Tag: <span>How Not To Starve As A Starving Artist</span>

Convention season is starting to pick up for the year, so we’re putting together some thoughts on how to manage your conventioning without going crazy.  Over the years, we’ve observed a lot of common problems and come up with solutions for many of them.  At this point, we can walk into our studio closet right now and walk out again prepared for a local show. If we need to travel, we only need a day to pack up and prep our personal items and do our food shopping.  How do you achieve this level of skill? Read on.

Bento

1. Bring your own healthy food & snacks. Also, make sure you have backup meal options.

It’s difficult to acquire healthy food at many venues, and given the high stress environment and crowds, it is even more important than normal to make sure that you are eating properly and staying hydrated in order to stay healthy.

 

We’ve been doing conventions since 2001, and the main difference we’ve tracked in whether or not any of us end up with con plague is what we ate.  Whenever we don’t bring food, we get sick, without fail.  Not bringing food also makes it more likely that you’ll skip meals, which will not only affect your health, but is likely to make you cranky with your customers and hurt your sales.

Blog Tips & Tricks

Non-Photo Blue Tools and Supplies
Non-Photo Blue Tools and Supplies

One of the tools we get asked about the most is non-photo blue pencil.

I pencil in non-photo blue for most of our comic book pages, unless I can’t get a hold of it. Changes in the graphic design industry have made it more difficult to acquire, especially as mechanical pencil leads. I’ve recently found a new source and switched back to using it. More on that later.

Blog Print Tips & Tricks Tools

In the last installment, I ended with this postscript: “I expect a lower volume of art collectors at the cons I frequent, which begs the question of why I attend those conventions.  The reason is that while there is a lower overall volume of art collectors there, they are more likely to purchase my art specifically and I have less competition.”

This post elaborates on and explains this concept.  We use 4 basic questions to narrow down our target audience and where to find them.  This helps us determine which shows to attend, target our marketing efforts, and decide what sort of ancillary products to create.

    1. Who seems the most interested in your work?

    2. What events does each group attend?

    3. Where are the biggest overlaps?

    4. Who is your competition?

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