Tekkoshocon was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and I was happy to go not just because they allowed me to show there, but because it was a brand new con for me, as I’d really only been to cons in Ohio.  Fresh faces, fresh eyes on my work, and a whole room to the Artists!  It felt like we were our own Dealer’s Room. :D  The head of the Alley was really nice, too, and the head of the con’s Art Auction bought the piece I put in there – I still have the bid sheet, she was vehement in gettin’ it!  I had a super-helpful assistant, and a good time in the Burgh of Pitt.  In terms of sales, I made less than I have at the Ohio cons.  I was told by a friend who’s done Tekko’s AA that the attendees really like plushies, so maybe that’s where some of my sales went.

At Colossalcon this year, I finally was able to go to the freaking waterpark!  The Colossalcon community is calling 2010 “Tornado Con”, “Disaster Con”, etc, because an alleged fire broke out and there was a tornado warning out in Sandusky nearby the con’s location, so we did in fact have to be evacuated to the resort’s basement.  In any case, I got several commissions to do, which will occupy some of my time for a while, heh.  Sales seemed normal for me, being window-shopped upon on Friday, picked up a lot on Saturday, and average on Sunday.  Several assistants this time, thanks to my roomies, heehee!

I love it when people give me their original characters to draw.  It means a lot to me, because these people are entrusting me to visualize their own characters which have been in their heads for who knows how long.  I’ve been the first person to illustrate OCs (original characters), and I’ve been the latest in a line of them.  Either way, I get to do what I love doing the most: character design, and doing a heck of a lot of it!  So, thank you, Colossalcon attendees, for giving me a nice stack of commission order forms filled with requests for pictures of your OCs!

I may redesign my commission sign to be a lot simpler.  For example, right now it says color work starts at $20 and up, and black and white starts at $15 and up.  I saw other commission signs that said something like, “Headshots $20, Full Body $30″, with no mention if you get black and white, color, or any other details.  I have to go through negotiations when people commission me at cons, and sometimes I lose sales that way.  At Colossal, the majority of what I got were for full-body sketches, some with a little bit of detail, some as just loose pencil sketches, all for the same price.  Any ideas?  I think simplifying it might make my life a smidgen easier.  I can add a price for pieces with backgrounds, too.  My sign says “[price] and up” because I don’t want to limit people to just getting a headshot or a full body, but looking back on most of my previous cons, and the commissions I get online, individuals seem to like headshots, full body pieces, and if they can afford it, they’d like a background with a pinup shot of the character(s).  I may have just reasoned myself into changing my sign, heheh.

So, I’m open to ideas, folks!

And here’s to the next convention!  I’m aiming to do a search for local comic conventions, too, and I’m going to try to go back to Mid-Ohio Con this year.  Yay!