CrashOctopus Blog

Interestingly, that last post pushed the blog up an entire school. I skipped 4 grades in 2 days! It must have been the swearing. Or the big words.

Since my ma reads this blog, I’ll lean the experiment towards big words, and see what happens. Bets, anyone?

Cat Skull with Feathers by Meg Lyman

9×12 pencil on Canson

$60 - e-mail to purchase

It took me two tries to get this cat skull looking reasonably like a cat skull. You think you can draw from life, because you’ve done it before… but when you try it, you remember that it’s been a while and this shit is hard.

Casey’s blog has a neat little widget that says you need to be a genius to understand his blog. Makes readers of said blog feel smart, right? Well, how does this make you feel?

I suppose it’s nice to know that any second-grader could understand my blog, although the sarcasm may go over their heads. My inclusion of a swear word in the first paragraph is an experiment. Does it automatically bump the blog readability level to PG-13? Or do I just need to use more big words?

Unequivocally inconceivable!

Alien Turkey by Meg Lyman

6×8″ colored pencil, ink, and gouache on Canson

SOLD

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. If you celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday, I hope it was full of tasty turkey. In honor of the holiday, have a brightly-colored alien turkey!

They don’t taste good.

No new art this week - I’m working my tail off on a portrait commission that I can’t show anybody. So, you get beer instead!

Our wonderful friends Kay-bot and Tonyzilla gave us three new dark beers to try. I haven’t seen these in our stores - our friends are from Michigan - enforcing my suspicion that I’ll have to do a cross-country beer-tasting road trip.

O’Fallon Cherry Chocolate Ale is something to behold. Although it’s an ale, its flavor is dark and delicious. As the name suggests, it tastes just like a dark-chocolate-covered cherry, but far milder and less sweet. It’s light and crisp, making it much more drinkable than an actual chocolate-covered-cherry might lead you to believe. The flavor is slightly more cherry than chocolate, and is very smooth. It has absolutely no bite, although a small bite might improve it even more.

A wonderful, refreshing, different beer. Smiles all around.

M: 8.5
N: 7.5

Now that I’ve finished my laundry and unpacked and tidied everything, I’m finally ready to go on with my post-convention life. I haven’t done much art since then. I know art inspiration often comes in cycles, but this is a lousy time to be unmotivated. I have three big pieces to finish by Christmas.

ANYway, my business participation in the con consisted of two areas: the Art Show and the Exhibitor’s Hall. The Hall was already full when I decided to register, but friend and CotC mastermind Andy Hopp granted me table space in the hallway. Although we had to haul everything into a room to be locked up at night, the location was great. We had a lot of foot traffic.

I shared a table with my friend, artiste extraordinaire Kelly Brighbill. This is my half of the table. I should mention that I completely forgot to take any photos of the table or art show setup, so I pilfered these from the Wandering Men, whose table was right next to mine. They had a mini catapult set up and were shooting candy at a toy castle. It drew a lot of people and I ended up with chocolate in all my boxes - a win-win situation.

See the big banner at the top? That was ~$50 at Kinko’s, and it is sturdy and awesome. Under the banner is my box o’ originals, all matted, bagged, and priced. I sold 3 items from the box. The sign on the front of the box displayed print and commission prices. I also had a price sheet sitting on the table.

On the left is a jar marked “DONATIONS.” I was giving away free business-card sized prints of cats and dogs, but asking for donations to my local no-kill animal shelter. I also sold raffle tickets for $1 (which went in the jar) for a free print. The jar made about $18. I gave a free raffle ticket to anyone who bought something.

Here I am at the table, watching the catapult action. I wore my CrashOctopus hat the whole time. Good advertising. Sold 3.

On the left side of the photo, between Kelly’s head and Nathan’s shoulder, you can see the corner of one of my prints. I put one of each in a portfolio-type binder that was sturdy enough to stand up on its own, sort of like a tent. I had 8×10, 5×7, and “mini” prints (~3×4) for $15, $10, and $2, respectively. Art prices are pretty low at these types of conventions, and even so, I only sold about 10 prints. In front of the prints, I had another portfolio full of loose originals and sketches. I sold a half-dozen of these.

I rented 3 art show panels for $12 each and hung 28 originals, ranging from ACEO to 18×24. Each piece has a silent auction bidding sheet, so I was able to hang these and forget about them - no tending required. The minimum bids I chose were less than I’d sell them for outright, but not so low that I would cry if they sold. Of these, I sold 6 (including Felipe), all at minimum bid. Not too bad!

It was great sharing a table; each time I wanted to go to a seminar or look at the other tables, Kelly watched our table, and vice versa. Overall, I sold more than I expected, got a lot of mailing list sign-ups, and had a blast! True, most things I sold to friends or people I met at CotC last year, but I converted a lot of new customers, and all of last year’s customers were repeats this year. Plus, a few people I didn’t know at all bought things.

If you’re remotely near Akron, OH, around November 6-9 next year, I highly recommend attending Con on the Cob. You’ll have fun, I guarantee it.

Just popping in to say that Felipe sold at the show this weekend! I’m thrilled, especially since it sold to a friend. I know it will be well-loved.

I was planning to post a photo of my table setup, but I completely forgot to take any pictures. I’m hoping I can steal a photo from my table-neighbors and post it this weekend.

Felipe the Flaming Salamander by Meg Lyman

15×20″ gouache on illustration board

Going to the Con on the Cob Art Show

Don’t have much time tonight, since I’m driving to Ohio at 6am tomorrow. Here he is finished, although I didn’t spend much time color-correcting. I’m not sure how I feel about this piece yet. I am sure is my hand is happy to be not painting anymore. And sure of the relief that it is, actually, done.

Suggestions welcome. If he doesn’t sell, I can always make changes!

Felipe the Flaming Salamander, WIP

15×20 Gouache on Illustration Board

Y’all know the saying “running around like a chicken with its head cut off.” I figured it’s more efficient to say “running around like a headless chicken,” but whenever I say it, people go, “what?”

I’ve been running around like a headless chicken all week. I’m leaving for Con on the Cob on Thursday, and it’ll be the first time I’ll have an exhibitor’s table at a convention. I’m also entering 3 6×2′ panels in the art show. Preparation for this includes the following:

• Painting “Felipe” specifically for Con on the Cob (at one of last year’s Quick Draw competitions, a “flaming salamander wearing cowboy boots at a taco stand” was suggested)
• Matting, backing, labeling, and bagging all my new pieces
• Laying out the art show panels so I know how much art I can hang
• Labeling non-show pieces with prices to sell at the table
• Buying and labeling a portfolio for unmatted sketches
• Buying and filling a print binder
• Getting prints made
• Creating and uploading notecards and magnets to Vistaprint (their notecards are nice quality but say “www.VistaPrint.com” on the back)
• Buying ungodly amounts of candy to draw people to the table
• Buying a 29 cent ACEO frame at the resale shop only to find that a 1/8″ frame border swallows up a lot of the ACEO
• Buying a 49 cent jar at the resale shop for animal shelter donations
• Purchasing a receipt book
• Researching vendor taxes in the state of Ohio
• Designing and ordering from Kinko’s a 3×1.5′ banner. It looks awesome and cost ~$50.
• Creating a small pricing sign (for prints and commissions)
• Pilfering binder clips from the office
• Panicking
• I think that’s it.

Luckily, I have most of these done. However, it’s the first of the month, so I should update my website. And as you can see, I still have half of Felipe to paint. *runs around like a chicken*

p.s. I underpainted with three warm orange washes and it is working really well. You can layer gouache as long as you aren’t heavy-handed and use the right tools. Illo board soaks up paint fast, so it’s much easier to layer than Gessobord.