The artist alley is the unsung highlight of any comic or anime convention. For those of you unfamiliar with them, thatβs the part of the sales floor where artists sell prints and craftsβboth fanart and their original propertiesβand take commissions for custom pieces.
Popular artists can take an overwhelming number of commissions over the course of the weekend, so many they can end up working on them for days afterwards. Youβd think the speed and range of effects digital art offersβ along with the influx of portable standalone pen computers like the Wacom MobileStudio Pro and tablets like the iPad βwould make it a natural fit for artists trying to produce pieces at the speed the alley demands. Yet itβs still very rare.
Space
βTechnology advances with apps and creative programs have definitely given artists a lot of options to make long, tedious techniques way easier,β agrees illustrator and fanartist, Tori Babuk. However, βGenerally, I think it’s much easier for artists to access and carry around a sketchbook and pens/pencils.β
Drawing at a con is physically the same as doing a digital plein air painting, an art form thatβs been taking off lately, and if you have a device that takes up a small enough amount of space (sadly, a Cintiq Pro 32β may not be the best choice), it wonβt be any more obtrusive than a sketchbook. If your tableβs packed to the brim, you can hold the device in your lap, prop it against the table edge, or invest in a tablet stand. If you have a camera tripod or a microphone stand, they also make attachments for those that hold a device at an optimal drawing angle.
Gayle Howe, runner of the one-woman art studio Robo/Pretty/Girl, recommends you have two spaces, one to draw publicly and one to draw privately. βI can do it right in the sales opening (the space on the table between merchandise racks where the vendor interacts with customers) to draw attention,β or if sheβs feeling self-conscious about a certain piece, sheβll draw behind the display racks, away from the customersβ eyes. At GPCC, βthe digital commissions were β18+,Β so drawing it out in the open would be inappropriate.β
Electricity
But the second, much larger hurdle, is electricity: many cons donβt provide it, and when they do, vendors usually have to purchase it through the venue. If itβs a hotel, it can be pricey, and if itβs a convention center, you might have to sell an organ.
βTomo Creationsβ travels with a Wacom Cintiq Companion (previous version of the Wacom MobileStudio Pro) he uses for on-the-spot work. On the cost of charging it, βIf itβs a small event, say a college con, it can be from $10 to $25, which is affordable,β but βpower at [major] cons can go from $90 for a weekend up to $200.β
But thereβs a simple solution:
βAlways bring a battery pack,β insists Howe. βItβs easier and cheaper than paying for electricity.β
The beefier ones, which generally retail for $100 to $150, can power multiple devices all day on a single charge, then be refueled in your hotel room that night.Β βConsider not paying for electricity and it pays for itself ten times over every con season,β she says.
The only drawback? βTHESE ARE NOT ALLOWED ON AIRPLANES,β warns one reviewer.Β Although even that, others dispute. Check for yourself before tabling at any cons youβll have to fly to.
Staying Present
The third obstacle is that digital art can be more immersive than traditional art. This might not sound like a problemβin fact, itβs one of the mediumβs greatest strengthsβbut it can be in the bustling environment of a con where you have to be both an artist and a salesperson.
βI often get very sucked into what I’m drawing and my concentration is on that piece,β says Babuk. βBut when I work alone, I want to have my attention focused on my surroundings and be available to answer questions or make a sale.β
Complicating it further, βtheft in the artist alley has been a growing issue … from cash boxes to display pieces. Running a table can get hectic as it is, and leaving an expensive iPad or tablet on the table in view isn’t always the safest place.β
To kill two birds with one stone, you can split your table with another artist, or bring along a friend to fill in for the areas you canβt cover, such as sales. This is good practice no matter what medium youβre working in, since tabling by yourself with no way to take a bathroom break is notoriously hard. βIf I have a table helper or partner, I’m a bit more free to draw,β she says.
(Also, theft insurance for a device valued at $1,000 can be purchased starting around $30 a year.)
However, not all conventions are jam packed. Sometimes you have periods of downtime at the slower ones that can be used to work on personal projects. Eric Z. Goodnight is an illustrator who does artist alleys across the US, and this is his favorite use for his tablet. βThis only clicked with me in the past year or so: During a con, thereβs a lot of downtime you can spend drawing. When you’re not selling prints or talking to people, you can be working on art during time that would otherwise be lost because you have to sit there and mind your booth.β
Commission Management
A piece of advice I often come across is to watch the amount of work you take on. This applies to both the number of pieces and the amount of detail you put into them.
Itβs standard for artists with large followings to only accept a certain number of online commissions at a time. Some practice this at cons: once theyβve filled all their βslots,β they focus on finishing them and selling their pre-made merchandise for the rest of the weekend.
The βdetailβ part is especially important to digital artists. When working with pencil or markers on a letter-sized piece of paper, thereβs a built-in limit to how much detail you reasonably can put into one piece. With digital art, though, thereβs the temptation to zoom in and over-render to the point where youβre perfecting individual pixels, making it hard to finish your work in a reasonable amount of time.
Many artists avoid this by offering work at levels of finish that are less than what they would do at home for a piece they could spend unlimited time on. For example, instead of taking commissions for full digital paintings, theyβll only offer drawings in the form of lineart, flat coloring, or simple cel-style shading, without backgrounds.
Taking it home is a common alternative. βI usually take a high volume of small commissions on-site and much smaller number of larger take-home commissions β so I have different forms for them,β says Tumblrβs How to be a Con Artist.
βMake sure your commissioner is clear on what youβre going to deliver,β they advise. βSome artists will choose to only email the finished digital art others choose to provide a print of their digital art to mail to the commissioner. If youβre shipping something, be sure to include that in the cost!β Most importantly, βbe sure to take down accurate contact information as well.β
Prints
Speaking of prints, another issue is that despite digital art being the standard in fan communities, the convention scene is still set up for merchandise.
βWhen people want a commission, they typically want a physical object they can frame and put in their homes,β says Goodnight. Digital commissions are better for original characters than fanart of big name series, he speculates: if itβs a fan piece, buyers are more likely to want to hang it on their walls, where if someoneβs getting their D&D character illustrated, they just want to see it rendered and will be less picky about the commissionβs form.
Most artists simply do both.
Babuk: βI do traditional and digital commissions at cons. Traditional is what I usually am able to quickly finish at the con or in the hotel after the [artist alley] closes for the day. For digital, I usually wait until Iβm back home and use a mix of my iPad and my Wacom Cintiq to finish a digital commission and email it to my client.β
Howe does both onsite, using an iPad for the digital ones, but still sending them by email. Her most recent artist alley was at Greater Philadelphia Comic Con: βThey liked traditional art more, so I did eight traditional and two digital commissions.β
That doesnβt mean itβs impossible to physically manifest a digital piece during the weekend, though.
If thereβs a 24-hour copy shop nearby (not naming names, but most of them are of a certain chain), you can make prints of the dayβs commissions after you close up, then deliver them the next day. They offer multiple paper and finish options, and you can get an on-the-spot print thatβs at least sellable, even if not quite the color fidelity youβd get from a specialist. This is another time youβll want to have the customerβs contact information though, to make sure youβre not left holding an abandoned print for the rest of the weekend.
Working digitally at a con might seem daunting, but with a little investment and planning, itβs just as viable as ink on paper. And the more the technology advances, the more practical it gets…even for producing ink on paper.
External Links
Tori Babuk on Instagram
Robo/Pretty/Girlβs Instagram
Eric Z. Goodnightβs portfolio
Tomo Creations on Facebook
How to Be a Con Artist on Tumblr
About the Author: CS Jones
CS Jones is a Philadelphia-based freelance writer, illustrator, and occasional photographer. He spends his spare time listening to Spotify and waiting for trains. Someday, heβll finish that graphic novel. In the meantime, his work is best seen atΒ thecsjones.comΒ orΒ @thecsjonesΒ on Instagram.