Self employed artist.

I think its most illustrators dream is to be self employed some day. Personally I love the idea of making my income from my own works be that from an online shop or in person. For the sake of this mini project I will be focusing mainly on selling my work in person. A great way for independent artists to sell their work in person is through convention tables. these are usually in the artist alleys.

Artist alleys!

Artist alleys and markets can be held any kind of convention. Its a place for artists to display a pop up stall where they get the opportunity to sell personal work in the form of merch. This can include prints, stickers, charms, posters, clothing, accessories and so much more.
It has been a dream and goal of mine since I was a teen to have my own successful stall at these kind of events some day so that's what id like to begin to achieve with this project. I intend to create merch of my own artwork to sell at conventions in future.

Chao illustrations

This artist is a perfect example of the type of freelance career I would like to lead one day. She has created her own aesthetic and style and designs all of her own artwork. She makes a living from selling at conventions, online, streaming and making online content to further advertise herself. Living the dream! 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Chaoillustrations#items

My stall, what do I want to sell?

As this will be my first stall, hopefully the first of many, I don't want to put too much pressure on myself so I want to set some goals. One being prints, I would love to have a few choices in high quality prints of my art to choose from. Another thing I'm certain id want on my stall is stickers! 
Stickers are a cheaper thing to sit alongside the more expensive prints and things on a stall and so profit can be made gradually with smaller sales. Quantity does not mean a lack of quality though! I would like to make a few different sticker designs and possibly look into holographic vinyl.

Badges

Another thing I wanted to sell at my stall was button badges! I knew this kind of thing sold pretty well and I had always wanted to see my art on some of my own so naturally I set out to make some designs for them!

​I decided to base my first badge from this Instagram post from Last year. I really like the look of the pinks and purples and think it will really sell well. I initially drew it digitally with a better angle and with a lot more detail, but quickly discovered when printing the detail didn't translate well in such a small circle, so I had to make it less detailed so that it would print well.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ixorias (@ixorias_)

This is how the final detailed illustration turned out, I think its super cute but it could benefit from a brighter background.

The wolf pin I based off some pen sketches I did of different angles of dogs, I wanted it to have movement and not be just 'cute' so that I would have some variety in my pins.

Print paper.

As time was starting to run out and I was struggling with my budget I decided to give reprographics at uni a visit, which I was incredibly pleased to find out I could make prints there for only 20p a sheet! I decided to make my smaller square prints there.

---

Prints I plan to sell !

Sticker designs !

To make the stickers I again used the help of my cricut machine to get a professional and even cut. I sized them up on the cricut design software, sent them to print through the software and then attached the printed sticker sheet onto the placemat so that the machine could cut them evenly.

Canvas boards:

Whilst doing some research for this project I noted that it was mentioned often by artist alley artists that you want to have atleast one or two more expensive things on your table. That way if any of the more expensive things sold then it would make a large difference in your overall profit. And if they don't sell, no harm no foul.
To tackle this Idea I thought I would like to make a couple posca paint canvas boards! I had great fun making these and even if they don't sell they will pad out my stall a little more regardless.

Business cards:

I decided I would try and use my cricut machine and a fine liner to draw my business cards because I thought I would look more quirky. As the pictures show below, this didn't quite work out the way I planned.

As these tests didn't work out I decided to just print onto cartridge paper and then back up- the  cards with grey card. I like how they turned out especially considering how little time I had to complete them.

Presentation.

I knew I had to present my prints in a way that people could see them while walking around the event, this meant raising them up. Traditionally alley artists usually use this type of metal/plastic boxes that stand up to make the stall bigger and stand out more.

Although I would love to use this method for my stall, I unfortunately couldn't find any examples of this kind of shelving for any cheaper and it would have hurt the budget. As this is my first convention I have to be cautious where I spend my money so that I can hopefully at least break even on the day.

A much more budget friendly way I found was to cut a large pin board I had already in the house in half. As shown below all of my smaller prints fit very nicely together at this size too, happy accident.

I had an old wooden spice rack also from my office that wasn't being put to use so I decided to use that as the stand behind the pin board. Although it may not have been as pretty as the bought plastic stand would have been I am very pleased with the outcome of this budget friendly idea!

Another thing I had to figure out was a neat way to display my stickers. I wanted shallow white trays, as its only a small stall for my first I don't want  large flashy display because there isn't that much to display for my first convention.

This is the kind of white tray id like to display my stickers in. 
If I was to buy this or anything similar though it would eat into my budget needed to print my artwork.
I decided before I committed to buying the trays id try and make them with the stuff I already had at home to save some money.

After some digging online I came across this incredibly helpful website.

This is how the boxes turned out in the end, with the stickers inside. I am incredibly happy with how this went! I saved money and got more or less the same effect I was aiming for. 
I will of course buy trays in future, Its a pretty well known fact amongst artist alley stall holders that you keep the initial price of the stall down until you start making profit, that then can be put back into making the stall better. Otherwise having a stall would be a money pit and not really worth doing.

Another budget friendly idea to improve my presentation was to add paper bunting and butterflies to my table. I looked up how to create bunting on my cricut machine and made this template.

Final mock up, night before.

Setting up!

I made sure to get to the event with plenty of time to spare. I had a little more room than my dining room table and my table cover was a little small but I think it looked fine in the end. The finishing touches were adding battery powered fairy lights and black butterfly cut outs that I made myself the night prior. I also made some black bunting to put at the front of my table, I think it turned out very cute!

Final stall!

Although the convention stall was only small I am incredibly proud of it! Even just having the courage to put myself and my work out there, even if it is humble beginnings, is hopefully the first step toward being a fully fledged convention artist.
I made a lot of sales and made a little profit in the end and it definitely boosted my confidence when I sold prints and even one of my canvas boards.
​I will absolutely do this again, only I wish to make my stall bigger and better!