You've heard it a million times, at least since 2008: we're in an economic downturn. Jobs are at a low. You graduated, or are graduating, or will graduate with a truly unfair amount of debt that you have to carry for years. You've come out into the working world, to find there's no work. It's bleak. It's depressing. It downright sucks.

But you do what the rest of us have done: you start forging your own path. While you're job-searching, trying to get a "real" job, you're taking commissions. You're doing freelance. Some of you may have decided to start your own business, because in the age of the internet, it's just that easy to get a business front up and going. You have all the contents of a business degree at your fingertips with just a click of the Googles. You don't need a storefront -- just a Shopify or a BigCartel. You have the talent. You have the tools. All you have to do is market it.

This is an age of innovation. This is an age where we are taking control of our lives and steering it in the direction we want it to go. But the process by which we get there steals the thunder from what should be a powerful move. We, especially as creatives, are plagued by the idea that we are not doing this because we're the captain of our own ship; we're doing this out of necessity, just to get by, to scrape along until "real" work comes along.

Guess what?

It is real work.

The rallying cry of the past has been to get out of the 9-5 lifeless suck of the cubicle farm to do something you really love. To stop farming out your soul to a company you don't care for, to make a living doing something you love instead. And guess what? It is highly likely right now that if you're hunting for jobs, you're not going to get your dream job; many of us would just take any job, so long as it pays. But if you love art, if you love creating, if you have the drive to make it happen, guess what? Your dream job is at your fingertips.

It won't be easy. God knows, running your own business is hard work, and it takes perseverance and it takes mistakes and it takes gumption and drive. You won't get it right the first try, and that's okay.

But what I'm really getting at is this: you undervalue what you have to sell. You, yes you. You undervalue your skills, your creativity, and your ability. You are a commodity. Treat yourself like one.

If you're like me, maybe you grew up around communities like deviantArt, where everyone is taking commissions. That's just what people do. It was not until very recently that it hit me: not everyone can do art commissions. Not everyone was doing art for money at 14. I had thought that my resume was paltry: just a long stint of freelance work, with two "real jobs," one of which being a temp job that lasted three months. But in reality, I was an entrepreneur from a young age, earning money in bits and pieces as I could find it, even when I couldn't get a job.

In reality, not many people can do what I can do -- and not many people can do what you can do, even if the internet makes it seem like you're just another drop in the ocean. Take pride in your talent and give it the status it deserves. If you're freelancing, that is a real job. It's even more of a job than a "real" job, because you have to market yourself, and work weird hours, and separating work from home can be Hell.

So what have we got? We have a generation of self-starters, building their brands on the internet. Are you freelancing design? Because there are thousands of businesses now who need it. Are you a comic artist? Because independent comics are more popular now than ever. Are you a painter? Because thousands, millions of people from all over the world can buy your art now. Are you a writer? Because getting your work out there in a consumable format has never been easier. It doesn't matter what you do: you do it, and there's a market for it. There is! There really is!

You have something to sell. You have something so uniquely you, and you can't let your perceptions of what is work and not-work change it. You need to understand that you have the power. The market doesn't hold the power, you do. Part of being a self-starter means going out there and finding your own clients. Ask yourself what kind of clients you want, then market to them.

If your style won't attract stern-faced businessmen with fancy law-firms, then ask yourself: do I even want to work with stern-faced businessmen? No? Then stop trying to turn yourself into something they'd want. (They're probably going to a design firm for their work, anyway!)

There are so many people out there looking to work with someone who understands them, and understands what they need to market themselves. There are thousands upon thousands of different desires on the internet. There is a market for your style, and it's probably a lot bigger than you think.

If you stick to who you are, with all these thousands of self-starters and home businesses, with all these thousands of art-lovers and consumers, you will find plenty of people who want to hire you. Set your rates and stick to them, and you'll get paid what you think you're worth. So really think about what you're worth. Your skills are rare, and if someone is hiring you, they want what you're selling, as is, no changes to your style. Your work is what led them to this decision. So the answer is, honestly, that you're worth a lot.

I know that you, like so many of us, are desperate for money. I can tell you that desperation sells a lot less than confidence. So be picky. Be exclusive. Market yourself like a madman and don't look back.

Be confident, truly confident, and you'll be rewarded with gratifying work and clients you enjoy working with. No one can decide who you work with or what you do but you. So don't sell yourself short!

Don't undervalue your work.

Don't undervalue your choices.

You're the captain of this ship. Now steer it.

Most of the stuff I read is either below my skill level or above, but I read it anyway. (You never know what you'll learn from even the simple stuff!) So, you can imagine my delight when I find a tutorial on the exact things I needed to hear and learn to make the next big step!

Well, really, a series of tutorials, but nevertheless. Tony Cliff did a few posts about things he learned over the course of his graphic novel Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant and his submission to Flight 8. And they are wonderful.

1. Everything I Learned About Color Over 6 Months and 150 Pages: Part 1
   Topics: Thinking about value in the planning stages, the importance of value to determine silhouette (and its importance in general!), and how the color picker is lying to you.
2. Everything I Learned About Color Over 6 Months and 150 Pages: Part 2
   Topics: Texture, manipulating Photoshop brushes, and artistic confidence.
3. The Black Fountain: New Techniques, Part 1
   Topics:  Process, primarily. Thumbnails, sketching, flatting. But download that "look good" button. Great plug-in.
4. The Black Fountain: New Techniques, Part 2
   Topics: More process, manipulating Photoshop brushes for digital inking, Gurney's "gamut mapping" technique for color (holy crap), manipulating hue/saturation/brightness, double importance on value, color for a deadline.
5. The Black Fountain: New Techniques, Part 3
   Topics: Refining his experiences with the new techniques, explaining how they helped and what he'd do differently next time, and summing up the whole shebang.

If you're looking for a nice take on color, take a look at those links. Another one I've used that's a more basic primer on color is How I See Color - A Tutorial by *purplekecleon on deviantArt. It's a great little flash with lots of good examples. It also reinforces the idea that VALUE is most important, moreso than hue.

Speaking of, one of the things we learned in graphic design is 1) always design your stuff in black and white or grayscale before assigning color, and 2) once you've done color, print it in black and white to make sure the values contrast enough. If they don't contrast enough, you're doin' it wrong. Probably. (Unless bad design was your intention?)

And for a list of other tutorials I've got saved in my favorites...

1. F*cking Gradients: How Do They Work
   A nice little tutorial about integrating gradients into your color process. It's a little reminder on light and light sources, and how to keep shape in mind as you're working.
2. Understanding Your Style, Part 1 & Part 2
   This is a phenomenal tutorial just talking about how we integrate what we see and learn from into how we draw. It talks about inspirations, how to draw from life instead of cartoon, and similar things. But it doesn't say that it's bad, necessarily, either. It's very informative and a good read.
   I actually think about this tutorial a lot, since I learned to draw primarily from anime and my favorite cartoons as a kid. Picking up on where you get particular "symbols" can be very hard until you start training yourself to notice.
3. Coloring Walkthrough
   This is a tutorial for `alexds1's process for coloring The Meek. It involves research, synthesizing, utilizing Google SketchUp, and of course, color. Beautiful work, as always.
4. Horse Tutorial
   This is a hilariously written but still extremely useful tutorial on drawing horses. Horses are hard to draw, man! 
5. Collected Thoughts on Brushes
   A very nice overview of the options for photoshop brushes, and how they can be changed to make different effects. Check out toerning's paintings. Sooooo pretty! 

So, because I'm late to the game, I'm still fascinated with the impact social media has on the internet market nowadays. The internet is a powerful tool, and we're entering a new age of independent creators dominating the successful market. (Or, at least, I think so.) And if you want to survive and thrive as an independent creator, you're going to have to be good at marketing yourself as well as your product.

Hence, social media.

Anyway. Most people I meet in real life consider social media to be a continuous stream of word-vomit, and to some extent (maybe a large extent), that's true. But if I examine my own reactions to social media, I know that watching someone else's "word-vomit" makes me feel I know the person better. It makes me more apt to look at them favorably, and to see them as a person instead of a faceless entity.

Companies can do this too, but a lot of them are, frankly, bad at it. I don't want an endless stream of advertisement in my twitter feed. If that's all you've got, I don't want to hear it. But if you have someone behind the keyboard talking to your customers, replying to comments, and making conversation, well I'm much more interested.

Case in point: @SockDreams. They do a minimal amount of advertising when there's a sale, or new products. But they also retweet their customers' comments about their socks, and often reply back to you with conversation. I feel that following them is worthwhile, because I can show my support for a small Portland-based sock company that I adore, and they don't pay me back with endless spam but instead kind words.

And from a business point of view, by getting most of their advertising through being a hub of word-of-mouth compliments and comments about their products, they're increasing the likelihood people will buy from them. It's one thing for a company to say, "We have awesome socks, come buy them!" And a completely different thing for a customer to say, without prompting, "These socks are awesome and I'm glad I bought them!" And, of course, the fact that it's on something as informal as Twitter, rather than a 'testimonials' page or something, helps make it feel more valid. SockDreams didn't manufacture these comments; they just manufacture a good product. The rest seemingly takes care of itself.

But! That's not actually why I started writing this post. Actually what prompted this post is a series of incidents lately with theft, and how Twitter brings the smackdown in a very real world way. You want to know the real power of social media? Observe:

1. A few months ago, Jess Fink (@jessfink) had her designs stolen (again) by Todd Goldman of David & Goliath, a t-shirt company with notoriously cute and quirky designs. In addition, someone on Etsy had traced her designs and was selling shirts on Etsy, while flagrantly acknowledging her theft. Through the power of twitter, the Etsy shop was taken down, and legal action is being brought against D&G. While this is not a particularly mind-blowing case, it's still fresh in my mind, because I loved D&G tees. But, thanks to this, I'll never be buying them again.

2. Cut to yesterday, when holy crap, Twitter exploded over Urban Outfitters thieving an independent creator's designs.

Huffington Post and Boing Boing picked it up. It spread on Twitter like wildfire. My tweets were retweeted hundreds of times. Twitter users alerted me that former “fans” were blowing up the Urban Outfitters Facebook page.

Messages of support for Stevie and her jewelry poured in. Lots of people seemed outraged that they weren’t being sued. Many people seemed downright shocked and hadn’t heard of their previous douchebaggery in ripping off indie artists.

As a result, the necklaces were pulled from stores and UO is suffering a bad PR backlash. If you want an example of how not to handle social media as a company, read what UO did (or didn't do) in that article. You have to put out fires fast nowadays.

3. Still not real-world enough for you? Linked in the comments for that article was an instance of someone using Twitter to get their stolen bike back.

Boulder was full of helpful information, so by the time I went to the police station @WendiTV told me he was known as Dready Dave, @eatullis thought she had seen him on the bike path with a different bike, @bikestohikes had seen him ON my bike at Baseline Liquor, @CDR16 let me know he had seen him multiple times on Pearl St. previously and @thecupboulder spotted him on the bike path under the bridge on 9th.

In a six hour window, Ellis's social network single-handedly identified the culprit and tracked him down. Ellis and company caught up with the thief, flagged down a police officer, and ... she has her bike back!

These instances may not be typical. But you can't tell me that it's not impressive. The internet is providing ways for "the little people" to be heard and speak with a distinctive and powerful voice against Big Companies. The thing is, Big Companies could get in on this too, if they could just do it right. But until their marketing and PR execs are from Generation X/Y, I think they're sinking in a mire.

While the huge, unwieldy beasts of Big Companies trundle along, in my opinion, the fleeter-footed Independent Creators will overtake them and, in the long run, maybe even completely surpass them -- in large part because of social media.

Mostly, I've been thinking about art a lot lately. I'm accumulating everything I need to apply for Pixar, but it's slow going. Do you know how hard it is to write a comic-ized cover letter? It's like as hard as a cover letter times two. But I'll figure it out and I'll knock it out of the park when I do, because that's just what I do. Take that, self-doubting naggery!

I have now improved enough that I'm looking back at some sketches I thought were amazing less than a year ago and now wrinkling my nose and going, dear lord, get that girl some lessons! That's a pretty cool feeling. But then, that's also what I wrote about in my last post, so I don't think it needs another repeat.

No, instead, I think I'm going to talk about time management.

One of the biggest problem that faces freelancers is time management, you know. Especially when you don't have a separate office to go to, delineating between home and work can be very difficult. Or even non-existent. Doubly so if you work in the comics industry, because comics take a lot of time, work, and effort, and I know most comic artists work day and night, seven days a week, sometimes without sleep. Because we're crazy people! And if you work in comics you have to love what you do, or else...well, you're never gonna make it, kid! It's grueling work. I can't imagine doing it if you don't love it. Eep!

But time management! Right, let's get back to that.

So, with no clear line between on- and off-work hours, being a slave to The Deadline rather than The Workday, and silly things like 'remembering to eat' and 'sleep? what's that?', it can be difficult to keep your time managed. Now, recently, I learned that the very hard way. I worked myself way too hard for too long and wound up making myself sick. After working a few 13-hour break-free days in a row, you know, it kind of takes a toll.

Part of the problem is I love what I do so damn much that, left unchecked, I will happily run myself into the ground if I get to keep drawing. The other problem is that I am absolutely dedicated to meeting my deadlines, and if I forget I already have too many and take on another freaking project, I will sometimesusually pick deadlines over health. This is obviously a problem!

So, I spent my enforced week-long vacation figuring out how to better organize my work day and my work flow so this doesn't happen again. First, I laid down a list of goals:

1. Get at least 2 pages done per week; optimal: 3 (one for buffer)
2. Make sure there's time to do non-page work like thumbnails, or advertising
3. Take breaks
4. Work "normal people" hours (i.e. try to stick to around 8 hours a day -- not 14)

I already work mostly on a schedule, getting up at the same time and starting work at roughly the same time, so that wasn't a problem. I went and asked for advice from people, and was told to aim for a 40 hour work week, and take breaks every two hours.

First off, the breaks every two hours thing did not work well for me. It broke up my creative flow and made it hard to get started again. However, I've discovered a nice little schedule that works well:

1. Try to stick to 40 hours a week.
2. Alternate inking days and coloring days.
3. Take breaks whenever you reach the end of a "stage" or when it's creatively appropriate to put the pen down. Do not skimp on this, do not forge ahead anyways, do not pass go and collect $200.
4. When you've reached 8 hours, you're done for the day. No ifs, ands, or buts.
5. Take at least one day completely off a week. An additional day must be at least partially off.

By alternating inking days and coloring days, I'm splitting the bulk between two days, which should give me about 6 hour days of just working on WoBG. It's also good because I can get at least half a page done for the buffer each week; more if I choose to work six days a week. Plus, the additional hours after inking/coloring is done can be used for those extra tasks of thumbnailing, and so on and so forth.

So far, this has worked beautifully. I'm feeling a lot less harried, and a lot less burnt out. Today, I got to leisurely map out and ink an old secretary roll-top bureau for page 21 without feeling pressured, because I don't feel like I have to finish a page a day. (And thank goodness because these pages are monstrously time-consuming.)

Also, it bears mentioning that we decided to drop the schedule back from twice a week to once a week for this month, while I build up a buffer. I expected criticism for this decision -- lord knows I've heard enough complaining about this in the past -- but actually we got some very supportive comments for it. We have the best readers!

Anyway, that's my thoughts on time management. Have you guys implemented any tips and tricks for managing your time? Freelancing can be so crazy!

I’m at a point in my life where I’m recognizing how quickly I’m improving. Granted, I’m working really hard at it. Most days, I draw for hours and hours on end, whether that’s the 10-14 hours I tend to spend working on Walking on Broken Glass, or whether I’m working on some other Broken Glass related thing like prints or pencils or whatnot, or whether I’m just working on sketches. This past week, I found a listing for a sketch artist opening at Pixar and at first I felt I was woefully inadequate for the position because I am an artist and that is what artists do. But as I researched and got some helpful links from my Dad, I found I actually might have a little bit of a shot at this. Which is, frankly, brain-exploding.

I have been working really hard to improve lately. I’ve had my eye towards hands and feet especially; I know where my sticking points are, and they’re getting better with every attempt I do. I’m gaining more and more understanding of perspective and how to make it work for me. I’m working and I’m working and I’m working, and good god it’s showing. I can see my improvement. I can look at something I did not two months ago and wrinkle my nose and go ‘ugh!’ because I’ve improved so much. And really, all it has been is observation, observation, observation, and application.

For hands, I’ve been looking at, well, hands. The bone structure of the hand, the way the thumb moves, where the nails are located on the fingers, how knuckles are shaped. But I’ve also been watching a lot of animated movies of the mostly Disney persuasion to see how they do hands. Some of them aren’t very helpful but oh my god, I am in loooove with the hands in Atlantis: The Lost Empire and The Emperor’s New Groove. I love the way they stylized them. I know well enough not to learn to draw something from another artist’s interpretation — at least not as my BE ALL AND END ALL REFERENCE for how this thing is drawn — but it is really helpful to see another artist’s observations and how they translated that into simplification. For example, the fingernails in Atlantis are triangles, and that was an interesting observation on the shape of fingernails for me. It led me to look at the shape of fingernails more closely to see what led to that stylization.

Anyways.

I’m rambling of course. It’s late! Don’t mind me. What brought this on is I’m reading Demo, by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan, and I am frankly blown away by the inking and the style and frankly everything. But as I was marveling at they way they drew feet in one panel, it hit me:

I could do that.

It would not take much improvement for me to get to the point where I could be this good. It would not take much at all to get to this level of drawing. (Inking, now, that’s a whole ‘nother kettle of fish. I’m going to be drinking in everything they did for inks in this book because it’s gorgeous.) That realization was really crazy. For someone who’s always felt they were behind the curve, who’s always felt they were looking up at everyone else, that really struck me: I can do that.

And thus, I was in awe.

I guess drawing 14 hours every day has its benefits. :D

That settled? GOOD. We continue.

Now, this is also going to be geared towards people like designers and etsy sellers, since that's what I was researching. If you write, or do other things, I can't promise this will be comprehensive. But hell, let's see what happens!

When do I have to pay income tax on my earnings?

When you earn $400 or more through your business/services.

Do I have to have a tax number thing?

T hat depends on if you're trying to make a business out of it. Is it just a hobby? Then you can just file under your SSN. But if you want to make it more businessy, call your local IRS number and get a free tax number that way. If you have a tax number, it's easier to get discounts on things, I guess.

Do I have to get a business bank account?

Uuum, yes, it's a good idea. Right now I'm juggling business expenses from my personal/joint accounts and that is a Bad Idea. But we're switching banks soon, so I'm holding off on the biz account till we do. Especially since our current bank is so expensive with their accounts! Really, though, the expenses are not the bad parts to be mixing. It's the business income that's the hard part. I try to keep that separated into my savings account, and/or the business paypal (which is separate from mine). But this is all like paperclips and chewing gum, in terms of keeping finances afloat.

Do I have to collect sales tax?

If you make a sale to someone within your own state, you have to collect and pay sales tax. You can set Paypal to do this by creating a tax profile. And I hear that Etsy has implemented something like this, but as I don't do Etsy myself, I haven't verified this.

When do I have to pay taxes?

You have to pay quarterly. And I believe you have to pay income tax as you earn it?

How should I keep records?

Yes, you should definitely keep records. The records you should keep are: Gross Receipts (receipts from your income, invoices you sent, bank deposit slips, etc), Purchases -- things you bought to resell (receipts, etc that show the amount you paid and how much was purchases), Expenses -- things you pay to carry on your business, and any Travel expenses or similar expenses that count. You will have to potentially substantiate why those are for your business. I'm not sure how to do that. >.>

Outright.com has been recommended as a good way to keep records. I also use Texthog.com, because they have a very easy method of inputting information. (I could do it via twitter, text, email, app, or directly on the site.) I've also been using Google Spreadsheets to keep track of expenses. It's not the best, and I will probably switch to paper because it'll encourage me to keep them better. Basically, you'll want to keep an eye on everything. This is the hardest part for me. D: Granted, Paypal, my bank, and other assorted online services keep histories of payment etc on their websites, which is invaluable for me; but as has been mentioned elsewhere to keep an eye on it yourself because there is such a thing as a banking error.

And I guess I should also start saving copies of receipts since most of my stuff is online. A good way to do this is to save the receipt page as a PDF.

Now, if you're a new etsy seller, you're probably not going to need to worry about this until you start earning more than $400 in profits. But it's a good habit to get into, if that's the direction you want to go.

So I'm self-employed. What taxes do I have to pay?

Self-employment taxes, income taxes, sales taxes (if applicable), and prooobably Social Security. And any local taxes, too.

Should I get an accountant?

If you have reached the point where you can afford an accountant through your self-employment, YES. Especially if you're like me and taxes will be your undoing. I did pretty well in math but something about taxes is just... boggling. I am not yet making enough that I can afford an accountant, but I've heard it from countless sources that they are completely invaluable. And totally worth it.

In the meantime, I guess there's always Quickbooks? Also apparently you can call the IRS for tax help for free. So there is always that!

In conclusion...

Long story short, if you aren't making more than $400, you're  golden. Don't worry about it. Once you start making more than that, you need to start paying taxes on it. Really it's two more forms you need to fill out, and I hear it's not as daunting as it seems. Especially as long as you keep track of records.

RESOURCES

Chuck Wendig had a discussion on his blog about Freelancing and taxes, which you can read here. It's helpfully called "The Freelancer's Guide to Stabbing Oneself in the Eye with a Highlighter, AKA 'Taxes'".

The IRS discusses: Self-Employment Tax.

The IRS discusses: what kind of records you should be keeping.

The IRS discusses: small business resources.

The IRS discusses: what kind of forms you need to file.

The IRS has a long and exhaustive page on filing business taxes.

The IRS also has a list of forms that may or may not be needed.

Etsy has a list of tips for keeping afloat in tax season.

More recommendations from the IRS, through an Etsy forum post.

Another forum topic about Etsy.

I tend to get overstimulated by crowds and people and facetime pretty easily, but this time around, it was actually very easy, and fun to meet all these cool people. I figured I'd talk a bit about my experience as a shy comic creator trying to harp her wares at a big con like Emerald City Comicon.

First off, I had way more wares than would sell. I expected that, because even though our Kickstarter went through the roof, donating to a Kickstarter has more moral feedback than buying a comic at a convention. The motivation to donate is a warm-and-fuzzies sort of deal, which is quite a lot of motivation. Out of the 120 books I brought to the convention, I sold... 4. But! Every sale was a huge success to me.

I also had prints of characters from Broken Glass, but those didn't sell. I did, however, sell three Harley Quinn prints, and a Spidey print. I sold three packs of buttons, out of the 90-some I brought. So, yes, while I was a bit overzealous in purchasing wares, I will have lots of them to sell at future cons and over the internet, and that's totally fine by me. I'm not worried.

Probably the best thing I did, though, was have eyecatching business cards. I spent weeks on these things, man. I bought minicards from MOO.com, which allow you up to 100 different designs on the front. So I drew seven different pictures and used them as color theory practice. The two that were snatched up the most were Mad Science Nick and Evil Nick. One thing I didn't anticipate is I had to explain to people they were business cards, and they were free, and yes they could take them. I allowed people to take multiples because people loved the designs so much. Out of the 200 I took, I came home with probably 15 of them, and everyone was genuinely thrilled with the art and felt they were coming away with something special because it really didn't look like a business card. Sometimes we slipped up and called them bookmarks, which seemed to also work just fine. The point is, I got people excited about my art, and gave them an entrypoint to read the comic at home.

When you are a new webcomic, as we are, very few people have heard of you and very few people want to invest money in something they are unfamiliar with at a con. Some people will -- and they're awesome! -- but most of the time, they want to read it online first. And that is totally fine. So you give them a business card and offer a free sketch and talk up the comic, but you don't worry that they aren't buying anything. Who cares? You're here to promote!

Notes on displays... We had an extremely vertical display. We used storage cubes to build a three-cube tall tower and clip prints to it, and over all that was like a PVC pipe awning that held our banner. It was definitely DIY, and in the future I'd like something a little more streamlined, but it was kind of cool to be able to point to my table from across the con. When I met Savannah, the writer of Amya Chronicles, I was able to point and say, "See the Grey Ink Studios banner?" And yet we were four or even five aisles away. Admittedly part of me is like, UGH, such an attention hog! But then... if you're selling in a trade show, then yes, you kind of have to be, I suppose.

One thing I'm very grateful for having is my booth compatriot, Allan Ecker. He was extremely ebullient and he greeted people while I was working on commissions, and he started selling the concept of Broken Glass to people better than I could have. And it's from his pitch that I started picking up ideas on how to pitch it myself. It's from him that I started saying, "We have free business cards, and they're gorgeous!" That usually gets their attention just long enough to look at them, and usually either got a "Wow, they are!" or "These are business cards?!" or "It's so hard to decide which to take!" 

Not only that, though, but he brought two Arduino boards with color-changing LEDs on them, and some of his home 3D printed stuff to drape over the LEDs. The flashy lights brought people to our table, and drew in the geek crowd really well. I could never do that myself because I just don't know enough about that stuff to talk it up to people, whereas Allan is getting his PhD in electrical engineering and has a sidejob in which he writes about 3D printing for Thingiverse. So that was a nice way to draw people in.

The other way to draw people in was free candy. We ran out at the end of the second day, and then our candy bowl broke, so we didn't really replenish but it was very easy to get people to come to your booth by saying, "Would you like some free candy?" Sometimes if you say it in an overly creepy voice, it makes people laugh. Or cringe. Um. Depending.

Our neighbor Diana Greenhalgh had given me a huge, wonderful list of tips before the con, and one of those was that free candy tip. She had a bunch of candy too, so a lot of times, instead of letting people take two pieces, I said, "They have candy, too! Make sure you take a piece from them!" Thereby directing traffic to her booth. I didn't always remember to do that but I definitely tried to. My booth neighbors were totally sweethearts, and I think I really lucked out with that. Of course, I get the idea that pretty much everyone there was really quite nice.

Hmm, what else was there to say?

Oh, be friendly, feel free to explain things. I still don't have a really satisfying pitch for Broken Glass, but I'm getting there. I kept forgetting the things i had on the table. For example, I had an unfinished 24 Hour Comic that serves as kind of a prequel to Broken Glass, and it had a lot more gruesome stuff in it. But every time people asked me about werewolves, or having more blood, I forgot to show it to them. Drat! Well, I'll finish it at some point and sell it as a mini online or something.

I made bank with table commissions mostly. They were a mixed blessing: on the one hand, I got to totally have a blast with traditional inking again, and good lord, working on Broken Glass has improved my inking a thousandfold. I made a lot of money on them -- probably most of my money on them. But especially on Sunday, when I did commissions just about solid from 11 until 5, it meant I had my head down a lot and had to rely on my friends to bring people in. But since everyone was pretty tired, and Allan also gets over-socialized, I sort of just assumed we'd write Sunday off as a much lower dose of salesman showboating sort of thing. The other problem with commissions is that I had planned on taking some time out of Sunday to go and meet other creators and get away from the booth, but that didn't happen at all! Whoops. I thought I had budgeted my time better but turns out, nope.

That's another thing: it's hard to get away from the table. While you can definitely have friends hold the fort for you for a while, people don't often buy things without the creator there, if they're unfamiliar with the work. You have to kind of create a rapport, so it's more like buying something from a friend than a stranger at a table. And, if I'm making the most money from commissions, it's hard to commission someone who isn't there. I did try to dart around a bit and see people, but I just didn't make it.

Finally, though, I met all different kinds of people. And two of them already knew about Broken Glass, and I pretty much fell over myself squeeing about that. Holy crap, man. That was freaking awesome. And! There was one person who knew about Tar and Feathers! Which pretty much blew me away entirely. To think people actually wanted to come see our booth in particular is just kind of mind-blowing and it makes me very happy. :D

Also I met Molly Lewis, and made a total fool of myself being a fangirl. AGH. Someday I will try to explain I'm not crazy. Someday.

Things I will do differently next time?

Have more prints and drawings of characters that are not mine.

Not have a sketch in the book as a higher price point, but something inclusive if you buy a signed copy. And then make signed copies $15 instead of $12. This is apparently something that most booths do at cons, is sketch in your book for free. Who knew!

Maybe work on a nicer banner display.

In the past when I'd attended cons, I'd brought my portfolio with me to network. YOUR NETWORKING PORTFOLIO IS NOT THE PORTFOLIO TO PUT ON THE TABLE. I mean, it helps! It's nice to show people! But then you have to explain that, no, that commission you did and sold the rights to is not for sale. Next time I will have a portfolio of things I can actually sell.

Really, overall? I think we did really, really well. I need to buy more business cards, though. :P I plan on grabbing a table at the Jet City Comic Show in September though! So come say hi!

I had a blast doing a convention, which is something I did not expect. I will work on a comic-version of the con report, but in the meantime... ta da!

Another thing that happened this year is that my husband got a job. (Also I got married!) I have been watching him job hunt for just over two years, and it finally all paid off. Between these two things -- comics, and his job hunt -- I have learned something important:

It's all about networking.

It has never been clearer to me that it's not what you know but who you know. I know that in comics, it's the trumpet call of the industry: network, network, network. And in Ryan's field (electrical engineering), it's entirely the same. You put out the feelers and if you know someone, they can get your resume to the right eyes, and put in the right word. You meet, you greet, you make connections, and you maintain those connections.

If you're shy or quiet like I am, you know that making these connections is hard; maintaining them is even harder. The connections I made when I first started out are ones that have fallowed over time and it's hard to revitalize them, especially if they were tentative in the first place. I'm still working on that one. But I digress.

The way to make connections, it seems, is to get out there and get your name out. Make yourself a name, and put out work you can connect to it. I can tell you from experience, it's a lot easier to remember who someone is by their work than by their name. Demonstrate what you can do. This goes for both the art field where a portfolio, a sketch blog, or an ongoing comic can cover this part; but also engineering, where if you have a project going that you can show to potential employers, you become more than your resume. More than your name.

Especially now -- and yes, I'm playing the recession card -- when jobs are scarce and employers are getting an influx of resumes, it's more necessary than ever to be a cut above the rest. I've read a lot of advice on this, and there's been advice to start a blog in your industry (hello!), and to get involved in social media.

Social media is... interesting. More and more I find with the advent of the internet that the playing field has been leveled. I've watched two people who are celebrities to me geek out about meeting each other. I can tweet at someone I idolize and get a response. It's a definite reminder that people are all just people in this world, and celebrities are no different. But with the internet, anyone can become a celebrity. It's a very strange phenomenon!

It has been much easier for me to make and maintain contacts over Twitter than it has been in other methods. A service I initially thought useless and stupid has actually become one of my favorite pastimes, although I still can't adequately explain it to people who dislike or don't understand Twitter. "I don't know... it's like, you talk to people... and you talk about what you're thinking about or what you're doing... and stuff?" or "If you follow the right people, you get a bunch of great one-liners every day!" (I'm looking at you, @rstevens.)

In the limited time I've used Twitter -- and I am far from an expert, seriously -- I've picked up some ideas on how to use it.

• When you first start out, you're going to feel like you're tweeting into a void. That's okay.
• Find people you know, people you idolize, and people who share the same interests as you, and follow them.
• Enter conversation with these people. Twitter is not about talking to wall. Twitter is not about retweeting everyone else (though retweeting is a major part of the service). Twitter is about connection and communication. Conversation. So converse. If you don't get responses at first, that's fine. 
• Don't be a jerk. Don't get upset if no one replies. Don't harass anyone. Basically, be a decent human being. A decent patient human being.
• Hash tags (anything that looks like #this) are supposed to be used for "tagging" tweets with topics. However, at least half the time, they're also punchlines. I think most people use them both ways. (Hashtag punchlines are some of my favorite.)
• Everyone else is trying to get their work out there too. Even if you don't have many people following you, try to RT the things other people are trying to spread around about. Word of mouth only works if people keep talking about it! And someday, someone will return the favor!

So. Moving on.

More advice I've read: pick a handful of social networking services -- maybe two or three -- and stick to them. Don't spread yourself too thin. Update them as consistently as you can. My three main ones are DeviantArt, this Tumblr, and Twitter. I also use Facebook, but as I mostly use it for friends and family, it doesn't see much professional use. Yet. I'm working on that.

Getting into social networking is a daunting task. It feels like all these people already have it figured it out, and already have these circles, and you'll never make it in. It's okay. There's a circle of webcomic cartoonists that tweet back and forth and I often wish I could be "one of the crowd." But let me tell you: I'm also aware I'll be making my own crowd. Their crowd doesn't have contacts like @samanthamathis or @maskedretriever, two of my best friends and most illustrious industry friends. And someday, someone will want to be in mine. So it all evens out eventually. 

Basically, I guess what I'm saying, is get on the horse, and stay on. Don't get too discouraged. Social networking is daunting. Everyone I know who's good at social networking thinks it's daunting, so it's not just you. Just stick with it, and keep trying, and keep working.

And hey, I'll always be happy to talk to you on Twitter.

Some links about Twitter and "tweetiquette" that I've picked up over the last months:

Tweetiquette: or, How Douchenozzles Use Twitter
The Traditional Retweet: The Key to Conversation and Visibility
Dustin Harbin's Etiquette Pep Talk

1. Study your anatomy. Real, traditional anatomy. I took two anatomy and physiology classes, and a few life drawing classes. I would take more in a heartbeat. The more you know about how these things work together, the more you can predict what will happen when you smoosh the body /just so/. I admit, I have a ways to go with my anatomy thus far, but the more I practice, the better I get. I recommend drawing a lot of naked people, including shading. Also Dynamic Anatomy is a good buy to understand how the muscles work together.
2. Study real life. Even if you’re not drawing, observe. Right now I’m staring at the moving boxes that are opposite me on the couch. The bottom one has been deformed by its contents, and it has creases and dings in the top left corner. If I were painting them, I’d be putting stark lights versus stark darks to show the sharpness of the creases. Some of them aren’t so sharp. This kind of observation helps you understand how things are truly put together in the real world, as well as how you might portray them via technique. Things are just various planes of lights and darks smooshed together somehow. It’s your job to figure out how.
3. Study color.  I’m still working a lot on this one. Color theory is complex but fascinating. The more you know about how to make color work for you, the better it’ll be. A corollary: something that has served me well in the past is the knowledge that whatever color you’re coloring, the shadows should have at least a hint of its complementary color. And (white) skin tends to look much better with purple added into the shadows. (Brown skin thus far has looked better with blues and reds, for me. Still experimenting.)
4. Draw. Seriously, don’t stop drawing. Doodle all over your school notes. Draw every day. The more you draw, the more you start to understand. The better you get!
5. Think. This is kind of like what I was talking about before. Think about what you’re drawing. Think about each piece as you’re working on it. I often have to sit and think about how the light will be hitting this or that piece, and the contours of the skin, and how the pose will deform the clothing attached and create these or those wrinkles. How the weight distribution will affect this or that part of the body, how gravity will pull on the figure. It’s a puzzle. The more you think about it, the better you’ll get at predicting and the less you’ll have to think — but never stop thinking.
6. Perspective is a bitch. Just keep drawing it. There are some good books on it — I am particularly fond of Vanishing Point, which is a dynamic comic artist’s look at perspective. It’s very well written. To get a better handle on it, take a lot of pictures. Of buildings, of people, of things in your house. And then draw it. Trace it. Anything you can do to get better at it. I’m definitely still new at this one and working hard at it.
7. Tutorials are a great source to go from. Look at deviantArt for good tutorials on color and structure and everything under the sun really. I use them aaaall the time.
8. And lastly, Learn from real life first. You will have a much better foundation to be able to go from if you want to draw cartoons. Like the old adage, you have to know the rules before you can break them. Seriously, it will make your work look so much better if you understand anatomy *before* you deform it.
9. Texture! Everything has texture. If you want your picture to look more realistic, focus on texture. Giving a tree its bark, or clothing its weave, etc etc, is a good way to bump up the quality of your picture. It is often tedious, and it harkens back to observation. The more you observe how texture is “portrayed” in real life, the more you can figure out how to portray it in the medium of your choice.

And that’s about it. If I have more, I will add it in another post later!