Artists Alley Information Thread

Selling at Cons is best during the...

Spring	11.5%	[ 117 ]
Summer	29.4%	[ 300 ]
Fall	7.2%	[ 73 ]
Winter	5.5%	[ 56 ]
Any time!	46.5%	[ 474 ]
Total Votes:			[ 1020 ]

[Vicemage]

Starre257

Mold Builder, it's called. I think it's made by Castin' Craft, the same company that makes the resin I use.

Other than the time delays you're having, how well does the mold and resin work? I'm actually looking specifically into moldmaking supplies and resins, believe it or not. ^_^ (And I don't want to waste my selastic on resin, that's reserved for pewtercasting.)

[LavenderMintRose]

umm... I haven't tried it as a mold yet. I'm still making my first group of molds.

[[Kako]]

Is it a 2-part liquid moldmaker, or a putty moldmaker? The liquid ones can take FOREVER to cure, and they tend to get little bubbles in them if you don't get it just right. If you're using liquid and in a rush, I recommend going out and purchasing some to the effect of Amazing Mold Putty. It cures quickly, is quite strong, and can stand up to a lot of heat.

Edit: Oh, gods. I googled it. The latex layer system takes FOREVER to build up/dry, and the molds break/deform really easily. ): If you can, I really suggest grabbing some silicone mold putty instead. Here is an example of it in use.

[Vicemage]

Ooh, that sounds not so good, there... I'll have to poke around what Hub Hobby has. They've got a lot of nice moldmaking and casting supplies. And I know I want to do some resin-casting in the not-too-distant future...

[LavenderMintRose]

I've never seen mold putty for a price I can afford. Where do you get it from? I'm not super-good at this, I can't sell my stuff for super-high prices, so I need something cheap.

[[Kako]]

The mold-putty I use cost about $20, but I got a lot of molds out of it. I bought it from a local hobby store, but you should be able to find it at most craft stores.

[LavenderMintRose]

... New York fails again. There's nothing like that here. And I won't have time to go to the one I know of until after Otakon...

[Vicemage]

I'll definately have to ask the guys at Hub about that when I go in for Apoxie next week... sounds like fun. And I'd love to do some 3D stuff. (Considering I'm a sculptor and all... >.> )

[Shadow Ivy]

Yume Kitsune_rei

Its feeling like this year convention attendance and sales are down. Do others feel the same way or am I just having a bad year?

It has seemed that sales are down; me and a good friend of mine experienced this at both ACen and Animazement this year. :/ I'm not letting that discourage me, though--it's just a matter of planning accordingly for the next con. People are a bit strapped for cash right now, so I'm not terribly surprised by it all.

[Seijaku_Ishida]

Because people are strapped for cash, might be a good idea to have lots of little low-cost items. :3 Which is generally a good idea to begin with, but especially so in a crappy economy.

[Onigiri Monster]

Hey my friend sent this to me and I'd just thought I's share it with you all:

"For artist selling prints and paraphernalia in the Artist Alley:

Apparently industry is going to be doing sweeps (rumor of some of these people being lawyers is unclear) of people's artwork. Multiple times over the Con too. Some companies who are going to be extra vigilant are Funimation, Disney, Nintendo, and Squaresoft (final fantasy stuff mostly) So be warned not to have this stuff at con.

Those artist who have a table should be getting an email (if you haven't already) with details on the matter.

Regardless, I would be very very careful with copyright this year at con."

This one is talking about Otakon's AA but I wouldn't be surprised if it also applies to other AA's.

[Yume Kitsune_rei]

Starre257

Mold Builder, it's called. I think it's made by Castin' Craft, the same company that makes the resin I use.

I've used that before, got it from Michaels. Its pretty much like the consistency and smell of liquid laytex. You also have to be really careful with the first couple layers or it'll get bubbles. It also takes a ton of layers to get a decent mold. I usually put a small fan on it to dry faster. I used to make stuff out of sculpy for hair clips (like the Gaia angelic and nitemare mini wings) using that stuff and then filling in the molds with model magic but it was a big pain and half of them didn't turn out well. It also ended up ruining my originals, since I had to keep making molds because they'd wear out after a while and the mold release spray caused the sculpy to crack (I didn't even think it would or I would have coated the sculpy in some sort of protector). I stopped messing with molds because it was too annoying. Personally I'm intimidated by resin though I know its the best way to go. I don't have the space to use stuff that requires good ventilation due to toxicity, and is picky about mixing. I guess if I did have a reliable way of making molds I'd probably sculpt more. I just don't understand doing it enough without someone showing me, and I don't know anyone who does that stuff.

[Yume Kitsune_rei]

DarKlawStudios

Just though of this while I was photocopying my fliers...

Coloring pages.

Just the lineart on copypaper, for maybe 50 cents a pop.

Opinions? smile

I think its a good idea. I know on DA people like when artists post lineart available to color. There's a lot of people who visit AA who wish they were better artists so they usually like coloring nice work. You could even do a small book with like pages in a folder or something and sell it for a couple bucks. I'd probably say not to staple them so they're not ruined if the person wants to pull out a page to display. Maybe those cheap plastic binders for school reports.

[Yume Kitsune_rei]

Onigiri Monster

Hey my friend sent this to me and I'd just thought I's share it with you all:

"For artist selling prints and paraphernalia in the Artist Alley:

Apparently industry is going to be doing sweeps (rumor of some of these people being lawyers is unclear) of people's artwork. Multiple times over the Con too. Some companies who are going to be extra vigilant are Funimation, Disney, Nintendo, and Squaresoft (final fantasy stuff mostly) So be warned not to have this stuff at con.

Those artist who have a table should be getting an email (if you haven't already) with details on the matter.

Regardless, I would be very very careful with copyright this year at con."

This one is talking about Otakon's AA but I wouldn't be surprised if it also applies to other AA's.

I wonder if they're really starting to get against fanart and why. Are there any articles about it? I'd doubt they do anything more than a couple major cons if this is happening. It'd cost too much money to send people out to minor ones. Though Otakon will be among the first to start rules changes if this is true, and that will set a precedent for more cons.
I'm not usually too concerned about just rumors unless there's more to back it up. Though Disney has always had a very uptight rep, I don't know that I've really seen anyone selling Disney fanart unless you count Kingdom Hearts.
Have the artists gotten an email?

[Nyawyn]

I checked the otakon website and the forums but i dont see any mention of this at all, If something was sent out it very well may have gone out to the artists only, but even then im surprised there hasnt been a thread started on the forums discussing it.

I wouldnt be surprised that industry reps might take a few passes through the alley at Otakon considering how major an event it is, and even more so considering how much attention was drawn to it after the incidents of last year.

When you look at the amount of fanart present in artist alleys now, compared to 5-7 years ago, the alleys today have a far greater presence of fanart than previously with some artists having nothing but fanart at their tables. Throw in, incidents of last year and now the presence of a few fanartists in the dealers room at a con or two (which pisses off the dealers), fan-art at cons is having more and more attention drawn to it, which is very bad considering when doing fanart, its best to keep a low profile.

A lot of artists only really do fanart because it attracts the current attendee body to their table. A lot of very talented artists get passed over simply because the attendees wont pay any attention to an artist who has no fan art to display.