GRcade Illustrator Club

Fed up talking videogames? Why?
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The Watching Artist
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PostRe: GRcade Illustrator Club
by The Watching Artist » Sat Nov 11, 2017 6:11 pm

jawafour wrote:Cash-wise you’ve broke even

Once you've factored in a few other things I doubt thats true but at least some of those costs go to other things in the future.
jawafour wrote:Are you gonna be staying on to join the cos-play in the evening...?

Not exactly..... I'll be outside working on the food stall. :lol:

Will write up more tomorrow. Maybe. And pics.

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PostRe: GRcade Illustrator Club
by jawafour » Sat Nov 11, 2017 6:19 pm

The Watching Artist wrote:...but at least some of those costs go to other things in the future...

That’s a positive way of looking at it... you still have items to catch the eye of people at future events (or through online sales).

The Watching Artist wrote:...I'll be outside working on the food stall. :lol: ...

Dat multi-functional approach :datass: .

The Watching Artist wrote:...Will write up more tomorrow. Maybe. And pics.

Great stuff!

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PostRe: GRcade Illustrator Club
by The Watching Artist » Sat Nov 11, 2017 6:22 pm

jawafour wrote:Dat multi-functional approach :datass: .

:lol:
If you're really eager (or bored) you can check out the event facebook page for lots of pics of the event. https://www.facebook.com/WorthingWormhole

They had a gaming corner which included a Rocket League tournament.

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PostRe: GRcade Illustrator Club
by jawafour » Sat Nov 11, 2017 6:35 pm

The Watching Artist wrote:...you can check out the event facebook page for lots of pics of the event. https://www.facebook.com/WorthingWormhole...

Looks like it was a top day! I saw that Special Effect Gaming attended... I believe that Ironhide has had some assistance from them in the past.

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PostRe: GRcade Illustrator Club
by The Watching Artist » Sun Nov 12, 2017 8:21 pm

Soooo tired.

My stall-
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PostRe: GRcade Illustrator Club
by still » Sun Nov 12, 2017 9:45 pm

The Watching Artist wrote:Soooo tired.

My stall-
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So, how did today go?

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PostRe: GRcade Illustrator Club
by The Watching Artist » Mon Nov 13, 2017 1:26 am

still wrote:So, how did today go?

It was only Saturday.

The start was hectic. I was late (stupid lift turned up at least 30 mins later then I planned) and then when I arrived it was all a bit smaller and cramped then I expected. Meaning I had to go and adapt my plans. Got this card stand for my cards which was a little fiddly strawberry floater to set up. But eventually got all sorted. I was really stressed out early on. Luckily for me I was next to a really ace chap who does a daily web comic. He got me going and I eventually settled down. It was rather quiet. Then got quite busy and then seemed to die with a few hours to go. They said 850 people were there on the day. It didn't feel like that many to me though. I took £71. I sold no prints (which is where the bigger money is) although one man took my card to email me about buying one as he didn't have the money on him. The guys who built the Dalek props that were on display make amateur films with them. Talked about maybe doing a commission for them. Given the number of visitors and the audience I feel like I should have done better. But nearly everyone said it had been slow business. The organisers moved things about as I think visitors were not getting to the special guests. They had a guy from Harry Potter (he had been a Death Eater) doing wand classes. Some other lady was doing unusual marriages. I saw 2 Stormtroopers take their vows. :lol:

Had some nice chats with other guests and some cool visitors. One who had family thats been in Doctor Who. Said some positive things and bought cards. The bloke who had been in Star Wars and Indy got moved to couple of tables away from me. He was really nice. We chatted about my stuff and Doctor Who. Showed me pics he had of signed letters and pics he got from the cast. Pat Troughton, Jon Pertwee and one from Roger Delgado the week he died. :shock: He seemed to really like my work. Then at the end as he left he flirted with my Mum.

Some pics from the day and the night event. I didn't take these. I'll post them tomorrow.

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The Watching Artist
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PostRe: GRcade Illustrator Club
by The Watching Artist » Mon Nov 13, 2017 4:11 pm


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PostRe: GRcade Illustrator Club
by The Watching Artist » Mon Nov 13, 2017 9:28 pm

My not so good pics.
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Green Gecko
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PostRe: GRcade Illustrator Club
by Green Gecko » Mon Nov 13, 2017 10:40 pm

Looks like fun and you put yourself out there.

I've been events were I've sold nothing or very little, try to consider not making a loss a type of success too because that is how I deal with it when you consider that 90% of people go in with terrible products and spent loads of money on them and lose huge amounts of money.

Place looks like a copyright minefield though, I lost £££ in recurrent sales pulling some stuff from my store (studio ghibli) and still not really sure whether that was a good business decision but it's good to see there's some stuff that constitutes craft as well like the felt things and the pixel/mosaic bead things people make because they simplify things to the extent there are at worst derivative artworks (of course they can never be totally original if they are fan art). It's a good place to get experience selling if that's where you feel comfortable and you have stuff to talk about with customers.

Speaking of Dr Who there's some guy running a big fansite that keeps trying to sell me ads on there, I need to do some portraits however in my inimitable style to put on Ts. Just not feeling it at the moment. God if I could just strawberry floating draw more stuff every day I reckon I could be turning over £1k a month before long. Creativity or lack thereof drags sometimes. Oh well, back to wondering what service-based stuff I can do where the customer does all the ideation.

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PostRe: GRcade Illustrator Club
by The Watching Artist » Tue Nov 14, 2017 4:39 pm

Its a shame you don't know anyone who makes Doctor Who art GG.

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PostRe: GRcade Illustrator Club
by Hypes » Tue Nov 14, 2017 5:00 pm

The Watching Artist wrote:
still wrote:So, how did today go?

It was only Saturday.

The start was hectic. I was late (stupid lift turned up at least 30 mins later then I planned)


Should have taken the stairs

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PostRe: GRcade Illustrator Club
by jawafour » Tue Nov 14, 2017 5:07 pm

The Watching Artist wrote:(Event photos and vid)

That looked to be a really cool day, Matt. I guess that, although you didn't bring in the money that you wanted, it was still excellent experience and - once again! - you're expanding the number iof people that have seen your work. Nice play!

Do you think you may do a similar event again sometime? Have you picked up any fresh ideas to explore?

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PostRe: GRcade Illustrator Club
by The Watching Artist » Tue Nov 14, 2017 5:34 pm

Hyperion wrote:
The Watching Artist wrote:
still wrote:So, how did today go?

It was only Saturday.

The start was hectic. I was late (stupid lift turned up at least 30 mins later then I planned)


Should have taken the stairs

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jawafour wrote:Do you think you may do a similar event again sometime? Have you picked up any fresh ideas to explore?

They are already talking about doing it again next year so I reckon I would be back for it. As I don't drive anything else like it would have to be pretty local for me though.

Not really sure about new ideas though. Still got stuff to finish off. Someone did ask if I did Harry Potter stuff. Also feel like going back to my Banjo image and doing some more layers and shading to it now I've developed that side of things. I think I should probably invest in a card reader but I dunno if its worth it yet. Need to do some research. Not sure people carry enough cash to pay for prints at these things.

Do you have any ideas Jawa?

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PostRe: GRcade Illustrator Club
by jawafour » Tue Nov 14, 2017 5:55 pm

The Watching Artist wrote:...Do you have any ideas Jawa?

I am still a huge fan of the fridge magnets and I think there is more potential in them. Being relatively cheap (I think you do four for ten pounds?) it’s the kinda thing that should sell well. The physical quality is there (the magnet covering and print quality is excellent) so it’s a case of getting the choice and quality of artwork just right. The Wolf Link / Midna one with an orange background is sensational, and love the Weeping Angel and Silence ones, too. I think you had the Tom Baker pixel one at the show and that was great, too. Maybe some of the other “Doctor” pixel images would work well in that format, too? Perhaps try combining two or three into a single image? Maybe the monster that you dud for Seeds of Doom would make a great magnet image, too - just the monster on a plain colour background, as per your styling of the other magnet images.

The mid-size prints that you had at (I think) twenty/thirty quid a shot are a harder sell albeit I guess that’s where the money is. In my eyes, the pictures that you drew of Troughton and Pertwee are both superb and perhaps folk might be tempted by them in that smaller twenty-pound size?

As Gecko mentioned before, copyright is a challenge. I would suggest some videogame images for the magnets but I guess that selling them could raise some unwanted attention from companies. I’ll have a think.

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PostRe: GRcade Illustrator Club
by The Watching Artist » Mon Nov 27, 2017 3:33 pm

Hello people of the illustrator thread. I want some opinions. I know a few of you use things like Etsy or Redbubble etc. What I'd like to know is if your experiences have been good. The pros and cons of the services you use and any suggestions for me. I'm looking into trying to set up a proper online store for myself but I really don't know whats the best direction to take. Any feedback in welcome. :wub: That includes second hand info or if you've just bought stuff from these types of sites.

I've been thinking about using Redbubble to sell things I cant make myself (or afford to have made) like mugs etc. But I hear that the amount you get tends to get is a very small%

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PostRe: GRcade Illustrator Club
by Green Gecko » Tue Nov 28, 2017 12:38 am

I'll be succinct

1) Don't pre-dispose your brand to Dr Who, build your own. It can refer to fandom culture and stuff sure but don't limit yourself or your brand becomes kind of worthless

2) Etsy has much better return and good advice on how to run, but you will struggle to gain initial traffic because you need to earn trust of customers and if you have 0 sales your items will show up less, you do this in a few different ways. Redbubble will naturally disassociate you with the product as really they are buying a redbubble product with their qualities and the design is yours. You will probably have better gross profit on Etsy because you make the items but higher overheads which reduces your net profit. You will have lower gross profit on redbubble because the cut is awful, but lower overheads as well so your net profit might be not that much less. It's less work, but I don't think anyone using Redbubble expects to make real money. You won't have to worry about fulfilment and delivery or customer service on Redbubble so there are potential cost/hassle savings there.

3) A good idea is to use a commercial outlet like that as a funnel or entry point to your own assets. So a Shopify page or webshop you can take the customers away from, but Shopify is actually quite expensive, so what I'm really talking about is running your own website.

I've made a few thousand pounds on Etsy. I don't regret using it, but the fees have sometimes been quite high (about £15-30 a month) since the GBP got strawberry floated. I think you generally get more from there because you build more of a presence as opposed to just some username on a glorified printing website. It's good for testing products.

Don't worry too much about making money at first. Just focus on making a quality product and do your research as to what people might actually want. The more you sell the more prospective customers will trust you and your sales should increase (unless you do something like I did and freak out about copyright and lost 80% of your sales).

Don't make a shop full of copyright infringement. It will get taken down eventually making your efforts worthless. The simplest way of thinking about it is your products need to be about 50% original and avoid trademark references if you can. You can always list stuff and just let DMCA take its course, but you might have put a lot of work into that product that you can no longer sell, so try to be reasonable about what constitutes derivative work (which is legal) and copying (which is illegal). Obviously original content is better but it's extremely hard to get a foot in the door with something nobody knows about and nobody is looking for.

"It should be common sense to just accept the message Nintendo are sending out through their actions."
_________________________________________

❤ btw GRcade costs money and depends on donations - please support one of the UK's oldest video gaming forums → HOW TO DONATE
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PostRe: GRcade Illustrator Club
by still » Tue Nov 28, 2017 8:03 am

Green Gecko wrote:I'll be succinct

1) Don't pre-dispose your brand to Dr Who, build your own. It can refer to fandom culture and stuff sure but don't limit yourself or your brand becomes kind of worthless

2) Etsy has much better return and good advice on how to run, but you will struggle to gain initial traffic because you need to earn trust of customers and if you have 0 sales your items will show up less, you do this in a few different ways. Redbubble will naturally disassociate you with the product as really they are buying a redbubble product with their qualities and the design is yours. You will probably have better gross profit on Etsy because you make the items but higher overheads which reduces your net profit. You will have lower gross profit on redbubble because the cut is awful, but lower overheads as well so your net profit might be not that much less. It's less work, but I don't think anyone using Redbubble expects to make real money. You won't have to worry about fulfilment and delivery or customer service on Redbubble so there are potential cost/hassle savings there.

3) A good idea is to use a commercial outlet like that as a funnel or entry point to your own assets. So a Shopify page or webshop you can take the customers away from, but Shopify is actually quite expensive, so what I'm really talking about is running your own website.

I've made a few thousand pounds on Etsy. I don't regret using it, but the fees have sometimes been quite high (about £15-30 a month) since the GBP got strawberry floated. I think you generally get more from there because you build more of a presence as opposed to just some username on a glorified printing website. It's good for testing products.

Don't worry too much about making money at first. Just focus on making a quality product and do your research as to what people might actually want. The more you sell the more prospective customers will trust you and your sales should increase (unless you do something like I did and freak out about copyright and lost 80% of your sales).

Don't make a shop full of copyright infringement. It will get taken down eventually making your efforts worthless. The simplest way of thinking about it is your products need to be about 50% original and avoid trademark references if you can. You can always list stuff and just let DMCA take its course, but you might have put a lot of work into that product that you can no longer sell, so try to be reasonable about what constitutes derivative work (which is legal) and copying (which is illegal). Obviously original content is better but it's extremely hard to get a foot in the door with something nobody knows about and nobody is looking for.


Wow, that is one helpful answer!!

Edit. Matt, I've got a book called 'Turn Your Talent into a Business' which I bought when setting up but which isn't much use to me in my line of work. Can send it to you if you email me your address. It's this one;-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Turn-Your-Tale ... a+business

It's just gathering dust here.

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The Watching Artist
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PostRe: GRcade Illustrator Club
by The Watching Artist » Tue Nov 28, 2017 6:07 pm

Thanks GG. The thing that attracts me to Redbubble is that its low work for me. But like you say people buy from them and not me. It would need to funnel back to me in the long run. I believe Redbubble is completely free until you make a sale. I feel like if I did Etsy I might as well run my own store without the fees involved. But then I need to get people to look at my store. I actually have a shop page on my site but its never been used.
Green Gecko wrote:but Shopify is actually quite expensive

Your telling me! :shock: I cant do that.

Still thats kind of you but I suspect it will tell me I'm strawberry floated.

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PostRe: GRcade Illustrator Club
by still » Tue Nov 28, 2017 6:27 pm

The Watching Artist wrote:Thanks GG. The thing that attracts me to Redbubble is that its low work for me. But like you say people buy from them and not me. It would need to funnel back to me in the long run. I believe Redbubble is completely free until you make a sale. I feel like if I did Etsy I might as well run my own store without the fees involved. But then I need to get people to look at my store. I actually have a shop page on my site but its never been used.
Green Gecko wrote:but Shopify is actually quite expensive

Your telling me! :shock: I cant do that.

Still thats kind of you but I suspect it will tell me I'm strawberry floated.


PM me your address. It's full of good stuff that should get you thinking. Never look gift horse in mouth!!!


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