/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

Anybody else get these types of messages? Understand that the 20% would’ve only saved her $6.

>>10044419
yeah just tell them to cancel and make the purchase again
otherwise tell them sorry

>>10044419
>"I didn't know about the biggest sale weekend of the year!"

If you have shipped their item already, tell them too bad, but if you haven't shipped it yet, I guess you could refund them the $6 or whatever.

>>10044468
I had already shipped their item the previous day, and I know they got the shipping notification from it.

>>10044583
Let them know if they want a refund, they can pay to ship it back, and you'll gladly refund them once you get the product back.

I think there was a similar conversation a thread or so ago, but how do you deal with fans/customers who are getting a little too... personal? I have a fan, who I've been friendly towards but with (I thought) professional distance, who has suddenly started to message me asking about my day and talking about theirs, obviously trying to push things into friendship. We're both female, so it's not that creepy, but since it's out of the blue it's still a bit creepy.
I know this will come off as elitist or stuck up but I'm not interested in this type of relationship with most of my fans/customer base, or anyone online really. But I don't want to alienate them or make them feel bad by outright telling them I'm not interested in being friends with them. I also simply don't have the time or energy to spend on this kind of online conversation, since I've got a lot of other things going on, so I can't just humor them and pretend like we're friends while also trying to keep them at arms length.

Is there a way to make someone less interested in being friends with you without making it obvious that you don't want to be friends?

Sorry for making cgl my personal diary for a minute.

>>10044419
No, but I did get have to talk to someone for 40 minutes because they didn't understand why a promo code wasn't working when the code was already applied.

Personally, I would give them a special 20% off code for a future order (or $6 in credits). Though $6 isn't that much anyway, so I would also just refund them if they insisted on a refund.

>>10044723
>asking about my day
>a bit creepy

yikes. She isn't the crazy one here.

>Is there a way to make someone less interested in being friends with you without making it obvious that you don't want to be friends?

If you don't want to talk to someone...... don't talk to them.

>>10044740
NAYRT but someone who you aren't interested in making friends with trying to small talk about stuff with the obvious intention of becoming buddies can be really uncomfortable, and in a situation where the other person is essentially a fan of anons I can imagine that it can feel off-putting or even a bit creepy if they just suddenly make the leap from a follower/mutual to acting like friends.
>>10044723
If you don't want to completely ignore them, it's a good idea to reply to the messages only occasionally. Even just waiting for a day or so before you even read them also gives you a good reason to not reply to everything and just give a short answer. As someone who's been on both the receiving and delivering end of this kind of interaction I can almost guarantee they'll give up after a bit and probably return to how things were.
Usually when someone tries to befriend you it's because they've gotten positive attention from you before and they want more of it, so once they notice you aren't interested in giving it they tend to back down.

>>10044419
God if they didn't say that last line about wishing you told them I would have happily given them a refund. I've had like two poeple ask me for price adjustments but with absolutely no expectations or fault laying so I gave it to them since that is something i would appreciate from a store myself. If they came to me like this idk how I'd respond, why be a jerk and blame the store owner do they think that's going to make you feel bad lmao

>>10044723
Agree with >>10044751 just respond slow, respond with short phrases that do not invite back and forth. How's your day? Doing well thanks. Did you watch this show? Yea. / No. Working on anything? Just the usual :) etc.

>>10044751
>someone who you aren't interested in making friends with trying to small talk about stuff with the obvious intention of becoming buddies can be really uncomfortable

I can't believe gif related is actually accurate for some people.
I can't imagine how you go through life when you think literally any form of conversation is creepy.

>>10044767
>but with absolutely no expectations or fault laying so I gave it to them since that is something i would appreciate from a store myself
This. OP's not wrong and it's their decision to handle it how they choose.
Customers are more likely to return if they feel you treat them as more than just a wallet tho. I was a buyer in similar situation: asked the artist about a sold out product, was put top of a waiting list, was cordial and polite in my messages, waited months for restock, and bought it immediately when I was notified by the artist. A week later, the artist had everything on discount sale and I felt like a dumbass lol. I don't blame the artist but the situation turned me off from being a returning customer.

>>10044771
That gif doesn't make sense because girls are usually not creeped out by other girls despite being not attracted to them.

>>10044793
That situation sounds like it sucks, but I'm not sure if it would turn me off personally. It's always a play between something being sold out and buying something for a lower price. Like yeah, you might have been able to nab those items at a discount if you waited a week... or, those items might have sold out again and you would been left empty-handed.

>>10044793
The situation where they previously had a sold out item but you asked them to restock it might have been an item that the artist no longer wanted to restock but since you were so patient, they brought it back for you but they had excess because it's no longer a product that sells as well as it used to and they're discounting it to move inventory.

>>10044751
>>10044767
Thanks. My first instinct was to just ghost them, but they're a good customer so I didn't want to be an asshole. I'll make an effort.

>>10044740
>She isn't the crazy one here.
I never said she was crazy, just that it was a little creepy. Last message I got from her was about some fanfic weeks ago and we'd only ever talked in the past about fandom things, then yesterday she sent me multiple paragraphs about her day at work and asking about mine on one platform and a short note on a different platform. I'm not as socially adept as most people but it feels very weird to me. Maybe she's going through something and she's reaching out but I just don't know how to let her know she's reaching out to the wrong person in the wrong way. I try to be friendly with people but I just don't have the energy or desire to follow through with anybody and everybody who wants to have deeper discussions with me. I don't think that's crazy, but if you do, we'll have to agree to disagree.

>>10044771
Fan behavior (fanatic behavior) can be quite creepy. It's essentially a stranger coming up to you and acting like your friend and trying to engage with you...often constantly.

Not OP but I've experienced it a lot. I've also experienced regular commissioners becoming actual friends of mine, so it's not like it's all creepy. It just depends, and I don't think OP was saying all people who try to talk to you are creepy.

what do you wanna bet 4 for $20 print guy is furiously shitting out "tribute" prints for stan lee and stephen hillenburg as we speak

>>10045693
oh, musecrap?

>>10045693
What do you guys think about predatory pricing anyways? I feel like it’s only other artists that hate it, but fans love it.

>>10045719
I think you only can afford if you're willing to never need anything from other artists and having them breathing down your neck.

>>10045719
Undercutting obviously gets you more sales (and cheaper prices obviously is a win for customers) but are you really getting the most you could get from your sales?

I mean, you're actively losing money per sale because if you sell a print for $5 versus someone selling a similar sized print for $15, they only have to sell 1 while you have to sell 3 to get the same amount they did.

The cheaper price might work out for more sales for you in general, but you still might end up on the losing end if they sold 10 prints, and you sold like 23 over an entire weekend. (Plus you have to print more. (And if prints are like 10cents each, you have to buy more stock compared to them, but still only make about the same, or maybe even less in the long run)

Having cheaper prints is only reasonable if you're a lower tier artist and it's hard for you to move your artwork at market average price.

>>10045719
It depends. Even from a consumer POV, I assume that the quality of your product is shittier if I see predatory pricing. The only time I've seen someone with genuine talent and skill price that low was with that muddymelly girl. Everyone else I see at cons doing this have really fucking shitty art or are a "studio" aka proxy selling for like 5 different mediocre artists. They get sales only through their dirt cheap prices and vast selection of fandoms because they can't compete through skill and innocation.

I tabled next to one of these proxy 4 for $20 print tables before and while their giant price signs had a lot of people flocking to their table initially, most of those people ended up not buying from them because the quality of art was actively shittier than other artists selling prints for $15 each. One customer was at my table and about to buy one of my $15 prints when her friend was like "Oh hey did you see THAT booth??? It's cheaper there!" and pointed to the proxy guys next to me who happened to have a print from the same fandom for $5 or 4 for $20. But the customer made a face and told her friend that the art was bad and immediately paid for my print instead.

So in the end... yeah you'll be getting people with smaller budgets but people who can afford to spend will shop around for quality. And also everything this anon said >>10045757 The only reason to undercut is if you aren't good enough to compete at the market price.

>>10045757
I agree with >>10045719

My stuff is generally priced more than similar products (sometimes way more) and I'm perfectly happy not killing myself having to make a bunch of stuff while still making the same (or more) money

>>10044723
Not quite the same experience with this anon but similar: a mutual, who frequents at the events I table at, keeps referring to me as her "best friend" to all of her friends, acts very familiar with me when I don't know her on a personal level. It's just very weird to me... I don't want to sour things and make things awkward at the events, so I think I mostly have to suck it up and keep my distance since I have no interest in being friends with her. And honestly I followed her back when she friended me in-person last year, so I think I'll just unfriend this girl really.

>>10045719
it only counts as predatory pricing if they're specifically operating at a loss and then raise prices back up again after competition leaves, which isn't the case here.

this kind of price fixing that artists have been doing is teeechnically illegal, not that anyone cares.. but i think people should keep that in mind? especially whenever a bunch of artists gang up on another artist with whatever social pressure to adhere to whatever pricing structure.

I'm tabling with a partner who's also selling (as opposed to just a table helper) for the first time, should we just both keep a separate cash fanny pack with separate float or have one of us handle all the money and keep track of our sales? In theory keeping it separate sounds easier and cleaner but I don't have the experience to know what actually works best IRL.

>>10046339
Yes, keep your sales and cash float separated. Save yourselves the confusion later. Communicate whether it's okay to handle a sale when someone is away (if you guys are close friends) or not... But generally, to be safe, if you have to go away for a break or something, take your cash float with you and have your partner tell any customers if they want to buy from you to come back later.

>>10046339
I keep my money seperate from my partners, but if ever they are away from the table, I’ll do the transaction for them and give change from my float.

>>10046110
price fixing isn't the same as market average because the entirety of AA isn't colluding to keep these prices, it's just competitive pricing.

Most artists choose to price at the average price, but there's nothing stopping you from pricing higher or lower. Most folks can't pull off $20+ a print unless you're a well known or highly skilled artist, and others don't want to price lower because they want to get the maximum amount of money they could get per sale. It just so happens the average value/price for an 11x17 print is $15 across the board, so that's what everyone prices as. But you'll still find people selling their prints for $20, $12, $10, etc.

>>10046856
it's true that since quality 11x17 prints sell fine at $15 it doesn't make much sense to sell them for less, but I would argue against the "nothing stopping you from selling lower" when we've seen multiple times artists backlash against another artist selling good art for too cheap. and it's not out of concern for the artist or whatever, it's specifically because lower pricing becoming standard would hurt everyone's profits.

>>10046339
I keep my pouch separate from my partner's. If they leave the table or I leave the table then the person leaving typically leaves the pouch with the other person behind the table (that way it's less dangerous if a thief tries to steal it from them while they're unguarded/alone). I use their pouch to do their transactions while they are away so I don't lose track of money.

Best is to write down all your sales though. It gets tiring and after a while, you kind of don't want to, but keeping a good record is really important! It's hard esp when it gets busy though.

I only table with people I trust tho/friends so if you aren't very close to your partner then it depends on that as well.

>>10046987
NAYRT but those are just the social repercussions? You aren't entitled to anyone's friendship, knowledge, or time and if you're doing something actively harmful to me I have no reason to include you in my group orders or be friends with you.

>>10046987
I've seen artists drop the prices of their prints by a couple dollars when a con is really slow and they want to make their table back, so it's not really that out there.

>>10047210
unfortunately, this is a commercial industry like any other and if part of ‘being friends’ with someone means agreeing not to charge below a certain amount, you’ve technically formed a trust

>>10047354
That’s not what that means at all. I don’t go around asking every single one of my friends to agree to a price point before I become friends with them. You’re reaching.

>>10047354
Has everyone forgot that people can just choose not to buy prints if they feel like $15 is too high or prices are unfair?

We're not running businesses critical to human life, we draw anime waifus and husbandos for god's sake, and once people get tired of buying weeb shit, there goes our entire business model.

Price fixing doesn't work for something that isn't completely necessary to live. And since we're not a huge artist hivemind, we're not all communicating to keep our prices the same either.

Imagine your art being so bad that you have to resort to price fixing to actually make money.

>>10047364
"Price fixing is an agreement (written, verbal, or inferred from conduct) among competitors that raises, lowers, or stabilizes prices or competitive terms. Generally, the antitrust laws require that each company establish prices and other terms on its own, without agreeing with a competitor. When consumers make choices about what products and services to buy, they expect that the price has been determined freely on the basis of supply and demand, not by an agreement among competitors. When competitors agree to restrict competition, the result is often higher prices. Accordingly, price fixing is a major concern of government antitrust enforcement."
https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/dealings-competitors/price-fixing

>>10047767
>>10047364
if anon wants to believe that AA is a price fixing conspiracy let them

Do you think an AI automated coloring program would effect AA?

https://www.brightsurf.com/news/article/112718471073/automated-technique-for-anime-colorization-using-deep-learning.html

>>10047841
Nah. Not in a long while.
Judging from the sparse information in your link, it sounds more like a tool for coloring sequential frames based on an already given color scheme, so most likely it's a glorified fill-tool for cel shading.

>>10047841
lol, ai coloring has been around for ages. try it yourself, it sucks
https://paintschainer.preferred.tech/index_en.html

>>10047841
Hopefully.
People need to focus more on creating their own style rather than the same bland coloring style you always see.

With things being very tight on my schedule next year, I was beginning to think I should stop taking small commissions at cons, and outside of cons and just focus on large commissions and client work. But then a part of me is thinking, but what about that nice hunk of change you get from doing small commissions? But at the same time they are not helping me at all portfolio or drawing wise. I'm pretty torn. I could use some insight on when it's time to swap over to high end commissions only, or if there's a way to balance it.

>>10047974
small time commissions are a waste of time. you could spend the same amount of time designing a new print, charm or pin that will earn you way more in the long run for usually less work (prints more work but other things less)

If you enjoy it then you know do whatever, but profitability wise, huge waste of time.

>>10047974
I used to take at-con commissions but I get fatigued easily and with commissions I had to stay up till 3am each con night to do them so I decided to sacrifice the extra money just to get some more hours of sleep.

My tablemate is draining the hell out of me emotionally. She constantly worries about every little thing and hey, I worry a lot too, but I don't make it a point to whine to her about it like she does to me. I'm constantly having to assure her that things will be fine.

How do I gently tell her to chill the fuck out?

>>10048190
if you’re not close friends with her, at a certain point you need to just say ‘hey i’m not your therapist, i can’t talk you down every time you work yourself up into an anxious tizzy. you need to deal with it yourself’

>>10048190
I have a friend who's kind of like that too but the more experience she gets, the less she worries about everything, so ideally your friend will also get more confident and stress less as you get more experience? Unless you both are old pros at tabling in which case she'll probably never change and you might need to draw the line like >>10048221 said.

>>10048190
I have a friend who does that too and when she does it slowly makes me anxious. Like I could be pretty confident about the upcoming show and she would just keep worrying (her art is better than mine) and it starts to affect my mindset.

Best thing is just to NOT do it gently lol. (At least if you're close) I'd just straight up tell them "chill the fuck out" and give them some reasons why they shouldn't need to worry so much.

>>10048444
Are y’all in the actual AA that scared of selling your items? You’re actually that worried about making money in one convention..?

>>10048190
Tbqh I had a table mate like that and I just stopped tabling with her because I couldn't take it anymore

>>10048509
This, after a year I started tabling solo just because I could feel my tablemate's nervous vibes affecting sales and my attitude during the day. If talking to them about it doesn't work, maybe move to solo tabling.

>>10048488
NAYRT but I think it's about more than just making money for a lot of people. Logistics, making sure you don't forget anything, having enough stock, etc. Making convention cost is surely a big point (I've been to cons I thought would be moderately legit and then no one showed up) but it's not always just that.

>>10048488
yes we get it anon, one con is insignificant and you're very successful and special :)

this finally the nail in tumblr's coffin?

I dropped out of college and am now living temporarily rent-free with a friend. Is doing commissions and/or porn commissions the faster way to earn money or should I focus on making merchandise like prints and charms right off the bat? I have about $12k on student loans and going into repayment six months from now. Assuming I could do well-done heavily rendered paintings with a bonus of uguu kawaii copy pasted sameface characters (like Yamio/Hyanna-Natsu's art) is it realistic to expect a decent following and orders within that time frame, even with consistent posting/portfolio building? I want to do art full-time but it's kinda hard to start when I owe thousands of dollars for fucking nothing

>>10049065
Sounds like you're prone to bad decisions. Just get a job and do art on the side like the others like you.

>>10049065
just learn how to do furries, they pay fucking bank for art

>>10049065
Possible but you would really have to commit and bust ass. I would say long term viability you should make merchandise and my reasoning is >>10047990

In the short term you could probably be well on your way to pay off loans if you hustle for furry/porn art but the art doesn't work for you in the longer term because they are one offs. Find a way to make your art continuously bring in money.

Question for y’all,
I’m trying to talk myself down from this wall of thinking that the only way I’m going to become a successful freelancer is by quitting my day job.

Does anyone else here have a full time, non-art related job and STILL make decent bank off of art?

I work a 12-8pm shift Tuesday-Saturday, stay up usually until midnight to work on art. I’ve made decent progress but I still feel like my energy is wasted at my day job. I get in week long ruts when I feel too tired to stay up, and wind up sleeping instead of drawing. I feel like to make any real /business/ progress (having an Etsy shop, making commissions on time) I’d have to cut down hours at work. Any tips on how to better manage time without getting burned out every couple months?

>>10049184
freelancers who have the autism and the drive to pump out commissions every week/every couple of days are the ones who make bank doing art, not the part-timer who doodles on the side.
A lot of people on /ic/ are on the same boat as you, you can go check there and see how everyone's doing

>>10049184
Anon I quit my job this spring and I’ve made $44k in profits since then.
You’re stupid if you keep your job and keep trying to draw to get somewhere. You’ve got one life anon, yolo swag four-twenty blaze it

>>10049065
Fetish comics give ok pay per page. It'll honestly be less than if you got a retail job, and used that to fund the art on the side. I've been doing this for 5+ years, putting 6-12 hours a day into art, commissions, or promo and sometimes you just don't get there. Some months it's 1k, others 3k, some none. Not everyone experiences that mega fame, and good income. Art is one of those don't quit your day job things, unless you want to do vector infographics. I'd get a job you can stand doing, then go home and put 4 more hours into doing art every day. See where it gets you.

>>10049237
>Some months it's 1k, others 3k, some none
NAYRT but there's probably a reason why your art isn't selling all that well. Highschoolers who sell run-off-the-mill annie-may prints at the artist alley make more than that

Is twitter seriously the only other place we can go now that tumblr committed suicide? instagram is god awful for posting images that aren't square or are high resolution, and deviantart doesn't have the ability to upload multiple images in one submission.
I'm on the edge of just being done with social media and just making my own website. Tired of all this bs.

>>10049257
A couple of my art friends are moving back to deviantart or newgrounds. others are trying to go to some newer sites like pillowfort

>>10049285
Yea, I hear everyone talk about pillowfort. I think I'll look into them once they get their site up.
I checked out their twitter. Looks like they gained over 11k followers within 24 hours. lel

>>10049288
god the creator(s) must be dancing at this whole situation lmao, it must be great for them

>>10049251
Lmao maybe a couple do but most don't, anon why are you here just trying to make people feel bad

>>10049251
Thats not true at all unless they get extremely lucky. The average earnings from AA is ~$1.5k.

>>10049184
What I discovered about doing freelance between full time work was that I absolutely fucking hated drawing on command for idiots. At this point I'm completely ok with doing some art on the side for AA, little bits here and there for my own projects and hoarding enough money to retire as early as possible.

It boils down to having enough capital to make choices that don't hinge on paying the bills, and freelancing generally doesn't give you much choice because you're constantly hustling. Sometimes you're lucky/good enough to have consistent clientele, and if you're smart with your finances you can also retire early, but it really comes down to knowing yourself. For me, I don't want to be tight with my finances while still being able to sock away aggressively for retirement, I like spending a lot of money on things like travel and toys, and given all of that I'm fine with the tradeoff of full time with less time for art.

>>10049285
pillowfort is super hugboxy, one of the features they brag the most about is the ability to delete other peoples' reblogs of your posts. pretty fucked up imo

>>10049345
Sounds great. What I really didn’t like about tumblr was that reblogs stay even after you delete your post.

So is anyone willing to share a place to find commission work? I've tapped out my Tumblr/Twitter reach, the Reddit ads as well as my Facebook/Discord/Deviant groups. I just feel the internet is SO HUGE and those can't be the only places where people are willing to pay $15 for a chibi or a furry doodle. Any help? It's the holidays. Throw this Tiny Tim a turkey leg bone?

>>10049289
Hey, when it rains child porn it uh...pours furry art?

...Oh tumblr. You fucked up so, so, sooo bad.

>>10049311
>What I discovered about doing freelance between full time work was that I absolutely fucking hated drawing on command for idiots.
I'm not even freelance and this is the main reason I never considered it. I never did many commissions because I just didn't enjoy drawing for others. I prefer having a full time job and drawing whatever I want during my spare time to having my full time job be drawing on command.

>>10049285
>pillowfort
There was another social media site that everyone thought was going to be next big thing. It started with V, but I already forgot what the full name was, it was just really bad. Hopefully pillowfort will be better.

>>10049345
That doesn't really sound hugboxy, sounds like giving users more control over their own content.

>>10049382
Toyhouse?

>>10049561
Not sure which one you are talking about, but a big issue a lot of new social media websites have is they just try to make a copy of, say, instagram, twitter, reddit, etc. with just a few extra features. For a new one to succeed, it needs to be unique and shouldn't be able to be described as "just like instagram/tumblr/etc".
Its good to be similar to those others, but not "just like" them.

>>10049561
Vero. Came and went in a week. Wasn't there some controversy around the creator of that platform, too?

>>10049587
iirc, the controversy was that the ToS were worded in a very "we own eveeerything you post" way and when asked for clarification, they brushed it off.

>>10049251
I know I've been missing an aesthetic on my anime prints, my top sellers are non-print items. I really need the time to revamp all my prints, some of them have been out too long and just reached their market completely, flushed through 200+ copies and out of popularity. I think if I did that I could nearly double what I'm doing at a table, because I used to do the same income just on prints, but I've been putting 2 years in completing art that are non-prints. The 3 new prints I did make, are my top sellers in my print line.

>>10049569
>>10049561
it means dumbasses can delete criticism of the things they post, as well as fact-checking, jokes, and......literally anything the op decides they don't like. so, sure, maybe you personally would enjoy using a feature like that, but do you trust other people to not flagrantly abuse it?

>>10049723
meant >>10049354 not >>10049561

>>10049723
Does the feature let you delete your posts, and then have all reblogs be deleted, or can you pick which reblogs you want to delete? Because if it's the latter then yeah, I can see it easily being abused into becoming a hugbox. You can basically prevent people from responding and refuting you.

>>10049725
both. you can delete the original post (and hence all reblogs) or delete individual comments
"It’s worth noting that users can also delete any individual comments left on their post, because we want to encourage the notion that when you comment on someone’s post you are in THEIR space."
http://pillowfort-io.tumblr.com/post/176600099131/could-you-elaborate-on-the-rationale-for-having

>>10049729
>tumblr: Safe Space version
I mean, if Pillowfort gains traction and an audience I would probably use it for posting art since that's all I ever did on tumblr too, but this sounds like the kind of "preventing toxicity" measure that will backfire and just create a platform full of sensitive snowflakes incapable of handling any form of criticism.

>>10049725
i feel like that's one thing but it would also help people delete posts where they're getting creeped on, because you know people are gonna start trying shit

>>10049733
it's a tradeoff. either you let people say what they want to and about people, or you start restricting that. restrictions cut down on, say, things like porn blogs adding winky faces to teen girls' selfies, but they also cut down on things like pointing out a certain post is fearmongering or blatantly lying.

>>10049723
Tumblr is the only website I can think of that you can't do this on though. 4chan isn't a hug box, but you can delete comments. You can't delete people's replies, but replies mean nothing if you don't know what was said.

Would it be strange to have multiple online shops..? I'm just starting out and I'm having a hard time deciding between tictail and etsy. I'm leaning towards tictail, but as I said I'm just starting out, so the exposure that comes along with an etsy shop would be good. I figure I could use etsy as a secondary shop and maybe post less stock there, and link to my "main" tictail shop. Has anyone tried using Tictail starting out with a not so large following?

>>10049776
> tictail
anon, tictail is disappearing next year...

>>10049784
Explain

>>10049768
There's a difference between removing the post where you said something stupid and removing the replies pointing out your post was stupid, though. Deleting your post is an admittance you regret it, while removing replies is more like denial.

>>10049790
they were bought by shopify.

>>10049730
This has always been the norm on LJ type sites which is way closer to what pillowfort is channeling than tumblr.

>>10049794
Its just a blogging website. You don't win any internet points by telling someone they are wrong about something. Its annoying, yes, but not unreasonable to give people full control over their own content.
Nothing stopping you from calling these people out either. just make your own separate post.

Got a question for those of you in the UK. In the past thread there was mention of earning thousands of dollars each con, one even said it was their fulltime business earning 10k+. Do any of you earn a similar amount? Or is it not doable with our smaller cons/is it a totally different environment?

>>10049903
I'm US but went to Hyper Japan this year. It is supposed to be one of the largest UK events but it was really medium-con tier compared to the US, tables were twice as expensive, and the con was freely letting in bootlegs and didn't curate the sections at all so we had those brown bag people next to us in the kawaii corner. I did probably 60% of what I would expect at a similarly sized US con.

>>10049903
Im anticipating for $40k-$50k next anime expo, probably more if I were to be honest with myself.

>>10049311
>What I discovered about doing freelance between full time work was that I absolutely fucking hated drawing on command for idiots.
Can you tell us more? What were some of your worst?

>>10050020
Curious, what's your best selling type of product? Charms or something?

And how many do you bring of what you sell to make that much money?

I mean just as a guess selling charms at $10, that'd be selling 450 charms for $45k right? I've only tabled at smaller cons before, while AX sounds amazing it also sounds kind of terrifying if you're making that much. I might try to get in for it next time, I'm still building out my product lines for now though.

>>10050162
That's 4500 charms at $10 each to make $45k, anon. Not the $45k artist, but I make close to $20k. Honestly, these numbers shouldn't be a motivator. AX is so damn congested and competitive that you'll only make bank if you stand out, have really good art, have a good following, any combo of the above. People who whine about AX not being worth it for them are the ones who should just stop trying because if you fail at AX, the biggest money maker in the West Coast, you're doing something severely wrong.

>>10050020
Just curious are you in aa or dealers at ax?

>>10050020
>$40k-$50k
I can't even imagine transporting that much merch.

>>10050162
Yeah agreeing with this anon >>10050202. I also make around $20k at AX but that hasn't always been the case. With the number of tables & the number of attendees that AX has now, it's turning more into a Comiket-like situation where a lot of attendees will scope out their favorite artists online and make a list of tables to visit. Anything else that happens to catch their eye while they concentrate on their main list is just bonus. I think this is why a lot of first-timers at AX tend to complain a lot because they hear big numbers and expect to make just as much when nowadays you need to have some online pull so that people will actually mark you down on their list. It's a little impossible to just walk around and browse with the crowds so people tend to get what they want and leave. Just because you hear that other artists are making a lot of money doesn't mean you'll also automatically make that much - especially if it's just your first time at AX.

I used to make $5k on just prints alone and nothing else several years back and I can still move 400+ prints at a con like AX. Diversifying your products help for sure but I would really just focus on the quality of your art rather than the item type.

>>10050312
Artist Alley. I heard artists who moved to dealers don't see much of an uptick in income since attendees aren't on the lookout for artists there. You'll be easily passed over if you're not already known. And like >>10050369 said, people really do make check lists now for AX artist alley. You better make a map of where you are and broadcast it everywhere prior to the con or else you'll just be another "bonus" booth, if at all.

Between Sakura-Con and Anime Boston, which would you choose?

>>10050412
The one that I live closest to.

>>10050412
If you were lucky enough to get into both yes, go with what's closer. If you're equidistant, sakuracon if only because the AA is so small the chances of you getting in again are much smaller so might as well visit seattle for free.

New to these threads and the idea of doing something with my art. Wondering if some of you would be comfortable with posting a sample of your work and an average of what you make from cons/online/etc?
And maybe how long it took you to get that level

>>10050601
Anon, no one is going to out themselves on 4chan and attach a number to their online handle.

>>10050601
You'll probably find all that information independent. Highly doubt an individual would give you all three information points voluntarily. For sample of seagulls' work, you can look through the artist spreadsheet pinned above. If you want the general skillset of a con, then best to attend the con and look for yourself. For an average of how much people make at cons, there's the AA con survey you can take a look at. The survey also shows how long people took to get to that point. If you're looking for correlation between skill level and time, the you would have more luck looking at progression charts that artists post up sometimes (there are a few on deviantart).

>>10050601
Anon are you fucking retarded you know some pretty successful artist come here right? You think they’re just going to tell you those things?

Less about artist alley and more about selling merch online.

Where do you guys get your custom shirts made?

>>10050606
Thank you very much, that's all really helpful!

>>10050713
Either way my qs got a helpful response so calm down mongoloid

>>10050601
here you go https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ejVt7F5ar51HCbD51mqn211jvQghNLJBRtRgpDnhoj8/edit#gid=894965485

me and all my friends are craft artists, so I can't really help too much if you want to know how much print artists make.

>>10050729
>less about artist alley
>posts in artist alley thread
>asks to be spoonfed

I get my shirts made by your mom, snowflake

>>10050749
>mongoloid

god i hope you fail. at least from the looks of your first question you probably will.

>>10050601
I sort of did here. >>10049616 >>10049237
Not really going to give further info. But it's not a magic cash cow anon. If you look around at a hot con, you can tell who's table is pulling the most, due to a crowd or consistent sales. My best advice if you want to know who is making the big bux is attend cons, look around, and take notes.

I was recently invited to vend at an event in another continent next year! I don't know if I'll attend it personally, but they offered a remote vending option. Does anyone have an experience with something like that?

>>10050871
I've done a few of these but you have to really trust the event organizers who are running it.

The ones I've done have been with the lolita communities in europe and they've gone well.

>>10050878
That's actually what I'm going to be doing. Modern Doll Fest in France. I'm fairly confident I can trust them, but I'm just wondering how I should go about inventory, and if I should be sending display pieces and signage along with the items?

>>10050884
is it an SFE event? the last one I did was TPC and I just sent them stuff with no display and everything sold pretty well. They did have a neat online system though.

Most important note, check the customs rules! you'll typically need to severely mark down your packages as the event won't pay for customs.

I'm surprised I haven't heard of that one actually! Thanks for letting me know about the event anon

>>10050886
Thank you! And I'm excited to send my stuff there. I'm honestly contemplating going in person, but I'm sure what my plans will be by August next year.

>>10050834
Sure, there's things anyone can google like teespring, zazzle, etc., but I'm looking for personal recommendations. There's a lot of options out there but finding the very best is difficult. I'm not going to make my own thread so another thread gets killed, but thanks.

>>10050894
>Honestly you are just going to have to try some manufacturers for yourself as those that have one aren't going to give up sources.

Searching for custom printed shirts brings up a million results and it all depends on what you want done as well.

If you are new to shirt design I would suggest a drop shipping site like the ones you listed since apparel is expensive and having back stock takes a lot of room.

>>10049065
Yamio has been working for years and has a shitton of social connections because she was popular back when deviantart was still very actively used. Hyanna-Natsu's in a similar situation and regularly posts youtube speedpaints for that additional youtube ad revenue. I don't think you understand that people who draw lots of sameface (or have average/mediocre art in general) but still are successful really only have that success because of social connections and opportunities/luck. There are people even beyond them who draw like total ass that make bank because they made friends with the right people or chanced upon the right opportunities. What you're saying is like pointing at a popular old youtuber and thinking you could also be just as successful starting off new and on the same platform; it's not realistic. No guarantees.

Also, during that same timeframe of Yamio's popularity there was all kinds of drama in the kawaii art group lol. Everyone rallying tracing accusations and other trash back and forth while trying to tear each other apart. That was just with the big names, most of which either didn't let it bother them or gave up/remade. It's tough out there.

Dropping is a really poor choice, pun intended. Unis are a scam. You should really reconsider applying to a cheaper community/technical college to get some kind of technical degree/license for a job that will put you above minimum wage work, assuming that re-entering college would delay your $12k debt and instead allow your art to pay for your semester costs. Just spitballing, I have no idea how deep you're in. Best of luck to you.

>>10050892
Hey if you look at it as a vacation it's not a bad idea! I did that to go to eternal twilight this year.

And, given that you are coming from farther away, see if you can work something out with the event organizers to at least get your table fee waived. Lolita organizers are generally very reasonable, if you offer them item support of equal value (by your retail value, not cost) or if you have special skills to offer (artwork, workshops etc) they may go for it

How do you guys feel about non-AA people trying to do trades with you? I'm curious. I hate getting asked for trades because I have really narrow interests and feel bad when the person has nothing I care about, and I feel rude for declining even if they say they don't mind.

One of my friends who doesn't table however basically never buys anything from artists at cons and just goes around to their tables with her original art that's not particularly interesting or aesthetically pleasing and tries to get them to trade with her. She always ends up with tons of prints...I can't help suspecting that people just feel bad?

The worst is when someone has the same fandoms you draw, so you can't just say you're not into anything, but their stuff is trash.

>>10051438
>She always ends up with tons of prints
dang, I should ask people to trade with me more often then.

>>10051438
Tbh I've happily traded with people like this who have brought pins. I think it's a clever idea!

However my mo is to always do as many art trades as I can xD

>>10051438
For prints, I literally just trade for social value. They’re so cheap to produce that I don’t have any reason not to trade. For other items, I might be a bit pickier. But I still don’t care if they’re actually tabling or not as long as their art is decent. If they don’t have anything I want, I don’t feel the least bit bad about declining. If I like them as a person, I’ll offer them an “friends” discount.

>>10051548
Whenever people want to trade with me, they always offer prints or some other relatively cheap to produce item, and they always /ALWAYS/ ask for my most expensive and popular items.

It never seems to be fair in my opinion so I stopped taking them.

>>10051712
I haven't had this happen thankfully, I do generally say something to indicate that I only will trade equal value of it's someone who's new to trading.

>>10051438
Whenever a person ask to trade, my eyes immediately search for their badge to see if it says AA/exhibitor. If they are a vendor, then sure I'll trade even if their art is bad. I'd just assume sales didnt go well for them and maybe trading will brighten their experience.

If they're not a vendor, I'll only trade if their art is good.

>>10051712
Same. I usually get people asking for my cups or shirts.

>>10051438
I'll trade with anyone I like their art. I tell them straight up, I'm open to trades of equal caliber or things that I like. Please understand if I don't see anything, can't trade.

whenever i ask to trade prints for non-print merchandise i usually offer to throw in a bit of $ to at least cover the difference in manufacturing cost. is that fair or should i just stick to trading prints for prints, charms for charms? i love trading with other artists but reading this thread i'm starting to worry i'm imposing.....

>>10051916
I prefer trading for items of the same "type" still, because I don't know how much would the $ difference be and it's too much of a headache to calculate it. Also it's not just the manufacturing costs but charms tend to sell better for me than prints so I'm more okay with giver out the latter and it's not as big as an 'investment' I guess?

>>10051916
On some level it's up to the other person to refuse, if you've already said "I can also give you some money to cover the difference but It's totally okay if you want to keep it the same type for same type!" then they can always say "Oh yea i'd rather keep it to prints for prints, thanks for understanding". I get that some people have ~~anxiety~~ but if you've already lowered the bar for refusal as low as it can go what more can you do? Some people genuinely don't mind and they'd be losing out on trades if you stopped asking completely.

>>10051712
I've had an artist who asked to trade, and I agreed since it was a charm for charm trade. She indicated I could pick a charm from a series she had. When I tried to pick a character I wanted, she refused and wanted me to pick an unpopular character from the set of charms she had.

desu I found that really off-putting and just soured my opinion of that specific artist. While I wouldn't turn down a trade in the future for equal value with other artists. It made me realize they just wanted to trade off their crap (unsellable merch), for something of mine they wanted.

>>10052525
that really suuuuuuucks, I thought bartering is all about trading something both parties can agree is of equal value (in this case, sentimental value and not just because they were the same type)

If they have unsellable merch just throw them into a bargain bin like everyone else, don't offload it onto other people who don't want it. :/

How well would card-sized prints sell? As a sort of "collect them all"

>>10052702
i think there'd be a danger of people mistaking them for business cards

>>10052722
omg I almost did this one. Picked up a card from someone's table and took one step away from the table when I realized it was some sort of business card print or something?? Either way, it wasn't free, and I had to ask for their business card.

basically, >>10052702 if you want to sell small prints like that, put them in books like in the picture, just please don't just lay them on the table or put them on a business card holding stand.

>>10049065
Your whole post left a bad taste in my mouth. Don't do art if you're just going to churn out trash. The fact you called it "sameface characters" already spells that you have no intention of putting in real effort with the art. Stop. Rethink. Start over.

If you can't do that, please just get into another trade. There's no promise you're even good and by the post it sounds like you're not, so no promise you'll make back when you invest. No matter how clever you think you are, it always shows in the art when you're apathetic and just want to pump out heartless merchandise.

>>10052626
Yea, in this case when I chose her Karamatsu charm. She told me to choose another cuz she was "running low in stock of that one". And didn't want to part with it. And I couldn't even pick Ichimatsu either for same reason.. I guess at least I got my 3rd choice brother in the end for the trade.

>>10052866
And she was the one who initiated the trade? Damn how selfish.

>>10052866
Hmm it's pretty common to prefer not to trade low stock items though, because that's direct profit they could be making. Granted, i would never have offered "any of these" in the first place. But often times when I'm asking for something i will ask to make sure it's not low in stock because if they might sell out I'll just pay for it or wait for their next con after they've had a chance to restock. If people ask to trade charms or pins i will often say yes BUT not all of it because some are low in stock. I've never heard of someone being offended by this on principal since we all want each other to make more money. Is it just because she offered first without saying this caveat upfront?

>>10052928
I only accepted cuz I was into that series at the time, and part of her selection she offered to trade had the character I was interested in. She never mentioned upfront the caveat that she did not want to part with certain characters. She had a reaction when I chose the character I liked. I don't think she expected I would choose a popular character? So she was like Can you choose another one? I'm running low in stock on him (and really don't want to give him to you).
To be polite in an awkward situation, I was like oh ok then, I'll choose another one.

I wouldn't have minded if she had explained ahead of time she didn't want to trade specific characters or items. But she brought over a small specific selection of charms to choose from. And when I made my selection, she kept taking options off the table after she already chose what she wanted from me. So it felt pretty bait and switchy.

Also, I wasn't the only artist she did this to. I talked to another friend who was asked to trade by her. And they couldn't get their top boy charm either cuz she didn't want to part with him for the trade.

>>10052885
Yup she was the one who initiated the trade.

>>10052943
Name and shame

>>10052963
nayrt why? this is mildly inconsiderate behavior at worst. op is free to hold a grudge over it but what benefit would naming and shaming someone who was vaguely stingy in a fucking charm trade serve the community?

>>10052943
Yea I can see how that's kind of weird if she was bringing charms over. Were I in her shoes i would have just brought only the ones i was okay with letting go, but i haven't brought shit to another table in years now either so maybe she didn't think it through. Usually only newer artists still go around bringing items to trade in my experience.

>>10052963
People like you always try to stir shit in these threads huh? For all you know she was a semi new artist that just made a stupid decision and realized half way while talking to artists that everyone was going to pick the charm she was running out of when she expected it to be more even or something. Like she could have corrected her behavior in future cons, who knows. The fact that you're so ready to jump down some one's throat over something so trivial is sad as fuck.

>>10052702
I made card-sized prints with fake TCG/mobage graphics and they did pretty well.

>>10052963
Sorry, I won't name and shame.

>>10053005
I agree, I think she was still pretty green and like you said probably didn't realize everyone was going to pick the one she was going to run out of (aka. the most popular design).

As long as she doesn't do that anymore and she's learned from it, that's for the best.

>>10051712
How do you most politely decline?

I would probably trade in most circumstances but actually my upcoming con is super important financially to me this time, and I really need ever cent of net profit I can get, so trading this time seems out of the question.

>>10053882
"I'm sorry, I'm trying to save stock for my next convention"
"Sorry, I'm not doing trades this time"

Does anyone still use InkItLabs? I know everyone and their mom prefers Vograce nowadays but I miss seeing the quality of InkIt. I'm surprised they haven't lowered their prices over the years to combat competition.

>>10053909
I do, and yea they haven't lowered their prices at all but I don't think they need to since their audience isn't completely anime con sellers I guess? I had a bad time with the one time i tried vograce and just don't want to bother and make enough money that I don't care i'm paying more for better items.

>>10053909
it secretly bums me out when an artist has a design i love but all of their charms are super grainy

>>10053999
Yeah, this is my issue with Zap, which is my middle ground between InkIt and Vograce in terms of pricing. But Zap has this other weird issue sometimes where your outlines become raised/bumpy if your double sided design doesn't PERFECTLY line up.

>>10054044
Zap is just a middleman. Might as well use Vograce.

>>10054303
No they aren't.

>>10054303
Zaps charms are made in house as far as I know. It's their enamel pins they are middle men for

>>10054303
Their charms aren't outsourced, they have a printer and laser cutting machine in-house. They're only a middleman for their enamel pins.

Post shitty art that still sells like pancakes at cons for whatever reason.

>>10054359
If you're this eager to start drama, anon - you first.

>>10052722
>>10052763
>>10053132
Thank you for the advice! Gonna do Love Live photo cards since I guess that fandom's still alive and kicking. I saw JimiAgency do rounded cards like that but their pricing is so blown out.

>Working on new product
>Start thinking "Who the fuck is gonna buy this?" half way through

Anyone else know this feel?

>>10055081
Yes but also
>it sells way more than things you actually worked hard on and expected to do well
kms

>>10054359
not like pancakes but baylee jae still absurdly sells more than she would earn if she wasn't a 'famous youtuber' and had to get by on her skill alone.

mostly just jelly salt talking, I wish I could be a mediocre-yet-popular youtuber who only has to draw twice a week.

Would anyone be willing to talk about their first artist alley experience? Like, how you did sales/profit wise, whether your expectations were too high, how much stock you brought along, just overall how it went? I'm planning to start selling at cons next year (hopefully) and although I feel like I have a good plan for my first one, it'd be nice to hear about the experiences of people here.

>>10055144
My first convention was a popular con, and one of the harder ones to get into. It was the first one I ever applied to, and I had no expectations. I split my table with 2 friends, so the price was only like 50 dollars or something. We traveled by bus, and stayed at a friend's house, so no hotel costs.

I'd only had original art up until then, so I made a bunch of anime prints specifically to sell at the con. My art was just OK back then, and not everyone's taste. I might've brought like 5-10 of each thing. Prints sold fine, both fanart and original, but this was a couple years ago when charms didn't dominate yet. I sold out of some buttons. I managed to sell a few zines.

I was underpricing, but I think my skill level justified it. I was doing super cheap commissions and ended up getting like 20 of them because I had no idea how it worked. I did finish them all though.

In the end I only made around 400 dollars, but that's more than I would've made at work so I was stoked. I'm happy that was my first con experience. I learned a lot, and it would've been a disaster if I'd tabled alone and had hotel/travel costs.

>>10055144
I won't lie I think the artist alley scene is a lot different now than it was 5-6 years ago when I started tabling. I made $400 profit my first con which desu was generous considering my skill level at the time and unpreparedness. I think if I did the same con now with the same stuff I'd absolutely drown.

>>10055144
Sorry for incoming blog post.

My first con was earlier this year. I was able to break even + ~$30 profit, which was my realistic goal. The con was local, so the main costs were printing things and the table itself, which I split with a friend. Best guess for con size is ~20k attendees. I think I'm OK skill level (fwiw, con was juried, although juries are a crapshoot so it's not that indicative), but I suck at social media so my presence is pretty small.

I stuck with the conventional (hah) wisdom of 5-10 per item, with the exception of Stickermule deals for stickers and buttons I had got since those come in sets of 50+, and had typical pricing with buy 2, get 1 free on prints. I didn't make charms/other merch because I only had ~2 months until the con, but in hindsight, I was too cautious and could've gotten something made in time if I had tried. Didn't do commissions because I suck at traditional art and draw slow.

I've stalked these threads for a long time and everyone keeps saying that prints are dying, so I had low expectations since my default style is semi-realistic painting and I gravitate to prints. I had ~20 fanart prints in various sizes and only got close to selling out on a couple of them. A few sold 0.

Overall, it was alright. I had done a lot of planning due to nervousness, so I think I was as prepared as I could be. Most unexpected "disaster" was that I took public transportation and vastly underestimated how heavy a stack of paper could be. I do wish I could've earned more because who doesn't want money, but it was a decent way to spend time at a con & see friends for "free" at least.
If I could table again, I don't think I would make drastic changes. I'd definitely expand my display (I wasn't able to put everything up since I had too many prints), and actually spend time to make non-print products. But to be clear, I'm not trying to do AA full time. I'd be more aggressive about trying to improve profits otherwise.

>>10055144
For your first con, expect to just make a little over break-even. Its better that you run out of stock than to end the day/weekend with way too much stock for your first con or two. You don't want to invest too much until you know it'll work and people care.

>>10055144
My first con was 2 years ago. I was really stupid and decided to "go big or go home" so I booked an out of state event. Flight, hotel, display, material costs were all about $1600 and I (EXTREMELY luckily) grossed about $1900. I was so happy, I thought I hit the lottery. My art is okay, I'd say slightly above the average skill level I see in AA.

>>10055144
I did my first con three years ago. It was a little one day con, and I was basically just doing it to have an excuse to go and hopefully earn back some of the money I spent on other artists prints. I had 7 print designs and 10-20 copies of each. I sold out and made $500ish, which worked out to like $250 profit because I was very stupid with how I did my printing. I took the motivation from how I did at a 'one time' kind of thing and decided to try and do more AA, and it's worked out pretty good. I think if I hadn't done so well (compared to what I expected) I wouldn't have done another con, though.

I don't think my experience is typical though, my sister (who at the time had a much more appealing style imo) had tried artist alley a couple years earlier and literally made 50 cents.

>>10055144
Did my first con in 2015 with some friends. Expected to break even and... didn’t. We made about ~$400, but total costs were ~$600 because of overprinting and some bad manufactering decisions. I still have some of those products in my home somewhere. Our art wasn’t that great and the sucky location didn’t help either. It was still a really fun experience though and I got to build some pretty solid connections with other artists.

Though if I could go back, I would tell myself: 20 prints per design is too many, try and diversify your products some more because your inability to colour is really obvious when blown up to print size, and set up your display better.

What do you guys do about wrinkly tableclothes? Every time I travel by plane, it gets super wrinkled in my luggage. The wrinkle resistant clothes are too heavy and a waste of precious luggage space.... should I just suck it up and iron it at the hotel?

>>10057037
Yep Just iron that BB up man.

>>10057037
Yup. If the wrinkles are mild, hang it in the bathroom while you shower.

>>10057037
iron when you get to your hotel room, and then roll it up rather than folding it when you take it with you to your table.

Anyone ever deal with a con which is a mix of both artist alley-type and comic book con/zine fest-type? (at least 80% of that are artist-alley type though). I'm interested to sell both my fanmade and original art and music just to see people's responses but I don't know whether I should bother or not. Also I'm not that interested in selling keychains/posters/shirts and the likes if you get my point

Asking because my third world country only has one con in the capital city (which is fucking far away) which is not a "generic" cons. I define "generic" cons as cons with weeb dance/band covers, cosplay performances, and various stalls that sell japanese food/community booths/various weeb cultures and hobbies exhibitions/"artist alley" who sell 90% bootlegged keychains, posters, shirts, and the likes

Anyway this particular con is different in the sense that they prohibit bootlegged stuffs but from what I've seen it's still artist alley-ish type but with fanmade/original stuffs. I'm personally only interested in comiket-type cons

I guess we have a pillowfort community
https://www.pillowfort.io/community/ArtistAlley

Wow so people really are ditching tumblr

>>10049285
I've heard people talk a lot about pillowfort too, I wonder if it'll stick.
How many different social media accounts do you anons manage? I feel posting the same piece on three different platforms is kind of excessive but I imagine it reaches more people more easily

>>10058241
I use tumblr, deviantart and instagram, and I've been thinking of branching out to twitter, although I'd probably make twitter less art oriented and more personal.
I post everything everywhere, but I agree - It feels excessive, and I've been thinking of limiting what I post where, but then I always think that if I don't post everything everywhere, I'm missing out on someone seeing it..

>>10058241
i've been using pillowfort for a week or so now and it is so great. It has all the features i wanted out of tumblr and other social media sites. I really hope it sticks around because I love it.
I had several social media sites, but i've decided to just get rid of most of them and just stick to twitter and pillowfort. Both sites should cover most people and don't annoy me like instagram and tumblr do.

>>10058133
that's less of an AA community as much as it's artists begging for commissions..

Looking for some advice, I do a lot of watercolor/realistic portraits but I was looking into doing some smaller stickers or prints to sell online.
My main question is how important is finding your own reference for things like that? I was thinking of doing desserts or things like that, obviously I don’t have a plethora of decent looking desserts in my camera roll but google has plenty.
Is it taboo to just grab shit off google image and paint it as long as your using your own style?

>>10058724
You need to change it enough that no-one can accuse you of copying. Simply replicating something in a new "style" isn't enough. If you're any kind of experienced artist you should be able to use multiple reference photos to frankenstein a new and origional cake.

Anyone tried this?
>https://www.ezframecompany.com/product/order-ez-frame-banner-holder/

Kind of like that it isnt on the floor like the photography stands. And I'd hope itd be lighter than the PVC pipes

>>10058741
listing says 12lbs

>>10058741
You can literally get a flat-foot photo stand and put it on top of the table and clamp it down for like $60~=$100. Same effect, much cheaper.

>>10058474
How have you even been using it? The page doesn't even load half the time or else it takes so long to load that I switch to another site in between loads and just forget I even have it up.

>>10058840
Its only really bad at certain points of the day.

Has anyone here applied for Genericon by any chance?
Has anyone gotten an email yet..?

Fanime result going out soon, who else is clenching their butthole

>>10059457
I asked and they're expected to go out around January 1st.

>>10059540
Readying popcorn for drama

>>10059540
I'm ready to not get in now that they're actually doing this -before- hotel reg goes up this year.

Is there a market for custom 3d-printed bezel charms for use with resin crafts, or would the price difference vs China be too much of a turnoff?

>>10061419
How many artists applied? 1.4k? I'm treating it pretty much as a lottery lol.

>>10061468
I think you could sell them as regular charms too, maybe include a keychain/strap in the package for those who want to use as is, but those who want to use it for crafts can just use their own if they feel like. Since I personally would be cool with your pic related on their own too, they're cute as is.

Sakuracon acceptances are going out now I guess

>>10062071
anime boston, too

>>10062451
>>10062071
Oh yay I can get double the rejection at once!

>>10062456
they ain't even sending them.

>>10062464
When is anime boston sending out their acceptances? Their waitlist application form says the artist alley is full w t h

>>10062678
they already sent them out today

>>10061468
Don't ever worry about competing with Aliexpress/Taobao. Your average consumer, especially at cons, is too fucking retarded to know how to use those sites anyway and probably buys their resin from Sophie and Toffee or maybe even Hobby Lobby/Michael's.

>>10062071
Why is Sakura Con so popular? Is it really good or something?

>>10062834
Small amount of tables for such a big con. Like sub 100 tables.

>>10062678
Saw that no one in AANI got in too. The fact that they changed this to lottery basically screams that only friends and friends of friends got in if so few people got accepted. I'm super curious to know if the people who got in knows someone.

>>10063036
I didn't get any email from AB either.

I wish they would at least send out a rejection/waitlist email like Sakuracon. I would not have known AB already started sending out acceptances if I wasn't following this 4chan AA thread....

>>10063036
>>10063060
They're doing them in waves. They posted about it on their forums. Second wave is going out after the 25th. I wish they would just send out like a mass email or post this stuff on their social media so it's easier for artists to know what's going on.

>>10063036
A few on the discord got in. I think what you may see, is a lot of AA first timers or new people. There was no portfolio link.

How much stock would you bring to SakuraCon? Compared to cons like ALA and CRX? Same amount of stock or twice the amount?

>>10063157
My ALA stock is only half my CRX stock but I'd definitely do more than both

>>10063157
2018 was the first time I did ALA and Sakuracon so I can give my experience.
I did disappointing at ALA this year when I was told it was a good con. I made roughly $800 when I was expecting at least double that amount. Tbh, it made me question my art/marketability so I was very pessimistic when packing for Sakura. I went into Sakuracon with the same amount of stock and only 3-4 new items, and was blown away by the sheer amount of sales because like >>10062976 said, the demand is concentrated.

I was an idiot who ran out of stock of some merch on the first/second day, unlike other cons people immediately buy stuff first day of con as soon as AA opens on Friday. Overall pure profit wise, I made 4x more than ALA this year.

>waitlisted for <5000 attendance local jury con

ah
I wish they would at least tell me why

>>10064738
You can shoot them an email and ask them.

How do you guys deal with obsessive fans?

I get questions often but there are a couple of people who try to dig deeper and ask me personal questions about my life. They message me daily with morning greetings and good nights. My profile is only art and I make it a point not to talk about anything but art.

I want to block but I’m terrified that these fans are unstable and will harass me in some way, especially now that I go to cons. What do

>>10064917
just ignore them?
when you start getting random shit in the mail from people you don't know then that's when you should start worrying

>>10064917
I know you're trying to vent but it was literally talked about at the top of the thread.

>>10064917
politely decline and then ignore.

>I’m terrified that these fans are unstable and will harass me in some way

Thats incredibly unlikely. Even if they try to, you can just get them banned from the con.
Idk why people in these threads act like artists getting attacked is common.

Thinking about allowing PayPal at my booth (very uncommon in my country but some people are starting to do it and attendees are starting to ask about it) but mainly I’m scared people might do chargebacks after all is sold and done. Has that happened to any of you?

>>10065041
Happened to multiple friends and is why i do not accept paypal unless they are going to pay me friends & family

>>10063157
>>10063341
>>10063591
How much stock did you guys have for ALA? I'm trying to get mine together and I've never done a con this size, only two really small ones on college campuses before this.

>>10065343
Same, but with SacAnime Winter

>>10065343
>>10065498
I bring similar quantities for ALA and SacWinter. I bring around 10 charms for series that are mainstream, 15-20 for popular fandoms or ones that do well online, and then less then 10 for obscure titles. I also use this rule for my other merch like enamel pins, bags, buttons, etc! I'm not much of print artist so I just bring 10 of each design. Bringing 20 of popular things is also still a large amount considering the size of these cons but there was one year at ALA where I sold out on Day 1 of an item I only brought 15 pieces of... I think it changes every year!

I'd say its safe to bring about 10-15 for popular series like BNHA, KH, Marvel, and other hyped stuff this season. I'm not sure what the patterns are with sac since I haven't been in a few years but ALA was brutal last year. We'll see if moving back into the convention center changes things!

>>10064924
I had a art buddy do furry cons, one 'fan' was upset he was not going to be there that year. He got a prepaid registration confirmation for table sent to his home address. Then a message from said fan saying they took care of things this year for him. That's the exact time my friend decided never to do furry art again.

>>10065526
Lol what a nightmare. In before some idiot comes in and says "b-but they bought it as a gift, how can you say that's a bad thing, it's just really nice cuz they love your work so much!!" I don't know how anyone can see that as anything other than controlling and abusive behavior.

>>10065526
What the heck, that’s next level creepy. I mean, let’s forget the sheer creepiness of a stranger sending that to your home, what the fuck does that dude know if your friend even COULD make it to the con?? Maybe he couldn’t afford the travel expenses or the printing, maybe he had his job or class, maybe he had another event in those dates and couldn’t attend, or a wedding or whatever, if he didn’t go it must have been for a freaking reason. Who the fuck is a random fan to decide for himself that your buddy HAS to go because here, some fucking prepaid table now you have to go, look how nice I am.

The thing is, I could imagine the guy doing it to be nice, but that’s so disrespectfull

>>10065522
Thanks for the metrics! I'm curious, what was the item you sold out of? Don't have to be specific though.

>>10064738
>>10064816
>tfw this happened to me earlier this year
>it's a con I've been previously accepted to every time I've applied
>send a super polite and humble email asking for the reason
>get totally ignored
>keep thinking of reasons why I'd suddenly get rejected, ranging from my art being trash to conspiracy theories about every single person in the community probably disliking me and thus I am suddenly banned from the AA now
>extra anxious about applying to any AA in the future in fear of no longer getting accepted anywhere and never finding out the reason why
It sucks.

>>10064738
>>10066145
If you get put on the waitlist, then there was nothing wrong with your art, just that too many people applied than they can let in. Any con with an attendance above 2,000 is going to have 50+ people apply.

>>10065803
I sold out of several charms from the same series! I had buttons for the series too and sold out of those each day. It was easy to restock though because I traveled with my button maker and just made more each night after the con! That was at the height of its hype though. I went to Sacanime Winter that same year and had a similar experience but it seemed like the buying interest tripled at ALA.

I want to anticipate similar spending patterns with current popular titles but it really could go either way since I haven't been to sac in a while and ALA's AA moved. Good luck with your prep work!

>>10066145
I've been in AA acceptance "jury" couple of times (not US, don't exactly know how things work there). Where I live cons take into consideration that alley should have variety of different artists and often we have to leave incredibly talented people out just because there's some other equally talented artist with very similar style/products and we just have to pick one. More than often we had to do a draw between artists. Don't think your art is bad, anon. Sometimes it's just bad luck.

Other common reason artists get rejected is bad portfolios, even if their art is great. No descriptions of products they're planning to sell or just plain scetches/unfinished drawings.

Has anyone tried out any alternatives to Vograce and gotten promising results? I've been scouting out some other manus lately and some of them look really promising, and I go through getting quotes, etc etc....until I discover people posting about their nightmare experiences with these companies. This has happened with three of the manus I've looked at so far and it looks like no one can really compete with Vograce?
My search is also limited though because a lot of manus require 20+ moq per design and I concentrate on more niche fandoms so can't really order that many.

I'd just like to see if there are any alternatives. It's not like Vograce is doing a terrible job with my charms, but they just seem to be getting busier and more expensive, which I don't /really/ mind paying for but I just need to conduct group orders, wait till I need to restock a bunch of things, etc.

>>10066899
I've been on a jury In the US and the con I worked with did things pretty similarly. We looked at how much variety they have in their products, the quality of the artwork, if its a common type of work sold at conventions or something more unique etc. We had to leave out a lot of good people and it sucks.

Also, for the record, having unique items that are poorly executed was treated the same as a print artist with poorly executed work. Unique will not take the place of good. This isn't in reference to anything in particular here, but we did get people complaining about that.

Also, also, getting in previous years isn't a guarantee. Different people apply every year and there may even be a different jury every year. There could be a lot of reasons for not getting in that has nothing to do with your work.

>>10067040
There are tons of alternatives out there, and that MOQ is going to be the reason why you never come across them. No one worth buying from is going to waste their time making 3 charms of a design.

Example of how far AANI has fallen... It's any child with a box of roseart crayons can post their art now... They should really have a few basic questions to join. Like "What are some of the cons you sell at?" just ridiculous that shit like this is allowed in the group.

I figure it doesn't hurt to ask.. I've never ordered from vograce before, and based on several review posts I read, I expected the price per charm to be quite a bit less than what I was quoted.

Is it because my quantity is so small, or because of the charm type I ordered (double printed, double acrylic, some with epoxy)? Is there any way I can tweak my order to get lower prices? I really wasn't expecting it to be more than $2 per charm.

>>10067703
It must be because you're asking for very low quantities, like 2 and 3pcs. You can ask them how many charms you'd need to make to get your charms cheaper.

>>10067703
It’s definitely the low quantity—you won’t be able to tweak prices unless you jump in on a group order or something. The prices per piece don’t really budge until you start hitting much higher quantities per type (e.g. a few hundred).

>>10067703
You cannot expect low prices with quantities total of less than 50, the prices quoted are extremely cheap considering you’re asking them to do a job for just 3 charms?? Wtf

>>10067703
my charms are less than $2 when i order in the hundreds, and about $3 if i order maybe 15. i think that price is very fair for the tiny quantity.

There's one day left in the year. Fanime pls...

I'll be going to my first out of state con, is there any tips I should keep in mind? I'm flying there and rooming with a friend. I've only tabled locally at TX cons and never been to Anime Los Angeles.

Hey guys! I'm starting to produce my first enamel pins and I've fairly read up on it, but I am stuck on one little thing. Is there a tutorial on how to make this enamel shine effect for preview images just like this gif? I'm not sure what the right keywords to look for it are.

>>10067732
>>10067742
>>10067939
>>10067967

Oh I see. I think that's fair, I just didn't realize that they had a higher price for lower quantities, since I always see people praise them for low prices/no minimum, but it's understandable. I've never made charms before, so I wanted to get one of each made to see how they look before ordering lots of them, although I may be better off just ordering a bunch and selling them as defective if there's anything really off about them, huh?

>>10068065

Just google animating in whatever program you use. It's not enamel pin specific it's learning how to use animation in photoshop or clip studio or any art program that supports it.

>>10068065
You make the frames in Photoshop and save it as a gif. There's not some magic shine filter if that's what you're asking. Save the gif and open it up in Photoshop. It makes more sense that way because you can see the layers.

>>10067969
I'm annoyed they even announced a deadline, they could have just said nothing and then we would be pleasantly surprised when they managed to be early

Not that this will offset the inevitable mountains of salt about not getting in, but you know.

>>10068098
in the future general rule of thumb in business is, the more you buy, the less your cost per unit.

Vograce can do proofs, one charm to send to you before they make more, but you have to communicate with them about it. Seeing from your posts you're kind of stupid and naive op

Anime Boston wave 2 is out check your emails folks

Fanime acceptances going out

>>10067969
I just got my fanime acceptance email

In at Fanime

>>10061419
Fuckin called it, at least I'm on the waitlist I guess

>>10068661
Rip, on the waitlist

>>10068661
Waitlisted but I expected that.

>>10068670
the only way to get a good hotel was to pre-reg so either way you still fucked

>>10067970
It's typically cheaper to fly Southwest with two suitcases than any other airline

>>10068661
Wait listed for fanime, missed momocon cause they stealthed it, what a sad life I live

>Got I dealers for animaizement tho
But I don't know if that's even worth it. Opinions?

>>10049065
go back to school

How strict is fanime on splitting a table with a helper? Are they gonna kick me out?

>>10068819
If I remember right the person you share a table with also has to be juried in? I might be thinking of something else tho

>>10068822
Yeah, I mean adding someone as a helper afterward cause I didnt sign up with a partner.

>>10068827
>>10068819
Helper and table partner are different things. A helper I'm pretty sure you can add later; they're just there to literally help you with YOUR sales. A partner, as in someone who will be selling their own art at your table, cannot be added later unless they were also approved by the jury. I think you may have even needed to apply together in the first place, though I may be thinking of a different con.

>>10068835
Oh yeah and as for how strict, they will tell you no. However some people still show up and just do this every year without asking and a lot of them don't get banned, so if you try to stealth it you might get away with it. Really just depends on whether the staff on duty is power tripping or not.

>>10068839
I wouldn't call it power tripping to enforce the rules you contractually agreed to...

>>10069059
^^this. Don’t get mad at staff for punishing you for knowingly breaking rules.

>>10069059
>>10069093
I called it power tripping because half the time they let people get away with it without consequences but if they don't like you then you can get harsh punishments. Would be different if they enforced the rules equally but every year you see someone getting away with it with no consequences while others get banned for doing it.

I'm looking for some advice regarding online stores. I've decided to open an online store for the first time. I went ahead and made a separate business PayPal account since I didn't want to upgrade my personal account. To verify my business PayPal, I have to link it to a bank account. However I've already linked my bank account to my personal PayPal and it seems you can't link the same bank account to two separate PayPal accounts.

My (potentially stupid) question is, is it absolutely necessary to have a verified PayPal business account to run an online store? I understand non-verified accounts are limited in some aspects (e.g. receive and withdrawal limits) but I'm not expecting to make a huge amount of money from my store or anything, and I would rather not have to make an entirely new bank account for my business PayPal.

>>10069127
>>10068819
I reported someone for sharing at Fanime because they were bragging about how easy it was to cheat the system and Fanime did shit nothing because they were an AA veteran

Alternatively I’ve seen people set up shop at empty tables for the whole weekend and never get kicked out(free table no jury no taxes)

Fanime= anal about signups but at the con they literally give no fucks

>>10069479
>set up shop at empty tables
as each year passes, and the less I care about what Fanime does, the temptation to do this rises

>>10069477
Why didn't you just upgrade your account? You can still separate your business info from personal within the same account, if you were worried about your invoices showing your real name/personal email. You kind of made the situation more difficult for yourself by creating that second PayPal. Just upgrade.

>>10069477
>is it absolutely necessary to have a verified PayPal business account to run an online store?

what exactly is a paypal business account?

>>10068098
I would seriously do some research before you try to order anything. You clearly have no idea what you're doing and the information is out there.

Mistakes always happen even if you know a lot and we learn from them, but dude, study at least a little bit for the test and don't get an F your first try.

>>10069477
Yeah it's pretty necessary because you can only accept credit cards if you have a business account. Just delete your old account and use your business one, it's what I did.

>>10069525
I live in a small country and when someone tried this at a local AA they got kicked out pretty fast and it became the talk of the community for a while. Is it really that normal in big events? I mean, I don't doubt people try to do it, but I'm more surprised that they don't get found out.
In the first place reading these threads always feels like hearing about some bizarro AA world, it's fun.

>>10069613
Nah it's not that common nor is it accepted. I personally don't know anyone who has done it, but conventions like Fanime where they seemingly don't give a crap about who's in their artist alley makes it tempting. They are "juried" but super talented artists get left out in favor of furry/fetish artists for example, and they sometimes leave unclaimed tables empty, despite knowing hundreds of artists on the waitlist would kill to get a spot. In 2017, there was at least two full rows of empty tables.

Good taobao stores for basic AA stuff like plastic bags, packaging supplies?

>>10070179
Why taobao for general supplies like that lol? Kind of a waste of time and money when you can get similar pricing from their aliexpress stores or just go to eBay.

>>10070182
Cute asian designs that weabs like, forgot about aliexpress

>>10070003
Oh, that sucks. It seems like the competition to get in at big cons is on a whole different level so I'd definitely feel bad to not get in, only to find out that there would have been spots open after all. I do understand the feeling behind setting up on an empty table (especially when there's seemingly so many of them too), but obviously it's still unfair to those who have gone through the process properly and paid for their spot. I wonder if the AA organizers keep a track of no shows though? So at the very least people who don't show up but don't give up their spot either don't get accepted again next year.

I have questions for you guys. I have seen in artist alleys that some people sell copy righted anime related merch or characters. Don't you guys get in trouble for selling those kind of merch online or at cons? What are the laws on selling arts on copy righted characters?

>>10070265
Quick and dirty answer is that IP holders turn a blind eye for the sake of not being seen 'turning' on their fans.

Also really this has been asked so many times by so many people you could have easily googled it and found a number of websites/articles explaining the issue in detail .

>>10070265
Some do care and artists do get in trouble. Generally IP holders don't care as long as trademark names aren't used in the art or the art doesn't closely resembles official art.

>>10070283
>>10070425
Aren't you guys afraid of being sued?

>>10071094
Did you google it yet?

>>10071104
Link me, idk what I am looking for

>>10071094
Even people who sale straight up bootleg content don't get sued 99% of the time, they get sent a cease and desist letter.

>>10071094
That's not how lawsuits work, child. A company isn't going to sue someone who is probably not even going to be able to cover the cost of their legal team when they lose, much less any actual monetary penalty. Suing random fanartists doesn't hold any monetary benefit for a corporation, and is not worth the cost of the legal team and the negative press.

Can anyone give recommendations for color calibrators? Is it absolutely necessary to use one? Do any of you even use them?

>>10071142
Could you really not come up with 'artist alley copyright' by yourself?

>>10071320
I'm going to assume you're talking about calibrating different screens to match.
I don't think it's "absolutely necessary", of course, but it does definitely make things easier for you in some cases. I think a good amount of people these days draw on LCD screens, and probably have noticed that the colors can look wildly different on a computer monitor. I've personally given up on trying to match my cintiq and monitor because I don't think it's even possible to get exact same results on two different types of screens, so I just settled for "close enough" with the default editing options on both screens and do some minor adjusting on the colors on my computer screen after I've finished drawing (mainly because I've noticed that my monitor is closer to how the art will look when printed).
I'm not sure if this answered your question, but like I said it really depends on how you like to work and does color difference between screens bother you. If you're unsure about whether your colors look off or not, it's better to compare between different LCD screens too rather than just blindly believing your monitor.
TL;DR: will make life easier, but won't fix everything and you can do without if you so wish.

>>10070265
Yes, it is stealing.
No, artists don't care.
Most companies don't like it. But they can't really do anything about it because like >>10071271 said it simply isn't profitable to play whack-a-mole, and they don't want to be seen as "turning against their loving fans" who are thieving their IP.

The only IP that I see artists actively advise others to respect are those belonging to massive corporations that are able to point their lawyers left and right as a power move ("don't draw sanrio!" "don't draw disney!"). Of course, people still ripoff these left and right too, it just means more etsy takedowns.

Some will respect IP belonging to smaller independent creators, but those creators have to endure an endless inbox slew from artists of "hey, can i steal your thing and sell it? no? but okay, what if it was this thing, you don't offer this merch. i'll give you some of the profits. etc." Only to decide to do it behind their backs after being turned down anyway. Nothing's sacred, really.

Is $40 for a double-sided 45cmx45cm pillow too much? I started selling them at CRX for $30 and sold a lot, but I changed my price to $40 and haven’t sold any since the price change at con or online. But the two cons I had after were small cons and not many people did well so I’m not quite sure if it’s a good thing to base it off those two cons. Should I lower my price again to $30 or should $35 be ok?

>>10071457
Try $35 and if things don't improve just go back to $30.

Whats the best kind of printer for printing glossy/matte stickers and prints and so and so? Ive leaning towards canon inkjet printers but i need some second opinions :^(( my budget is somewhere 60 USD to 114 USD

reccomendations are very appreciated

I'm making acrylic charms that when a customer buys 2 will form a heart for valentine's day.

Should I price a half a heart (one charm) at $10 like a regular charm?

>>10071396
Good to know, just asking for future things.

>>10071946
Yes, though feel free to do a 2 for $15 deal.

>>10071832
Pretty sure people on AANI have you covered, so you can look there. As far as I know Canon seems to be a good bet though I'm not sure if you'd find anything particularly awesome within your budget.

>>10071832
The Canon Pixma Pro 100 Is really nice and goes on sale/rebate fairly often so you can pick it up around $70-100 if you wait and watch it!
Not sure what the best sticker paper is though, I'm still trying to find a really good one myself.

>>10071320
Find an old colormunki and run it with argyllcms.

So guys how was sacanime? For the past 2 years I've seen artists complain on FB about slow sales at sacanime throughout the weekend. So far this time around i've seen no complaints about sales at all. Sales must have been good for the majority then?

>>10071946
>>10072083
I forgot to ask you how big the charms were and if they were double-sided. If it’s who I think it is, then you could have done $12 ea, 2 for $20 imo.

>>10073276
Hello!

I am most likely who you think I am lmao. They are going to be 6cm and double sided. They are currently in pre order mode so they can be 2 for 15/10 each as a pre order price then I can raise it once it's over.

>>10073237
Went great for me, even considering the rain and wind I did better than last sac

>>10073237
It was really great for me too. I sold a little over what I sold at CRX earlier this year. Sales were consistently good for me throughout the con, but by ranking of days Sunday was best, then Friday, and Saturday.

There was a fire alarm that got pulled during Saturday tho so that could have affected sales.

>>10071832
Canon Pixma Pro 100 is what I use (specifically for stickers too). But good lord, do look into alternative ink and what works, because canon ink is ridiculously expensive.

Reminder for any gulls using Alibaba printing services from China - Chinese New Year is approaching on 5th February so its best to stay away from ordering from there if you need it asap.

does anyone know anything about sweetstickers? i heard them recommended on twitter, but they don't even have a price list on the website.

new thread: >>10074315