Art At Comic Conventions

[Cody_Starbuck]

If I want a sketch from a comic artist at a convention, what is the accepted process in regards to material? Should I bring the paper and if so, what size and kind do you recommend?

[rob_react]

They usually they have their own materials. You can, if you want to assure that you get sketches on good quality paper, bring a pad of 2 Ply Bristol or a nice bound sketchbook.

[Sharkey]

They usually they have their own materials. You can, if you want to assure that you get sketches on good quality paper, bring a pad of 2 Ply Bristol or a nice bound sketchbook

 

I've had a bound sketchbook for years and have accumulated a nice collection of sketches that I personally commissioned beginning in 1991. I personally would recommend going that route as it's easy to keep the sketches in one place. I've also seen artists charge less for a sketchbook sketch than a loose sketch because they assume the loose sketch will be resold.

 

What's cool is seeing the artist flip through it to see who else has done a sketch in there. When they see Romita Jr, Romita Sr, Richard Stout, Joe Linsner, Mark Schultz, Rich Buckler, Geoff Darrow, etc they tend to get into a bit of "one upmanship" as far as trying to do a better sketch than what's already there, which has been great!

 

A couple tips though: Keep some backer boards between the pages so if the artist uses marker, it doesn't bleed through onto the next page. And if you have someone do a pencils-only sketch you may want to spray it down with a fixative afterwards so it doesn't get smeared. In fact, you may want to spray them all down just to help protect them.

 

In the end, have fun and enjoy the art!

[FlyingDonut]

A friend of mine has artists do the "three minute sketch" on a backing board. The artist can do anything he/she wants, but it can't take longer than three minutes (we time them!) and has to be on the backing board. Michael has about 50 of them, and there's a great deal of "ohhhhhhhh, that's cool" from artists when they flip through the pile.

 

The ONLY person to ever want to charge for one was Greg Land...

[rob_react]

A friend of mine has artists do the "three minute sketch" on a backing board. The artist can do anything he/she wants, but it can't take longer than three minutes (we time them!) and has to be on the backing board. Michael has about 50 of them, and there's a great deal of "ohhhhhhhh, that's cool" from artists when they flip through the pile.

 

The ONLY person to ever want to charge for one was Greg Land...

 

Because he had to use a light box?

[mrwoogieman]

The sketch book is definitely the way to go. DAM60 has a nice one going of Batman images, awesome to look through (one artist signed his, 'for Dave, not for ebay' or something like that). I'm going to start one of my own soon...

[mrwoogieman]

Besides, you can always razor out the page if you HAVE to sell it...

[Stronguy]

A friend of mine has artists do the "three minute sketch" on a backing board. The artist can do anything he/she wants, but it can't take longer than three minutes (we time them!) and has to be on the backing board. Michael has about 50 of them, and there's a great deal of "ohhhhhhhh, that's cool" from artists when they flip through the pile.

 

The ONLY person to ever want to charge for one was Greg Land...

 

Because he had to use a light box?

 

No, because he had to go buy a magazine first.

[Ze-man]

If I want a sketch from a comic artist at a convention, what is the accepted process in regards to material? Should I bring the paper and if so, what size and kind do you recommend?

 

As I recall.. Dam60 has a couple of really nice sketch pads.

Has links to them on his site... worth looking at.

 

You might also ask him how he goes about acquiring the sketches, since he seems to have had luck in getting them on the cheap.

 

Post whatever you get ok?

 

Ze-

 

 

edit...sorry Woogie.. just saw your post.. was thinking the same thing as you.