How much do amateur artists usually make at conventions?

[clocktock]

Hey! I'm totally curious. A lot of amateur artists get tables at their local cons, and the successful ones, to my understanding, tend to travel to farther away ones as well. I'm wondering, though, how much do people usually make at these things? I did my first con this past weekend, a local one, and I think I did really well. I'm optimistic about the possibility of getting to travel next year, and getting some of the travel costs paid for while I'm abroad by hitting conventions.

However! I am reeeally curious how much people normally make, and how much the travellers generally feel that they need to make, to .. make the travel worthwhile?

Also, what is the general experience with success at one con being related to success at others? Does each con generally have a really, really specific market, or if something sells well in one area is it usually popular in the others as well?

Do people find that their second year at a specific con is often less successful than the first, with people becoming 'bored' of them in the second year?  

[tirbutt]

Hello!

That's an interesting question... I think it's sometimes a sensitive matter for artists to talk about how much they make, but I'm sure we're all curious about it xd ...

I think it really varies though - there are definitely conventions where the artist doesn't even break even... and those where they barely break even... and then there are some that manage to make 5-6k at one convention or even more... (usually only at the largest conventions though) (... you shouldn't really expect to make that much at first though O_O)

As far as traveling - just factor in your travel costs and look into the convention size, which is a decent predictor of how many customers you'll get. Sometimes it's hit or miss though...

I've found that it helps to keep careful track of all convention-related expenses and print sales at least at first, you'll get better at predicting things as time goes on (but it'll never be perfect)

Being successful at one con is usually a good predictor of success at another - unless you're offering nothing new and it's in the same area...

Cons ARE different depending on where it is though! Some friends who went to NYAF said people were extremely rude there and said their prints were too expensive; people at A-Kon really like to get commissions of their OC's; people at AX are willing to pay a little more and are more up to date with some of the newer series...

But the differences usually aren't that huge... a bigger factor is often the location of the artist alley and how much effort the convention goes through to advertise its presence... after all, no one's going to buy your prints if they don't know you're there!

As for the last question - unless you're not providing anything new, there will actually be repeat customers who come back every year if they're satisfied with what they bought before wink ...  

[clocktock]

Thank you so much for replying! Wow, 4k would be a lot to make at one convention D:. I definitely don't have expectations like that, but travel costs are a lot to cover, too. Do you figure most of a figure like that would come from prints, or a lot of speedy commissions?

Definitely it would depend on the con, as you said above, but I find that I generally work fairly slowly. The convention I just did (as mentioned previous, my first) I actually spent so much time talking to the people who came to my table that I had no time to do any drawing whatsoever. No time to be bored, either, though! The time just absolutely flew. When I asked someone for the time on the Sunday, thinking that it was sometime between 11 and 12 (the con opened at 10am) it was actually a little past 2!

I made a little over $800 at the con, but I also sold out of nearly everything I brought, and the most popular prints were already gone by Saturday night. Because I wasn't very confident in doing well I didn't bring very much with me, so I had a lot of people coming to the table and being disappointed that something they saw earlier was no longer there. If I had more copies of the popular prints, it's likely they would have sold as well.
I'm very frightened that this was just a one time thing, though, and that if I go to any of the US cons (I'm in Canada!) I won't cover my likely-quite-high travel costs. This makes me apprehensive, though I'm trying to be hopeful.  

[bakanatorz]

I have no intelligible reply at the moment, seeing as I saw a person charging over 15$ for a pencil sketch and I was utterly disappointed to see my friends had bought some.

Though you say you live in Canada? At what con did go? I am currently living in Canada too, and I saw some pretty amateur artist sell very well at the con,though they were really nice as well.
Maybe I met you, I spent a lot of time at the artist alley, did you go to Otakuthon? (doubt , though)  

[clocktock]

I was at the Central Canada Comic Con.  

[tirbutt]

yeah XD~ I think it's usually pretty good to make over 1k or even a few hundred depending on size of convention~ A larger figure would come mostly from prints because it wouldn't be possible to draw that much...

I've heard of some people who do very quick and good anime portraits and make 2-3k total at a good sized convention though. But it's a lot of work to do convention commissions :>...

It sounds like you had a great time at this convention you went to biggrin ~

And I guess to give you an idea - my expenses for Anime Expo last year totaled around 1.5k... (plane, hotel, registration, table, auction space, food, prints, other suppplies, etc.) ...so it was quite a lot to cover D:... but the convention is was large so it's easier to make it back. I would never advise anyone to start at such an expensive/large convention though because it's possible to lose a lot of money.
** just asked two friends who also flew there this year and it was about 1.5k for them too**  

[clocktock]

Thanks again for replying! Yeah, I had a ton of fun, though that can be attributed as maybe 50% to my perceived success, 40% to my Transmetropolitan prints Rodney Ramos signed, and 10% whacky con hijinx with the volunteers/other artists/etc. Hijinx would likely be a higher percentage if I weren't still so giddy about my prints.