Last Saturday was pretty crazy - I had the Crohn's disease fundraiser/Arts Party, then the Gowanus Nite Market on the same night! And after working a day job too! If I thought about it all at once, I got freaked out, so I had to just take it one step at a time. Luckily my energy held up pretty well throughout the night and it was successful overall.
Sky Room, where the fundraiser was at, is a pretty fancy place! We were on the 34th floor I think, and the views were great. I set up my table as usual, but this event didn't have much traffic flow like comic conventions or GNM - it was about 35 people standing around talking to each other, and I only did 2 sketches. But hey, the table was free. I got to see some friends and a few people I hadn't seen in awhile - some I had met at the East Village Arts Party last summer!
The event raised over $2,000! That's a big jump for my friend Michelle's goal of $6,900 for her marathon. Only $3K left to go. I was glad I could contribute in a small way to this great cause.
I had to leave a bit early (around 9:30pm) and take a cab to the Gowanus Nite Market, already in progress.
GNM was hopping! I had just gotten there and was setting up when already someone asked me for a sketch. Off to a good start.
No time to set up my whole table, just had the comics I drew last week, my sign, and The Daily Misfortune books.
New to March's market was 2 bands. I had missed the first, Adveta, but heard Oceanographer who was awesome! I noticed that more single guys showed up just because of the bands. Previously it seemed that most guys at any kind of flea/art market are dragged there by their girlfriends.
I get the most random creative requests at GNM! A guy wanted a drawing of a school kid with a jar for a head, who was sad all the time because everyone could see inside his head and steal his ideas.
The friends on the left said I drew the right guy too good-looking. They suggested adding chest hair. I added a shaver as well. BEST SKETCH OF THE NIGHT.
Was it worth it to do 2 events in one night? Well, I hoped I'd make twice the amount of money, but made less than I would have in one event because I had to miss the prime traffic time of both events. Next time, I'll just pick the event I think will be most successful, but sometimes you have to try lots of different things because you never know. Such problems are good to have though - it means I'm getting myself "out there" more. I wonder what other good problems I'll have in the future.
Shout out to my friend Walter for going to BOTH events!
