Okay, Okay… I am doing Fan Art

After YEARS of people telling me, “you’ll never make money in artist’s alley unless you do a ton of fan art”, I have caved. I once told everyone that producing fan art was the same as selling my soul. My reason for being at these shows was to market my characters. I had to sell my appearance on my own merits. This stance caused me to lose money show after show. Sure, I would have a good show and break even every so often. The sad reality has revealed itself over the past 5 years. Most people attending these shows do not support independent artists.

Show after show, I sat and watched people with prints of popular characters making money hand over fist. Their tables were mobbed with people plopping down cash left and right. It is time I rethink my strategy. If fan art brings people to my table, why not embrace it? Last weekend, I gave fan art a test. I created a bunch of Pikachu mashups and people mobbed my table. I used the situation to educate the captured audience about my comic strip Charmy’s Army. My website numbers exploded afterwards and I broke even. If I did not have the fan art at last weekend’s comic con, I would have had my first loss of the year. Fan art saved my hide and my pride.

NOW TAKING PIKACHU MASHUP SUGGESTIONS

I am now going to be a Fan Art machine. I want to create a huge inventory of sketch cards, sketch covers and 11 x 17 art pieces. I have a TON of work ahead of me! I need art to sell. I will make a few prints, but I need to focus on the larger price point item… real art. There is more margin to be made with art. Prints cost a lot to create. Ink, paper and hard sleeves kill my profit margin.

For Bell County Comic Con, I want to have 18-19 new Pikachu mashups ready for purchase. I want to create 8 Marvel mashups and 9 “whatever” mashups. I already have a few DC Comic mashups but would love to do three more. The following cards are what I created for my last comic con. all are “baseball card” size.

Detective Pikachu

I figured a simple Detective Pikachu would not sell as well as the Mashups but I sold out of mini prints before the end of day two! This proved to me that Pokemon characters sell better than mashups. I am going to prep a few more Pokemon characters for Bell County Comic Con. I will share them once I have the art completed.

Aqua Pikachu

My personal favorite! I am going to make larger prints of this one. I thought I sold most of these, but upon re-evaluation of my inventory, I only sold 6 of these mini prints. This print saw the worst sales out of the nine Pikachu mini prints. I am still going to make a large print of this, but I do not expect the larger print to sell.

The same weekend that I appeared at Greater Austin Comic Con, there was ANOTHER comic con an hour away. Guess who was signing autographs there? Yes, Jason Momoa. Maybe all of his fans were in San Antonio. I still believe I should have sold a dozen of these mini prints. Proves that I can never predict what is going to sell at a show. This is the reason I can never make any money, lol. I never know what will sell.

Super Pikachu

I did not think this would move but it sold out in 90 minutes… including the original. I only sold two original Pikachu Sketch Cards which really disappointed me. Selling out of this card and the original within 90 minutes of the show starting had me believing I was going to have my first ever “amazing show”. I have had one extremely good show in Houston a few years ago, but I had debuted my comic book to my home crowd audience and everyone wanted one. The sales from my comic book made for a very good show, but it was not what I call “an amazing show”.

What do I consider to be called an “amazing show”? All the artists at these shows tell me if they make less than $1,000 at a show, they had a terrible show. I pull about $200 – $350 per show. Pretty sad, right? lolol…. So, I am determined to make at least $1,000 at a show one day. I have plenty of original art to accomplish this goal. I just need the right audience and the perfect placement on the show’s floor.

Bat Pikachu

My least favorite yet my fourth best seller. Only had a few left at the end of the weekend! Again, just shows what I know. Batman is always very popular, but this drawing just did not excite me. For it to sell as well as it did made me very happy. You have to remember though, my mini prints only sell for $1. I sold 16 cards…. so I made $16 on this one card. That is a far cry away from the $1,000 goal I have made for myself.

To be quite honest, I cannot see how these other artists are making the money they claim to be receiving from the crowds. I need to sit down with one of these artists and beg them to reveal their secret, My guess is they are getting big money on commission work. Commissions are amazing when I can get one. I average one commission for every three shows I appear at.

Harley Pika Quinn

Um… just disturbing, lolol… Huge hit! Gotta do more Pikachu mashups with DC female icons. I thought this was too sick to sell but people love Harley Quinn. I want to create a Pikachu mashup with Wonder Woman for Bell County. I hope I can pull that off. I have the image burned into my head. When I sit down to draw something, I always have the scene and the character’s pose burned into my brain.

I chose this version of Harley Quinn because I wanted to make this as shocking as possible. I may do a complete set of nine Harley Pika Quinn cards before my appearance in Tyler, Texas in November.

Joker Pikachu

Shows how much I know. I thought THIS would be a hit. Sold well, but not like the others. I sold enough to make it worth the effort. That is just on EVIL looking Joker. I really love the color on this one. This is classic Joker all the way. The Joker has always been my favorite villain from any comic book series. The Joker is in everyone’s top ten list so I figured this would sell every well. Again, what do I know, lol.

Green Lantern Pikachu

This one was fun! This was a bit of a jab at Ryan Reynolds. Attendees at the show immediately caught the gag. People loved this one, but… it did not sell well at all. Just because people find you art funny, that does not mean you will sell the work. I did not believe this would sell, and for ONCE…. I was correct. I wish I was wrong though, lolol….

Pikachu Bacca

This was another one that just did not sell as well as I thought. I thought this one would be a huge hit! Only sold a few. This still sold better than the Aquaman mashup with Pikachu. Star Wars art usually sells well. I was shocked that this did not sell. That said, I am still moving forward with a Pokemon mashup with Star Wars as a set of nine cards. This set will not be ready until Tyler Comic Con in November.

Pika Pool!

Sold out in 5 hours. HUGE hit. I am going to create a Pika Pool sketch cover soon. This is also the second of two original sketch cards I sold. The card with the original pen and ink art colored with Copic Markers sold within the first few hours marking the first of only a handful of art pieces sold at Greater Austin Comic Con.

Selling original art is key to having a successful show. I am having issues selling real art. My mini prints sell well at $1 per card. I have to sell 500 cards just to break even. I will never sell 500 cards at a show. My record is 278 mini prints at a show. That is SO far away from breaking even.

I am going to pull away my buttons from the next show. At a dollar a pop for buttons, I am not making money. The space required for the buttons could be displaying more art. I am working on completely rearranging my table display so that I am displaying a ton of art and the mini prints will only be offered in a small section. This may kill my earnings at Bell County, but I am going to give it a shot. Gotta learn my lessons the hard way. Wish me luck!

SEND ME YOUR MASHUP SUGGESTIONS!

Leave your suggestions in the comments below. I need a few more DC Comics mashups, a BUNCH of Marvel mashups, and a bunch of miscellaneous cool mashups.

CONTACT ME FOR A MASHUP COMMISSION!!!

I can draw up any size you want. I can create art of bristol board and recommend 11 x 17 inches. I can also create art on sketch covers… and I have a TON of blanks…. TONS!!!! CONTACT ME AT fugcheese@gmail.com.

#pokemon #mashups #comics #charmysarmy

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