Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Convention talk
Onto a big deal for me, conventions.
A couple of industry friends of mine ponder why the hell I never did the convention thing while I was in comic school college and still dont now. Ill say right off the bat that conventions are great fun and can be fairly profitable to those that take advantage of it, so all my respect to the participants. My reason for not joining the money making cake? My policy about work and *gasp* work ethics.
Call me a purist or whatever but I never enjoyed whoring my art for money, I see a lot of decent to excellent artists putting out a lot of artwork that is clearly under their skill level because it sells and it takes about 2 hours to make. Basically this art thats being produced does very little for the artists skill and keeps them from doing more and better portfolio work that could get them a studio position. Hell, even if you think about the "tons of money being made" add it up as if it was a full time job and its barely above minimum wage by the years end. Most or all of my friends that do this basically either have someone supporting them (meaningful other, parents) or have a full time job to cover expenses. Sure travelling is fun, you meet a lot of people and you get to be someone famous accross the fandom, that I cannot deny.
But come on.
With effort, you could be so much more! See if you can save some money to be stable for some months and just work on everything that you lack art-wise.
Basically leave so that you can come back.
Re-vamp the portfolio from the college days, elaborate on more intricate designs, different sculptures that showcase your range, get better at different media, draw backgrounds, draw people, animals, camel toes.. whatever it is that you lack become the shit at and then try again with studio submissions because that is what they want to see. They want to see somebody from out of school submit and 3 months later see that same person bother the shit out of them with BRAND NEW MATERIAL. Success never does and never did come easy, its the ones that persevere that really make it. Game studios, movie studios all those need artists and making a difference in something so grand is something many of us have dreamed to do. Sure, immediate money is a very comfortable thing and I realize that you cant always take time off from safe money, specially in a tight situation so trust me when I say I am not judging anybody.
So why go to cons, try to sell art that is either old or so far out of your skill range that youre hoping that nerd doesnt care just to make money that is very out of the big leagues? If youre being supported and can afford to follow my advice, I think it would pay off eventually. However, if its what you love to do, is totally affordable, its your hobby and it still excites you, then disregard anything I said.
I dont mean to rant about how my way is better than any other (cause its not), but I do want to make sure that its known that the way I chose to do things can also work pretty damn well. Christ, imagine that you could get a full time job that would have a starting salary of 30-40k a year, and all you would have to do is sketch thingees ... and all that without ever having to sell a print.
A couple of industry friends of mine ponder why the hell I never did the convention thing while I was in comic school college and still dont now. Ill say right off the bat that conventions are great fun and can be fairly profitable to those that take advantage of it, so all my respect to the participants. My reason for not joining the money making cake? My policy about work and *gasp* work ethics.
Call me a purist or whatever but I never enjoyed whoring my art for money, I see a lot of decent to excellent artists putting out a lot of artwork that is clearly under their skill level because it sells and it takes about 2 hours to make. Basically this art thats being produced does very little for the artists skill and keeps them from doing more and better portfolio work that could get them a studio position. Hell, even if you think about the "tons of money being made" add it up as if it was a full time job and its barely above minimum wage by the years end. Most or all of my friends that do this basically either have someone supporting them (meaningful other, parents) or have a full time job to cover expenses. Sure travelling is fun, you meet a lot of people and you get to be someone famous accross the fandom, that I cannot deny.
But come on.
With effort, you could be so much more! See if you can save some money to be stable for some months and just work on everything that you lack art-wise.
Basically leave so that you can come back.
Re-vamp the portfolio from the college days, elaborate on more intricate designs, different sculptures that showcase your range, get better at different media, draw backgrounds, draw people, animals, camel toes.. whatever it is that you lack become the shit at and then try again with studio submissions because that is what they want to see. They want to see somebody from out of school submit and 3 months later see that same person bother the shit out of them with BRAND NEW MATERIAL. Success never does and never did come easy, its the ones that persevere that really make it. Game studios, movie studios all those need artists and making a difference in something so grand is something many of us have dreamed to do. Sure, immediate money is a very comfortable thing and I realize that you cant always take time off from safe money, specially in a tight situation so trust me when I say I am not judging anybody.
So why go to cons, try to sell art that is either old or so far out of your skill range that youre hoping that nerd doesnt care just to make money that is very out of the big leagues? If youre being supported and can afford to follow my advice, I think it would pay off eventually. However, if its what you love to do, is totally affordable, its your hobby and it still excites you, then disregard anything I said.
I dont mean to rant about how my way is better than any other (cause its not), but I do want to make sure that its known that the way I chose to do things can also work pretty damn well. Christ, imagine that you could get a full time job that would have a starting salary of 30-40k a year, and all you would have to do is sketch thingees ... and all that without ever having to sell a print.
