Category: announcements

Anime Weekend Atlanta

awa 15 ad card Pictures, Images and Photos

With the lingering malaise of Dragon Con still upon me, I’m preparing for yet another convention! This time, it’s Anime Weekend Atlanta, September 18 – 20, at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel and Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, Georgia.

I’ve not been a part of the Artist Alley for a few years now (though some of you may recall my 2 year stint years ago when I was just getting my convention legs). AWA was my first convention and I’m amazed at how much it’s grown since I was first peddling cheap prints and cheap frames. I’m hoping to make my big return to the new, improved AWA Artist Alley with so much more to bring to the table than what I had when I first started there.

I will have more custom glass tile art pendants, double matted signed prints, unmatted signed prints, and mousepads. The catchphrase I mentioned earlier is still active, if you’re wanting a 5% discount. No one even mentioned it at Dragon Con *sadface* Is it so hard to admit that Elves smell better?

Not too far from my table will be the AWA art show, which will be in the same room as the AA this year. I will have more original art on display and double matted signed prints there, if you want a chance at a deal with competitive auction pricing.

Please note the following hours for this year’s AA:

Friday: 9AM-11PM
Saturday: 8AM-11PM
Sunday: 8AM-4PM

To preserve my sanity, I will only be staying till 8pm on Friday and Saturday and the whole day on Sunday. Also, I’ll be running a panel on how to paint skin tones in watercolor in room 106 at 8pm on Friday.

The fun never ends in convention-land! I think I’m getting too old for this already!

Late Spring Cleaning & Other News

With the last days of Spring nearing and the onset of Summer, it’s time for that annual compulsive urge for Spring Cleaning! Out with the old, in with the new! (Or perhaps it’s the fact that it’s getting really hot here in Georgia and I am less compelled to go outside). That means I’ve finally sat down and done some things I’ve been meaning to do. Including, but not limited to the following:

– Finally made the following prints available as Limited Editions through Angelic Shades:

– The very same prints are now available in my DeviantART and Zazzle shops as various products. The Zazzle post cards and calendars are even more awesome than DA’s because I can customize the backs and add text. The calendars are also available with various colors for the wire binding and in three different sizes. Here’s just a sampling of what I have available on Zazzle:


make custom gifts at Zazzle

– I recently sat and made a Google calendar of what convention art shows I’m hoping to participate in. There’s not much on it now, but I hope to have a full schedule soon once I do a bit MOAR research. If you know of any good shows accepting fantasy themed work, do drop me a line! Right now, I’m aiming for San Diego Comicon, Dragon Con, and Anime Weekend Atlanta for certain.

– Speaking of Dragon Con, the great convention rush begins bright and early! I’ve never really had a table space that wasn’t sad and amateurish. I’m currently researching ways to make a winning table display that doesn’t look like I’ve propped it up on some cardboard boxes with a home printed banner. Any tips from anyone out there about what makes a successful table? So far I’ve got grid cubes and…well…that’s it.

Still a long way to go before I’ll be ready for Dragon Con’s Artist Bazaar, but that’s why I’m starting early!

Has the Spring Cleaning bug hit anyone else these days? I always find it refreshing to get those nagging tasks done so I can get back to the arting.

Return from the Big Easy

Yup folks I’ve returned from New Orleans unscathed, pining for the delicious N’awlins food, and primed to hop back into the swing of things with revitalized inspiration. Some of the highlights of the trip include, but are not limited to:

    * The ride there was my first ever train ride (minus the time I was too young to remember). I spent most of my time reading in the lounge and chowing down in the dining car where they had actual trained chefs preparing the food. Trains are awesome.

    * I had plenty of weird meats for the first time, including fried alligator bits (aka. chewy predator chicken) and duck quesadillas.

    * Drunken karaoke at Cat’s Meow

    * Getting kissed by old guys at the Saint Patty’s Day parade

    * Bread pudding! I FINALLY got some after making it my personal mission to eat bread pudding at the very seat of bread pudding’s advent in the States.

    * Getting blackmail evidence of Windfalcon and Girlanime on video tape

    * Strolling the cemeteries and haunted houses of the French Quarter

    * Sitting in a voodoo priestess’ altar room and making a really loud ‘hmm’ noise when no one else was speaking

    * So many mask shops I about died of inspiration! It’s inspired Windfalcon and I to do some research on the matter. Mayhaps there will be leather masks in our future?

    * Watching Girlanime rabidly consume oysters as if her life depended on it.

    * Watching Windfalcon try oysters for the first time with a really thoughtful expression on her face.

    * Eating at a new place every day!

    * Bars that have angel art ALL OVER THE WALLS…whilst playing banned racist cartoons from the 40’s.

    * A tour guide with the most boisterous laugh that echoed throughout the cemetery who was donned in bright yellow crocs, a yellow pin striped shirt, and had a yellow umbrella. Best tour guide EVAR.

    * Met an awesome sidewalk artist named Jack who actually KNEW that there are angels who are terrifying wheels of fire. He also gave random lectures about animism to curious passersby and was generally made of win.

The 24 hour train ride there and back gave me some time to relax and read some of the books that have been sitting on the wayside for awhile, including Angels: Celestial Spirits in Legend & Art by Jacqueline Carey and the first of the Fables graphic novels.

It was also nice to have the time to sit and think (and doze) without the constant hum of the computer and insistent siren call of the internet. We all need a good disconnect at times and this was a much needed one. I’m happy to return refreshed with my inspiration guns loaded and an agenda filled with several big projects, some of which I can’t talk too much about.

I will say, however, to prepare yourselves for an influx of angel art from me. I’m boning up on my winged beings for a very specific project that will be taking up my time for the next year or so. Art may be slow while things unwind behind the scenes, but I hope to keep you entertained with blog posts in the meantime. I’ll also be posting a few sneak peeks at my forum if you’d like to get a heads up over everyone else.

Until we meet again.

PS
If you’d like to see a video diary of our New Orleans adventure, I’ll probably be posting up the highlights at my YouTube once I can be fussed to edit and convert the files.

eBay Shop Review

Back in 2001 or so, I got wind of eBay shops, tried it for a little while, and then gave up when it didn’t seem like I was getting many bites at all. At that stage in my development, I chocked it up to not having enough quality inventory nor much presence on the internet in general. The fees proved too much and I was simply not selling enough to cover the $15 a month bill.

8 years later I decided to try eBay shops again in December of last year. I had built up a decent inventory of art since my first try and had several communities and websites to my name to promote the shop at. eBay shops had improved much in my absence, such as a greater ability to organize your inventory, greater search engine compatibility, cross promotion capabilities, and the integration of Store search results with eBay’s main search page (which was one of its main failings previously). Another handy feature is the ability to export sales reports and integrate the eBay shop with organizational software. There are definitely a few more bells and whistles than it had during its infancy.

In the three months I’ve used it, I’ve gotten a few inquiries on items, but never sales. I tried customizing my options with the Bold higlighting as well as the international listing option which allows my items to be seen by eBayers in the UK. I got plenty of views, but still no bites even with proper cross-promotion from my other websites. Meanwhile, the wracked up fees from listing my inventory and auctions plus the $15 for maintaining the shop produced a $30 drain per month rather than merely a $15. Add onto that the 12% commission eBay would take out of my final sales and you have a store that eats profits rather than creates them.

The Bottom Line: eBay shops seems best suited for those of you who may be able to move items faster (ie. if you sell collectible items, cosplay, or other in-demand things), therefore making the monthly drain not so detrimental. The interface is customizable with lots of features, but the majority of your pageviews come from active Auctions and not standing inventory (at least in my experience with Shops).

From my time with eBay Shops, it seems to me that to make a shop work successfully, you must keep both a regiment of active auctions and an in-demand inventory, something which is hard to do if your inventory is in less of a demand and you are not producing work for auction monthly. I looked up the best tech products to sell on this HPE vs Dell Servers article. It is a good alternative if you can move items quickly and don’t want to deal with the headache of programming inventory pages yourself, but not recommended for those with slower high priced luxury inventory like fine art unless your name just has that much demand behind it and you have the budget to support the shop, while there are other shops online where you can find your favorite products, using coupons from sites as couponscollector.com so you can also have discounts in these products as well.

For now, I’ve decided to focus on revamping my website store with the free shopping cart Mal-E, which integrates Paypal, Google Checkout, and other useful payment methods so that my website becomes the one stop shop for personalized items rather than eBay. I still plan to post eBay auctions at random per month to give people a chance at acquiring originals and commissions for less and to draw traffic to my website store, but my shop on eBay is closing indefinitely this time unless their fees decrease and their benefits increase.

My website store isn’t completely finished yet, but here’s a sneak peek for the curious. I welcome any comments or suggestions you might have!

I welcome any comments from those of you who have eBay shops that are actually operating at a profit. Please share your stories and advice!

In Other News…
I’m heading off to New Orleans for a mini-vacation with Windfalcon and Girlanime so you may not see posts or replies from me till late next week. I hope to return with a video journal of the madness and sketches from our sojourn into the French Quarter’s cemeteries, mask shops, pubs, and corner markets.

Upcoming Blog Posts
– The “Confessions” Series continues with a discussion of how to present your artwork. Is your artwork safe from your own bad habits?

– Professional or Sellout? Prepare for a rant about this demeaning stereotype.

– Introducing the Muses, allow me to introduce some of the characters that continually popup in my work.

Till next time, keep your creative spirit strong!

Productivity in a Can

Latest Developments in Angela’s Checklist to Take Over the World by Art Storm:

  • Updated my eBay shop with more original artwork and matted/signed prints.  Felt really accomplished after 15+ postings!
  • Currently reading 3 Weeks to Ebay Profits. Extremely helpful thus far!  Will post more once I’m done reading.
  • Posted my first ever video tutorial on Color Pencil Tools!  I need to learn how to not curse when I mess up my dialogue so I don’t have to shoot so many takes.  Perhaps an outtake reel is in order?
  • Making concrete plans to attend more conventions and saving up to hit more Artist Alleys for networking.  Already sent out to Katsucon, for starters!
  • Huge plans in the works to start on several longer series of illustrative works.  Time to see if I can balance those muses and to focus my artistic ADD.
Because sometimes it’s just easier to list things rather than ramble about them.  I got alot done this week and I am only full of hope as I slowly, yet surely, begin to see all these efforts pay off. I still have a long way to go, but it’s great to finally be able to check off a few things that have been on my to-do list for years now.
Plans for this week:
  • Put the finishing touches on glass tile pendants and list them on eBay/Etsy
  • Dig the original art out from under my bed and mat them.  Need to start working harder on presentation!
  • Practice more digital media with some orthographic concept sketches.  Practice more watercolor techniques while I’m at it.
  • Start prospecting galleries in town to see if any will display my work. Gotta give my local galleries some love!
  • Start looking for academic publishers for the thesis paper, if there’s time!
I promise a meatier, more thought-provoking post the next time!  I’ve recently seen Inkheart and it has my ol writing urges simmering again.  More on that later!

Sorry for all the exclamation points in this journal. It appears I’ve had about four times the quantity of Dr.Pepper than I usually allow myself!!!!