Finally I get around to writing my blog! This past week I not only had to get stuff ready for the Gowanus Nite Market, but also do a rush custom comic for a client (more on that next week!). Here's the recap of all the excitement at GNM.

Each vendor had a unique set up, and luckily I was able to get a good table (not a coffee table) to draw on. You can see I had all the original drawings that I posted all last week behind me on that board. No originals sold, but people were interested in prints, so that's coming next month!

I made Christmas cards out of that deer drawing I did. Those didn't sell, but the people who worked at Film Biz were interested! Now, onto stuff that DID sell - practically my entire profit was made just from custom sketches!

Did another funny Deadpool sketch for a couple I met at New York Comic Con!

This time I displayed an example of how well I capture people in portraits. People responded well to it!

Portraits of pets included too.

This one wins most bizarre sketch. A guy wanted him & his girlfriend riding a sperm whale out of hell with a unicorn. They liked the extra added touch of the demons chasing them :)

Props to these people for holding their poses so long!

This wins funniest sketch. A girl wanted a drawing of a tiny monkey riding backwards on a tiny pig, drawn like a family crest.

She loved it SO much that I'm doing more for her whole family!

This guy has always loved Waldo :)

I also held the fortune cookie hunt! I hid 15 cookies around the venue and gave a free Misfortune Cookie mini comic to those who brought the cookie back to my table.

I hid them in plain sight because there are so many props and stuff in the area!

So many people were bringing me cookies in the first hour, I wondered if I didn't hide them well enough :P But the hunt was a success!

Had a super fun time at the Gowanus Nite Market, and hope to see you next month: Saturday January 12. GNM: the 2nd Saturday of the month!

WOW! Ok I know New York Comic Con was last week, but I need to recap! It was so intense that I had to recover for awhile. I took those videos on Friday, and the crowds in the video got even bigger for Saturday and Sunday.

I got a tripod/easel at the 24 hour Staples Thursday night to elevate my poster for better exposure. It worked! More people saw my sign and looked at my table. I also taped drawings to the poster so people could see examples of my drawing style. Most importantly, I put a sign at the top that said "Colorist for DeadPool" and that really drew attention! I got about 4 DeadPool commissions from that! People were interviewing me and taking pictures - NO JOKE! I felt like a celebrity!

I spent all of Saturday and Sunday just drawing commissions! It was amazing! I had a list of drawings to do and honestly took more than I could handle, but it was a great learning experience!

This pic was my first commission! A guy dressed as Dead Pool and his girlfriend wanted their favorite characters (Dead Pool and MewTwo from Pokemon) fighting. This became a theme of the weekend - couples wanting their favorite characters either fighting or cuddling.

He's so happy with the sketch! Later on, I drew another Deadpool sketch (below) and put it on my poster, and he bought that one too! Repeat customers!!

This commission was for an amazing girl, Mya Terry, who's battling cancer. Her aunt/godmother went around getting sketches of Mya as a "super girl," because she's been through a lot and is very courageous. Mya even wrote a book about getting an NG feeding tube. I went for a Rainbow Brite/Sailor Moon theme for the sketch. Her aunt was thrilled and even got me and Scott (the artist next to me) fries :) Hope Mya likes the drawing!

One guy wanted some Avengers head shots for his niece and nephew. I chose Scarlet Witch and Captain America.

I looked up references for characters on my smart phone. Luckily this year Artist Alley was in a spot that had good reception! I had kind of cramped drawing space for my little half table, and I kept knocking over the Aer Head stand and Ellen's comics next to me, but I made it work. Here are some other sketches I did, but I didn't have the chance to take pictures of all of them:

This girl even came back the next day for a Prince Zuco sketch!

This guy heard I was a colorist (word of mouth spreading like wildfire!) and asked me to color a black & white drawing someone did of the Fraggles. I totally had the theme song stuck in my head all day after that!

I kept seeing all these people dressed up with horns that looked like candy corn. It's from a web comic that got pretty popular called Homestuck. I got about 3 commissions of Homestuck characters!

This guy was a teacher who was getting sketches to show his students many different drawing styles. My first Aer Head commission! It's interesting to me to see the variety of people that come to comic con for different reasons :)

And ending with my favorite, Sonic! Didn't even need a reference for that because I drew Sonic all the time as a kid :) I love My Little Ponies too :)

The flyering worked well too - my friend Ellen passed around flyers and brought about 20 more people to the table, and of those maybe half signed up for the mailing list :) A few bought misfortune cookie mini comics, and half just took the free cookies.

All in all, New York Comic Con was a HUGE success. I made my table money back plus a huge profit! This was an eye opening experience because now I see that doing the comic con circuit can be a legitimate way to make a living, if you do it right. Next time, I'm going to do more sample sketches beforehand so they're ready to sell, and I need to practice drawing faster!