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RainFurrest Con Report & More
18 years ago
General
RainFurrest Con Report:
( Go here for the long version: http://ksharra.livejournal.com/70044.html )
Summary - It was exhausting but fun, and we had over 360 attendees: over twice what we had originally expected! The dance was fantastic, the people were friendly, I got to hang out with some very cool people and spend some time with Monika, whom I never see... Business was booming, though I was stupid and overbooked myself on the first day, and now I have 5 sketches to finish and mail out, not to mention the existing commissions and trades I have from before the con. And I leave for MFM this Thursday. Yikes. But I will DEFINITELY be going back next year! This year's RF was awesome (even despite the big first-year mistakes).
And more:
I get so swamped with badge commissions at cons. I'm planning on raising the prices on my badges a bit. I know it might scare away some people, but I'd rather do less badges for more money and have time to make them look good, than workworkwork churning out fast mediocre badges for a butt-ton of people while having to turn away others who didn't get in fast enough.
I'm also thinking I may stop taking sketchbook commissions for people who don't have sketchbooks. That's like cheating. There are people out there who have taken the time and money to go buy a sketchbook and make up a theme for it, but they can't get any art in their books because artists are too busy catering to people who just want a picture on paper. How fair is that? I know it may seem a little petty, but just scribbling a picture on a piece of paper feels kinda... cheap to me. Plus drawing in a sketchbook is more fun! I get to glance through the sketchbook and see other artists' one-of-a-kind stuff that doesn't get posted or displayed anywhere else. And sometimes that helps with ideas, too, when I get the ever-annoying art block that we all get sometimes. Sure, I can get past that at home, but at a con, there's no time to stall for ideas. So having that extra reference helps. And if it's a new "virgin" sketchbook? That's an honor. Being the first person to draw in a sketchbook is a special thing. I just get that sunbeam-and-choir-of-angels feeling when someone hands me a brand new sketchbook and says "I want you to be the first artist to draw in my book." You don't get any of that with a basic sketchbook-minus-the-book commission.
I'm also thinking that, once I get my current queue of work closed, I may start accepting commissions, but with a catch: I want to start learning to illustrate stories. I'm tired of drawing this pose and that character is yiffy position with this character... No. I want to learn how to tell a story with my art. Blotch does an EXCELLENT job at doing this sort of thing, so much detail and life and depth and emotion in their work (I DESPERATELY wanted the "No Rest for the Wicked" piece, but I didn't have $250 to spend) and I've been watching and observing, and I want to try my hand at it. But I don't write stories, and I have trouble coming up with creative ideas. So in the future, if you have a story you want illustrated, keep an eye out. I may be opening for story illustration commissions in the near future (once I get MFM and my current workload off my back).
( Go here for the long version: http://ksharra.livejournal.com/70044.html )
Summary - It was exhausting but fun, and we had over 360 attendees: over twice what we had originally expected! The dance was fantastic, the people were friendly, I got to hang out with some very cool people and spend some time with Monika, whom I never see... Business was booming, though I was stupid and overbooked myself on the first day, and now I have 5 sketches to finish and mail out, not to mention the existing commissions and trades I have from before the con. And I leave for MFM this Thursday. Yikes. But I will DEFINITELY be going back next year! This year's RF was awesome (even despite the big first-year mistakes).
And more:
I get so swamped with badge commissions at cons. I'm planning on raising the prices on my badges a bit. I know it might scare away some people, but I'd rather do less badges for more money and have time to make them look good, than workworkwork churning out fast mediocre badges for a butt-ton of people while having to turn away others who didn't get in fast enough.
I'm also thinking I may stop taking sketchbook commissions for people who don't have sketchbooks. That's like cheating. There are people out there who have taken the time and money to go buy a sketchbook and make up a theme for it, but they can't get any art in their books because artists are too busy catering to people who just want a picture on paper. How fair is that? I know it may seem a little petty, but just scribbling a picture on a piece of paper feels kinda... cheap to me. Plus drawing in a sketchbook is more fun! I get to glance through the sketchbook and see other artists' one-of-a-kind stuff that doesn't get posted or displayed anywhere else. And sometimes that helps with ideas, too, when I get the ever-annoying art block that we all get sometimes. Sure, I can get past that at home, but at a con, there's no time to stall for ideas. So having that extra reference helps. And if it's a new "virgin" sketchbook? That's an honor. Being the first person to draw in a sketchbook is a special thing. I just get that sunbeam-and-choir-of-angels feeling when someone hands me a brand new sketchbook and says "I want you to be the first artist to draw in my book." You don't get any of that with a basic sketchbook-minus-the-book commission.
I'm also thinking that, once I get my current queue of work closed, I may start accepting commissions, but with a catch: I want to start learning to illustrate stories. I'm tired of drawing this pose and that character is yiffy position with this character... No. I want to learn how to tell a story with my art. Blotch does an EXCELLENT job at doing this sort of thing, so much detail and life and depth and emotion in their work (I DESPERATELY wanted the "No Rest for the Wicked" piece, but I didn't have $250 to spend) and I've been watching and observing, and I want to try my hand at it. But I don't write stories, and I have trouble coming up with creative ideas. So in the future, if you have a story you want illustrated, keep an eye out. I may be opening for story illustration commissions in the near future (once I get MFM and my current workload off my back).
is that you fursuiting(ish?).. or someone cosplaying as you?
or maybe a special kind of fan-art? :)
Sunday it appears that people suddenly had all this extra cash laying around they had been holding out on and the products started moving. Jarlidium Press sold out of most of the inventory including all my ROOMIES books (yay!).
Ironically, Shandower was thinning out a lot of his personal collection of old comics, art he had bought in the past, DVD's, figurines, etc, and those were selling very well indeed. Granted he was selling it at firesale prices, but it was moving and he showed a very good profit at the end.
I snagged an Apple Mac G3 (blue and white 400Mhz model) that I had sitting surplus in my room and brought it in- it sold in 20 min for $50. Coolness. I ended up buying a digital camera from Shandower for the same amount. Heh.
I'm eager to draw more. I turned away people and I hate to do that. I too will have to raise prices at the recommendation of Shandower. It's good to be cheap, but the demand means I have to turn people away and that's not fair either. I have to hit a balance of higher prices / fewer pieces. That means those pics I do draw will be that much better.
Anyways, it was a decent con for a first year and I'll be back since it's so close for me.
besides, there is so much yiff art out there, something clean/erotic seems so much nicer.
good to hear the fans have not forgotten about you.
now to check for your anime counterpart...
you see, I am not very good on making stories up. I created some full-length stuff no one is interested in, so I gave up... and my shorts are rather fetish-filled.
but, if I go and make a situation up with everything around it, I might as well do it by myself. but that's not what I want, so I use to give the artist freedom. doesn't work for you, allright. understood that. I want to find out if it would work saving up the money for a comission, or if I would accomplish nothing but frustrate you in the end.
Thanks for putting on your panels and generally wearing yourself thin! I'm no artist (yet!), but I had a blast learning all sorts of new things. Fun!