Selling Art in an Anime Convention (without looking like sellouts)

November 19, 2009 · 3 Comments · Tags: Events

I, Rini, Hannah, Ame and a few other college friends will be selling some merchandise over at the Mangaholix ‘09 convention this weekend. My line-up consists of Devil May Cry fanart keychains and some Tokidoki-esque stickers. It’s our first venture into this informal art market which is quite an experience not only for us as artists but also for our business skills.

Even though it sounds like a silly pursuit for attention and cash through cutesy fanart products, it is not a simple task that’s possible once the idea hits you. My group had to develop marketing strategies because there are still entrepreneurial factors involved in planning.

Target Market

Our target market for this event is mostly a bunch of Anime fanatics within their breeding ground: an Anime, videogame and manga convention. That means fanart of popular characters will most likely sell. We can draw Naruto even though we don’t like him but we’d look like sellouts. We can’t just draw awesome characters we like at the risk of not selling because we’d waste money on production. Our idealism as artists and the production costs had to be weighed.

Well we’re totally not snobs against Anime. We have favorites amongst mainstream titles. I’m crazy about Devil May Cry which is a popular videogame series by now.

Competition

Would our art of this character look better than that art of the same character made by that other artist? I had to put that question up when we were deciding what to draw for our merchandise. I hope it would at least encourage not making mediocre works.

We did have the idea that we should show something different. I got around that by printing cutesy stickers at bite-size shapes and prices. I surveyed some previews to my friends and they think the stickers would be a hit.

Skills

In my opinion, I would like to stress the importance of skill. Just because you can draw everyone’s favorite Anime character isn’t enough. Just because you have the idea of selling them at Anime conventions isn’t enough. The idea sounds exciting. You’ll profit! You’ll gain exposure as an artist! But you really need to have the skill to make attractive art so buyers would fork out the cash for something like a piece of laminated fanart print with a key ring on it.

Teamwork

Some of use don’t know how to color with Photoshop yet. This is where being in a group of artists helps. Offer to color each others’ lineart. Share techniques and critic each other. Don’t treat your group like a business deal that will be your stepping stone to success. The fun thing about this kind of business is that it’s something you do with fellow artists and friends.

Well these are our my group’s hypotheses and observations. The convention this weekend will really tell if things will pay off. I can say this early that, despite all the daunting factors, all the sleepovers and deadlines, I had fun. Wish us luck! I’ll be sure to report about this weekend!

More information about the Mangaholix convention at their DeviantART