Girls for Sale

HeoresCon, June 4-6, 2010
Charlotte, NC


The general consensus around the hall was that business wasn't as good as hoped. Possibly attendance was lower. Definitely, folks just seemed to have a tighter hold on their monies - out side of the Saturday night auction I'm told.

Having naught but my experience drawing and painting personalized artwork on Disneyland's Main Street, my business of convention sketches surprised me by being fairly brisk.


"Rex"
Convention sketch.

With a 6.75" x 10.5" comic backing board advertising "CONVENTION SKETCHES $15.00 1 CHARACTER" I began Friday morning with a Rex from Cartoon Network's new action show "Generator Rex" in black sharpie on the slick side of another comic board.


"Ben, Big Chill"
Convention Sketch.

Second I drew a composition with half a Ben and half a Big Chill, one of Ben's alien hero transformations. Two halves equal one character sketch right? As I would on the remainder, I drew on the dull side of the comic board, except in the cases where I was drawing sketchbooks or other paper provided by the client (yes, some folks do anticipate having sketches done and bring their own paper stock).


"Samurai Jack"
Convention sketch.

In keeping with the Cartoon Network theme and as a marketing ploy I drew Samurai Jack thinking that would start to attract art patrons.


"Tinker Bell"
Convention Sketch.

And with the red and blue pencils and black pens I had brought, I continued to sketch characters in between "Hello"s and "Have a free button"s to attract potential business to the Monster Enterprises booth.


"Batgirl"
Purchased sketch.

Early on I even gave away two sketches, Wonder Woman and Scarlet Witch, to two young girls whom I'm not even sure recognized who the characters were, but were looking for free stuff. Their father almost stopped them, but I let them keep them. Merrill laughed.


"Belle"
Purchased sketch.

At some point some body stopped at the booth and was admiring the "Supergirl vs. Kid Flash" print we had on display and risked $15 on a commission for a Supergirl sketch.


"Green Lantern"
Convention sketch.

And that got a ball slowly rolling. We sold 21 sketches, with a total of 24 characters; of those 24 characters 20 were girls, that's over 83%.


"Zatanna"
Commission.

Saturday we (or I should say "I") were the busiest with the commissions with me drawing for most of the day. Merill had the brilliant idea to spread out some of the drawings I had done within easy view of passersbys. I even had repeat customers in the form of two brother a friend claiming to be patrons of the comic arts.


"Batman, Robin, Catwoman"
based on the cover of Batman #42
Commission.

Alas it wasn't until Sunday morning after having drawing the three-character "Batman, Robin Catwoman" piece Saturday night, that I had the brilliant idea to take pictures of what I was drawing. I guess that shows you the value I place on a 20 minute sketch.


"Space girl"
Commission.

So presented here are twelve pieces I had the presence on mind of which to take pictures starting Sunday morning. Pieces sold but of which I have no pictures are these:
4 - individual Supergirls
2 - individual Batgirls
Catwoman in some body's sketch book
Starfire in sketchbook
Mary Marvel
Supergirl vs. Kid Flash
Neil Gaimen's Death
Tinker Bell
Wonder Woman
Paul Chadwick's Concrete

... and as I said earlier, 1 - Wonder Woman and 1 - Scarlet Witch I gave away.


"Supergirl"
Commission.

Sadly, even though Samurai Jack caught many an eye, my first three, Rex, Ben and Jack, were set out on the table unsold for three days.


"Jungle Girl"
Commission.