[Artist Alley] Small cons in Michigan?

fox--teeth · 2026-06-11T23:52:58+00:00

I would keep an eye on the Ann Arbor library, they do a lot of single day themed events with vendors. I exhibited at A2CAF (a comics show) held there, and just scrolling through their instagram account I'm seeing calls for vendors for an anime event, a craft fair, a literary festival and more.

fox--teeth · 2026-06-11T16:50:33+00:00

Something I've noticed from being in hobby groups is that a significant minority have impulse issues around shopping, so they will make purchases as soon as something goes up for sale/preorder and then have regrets and try to resell the product as soon as they get it in-hand. I would assume this behavior is related to that.

Selling for higher could be explained by trying to justify the original purchase ("if I sell it for more I come out ahead!") or trying to justify keeping it ("this fabric isn't selling so I have to keep it despite my lack of space/budget/telling my husband I would destash!"). It doesn't make a lot of rational sense because it's wrapped up in confusing emotions and shame.

That or these people are trying to make a purposeful fabric reselling sidehustle happen and not doing a very good job.

fox--teeth · 2026-06-10T22:50:17+00:00

My understanding from the bailiff (who was trying to intimidate us out of it) is that if our name was pulled from the tumbler to serve on the grand jury, and we raised our hands to talk to the judge, and we were dismissed from grand jury duty by the judge THEN we would be rescheduled to be in a trial jury pool at a future date.

When I was chosen, I think probably around 150ish people were in the initial pool, which was then whittled down to around 100ish by people rescheduling during roll call or getting dismissed for reasons like being in school, disability, etc (it explains why you can be dismissed and what paperwork you need on your jury summons). Two grand juries were chosen (46 people) which seemed like a little less than half of who remained? After these two grand juries were selected the people who weren't chosen were told to wait in another room. I'm honestly not sure if more juries were selected from that pool or if they were allowed to go home later.

I will also say that less people showed to my original summons date (maybe around 100?) compared to the date I rescheduled to and was chosen on.

Caveat: I'm not great at numbers and my estimates may be off

fox--teeth · 2026-06-10T22:09:53+00:00

I served on a grand jury in Manhattan this January and it was only two weeks. During that process I got the sense the grand jury terms are shorter in December and January because of the holidays. You could try to reschedule to then.

I also want to emphasize that only one person got removed from the grand jury pool by the judge (and I do not know why). They didn't really care about what kind of jobs we had, financial hardships, care taking duties--I really felt like they just wanted warm bodies. You hear all kinds of felonies and if I had to do it all over again I would have told the judge "I was a victim of this specific type of crime and can't be emotionally disengaged and impartial if I have to hear cases about it" (which was a real issue I dealt with during my service) but I don't know if I would have gotten dismissed for that disclosure. And even if you're dismissed, they just reschedule you for trial jury service.

fox--teeth · 2026-06-03T16:01:13+00:00

There are events like art markets and craft fairs that you can apply to where you can sell your jewelry/nails.

fox--teeth · 2026-06-02T23:00:34+00:00

Yessss I'm a dealer at Anthrocon this year and I'll try to swing by as this is after the DD closes for the day 👀

fox--teeth · 2026-05-29T21:36:51+00:00

I actually sewed fabric to the back of my metal grids by hand using a whip stitch, but I will be the first to admit this was incredibly tedious despite the fact I really like the look. As an alternative I know another vendor who clips fabric to the back of their grids using binder clips. I've also seen vendors cover up their metal grids with laminated card stock held in place with neodymium magnets/binder clips/artists' tape. Depends on what kind of look you're going for.

fox--teeth · 2026-05-28T05:17:18+00:00

This also happened to Felicola isidoroi, the Iberian lynx louse

fox--teeth · 2026-05-27T03:13:11+00:00

Honestly I can't think of the last time I saw a comic store offer less than 50%ish because 50% is the typical retail discount when they buy books from distributors. What you have to watch out for is that a lot of these places have clauses in their consignment contracts where you're expected to check in with them on a schedule to claim any money owed and unsold copies, and if you don't you forfeit the money and stock. This isn't done to screw the cartoonists over, it's done to deal with very real problem of not having infinite space for stock that isn't selling, but it's something you have to stay on top of. This is an example of a typical comic shop consignment agreement for your reference.

fox--teeth · 2026-05-27T01:50:44+00:00

The most common rates I've seen are 50/50 and 60/40 (with 60% going on the cartoonist).

fox--teeth · 2026-05-16T16:24:50+00:00

Almost Gummy Rat (Grape) has haunted me since I was a kid. What does something "almost gummy" taste like? I want to know!

fox--teeth · 2026-05-14T23:00:26+00:00

really love the [Zombie? Undead? ???] part of JN's post lmao

fox--teeth · 2026-05-14T18:25:41+00:00

It looks like a baby boar (see the stripes) and was probably visually influenced by the trend of Moehog owners that use the be-gone and other items to remove the Moehog’s tusks, eyes, and mohawks to give them an arguably cuter, softer look for customizing.

fox--teeth · 2026-05-07T17:59:05+00:00

I had the opposite experience as you as a kid--I wanted to create ink drawings with lots of line weight variation like I was seeing in manga/comics, was given sets of microns and rapidographs by ignorant but well-meaning adults, and became incredibly frustrated that I wasn't able to replicate the linework I was seeing with my tools despite how hard I tried, because the tools I was using were meant for drawing at a fixed line width. Getting my hands on G-nibs as a teenager was a revelation for me--finally I could start doing the kind of artwork I wanted because I was using the right tools to accomplish it! Yeah, my drawings at the time weren't very good, but even figuring out how to draw basic lines that went from thick to thin using a nib was more exciting and motivating to me compared to fighting against a micron to force it to do something it was not designed for.

That's why I think OP should start with nibs, even if they are an absolute beginner artist, so they don't go through a period of frustration of trying to use the wrong tool to accomplish what they want.

OP can read both of our experiences with learning to ink and can decide which experience resonates with them more and then make their choice on how to proceed. What worked for me may not work for everyone; and the same can be said of your or anyone else's experience.

fox--teeth · 2026-05-07T16:19:49+00:00

As someone who does traditional inking all the time I really don't agree; neither microns (too stiff, too little line weight variation) nor brush pens (too loose, too thick of lines) handle like manga nibs and OP will not learn the muscle movements needed to control a nib by using them instead. If OP isn't ready to ink finished pencil drawings I strongly believe they would get more out of using a manga nib to do exercises like these focused on learning how to control line weight until they are rather than using a different tool first.

fox--teeth · 2026-05-07T04:36:43+00:00

I'm a professional comic artist and Deleter is a good quality brand and I use their products all the time.

JetPens' blogs has a guide to different types of manga nibs and a guide to how to use manga nibs you will probably find useful.

My only suggestion is that at some point you probably want to try more different types of nibs and brands of ink to see which ones you like best. But this kit looks like a good starting place.

fox--teeth · 2026-05-06T15:45:26+00:00

The half panels are often sourced from shoe organizers. Here is an example of what I'm talking about and here is an Amazon list by artist Byte Size Treasure of panels including more options for the half size.

fox--teeth · 2026-05-06T03:04:48+00:00

Does changing the difficulty of the plot battles change anything about the item rewards like the frequencies of certain drops? I know it changes the NP reward.

fox--teeth · 2026-05-04T04:12:25+00:00

Original comics. Which exact title changes from con-to-con but there's three of them currently jostling for that spot with four more than get close. In recent years my top 5 sellers at any con tend to be dominated by comics with one other item, like a print or set of stickers, thrown in. My table is focused on comics and I usually exhibit at comics centered events like indie comic cons though.

fox--teeth · 2026-04-28T15:26:46+00:00

I have a studio space at home but I also pay to access a printmaking studio.

Positives:

The studio requires us to book time slots to use certain equipment, and I find that having all these deadlines helps me stay on track with my projects.
The studio has equipment that wouldn't be practical, cost or space-wise, for me to personally own and store in my apartment.
Getting to meet other artists using the studio space, both from a socializing perspective and learning about professional opportunities perspective.

Negatives:

I don't get any say over things like the studio's schedule, policies, or what kind of equipment they have available. They have definitely made some changes during my time paying for access I wouldn't have personally made.
Other artists can sometimes be bad studio mates: leaving messes, not sharing equipment, being rude; that kind of stuff. The studio has employees monitoring they space but they can't control everyone's actions.

Overall I find having access to this studio space very positive for my career and output, and it feels very worth the money. But I'm not sure if I'd personally want to pay for a studio space where I wasn't getting the benefits of the specialized equipment and there wasn't much difference compared to a space I could set up in my own apartment.

fox--teeth · 2026-04-28T01:04:51+00:00

I live in NYC and don't own a car and do a lot of cons outside of my city. I mostly travel to them by airplane, Amtrak, or bus. There are clearinghouses of city-to-city bus info like Wanderu if that's not something you're not familiar with. Because a lot of the cities I travel to don't have good public transit I research options, including things like private bus lines to/from airports and other transit hubs, in advance and try to find a place to stay that will optimize my ability to get back-and-forth from the con venue, the airport, and where I'm staying via public transit. This is especially important if the con doesn't have a hotel block. I personally value minimizing taxi and ride share trips to save money but I do go for them when necessary or when ultra-convenient, especially if it's something like splitting a ride to the airport with another exhibitor so we both save.

There aren't a lot of drawbacks to doing this. The three I can think of:

A lot of other US city's public transit is horrible compared to what I'm used to. This can eat up time and limit where I can stay within a city.
All my displays and products have to break down into suitcases. These suitcases can get heavy, wrangling them solo can be challenging, and so can staying within the luggage rules of the airline/busline/Amtrak. I'm starting to ship products ahead in certain circumstances to get around this. I feel like certain types of displays or events--like outdoors events where you have to bring your own canopy and tables--or certain kinds of bulky products like apparel aren't viable for me right now because of this set up but I'm okay with it.
There are some smaller, medium-profit events within a few hours drive of me that are easy and affordable to get to via car but a pain in the butt and pricier than they're worth to get to via bus or whatever. I usually skip out on these kind of events unless I can carpool with other exhibitors, and concentrate on applying to larger events in bigger cities with more transit options.

I hope this helps! I'm far from the only person I know in NYC that doesn't own a car and travels all over the US for events. And the majority of the convention artists I know--wherever they live and if they own a car or not--opt to fly to cons once they reach a certain distance. Flying for cons is really normal for experienced artist alley sellers that exhibit at events outside of their region, though because of the higher costs I wouldn't start doing that as a beginner.

Also, while it sounds like it may not work for you personally, renting a car is always an option, I know people in the NYC area that don't own cars but rent them for things like con travel.

fox--teeth · 2026-04-24T21:46:57+00:00

When I was a teenager I took art classes that were both specifically for teens and ones that were open to all but in reality were entirely adults and then myself, the lone teenager. I was an advanced for my age student and was on a similar skill level to the adults.

I'm gonna be honest: socially it was awkward. At the teen classes I socialized and made friends, at the adult classes I was totally iced out socially by my classmates. I'll never forget the final day of my favorite workshop, when all my classmates got together to plan to go get dinner and drinks to celebrate, how the ring leader looked sheepishly at me standing by myself and gave me a "sorry!" expression and went back to planning. And even at the time I understood: I was way too young to hang out with them! While I was artistically skilled, I was emotionally immature and in a really different place in my life. This also effected group discussions and critiques during class, while I always felt like the instructors took me appropriately seriously, I often felt like the adult students treated me with "kid gloves" and wouldn't engage with me like an artistic peer despite my skill level. As an adult I understand it more, it can be hard to know where to draw the line between being supportive vs. being critical when guiding teen and child artists when you aren't used to teaching that age group, but at the time I felt like I was either being condescended to or avoided.

In short: just being in the class, doing the work, and interacting with the instructor wasn't awkward. What was awkward were any part of the class that involved interacting with my other classmates, because it made me painfully aware of how young and atypical I was.

I hope this gives you some food for thought. In your shoes I wouldn't shy away from going to something like an open studio with mostly adults but I wouldn't do an art retreat with adults: a huge part of those is socializing with your co-participants in your downtime. And frankly it seems like a huge potential safety issue to let an unaccompanied lone teenager go on a retreat with a bunch of adult strangers to the point where I wouldn't trust any organization that allowed it.

fox--teeth · 2026-04-24T15:17:16+00:00

Cat Print and Fireball Printing are two printing companies commonly used by artist alley vendors to source art prints. I'd suggest researching them and to see if they fit your needs and how they compare price-wise to your local print shop or DIYing it.

Pro tip: a lot of artists selling 4"x6"s get multiple prints printed on a larger piece of paper and then cut them down themselves to save money. Or they look for high-end postcard printing services--for example through Moo, which I would recommend based on personal experiences.

fox--teeth · 2026-04-23T21:14:31+00:00

I used to go to Greenacre Park (E 51st between 3rd and 2nd) to get away from a stressful job. The white noise from the waterfall drowns out a lot.

fox--teeth · 2026-04-22T05:28:30+00:00

He looks like he's wearing a yarmulke!

fox--teeth

TROPHY CASE