paper at home.
    
  • If you plan on shipping commissions out later... have a form available before you even leave home for customers to fill out later so they can receive your work! Ideally you should have forms available for ALL your different commission types just to make sure you produce the right work, but make sure you have them especially for those that require shipping.
    
• Do you have a CONCRETE price list for your works?
  Even if you're willing to create a variety of work, people appreciate having a pricing list to look at so they can figure out which actions are worth what. Also, if you have a special commission type (such as conbadges or comic pages), specifying that you can do those things in addition to ordinary commissions may attract more business!
  
  • Are you making sure to specify what each commission type involves? Saying "Color Commissions $30" is fine, but you need to have the reader assume a certain level of complexity so you don't end up getting only $30 for drawing some 50-character 30-inch poster.
    
  • Do you have general 'add-ons' for the different commission types, so customers can mix and match for their specific orders?
    
• Do you have a contract / terms-of-service available for customers?
  Absolutely Important! You need this so when customers complain (and they will!) you have a concrete position you can negotiate / argue from. The more detailed and professional you are with this, the less likely protracted arguments will occur (not to mention if your unhappy customer decides to try and "summon the internet" against you, you can make your case all the more convincingly).
  
  • It doesn't have to be complicated. Obviously the more ironclad ones protect you better, but if you're afraid of scaring off potential customers, even a few disclaimers such as "I won't draw pornographic materials" can go a long way to dealing with pesky customers.
  • Make sure you have a general refund system available; if all else fails, you don't want to be accused of keeping people's money for nothing!
    

Now, even with all of this done (or at least in mind), you'd think we'd be done and dusted. But we're not, because we haven't even started talking about running the actual table yet!

Unfortunately, that one I can't talk so much about yet, because it's still before the convention. But if you're willing to find out how that turns out (and the advice therein), go ahead and subscribe to the feed to keep up a little better.

Have I forgotten anything that I need to know before I go to this convention? Comment, quick, before I take off for the weekend and make an ass of myself!

Just a Reminder... Conbadges still available!

Hey, folks . . . For my showcasing at Furry Weekend Atlanta, I could use a few samples of my work . . . and there's still plenty of conbadge slots available for everyone!

Just a reminder, they're going for $8 each if you pre-order right now (shipping not included) as an early adopter's fee. Details are back in this post, but it's definitely something you're not going to want to miss. :)

These are custom commissions in a button-sized badge, so any character (including your own!) can be done in these. Click here for more details and an example badge.

So come on and get one; you won't see this price at the convention tables, that's for sure!

Merry Christmas (and don't forget to check in for next week's bonus!)

Been getting busy for the new year, which apparently includes not only making sure enough comic pages get made in time to make sure they don't conflict with the school year, but also some special detours to help people find out about Last Resort.

I have plans to show up at Furry Weekend Atlanta in February (hopefully with a table of some kind, but either way I plan on being there!), along with MomoCon in March, and a few dedicated fans are even trying to talk me into AnthroCon (up in Pittsburgh!) for the summer months. Plans for other conventions are in the works, but these are the ones on my mind right now.

Of course, in order to make these worthwhile, there ought to be merchandise to sell and things for me to do there as well... I plan on offering some commissions, but I'm always open to ideas.

The ads from Project Wonderful are... well... a little maddening to keep track of all the time. They ought to start paying off soon, though.

In the meantime, we have plenty more Last Resort to bring you, so don't forget to say hello in the site's forums (Hosted at the Clockwork Mansion) and to check in on Wednesday (Boxing Day) for the second bonus update!

See you again soon!