I had a table at the first Wizcon that came to St. Louis in 2013. It was rewarding on many levels but due to the high table fee, I still ended up being $100 in the hole after the event. Overall I was selling merchandise faster than I could replace them, one of which was my “Frik’in Cosplay” drawings.
These hand drawn original pieces of art are one of my best sellers at conventions. What they are is a drawing of my main character from my FRIK comic and I throw an embarrassing cosplay outfit on him and he responds to it. He’s a surly type so his responses are usually bitter and sarcastic.
Normally what happens is I have a couple of backups I’ve previously drawn for the more popular ones, that way when one sells I immediately can replace it with another. If I don’t have a backup I just draw it right there from scratch and ink it and color it while people watch. People love to see artists working at their tables and it gives them something to talk about with their kids. Due to how massive Wizcon was, I not only ran out of backups but I also couldn’t draw them fast enough to replace the ones that were selling.
In October I will be attending Geekinomicon, coincidentally in the same convention center Wizcon was in, and they are also a largish type con. This time around I want to be prepared, so I am making sure I have plenty of backup drawings way before the convention even takes place. What you see in the photo is 138 roughly sketched Frik’in Cosplay drawings and one week’s worth of work.
My pencil started out brand new and is now a nub. In other news, my hand is about to fall off and I hear ibuprofen calling my name. The only thing left to draw out is my convention specific drawing (which will probably be from my new comic, THE NORMLINGS), but everything else is done. Now my hand has to recover so I can start inking and coloring each of these.
In other news, I’m getting closer to finalizing my Advanced Kids Comic Workshop class as well as trying to develop new After School classes for the upcoming school year. Also toying with the idea of banging out a couple more of my digital abstract mixed media pieces, but not sure when yet. Thanks for reading!