Ooops, went back to finish some DEs I left lingering. Although I did say it was just going to 10, apparently, I needed a couple more to finish off this thing for Azkatraz Art Gallery. So I've expanded and here's Yaxley. Prolly, not what you were expecting but I wanted....a forboding person.

Hey, ever wondered the hows and whys of making and selling sketchbooks at cons or some such. Stuart Ng has a lot of tips. Enjoy!


Keep in mind its all about the pictures

If you want to encourage casual buyers and maximize your sales, keep the price as low as possible. I believe $5 to $10 is generally the best price for a standard photocopied sketchbook.

A $5 sketchbook will sell many more copies than a $10 sketchbook by the same artist.

Sketchbooks do not need to be too thick or too big. It should be at least 16 pages and 24-28 pages is typical. Put in your best work and leave your audience wanting more! (Keeping the book small also helps keep your printing cost down.)
You want to encourage looks by putting a good image on the cover. I always discourage "concept" covers (a text-only cover, a cover with a childish crayon drawing, etc.).

Standard formats are good. 5.5" x 8.5", 7" x 8.5", or 8.5" x 11" are some standard page sizes. These sizes use standard paper sizes and avoid excessive trims. Avoid oversize page sizes. Any format over 8.5" x 11" becomes unwieldy.

Avoid comb-bindings, wire-bindings, and other unusual bindings (such as rings, ties, etc.).

Do not print the price on the book. This frees you to raise or lower the price depending upon demand (or lack of it).
Most artists include a variety of material in their sketchbooks, but if you have a clear strength you may well want to focus on that. several sketchbooks have focused exclusively on animals. Derek Thompson's Derekmonster Annuals are made up entirely of creature designs.

Do not believe you have to include drawings of women to have a successful sketchbook!

Don't overprint. We see very nice sketchbooks with print runs of 100, 200, 250 or 500 copies. Once you are printing 500 copies, the price of additional copies goes down exponentially, so it is tempting to add another 500. Don't do it if you don't need them!
There has been a proliferation of full-color hardcover sketchbooks produced in the last few years. The typical minimum print run on books of this type is 1000 copies. A number of these books have sold out their print runs (many by "name" artists such as Frank Cho, Phil Noto, and Sean Galloway, but several by previously "unknown" artists such as Jose Lopez and Ruben Martinez). However many have not sold as well as expected.

Consider how you will sell the book. Consider the number of convention appearances you will make to sell the book. Consider whether you are willing to receive and process mail orders and want to make the book available for online sales via your website or blog or eBay. Consider whether you will wholesale the book to stores. Let that inform your decision of how many to print.

Well, here's my Tuesday Art Post. Its a continuance of my Order Series: Tonks. I do and I don't like this version of her. I've made her very punk-ish in the past but I 'tamed' her down a bit. Gave her a lot of flashy baubles but I dunno. But then I think about the timeline I'm drawing from and i would imagine that Tonks WOULD be a bit tamer? Sounds good, lets go with that. =)

Hi. So I don't think I've ever been happy doing any of the older Weasley boys. I've tinkered here and there, but really....nuthin to be proud of. This version, though.....VERY proud. I wanted really unruly hair with him, rugged and inked. Just an outdoorsman in its full sense. I think I succeeded this time. I could be wrong.

Next in my Order Series: Minerva McGonagall. I really like how she came out. She's very much still based off of my last re-imagining pic of her. I did a little more with her hair. Enjoy.

I got my Pics from Mpix.com and I can't be happier! They have .19 copies and I got $20 worth of pics and they came out GREAT! I'm a MPix fan for life now.

Well, I've decided to balance out my DE series with an Order Series. Now, I just want to make everyone understand that both the DEs and the Order are of those people Post-Book 5 and Pre-Book 7. So there is reason WHY there isn't Sirius in the Series. Just throwing that out. So first one is Kingsley Shacklebolt. From the last time I drew him, I've made some subtle changes to him. I gave him very noticable eyes b/c, well....I think he needed something else as a character. He's described as an imposing figure, but would you want to look at him with such unique eyes staring back atcha? =)

Well, what can I say about this piece?.....Hmmmm....well, greatestheroine  missed out on my 30 day challenge so I did promise that, if I had the chance, I'd totally hit her prompt up. Well, SURPRISE! here it is!

The prompt was Hr/D in the dungeons and totally NWS. DONE and DONE. Enjoy =)

Meh.

If you enjoyed what was brought to the table for the first one, then you should enjoy the second. If you hated the first one, then, man, you're going to hate it.

Its Michael "EXPLOSIONS" Bay, people. Whaddya think you're going to get?

This week's pic is of the baddest of them all: Lord Voldemort. I know I said that there weren't going to be any more to my DE and technically, it isn't since Voldy here is the BIG BOSS. So....win win. Don't forget to vote for my limited edition print poll for Azkatraz. Bam.

So I'm thinking of some sort of Limited Print like 4x6 to be offered at Azkatraz. I can only afford ONE print for the con, so to you my flist I turn to. I'll keep this up for about a week so I can then order up the prints and give enough time to make it back to my hands.


Poll #1419514 Limited Edition Print
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Who should be my Limited Print Be?

I think this is going to be my final DE. Nott. Irish. Baddie. And of course...a bit crazy. That puts my DE series at 10 and I think ten is quite enough.

Oh the younger Lestrange....perhaps the most mis-understood? Nah....TRY most CRAZY!! I channeled some subtle Dexter vibes into him.

Wow, I'm just cranking these guys out, right? Sooooo....Rodolphus is something, imo, that would be the counterbalance to Bellatrix's madness. Not that HE himself wasn't capable of the same ruthlessness as his wife, but very much a more refined, aristocratic look about him.

I have an interesting story, if you wanna hear about it.

For years now I've had some foot pain, mostly heel which is mostly likely plantar fasciitis. It started around the time of Lumos in Vegas, and if anyone was remembers how much I complained about it, well I did.  It was on my bad knee too, so since I was already pushing my other leg with the knee, it quickly got worse with the foot. So now both feet hurt, heel pain on my left foot and arch and heel pain on my right. On tuesday, I was LITERALLY hobbling around work all day, I was in horrifiying pain. Usually I wouldn't go anywhere on my days off, just to stay off of my feet so I can just get by at work.

So I was browsing WEBMD today, which I have before, but today of all days did it actually offer an remedy that didn't require DOCTORS or SURGURY. So all it asked was to take a rolled towel under the ball of my foot, hold it at both ends and pull it towards me, while keeping my knee straigh for 2 to 4 times, roughly 15-30 seconds.

The. Pain. Went. Away. I haven't been pain free on my right foot in over a year!! The WHOLE day at work was GLORIOUS. Sure, my left foot still ached but....the other didn't and it was so nice!

Towel stretches....who would've thunk it?

So....this week's Art Post is.....well, real art! 

Can't have Death Eaters without the resident....uh....fanatic? And no one's more passionate about evil than Bellatrix.

What kind of Death Eaters would they be without the flippity-floppity antics of one Severus Snape. =) AND I LIKE MY GOATEE'ED SNAPE, so there.

Another Death Eater, Walden Macnair. He didn't change too much from my last time I drew him. Grumpy, scraggly, like an scary groundskeeper. The only major change was the scarring and the white eye. As an executioner for the Ministry, I would assume that those animals might not have taken the 'bad' news well and took it out on his face. Enjoy.