August in Ragonia (2022) ECCC!! (Patreon)

Hellooo Art Town Residents, and welcome to a new month. 

And new SEASON, the best, spookiest season! I am fully transitioned emotionally to autumn (I'm listening to a Halloween Focus playlist while I write this) but I'm going to force my brain to travel back in time to tell you about AUGUST!

Let's get to it!

1. EMERALD CITY COMIC CON

Part way through August I had my first convention since 2019, and it was a BIG ONE!

ECCC is the largest comic con in Pacific Northwest, and one of the largest comic cons in the country!

I've wanted to sell my art there since I started Ragonia in 2018, but never really applied for various reasons... but 2022 was the year!

My latest display, above! New plastic grid walls, tiny magnets to hold art up. Shelves from cleardisplays.com!

It was super inspiring, energizing-yet-exhausting, and by far the most lucrative market I've ever done.

My gross sales for my previous best shows were:

• Rose City Comic Con 2019 (Portland, 3 days) - $2,812
• Geek Girl Con 2019 (3 days) - $1,402
• Geek Girl Con 2018 (half table, 3 days) - $1,075
• Bellingham Vegan Festival 2019 (1 day) - $1,021
• Urban Craft Uprising Summer 2019 (3 days) - $942

Most other small craft fairs, pop-ups, night markets, etc. brought in around $100-300 on average.

My gross sales for ECCC 2022 were: $8,341 !

Hot damn! I can't tell you guys how relieving this is. Since Ragonia's financial peak in 2020 I have been really struggling to earn my state's minimum wage (approx. $30k a year.) I think I may still fall short this year, but seeing these types of sales at a con give me some direction for where to place more efforts in the future.

*** Just a reminder that making sales like this isn't the case for all artists - some make way more, $10k, $15k+. And some are just aiming to make back the table cost of ~$350. 

And it's not necessarily dependent on art quality either - location, time of year, The Economy in general, subject matter, audience, the event, branding, type of product, prices, and more will all affect sales. For example, my art seems to tank at craft fairs, but is pretty poppin' at comic cons. 

LMK if you want me to talk about this more in the future, or have other questions about this! ***

Above is my haphazard under-table organization. Tried my best to sort everything into individual boxes, plastic organizers, and paper sleeves. Wasn't too hard to sort through, actually!

Gross sales by product:

• Prints - 270 - $4,915
• Stickers - 300+ - $1,760
• Originals - 9 - $1,075
• Pins - 26 - $290
• Earrings - 5 - $150

Top grossing prints:

• 11x17" Dancing Cats - 17 - $510
• 5x7" Ghost Left - 27 - $405
• 5x7" Ghost Right - 23 - $345
• 11x17" Left Ghost - 11 - $330
• 11x17" Right Ghost - 10 -$300
• 8x8" Spooky Shit - 15 - $300

$200 each honorable mentions - Cooking Witch, Walking Witch, Pumpkin Head, Ghoul Guy, and Lagoon Monster.

Best decision of the week: Printing 11x17" prints (as suggested by Local Legend Francesca, who's tabled at ECCC before!) They're easier to see from a distance, and you have to sell so much less of them to make as much as the smaller ones!

I hope this breakdown was helpful to some of you! If you'd like me to go more in depth on anything or have any other questions, leave a comment! I'm an open book baby, we all benefit from being open about money and bizness ☆☆☆

Also wanted to share a few selected pieces that I bought/traded for at ECCC!

Above, this Stardew Valley risograph cutie by LA artist Boya Sun! Who tabled next to me at my very first artist alley in 2019 :')

Above, these ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE stickers and print from Houston artist, BEANPOLICE ! Perhaps my favorite new-to-me artist I found at the con!

This farmer cutie by Parakid, that you KNOW I had to get for my kitchen.

And finally, this extremely cool cloth print and postcard from our super nice and cool table neighbor, NYC artist Toma Vagner.

And that's all for Emerald City Comic Con 2022!

I will absolutely do ECCC in whatever way I can every year if they let me!! It has totally pumped me up to try to travel and do more cons next year. 

Thank you everyone for your well-wishes while I prepared and sweated over whether I would make enough money haha!

2. NEW PRODUCTS + SHOP UPDATE?

I have been super busy with client projects this month - I've had 4 going at a time, which is a record for me! So I've had all the new products I ordered in July trickling in, but no time yet to photograph and list them (Which is my LEAST favorite part of this job, I always procrastinate with shop updates.)

But I'll show a preview here! Above are 4 brand new stickers! The shiny cat is my fave!!

Two new washi tapes in a new big boy size! I LOVE the Halloween one and have already put it all over my planner pages.

Above are a few of the Ghostly Keychains that arrived just in time for Saturday at ECCC! They are partially clear, holographic, and oh so cute. I've got mine on my keys now.

Above is the picture the manufacturer sent me of the new glitter Frog Wizard enamel pins!! They're not here yet but I can't WAIT!

Above is the manufacturer's picture of the Witch Pin! The colors will look much better at a different angle (at least I hope.)

And finally my favorite of the three pins, the Halloween Cat pin!! Can't wait for these!

That's most of the new products for now. :D Shop update soon, I hope!

3. AUGUST'S ART!

And now it's time for me to share the rest of the new art I made this month! I'm on an Arty Roll!!

Above, some doodles from a livestream! I especially love the carrot house and hamster inhabitant.

Here's the VOD for this stream! 

Above, doodles from livestream pt 2! Here's the VOD for this livestream! 

A re-work of an old Sasquatch Inktober piece of mine from 2019!

Version 1 of Bathtub Ghost, illustrated in Posca Markers on 8x8" Bristol.

Here's pt.1 of working on these ghosts! 

Version 2 of Bathtub Ghost, also in Posca Markers on 8x8" Bristol.

Here's pt. 2 of working on these ghosts! 

A fan art I quickly made to celebrate the launch of indie game CULT OF THE LAMB. The art is so inspiring to me!

And I livestreamed while I played it for the first time! 

And finally, here's my new Halloween themed logo that I created before ECCC and turned into a cutie cardboard sign!

AND HERE'S ME WORKING ON THE SIGN ON LIVESTREAM! 

WHEW-WHEE what a busy month, and September continues the trend.

But I am truly always grateful to this Patreon for paying me to slow down and share about my progress, and make some personal art every Wednesday with you! It keeps the ball rolling for me, and I ALWAYS need that.

Thanks for being here, buds! I'll see ya again soon, hopefully before the month's over with some OCTOBER/INKTOBER PLANS for us here in Art Town?? Hmmmm???

Okay have a great weekend, aaaaand.....