Strides I spend to the finish line

Reminder: today is the LAST DAY I can take preorders for Emerald City ComiCon sketches!  Black and white $50, color $100.  Email Tally(at)farbeyond(dot)com by the end of TODAY to reserve a spot.

My prints arrived yesterday and they are lovely!

Emerald City ComiCon is going to be HUGE this year.  I am tabling with Periscope Studio at booth #2621.  A few of us are set up at the adjacent booth #2627.  Here is a map to help you find us:

Eeeee, there are going to be costumes from The Hunger Games on display at the level 4 sky bridge!  Last year’s ECCC was where I picked up “The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond”. :D   I LOVE that soundtrack.  The Neko Case track is easily my favorite off of it:

True affection floats

This old drawing got a new wave of attention this week after being posted by Geek & Sundry, the DeviantArt tumblr and twitter accounts, and 9gag.

A lot of people emailed/messaged me to ask about buying prints of it, so I thought I’d post that info here in case anyone else is wondering.  I no longer sell prints online personally–I couldn’t make the economics work in my favor–but I have enabled print buying on several of my Deviant Art pieces, including this one.  If you look to the right of the image here, there’s an “add to cart” button.  If you click that, you can get started on buying a print from DA.  I’ve never bought a print from DA, so I can’t vouch for their service/quality, but it’s simple and the quickest option, with a lot of available sizes.

Option #2 is buying a print from me at a convention.  I make sure to stock prints of this drawing for every show.  I usually make 11×17″ prints, but I might try more sizes this year.  I sell them for $20-25, and I’m happy to sign/personalize them.  Here is a list of my 2013 conventions.

Option #3 is for anyone in Portland, Oregon.  There’s a print shop called TIS that works with my studio, Periscope Studio, and sells prints of our work in exchange for printing benefits.  They sell 11×17″ copies of this print for $20-25.

I have also had several inquiries about commissions.  I am not accepting commissions right now, but I will open up a limited number of commission slots on February 1 (and I’ll post info here about it on Feb 1).  Those are only for people who will be attending Emerald City Comicon and can pick up their commissions in person at the show.

In other news, I can’t stop listening to this song:

I’ll miss you when I’m lonely, I’ll miss the alimony too

I’m cleaning up my favorite illustrations today so I can take them to a printer on Friday and get some nice prints for conventions. Here’s an example of the kind of tweaks I do last-minute:


That lake illustration from last week: I really liked it, but it lacked depth and something about the composition was off (the ripples are out of perspective, too, but I didn’t mess with that).


I added a lot of shading on the rocks, water, and some darker color at the edges of the sky, made her coat darker, and made the tree line fade to gray in the distance; all attempts to draw the eye to the center of the picture and make things look more 3D. I fixed some shading I didn’t like on her leg as well. And I just like that scarf better in periwinkle. :P

This is where the magic happens


The finished illustration from last night. Well, okay, there are actually some things I want to tweak later (the water and the tone balance in the foreground), but the done-for-now illustration.

…So PS, she was going to be watching a boy kissing a mermaid in that lake. For reals. But I changed my mind.

I scheduled another UStream broadcast for Wednesday night, when I will be inking for my thesis comic. Hope you can make it!

Okay, one more thing

I also updated my Etsy shop with about 20 new items including prints and originals. I’ve added an option for shipping ANYWHERE outside of Canada and the US as well. :)

Stumptown Recap

It was Christmas, the first day of school, and a rock concert all rolled into one!!


(The Stumptown 2009 Flickr pool is already up! Add your photos or browse through others’! :D That’s Ainsley, my table mate, on the left!)

Saturday:
I woke up at 6 on Saturday morning practically buzzing with excitement. First convention jitters!! I had time to finish most of my final preparations, such as assembling my tool kit and packing a lunch, before hitting the road at 8:30. I got to the Lloyd Center DoubleTree at 9 and had an hour to set up my table. The floor was so full of excited, talented comic folk! It was inspiring just watching everyone set up their tables. (And sadly, the set up and take down hours were the times I saw the most tables, because I hardly got a chance to walk around during the day.)

I was really nervous (shaking, really…) for the first couple of hours, but talking with Ainsley (cool as a cucumber :P ) and forcing myself to crack my sketchbook helped me hit my stride. A bunch of friends stopped by my table throughout the day, including my good friends Carrie and Andy, Jamie Rich, Periscope friends, and even friends from school. They were all really supportive and it cheered me up every time they stopped by.

I like imagining all of the people that might have my comics in their hands now. It’s a wonderful feeling!

Blogger ate three paragraphs of this post, but I’ll try to rewrite them!:
I tried to find a friend’s party after the fest Saturday, but it was epic fail. I am from the west side, and Portland’s east side confounds me miserably. I drove up and down the last street I could find on my direction sheet for 10 minutes, but never found the next one. x___x
I went to the Cosmic Monkey after party next, where I was finally able to see the awesome comic book store everyone raves about! What a place! They had an entire section for local zines, and another for locally published books. :D It is a truly awesome comic shop. I plan to return. :) The Trophy Awards show and Comic Art Battles were fun to watch, and Jeff Parker cracked up the whole audience for several hours in his MC alter ego. I met the new Periscope intern, Emi, and the old one, Sarah. New friends, yaaaay! xD We danced and shouted at the stage late into the night.

I went to the portfolio review table late Saturday, and got some time with Bob Schreck. I went in with a thick skin, but he was nice. He did tell me I should go to art school, which sounds harsh out of context, but I agree that I could use basic training in some areas (perspective, anatomy, and color theory most of all…). He said that my expressions and faces were good, but I should work on backgrounds (don’t ink with a ruler) and character details from far away, esp. hands. I’m in such a frustrating place between ‘hobbyist’ and ‘employable artist’. I don’t have the money for art school, but I’ll try to take at least a single class at PSU or AI this summer.

Sunday:
I got out the door pretty late, and arrived at the fest with only half an hour before opening. However, I had left all of my stuff under my table over night, so I was able to set up pretty quickly. Though activity was down, sales were up. I think it was people exploring the fest Saturday and buying Sunday. My family came through, which was very sweet, and even took pictures of my booth (BLUSH). I met even more cool people, and enjoyed the more casual atmosphere of the day.
At 6, I made the decision to go straight home instead of out to celebrate, and gave my family some attention. We made burgers and watched LOST. Bliss!

THINGS I LEARNED FOR NEXT TIME:

  • You need super, SUPER sticky tape to hang anything on tablecloth
  • Pack a lunch you can eat with one hand
  • Don’t smile with unbreaking eye contact when someone approaches you. In fact, I found that my most effective attitude for making people stick around was sketching in my own little world, and only looking up and smiling if someone stayed at the booth for half a minute or more.
  • Business cards. Bring them all.
  • It may seem pompous to put your pricing sheet at the front of your table, but that is where it needs to be
  • Print out driving directions the night before and put them in your car before you go to bed
  • Do not drink caffeine the first morning–the excitement more than does the job!
  • Only pack merchandise that you think represents you well. Each item could be the only one a customer takes home with them!
  • Wear a bright color
  • If you think it’s time to get a table and a con, sign the frick up today!!!! I wish I’d started doing this a year or even two years ago!!

As of today, I’m planning on attending the Portland Zine Symposium. :) I like this convention stuff!

Next post: review of all the minis I read at the end of the weekend!!

Etsy

I have a new online store for minicomics, prints, and originals: Tallychyck.Etsy.com. Someday I will have prints. :P

I’ve decided to exhibit at thePortland Stumptown Comics Fest this April 18-19, barring some problem with registration. I’m really excited! I’ve never exhibited before at a con, and this one is particularly fun.
I’ve been dying to update Random Production, but I can’t until I finish installing Dreamweaver (my old software uninstalled itself when I got Antivirus, and I needed an upgrade anyway). I used the trial version before buying, and there’s a horrible error in the programing that makes it impossible to instal the real version after that without tech support. It looks like that could be resolved early this week though, so I’m getting antsy to get to work on a new homepage. Old homepage is old…

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