Put Up or Shut Up 2015 Journal #2 Con Preparation

    I've been looking for steady employment as well as getting projects done.Sadly making good money is hard to come buy in the Artist Alley scene.Unless your really good and you are doing it full time. Over the past couple of days I realized that while Blue Baby as a group have made some strides.We are still not profiting as much as we think we should.

Its frustrating to the point that finger pointing and lack of trust becomes an issue. This is common when working with another person or people as a team. We both have different ideas on how to market and sale the product. The only thing we both totally agree on is just getting it to sale. If I can find full time employment this con season and preparation for me this year is going to be on a part time basis.


Here is a review Sac Con that took place on March 1st.


Sac-Con

   Not bad ,Not bad. Great foot traffic,awesome guests,lots of good loot to buy, and once a again a questionable venue. Sac Con's venue for at least 10 year was at the Scottish Rite Center in Sacramento.The new venue at the McClellan Center is much bigger.Its located what appears to be corporate compound that looks like it used to be military base. 

  The organizers did a decent job of cramming all of us into a pretty big warehouse And I do mean warehouse. The venue was spacious but lighting in some parts of the building was dim or the lights were out. Ventilation was also issue. It got pretty warm with all the mass of humanity in all in one building with no windows.

Northern California cons outside the bay area are becoming go to events for families and many geeks in the area. So finding venues to hold these events are becoming crucial. I will say the guests were great.I got to meet DMC of the legendary Hip Hop group Run DMC.He was pitching his comic book. It was great seeing many people my age turn into groupies just meeting the guy.Many of the younger kids were like meh lol. I got to speak with long time fan favorite  comic artist Dan Bereton and talk with him about art techniques. So that was awesome.Ernie Reyes Jr was also cool. Andre (aka Black Nerd comedy) a Youtube celeb came by the con because most of the guests were actors or people who worked on the Ninja Turtle films.


  The vendors had great stuff and the prices were fair and affordable.Which is common for cons in San Joaquin valley area. Blue Baby profited but it wasn't much.Our profit was barely enough to cover the cost of the pizza,salad bar, and drinks we had a Round Table Pizza later that evening. Matter of fact we made more money at lat years December Sac-Con show at the smaller venue. The foot traffic was great but not many people were buying art in general. Speaking to other artists it was just a so -so show in terms of making money.You either profited a little or not at all.

The Good
*Great guests
*Great loot
*Great foot traffic.
*Bigger venue.

The Bad
*Bigger venue with bigger issues to deal with.Like lighting issues and lack of ventilation.
*Sac Con needs to figure out a way to advertise and direct people to the Artist alley.Because if the artist's don't make any money they won't spend money on getting a table.With the amount of foot traffic that con had most of the artists should have made $100 to $300 in profit.
*The Artist Alley was placed in the darkest area of the venue that had the lighting issues.

The Ugly
*The fact that some artists barely profited enough  to cover the cost of a $30 table.

UPDATES 

Kinyoobi Con is back! Its back to being a one day event.Its no longer at that crappy ass Hotel(Thank God!).And they went back to just being a small con.And I do mean small.Your looking at maybe 300 to 700 people that go to this con on average. Kinyoobi Con was the first con we ever got a table at.And even though we only profited once out of the 3 times we had a table there we always had fun and memorable moments.This con has sentimental value us.So we plan on getting a table at this con.It takes place on August 2nd.

Blue Baby's budget for color commissions has been set.So if your looking to make some extra money on color commission work send me a note with link to your work or sample of your work. I got 3 or 4 projects right now that requires color work. I'm looking for speed and quality. I know some people got day jobs and active social lives. But I need to know if you can do complete color work within 4 days to a week .

I know and commissioned some good colorists that can whip out good quality work in 3 to 5 hours. I know some pros that can produce great color work in 8 to 12 hours. So 4 days up to week is more than enough time to get a color commission done. Sorry if I seem demanding in terms of time.But the faster at producing good quality color work the more color commission jobs we will send your way. Examples of what kind of color work I'm looking can be seen in my gallery. You got to show me your good enough to hang with or be better than those who we have work with now and have commissioned in the past

Our budget is not very high. I have about 6 to 7 projects that need to be done by mid May. If your color commission prices are $30 and less then hit me up. If I had more cash I would contribute more to the budget.But my partner set the budget and he has the final say.



That is Sexy
Shaba-da-Doo

Mack