[Rinji_HalfElf]

Well, I've decided to make copies a small sketchbook. I'll probably sell it for really cheap.

If anyone else is interested in making a at con sketch book for themselves, let me know!
I wouldn't mind swapping copies and collecting other people's work.

I should get into the habit of sketching more often...

This post has been edited by Rinji_HalfElf: 13 July 2010 - 12:43 AM

[kyadesigns]

I will be selling tees/pins/knitted armwarmers/knitted change purses/vinyl clings/stickers.

I might also bring my tablet and laptop for on-the-spot commissions.

Looking forward to registering and seeing you all there.

[Hellmaster Bean]

I'm already thinking up ideas

More fanart Plushies for one. Last year I made America, Canada, and Russia from Hetalia along with a few others. I'm trying to decide who to make for this year. (suggestions are love)

Also I wanna make my display more...um...vertical. From my personal experience being so short it's hard to always seem what a artist has over even's heads so I like displays with some of the artwork over head level. Did that make any sense?

My sweet charms didn't sell as well as I hoped this year, wonder if there's a better way to display them next time

[kyadesigns]

Hellmaster Bean, on 06 August 2010 - 07:36 PM, said:

I'm already thinking up ideas

More fanart Plushies for one. Last year I made America, Canada, and Russia from Hetalia along with a few others. I'm trying to decide who to make for this year. (suggestions are love)

Also I wanna make my display more...um...vertical. From my personal experience being so short it's hard to always seem what a artist has over even's heads so I like displays with some of the artwork over head level. Did that make any sense?

My sweet charms didn't sell as well as I hoped this year, wonder if there's a better way to display them next time

I love your work. Watched you on DA.

[Hellmaster Bean]

kyadesigns, on 06 August 2010 - 08:54 PM, said:

I love your work. Watched you on DA.

Domo!

[BlackWaltzPinion]

Cello Raptor studios will strike again! NYEHEHEHEH!

-ahem- Nick and I will be making another appearance next year, even though we both said we were going to take the year off. I've already started working on my inventory list and plotting out display ideas. ^^

Like last year, we'll have our riceball aliens and mochi bunnies. Going to be bringing some sushi aliens -complete with dangly arm and leg action!- and paopu aliens -with HAPPY 5MILEY FACE5-.

I'm also going to be making some more dragon plushies -both western dragons and eastern dragons-, some Dragonite plushies, and then griffins, kappa plushies -for good luck!- and lolita accessories.

I've been debating about bringing my comic with me...probably just going to advertise my dA via business cards and hope some people come looking that way. XD

[Chao-Fangirl]

This past May was my first time attending ACEN, and I was impressed by artist alley. So, I definitely want to be able to attend as an artist next year. I would be selling my handmade plushies and taking commissions to be completed after the convention.

[Kitchan]

Chao-Fangirl, on 08 October 2010 - 07:00 PM, said:

This past May was my first time attending ACEN, and I was impressed by artist alley. So, I definitely want to be able to attend as an artist next year. I would be selling my handmade plushies and taking commissions to be completed after the convention.

If you do register for Artists' Alley and especially if it's your first time, feel free to ask me questions. Some very handy answers are in the Artists' Alley FAQ (that Voltaire30, the Department Head, already posted), too.

(I'm ADH in charge of Artists' Alley, by the way.)

[Hooked On Chibis!]

I'm also hoping to make this my first year in the AA I've done a few other conventions, so the notion isn't strange to me, but ACen will bring its own adventures forward! It should be interesting!

I make and sell chibi-style plushies: hookedonchibis.etsy.com

I can't wait to meet everyone!!

[rei_0]

I'm plotting, yes. Not sure what I'll sell yet though. Print, obviously. I just haven't drawn them yet. It will be my first time so I don't have too much of a plan yet.
I may try making some bjd clothes, but I probably won't have enough time with school and other stuff to get much done.

As far as my prints go, I want to try to do about half fan art, half original/original character stuff. I have a comic series I'm slowly working on, but I don't expect to have much besides some preliminary character sketches. And hopefully try to keep things close to my general theme somehow, otherwise it will just be a mess.

I also have no idea how I'm going to pay for it, since I still haven't found a job!

(I should start taking commissions /now/, but I'm just not that well connected.)

[shinigamiJACULA]

hopefully acen '11 will be my first year in AA too! i've never done anything like it, but i'm hoping that i will get a good experience from it! despite my passion in art, i'm not gonna do much with it in the future (no room for art when you're pre-med! >___<)so i should definitely make it a side-job when i can...

and i'm not sure how i'm gonna pay for it either, but if i sell enough, i should make enough money to pay it off and end up with some profit! ^^

so far i'm thinking of selling pins, laminated cellphone charms/keychains, and bookmarks/small prints...

as of now, my pin roster is as follows (i haven't made any yet, but these are the characters that i'm thinking):
~kingdom hearts: sora, roxas, axel, riku, demyx, terra, ven, aqua, vanitas
~final fantasy: cloud, zack, yuna rikku paine (on one pin), squall, tidus, sephiroth
~bleach: ichigo, rukia, kon, hitsugaya, renji, grimmjow
~katekyo hitman reborn: reborn, tsuna, gokudera, takeshi, rokudo, dino
~kuroshitsuji: ciel, sebastian, grell, alois

i'm open to suggestions so please let me know what YOU would want to see! ^^

[Gwydion]

shinigamiJACULA, on 17 November 2010 - 03:01 PM, said:

~final fantasy: cloud, zack, yuna rikku paine (on one pin), squall, tidus, sephiroth
~bleach: ichigo, rukia, kon, hitsugaya, renji, grimmjow
~kuroshitsuji: ciel, sebastian, grell, alois

Since you're already doing these series, I'd suggest adding Reno, Ulquiorra, and Undertaker. From personal experience, people seem to really like them, lol. Any other suggestions I'd have would likely be too obscure, and I can't attend this year anyway. ;;

[shinigamiJACULA]

Gwydion, on 20 November 2010 - 11:53 PM, said:

Since you're already doing these series, I'd suggest adding Reno, Ulquiorra, and Undertaker. From personal experience, people seem to really like them, lol. Any other suggestions I'd have would likely be too obscure, and I can't attend this year anyway. ;;

aah thank you! ^^ wow i can't believe i forgot to add reno and ulquiorra...and i didn't know undertaker was so popular! =O

[Gwydion]

lol To be honest, neither did I! XD

[Hooked On Chibis!]

shinigamiJACULA, on 17 November 2010 - 03:01 PM, said:

i'm open to suggestions so please let me know what YOU would want to see! ^^

If you're doing FF, you might also consider the basic FF1 characters. I make the three mage dolls for my shop and I can't ever keep them in stock (especially black mages!).

Some other fandoms that I've seen do really well as buttons, bookmarks, or other quick swag:
- Avatar: the Last Airbender
- Deathnote
- Hetalia
- Pokemon

I've also seen buttons do well in Zodiac sets (both Western and Chinese). Word on the street is that Naruto is not faring as well merch-wise as it has in past years, so if you decide to do some Naruto I wouldn't make a bagillion prints of it.

This is, in the end, all up to the customers and they are, as a group, fickle. You can try to include the most hip, up-to-the-minute darling of the anime world in your merch, and maybe you'll get it right and make a bunch of money. But the customers who will remember you, and tell their friends, will be the ones who say "I CANT BELIEVE YOU MADE (my favorite obscure anime here*)!!!" Not to mention, you will have more fun and make more art if you're drawing what you love!

*from my booth, customers get excited to see Dragonball Z, Record of Lodoss War, the FF1 characters, and some of the less-popular Pokemon. Fun fact, I sold more Espeons than Pikachus at my last convention!

[shinigamiJACULA]

Hooked On Chibis!, on 22 November 2010 - 02:22 PM, said:

This is, in the end, all up to the customers and they are, as a group, fickle. You can try to include the most hip, up-to-the-minute darling of the anime world in your merch, and maybe you'll get it right and make a bunch of money. But the customers who will remember you, and tell their friends, will be the ones who say "I CANT BELIEVE YOU MADE (my favorite obscure anime here*)!!!" Not to mention, you will have more fun and make more art if you're drawing what you love!

haha yeah, im not sure if i want to invest in a lot of different characters cuz this would be my very first time selling my art EVER so i don't want to do a ton of characters and find out that im not making much profit =\

plus im not even sure if i'll be able to put my act together in time to try out for AA...we'll see...=___=U

thanks for your input tho! i'll be sure to keep it in mind if i do end up doing AA ^^

[Ginrei]

Aaaah yes. I am plotting wares. I make hats. Nerd hats. Like the ones here: http://bunniebard.deviantart.com/

Last year was my first AA ever, and I made... I think the total was 40? of various hats... and they were mostly gone on Friday. People would STAND at my table and WATCH me make more to ensure that they got the next one. It was super nutso crazy.

So yes! I plot. I think after Christmas I will make 1 hat a day, and hopefully have somewhere around 100 this year. If I don't die first! My advice to you newbies is to pick popular characters, and to focus on cool or cute things. I thought my prices were too high, but all my Megaman hats sold and even my tiny, so overpriced crochet dolls all sold... But my little $3 coasters/magnets SAT at my table all weekend. If people like something, they will PAY for it.

[MBluesummers]

Prints prints and prints?! I just got done with a small convention back in early november and it was a test run for my new convention portfolio, it went well.
Need to get some paper and get ready to take pen and ink commissions. Folks seemed to be pretty surprised and interested at the fact that I chose to dip with crow-quill and india ink Vs. using microns.

I'm hoping to get a table this year for the first time in 2..maybe 3 years?

'Possibly going to invest in a button maker, so if I do, time to spew out some button designs!

This post has been edited by MBluesummers: 27 November 2010 - 10:09 PM

[acaseofrandom]

I'm starting to work with feathers more . . . though I can't really say what they'll end up on, since I rarely know what I'm making from one month to the next. Same with all this ribbon . . . though I think I'll try my hand at fascinators.

[thatreevesgirl]

Noshi, on 01 June 2010 - 10:14 PM, said:

Also, I would recommend not accepting $100 bills (and $50's too probably). Your odds of getting counterfeits are much less when dealing with fives and tens. If you are uncomfortable telling people you won't accept big bills due to the risk of counterfeits, you can tell them you don't keep enough smaller bills to make change for 50's or 100's.

I do that all the time. And honestly, it's true. I don't want to have to lug more than $300 in change to a con, and most of those 50's and 100's are used by participants on Friday the very first thing. Another of my studio members accepts them. She knows that if they turn up counterfeit, it is her butt, not mine, and her money loss too.

Ginrei, on 23 November 2010 - 09:23 PM, said:

Last year was my first AA ever, and I made... I think the total was 40? of various hats... and they were mostly gone on Friday. People would STAND at my table and WATCH me make more to ensure that they got the next one. It was super nutso crazy.

Yep. I completely agree. If you give someone a good quality product, they will pay more for it. Sometimes I'm amazed at what some merch goes for. I can't keep homemade items at the table past Saturday morning most of the time, so I price it at what the market will accept. The last few cons have been crazy.

Also, after doing many alleys (36 AA's and counting) I'd like to add to the popular fandom list:
Legend of Zelda (Mostly Link)
Star Trek (pretty much just the movie verse and maybe Picard) in anime form
Inception in anime form
(I second) anything Final Fantasy
Kingdom Hearts is still going strong (and there is nothing for the new psp game)
Azumanga Daioh (I can't explain it, but this still sells like CRAZY)
...I can't do Hetalia (though it sells great). I just can't. I ship America x Russia for some reason, but watching/reading it hurts my soul.

Fandoms I'm knocking out for next year: Panty and Stocking, Star Driver, Gintama (mostly for myself), Inception, Naruto (cause I just can't give that crap up), Star Trek, Assassin's Creed, Bleach (shush about my bad shonen addiction), Avatar (since the new series is coming out), Vocaloid, Gurren Lagann, a lot of pictures of Reno and other Final Fantasy stuff, more Legend of Zelda, more Azumanga Daioh, and then a whole buttload of original stuff.

Also, someone said something about sketchbook trades? Mine isn't going to be anything special, but I'm totally up for that if you are!

And finally, the word "Free" is magical. Magical. Use it, even if it is just to give away a free button with a $20 purchase. Seriously, I'm not lying. Somewhere on your table should be the word free (but only with purchase).

This post has been edited by thatreevesgirl: 13 December 2010 - 06:33 AM

[BlackWaltzPinion]

Ginrei, on 23 November 2010 - 09:23 PM, said:

Aaaah yes. I am plotting wares. I make hats. Nerd hats. Like the ones here: http://bunniebard.deviantart.com/

Last year was my first AA ever, and I made... I think the total was 40? of various hats... and they were mostly gone on Friday. People would STAND at my table and WATCH me make more to ensure that they got the next one. It was super nutso crazy.

So yes! I plot. I think after Christmas I will make 1 hat a day, and hopefully have somewhere around 100 this year. If I don't die first! My advice to you newbies is to pick popular characters, and to focus on cool or cute things. I thought my prices were too high, but all my Megaman hats sold and even my tiny, so overpriced crochet dolls all sold... But my little $3 coasters/magnets SAT at my table all weekend. If people like something, they will PAY for it.

Words spoken like a true master! I remember our first year, even after two years of preparing, we were still bombarded, but we've been planning accordingly every year afterwards.

And on the note of people paying for things, I've been surprised many a time on how much of what I thought was an expensive item sold! One year I brought three six foot long eastern dragons with hand beaded feet and thought I'd have to put them on sale, but every one of them sold for my $60 asking price. XD