Tuesday, March 20, 2012

I survived my first con!

Much thanks and love to all who came out to see me at Furry Weekend Atlanta! I was blown away at how many of you were there! I can't properly put into words how amazing it was to meet readers and watch their excited reaction. Let me assure you, I was way more giddy than you!

People-wise, FWA was great! I had my one of my professional dreams come true: I got to meet Bill Holbrook, an idol of mine whose work I have read for 20 years. When I first discovered newspaper comics, I latched onto On The Fastrack, and Safe Havens when it began. When I got to college and moved to reading webcomics, Kevin and Kell became a daily stop. What makes this a true fantasy? Bill came up to me! He reads my comic! HE LIKES MY COMIC! You'd better believe I fanboy'd so hard I nearly scared him off. When I wasn't bouncing off the walls from that, I was chatting up the creators of Last Res0rt and Bug Pudding, who were so kind, inviting and helpful in calming down a con newbie's nerves and offering advice. Finally, gotta give some wuv to Ceiling Cow, who convinced me to table with her in FWA in the first place.

Business-wise, things weren't so great. From all accounts, the dealers den was abnormally quiet on Saturday and Sunday, and it was the new and unknown entities that suffered the most. I came *close* to breaking even, which is actually good for a first con, but of course I'd have liked to do better. I will learn from my experience and get better for Anthrocon in June!

One thing I found out was that I really enjoyed the table commission work. I enjoyed the challenge of taking on other people's characters with my style and the idea of "live" drawing was rather thrilling. I drew art and badges continuously on Friday and when the day ending I wanted to keep going! I'm going to try adopting the quick-drawing method in the future so I can offer cheaper, faster commissions to you guys. (Watch this space around early-mid April!)

To all those who got badges and art from me, I would love for you to post photos or scans for me to share! I was pretty bad about taking photos of my finished pieces, so it's up to you to spread the word! I have a DeviantArt and FurAffinity account for you to link to. The FA is empty for now, but I want to start stocking it with con commissions and character badges.

So all in all, it was a pretty cool time. Is this the beginning to turning shy old me into a con person?

10 comments:

Verdauga said...

I've done conventions a few times, and it always seems so random as to how busy the den gets. Also figuring out what catches people's eyes can be hard... personally, I like stuff that is at a 45 angle to the walkway, instead of facing right at it, 'cause then I can see if I want to stop. once I get to a booth, if I haven't already taken interest I keep moving. I'm weird though, and a lot of people do stop and look at every single thing.

Verdauga said...

Oh, bring a bigger Precocious sign! I didn't see it when I walked the den, would have loved to check out your stuffs.

Jerry Keslensky said...

Chris, it was a pleasure talking to you at FWA2012. Hopefully Rachel and I gave you some good tips toward doing your next convention. Just keep having fun.

Christopher J Paulsen said...

Verdauga - I'll have a big sign (may two!) for Anthrocon. The reason I didn't have one for FWA is because I hadn't originally planned to exhibit there, so no large printing work was ready in time. I'll also have my Precocious character stands around to get attention from angles. Also, you probably didn't see me because I was in the deadest zone in the entire darn den. Oh well.

JP - Thanks again for everything! I definitely learned a lot and I'll put it to good use in the future. Hope to see you around!

Darc Sowers said...

Hey there! You look so happy! :D Oh, I've seen a few of your commissions pop up on FA. I'll send you the links, if you'd like.

Christopher J Paulsen said...

I found the Squeakybunny commissions. Any more out there?

Oh, and my smile is because I grabbed the sketchbook Ceiling Cow was working in to show off the sexy speedo ringtail cat she was working on. Of course, you actually see the marker commission I did bleeding through better than you can see her work.

Iron Ed said...

Liked the quickie commissions did you? Does that now make you a con-artist? :-) :-) :-)

Codefox said...

Any chance of doing non-furry conventions in the future?

Christopher J Paulsen said...

I'm all for doing regular comic cons - tried for SPX this year, but didn't get in - but I need to be sure I have wares people at those cons WANT. I need to rely on books for those things, not commissions.

Unless I manage to get an invite to share a table at SPX (unlikely, as no one I know got in either), Intervention, NYCC or another late-year con, I probably won't attend any of them this year. Next year, though, it's on!

Codefox said...

I await your con schedule then!