Artist Alley questions

**Inkthinker** · 09-16-2003, 06:09 PM

Yup, gonna do my first one this year, at a small Con here in Tampa. Well, not really small, NecronomiCon has been going for over 20 years and generally takes over whatever hotel we use. It was also my first convention, waaaay back when, and I've gone every year for almost a decade.

So anyhow, this is mostly a gaming convention, so I figure I'll tweak my prints and such to reflect the crowd. I'll draw up character illustrations for the gamers and I'm thinking I might even take a couple dozen of my fantasy-based design work, slap together as a looseleaf collection for GMs and the like to use as reference for their games. Get some use out of that sketchbook stuff I doodle all day.

At any rate, I thought I'd ask you guys what the going rates are for prints and for on-demand illustration work? I was thinking $3 for pencil sketch prints, $5 for ink prints and $10 for color, and if I do that looseleaf collection thing then it'll probably contain around 20-30 pages and I'll sell that for $12-15, depending on the print costs... as long as I'm not binding it, it shouldn't be too terrible.

As for commissioned illustrations done at the con, I was thinking $15 for pencil illustrations (I have no desire to do any inking on the fly if I can avoid it) and getting $10 down (refundable if I don't finish your image, half refundable if you're just not satisfied), with maybe a small discount if the person can give me a sketch of some sort along with their description (having a sketch from the creator, even a crappily drawn one, makes it SOOOO much easier to illustrate a character).

Does any of this sound right? Am I living in a dream world, completely clueless? Let me know, and be gentle... it's my first time.

**Paul M.** · 09-16-2003, 06:17 PM

You need Jeremy's wife.

**Justice41** · 09-16-2003, 06:19 PM

Post up some samples and I'll give you a fair assesment of what i would pay. Being the Tightwad that i am.
From what you've listed your pretty close though, but still would like to see what your ofering.

**Inkthinker** · 09-16-2003, 06:32 PM

Nothing too different from the usual stuff I show in the Drawing Board.

Couple of images I'm thinking of using for prints:

INKS

http://www.geocities.com/benmcsweene...pearmaiden.htm

http://www.geocities.com/benmcsweene.../gunbunny1.htm (though I doubt I'll use that one unless I can put together a background for it)

PENCILS

http://www.geocities.com/benmcsweene...ages/Flynn.htm

COLORS

Maannn... I think I'd actually need to color some stuff If I plan to offer any color prints. I still got a month, though... anyhow, this is one of the few color works that I have.

http://www.geocities.com/benmcsweene...GMR2_cover.htm

And lastly, this is pretty close to the sort of thing I do for my friends when they ask for a character illustration:

http://www.geocities.com/benmcsweene...alucard_sk.htm

Those don't take long, really, and I think I'd probably cap the commissions at 12-14 for the whole weekend, first come, first served...

Anyhow, I'm devoting most of my spare drawing time over the next month to creating new works specifically for this con... all gaming-based material with a good dose of anime stuff as well. Anime always sells, espescially when your good at it (and not to toot my own horn, but I'm a damn sight better at working with that style than many artists I see at cons).

**Inkthinker** · 09-16-2003, 06:58 PM

Here's a thought... anyone have any experience with selling smaller pieces, like postcard sized? I'm thinking maybe 4x5 index-sized cards with an image on one side and some flavor text or descriptive elements on the other, used by gamers for reference material in games. I'd print 'em four to a page and chop 'em up myself... I know Kinko's will do a cardstock double-sided print like that for less than $1, and I can actually get four individual items out of it.

Something with an illustration like this on one side, with stats or other notes on the back side.

Sell 'em for $1 apiece, or a set of 6 for $5.

Enh?