Had to take some time to recover after another 3 day show (technically a 2 1/2 day show). The pic above is of the Westin Hotel in Newport NJ, where Toys on the Hudson was held. It was a new thing for me to exhibit in a toy show.

The show was divided into many rooms of the hotel, with all the comic books and artists in one big room. The Jersey Journal covered the show, and you can see more pics of the toys on their site. It was a good show for me, despite low crowds. I was given an extra table too!

I did another lecture about "Getting Started Exhibiting Your Comic Art at Conventions."

And of course I did a lot more sketches! One guy that sold Transformers toys wanted me to draw any kind of "mecha" (robot) I wanted. Check out the unicorn mecha in rockin' boots! Have you EVER seen a giant robot in high heels? I don't think so!

I sketched this Optimus Prime in keeping with the toy theme of the show. Transformers was of course popular....

As was Godzilla! I tried something new with this sketch and made a misfortune to go with it:

This guy wanted a portrait. The spittin' image!

This girl wanted a My Little Pony. I asked "old school or new school?" (because there's a new version that looks different from the 80s version), and she chose old school!

Yeah rockin' Firefly Pony!

The same guy that had me do the story book pictures at Super Heroes for Hospice came back for 2 more drawings! Yay repeat customers! These are like concept sketches for this children's book he's writing for his grand kids (rather than the finished art that would be in a book).

This one turned out extra awesome. It's the "Rock King" and the guy described him as being made of smooth, speckled rock. GO, Prismacolor Brush-tip markers!!

Overall, it was great meeting lots of nice people and seeing familiar faces. Spiro from Super Heroes for Hospice (the last con I did) was at a booth right across from me, and my friend Emilio was at the table right next to me. I also talked a lot with R. Allen Leider who gave me lots of helpful advice. Thanks everyone for being part of the show, both exhibitors and fans!

WOW! Ok I know New York Comic Con was last week, but I need to recap! It was so intense that I had to recover for awhile. I took those videos on Friday, and the crowds in the video got even bigger for Saturday and Sunday.

I got a tripod/easel at the 24 hour Staples Thursday night to elevate my poster for better exposure. It worked! More people saw my sign and looked at my table. I also taped drawings to the poster so people could see examples of my drawing style. Most importantly, I put a sign at the top that said "Colorist for DeadPool" and that really drew attention! I got about 4 DeadPool commissions from that! People were interviewing me and taking pictures - NO JOKE! I felt like a celebrity!

I spent all of Saturday and Sunday just drawing commissions! It was amazing! I had a list of drawings to do and honestly took more than I could handle, but it was a great learning experience!

This pic was my first commission! A guy dressed as Dead Pool and his girlfriend wanted their favorite characters (Dead Pool and MewTwo from Pokemon) fighting. This became a theme of the weekend - couples wanting their favorite characters either fighting or cuddling.

He's so happy with the sketch! Later on, I drew another Deadpool sketch (below) and put it on my poster, and he bought that one too! Repeat customers!!

This commission was for an amazing girl, Mya Terry, who's battling cancer. Her aunt/godmother went around getting sketches of Mya as a "super girl," because she's been through a lot and is very courageous. Mya even wrote a book about getting an NG feeding tube. I went for a Rainbow Brite/Sailor Moon theme for the sketch. Her aunt was thrilled and even got me and Scott (the artist next to me) fries :) Hope Mya likes the drawing!

One guy wanted some Avengers head shots for his niece and nephew. I chose Scarlet Witch and Captain America.

I looked up references for characters on my smart phone. Luckily this year Artist Alley was in a spot that had good reception! I had kind of cramped drawing space for my little half table, and I kept knocking over the Aer Head stand and Ellen's comics next to me, but I made it work. Here are some other sketches I did, but I didn't have the chance to take pictures of all of them:

This girl even came back the next day for a Prince Zuco sketch!

This guy heard I was a colorist (word of mouth spreading like wildfire!) and asked me to color a black & white drawing someone did of the Fraggles. I totally had the theme song stuck in my head all day after that!

I kept seeing all these people dressed up with horns that looked like candy corn. It's from a web comic that got pretty popular called Homestuck. I got about 3 commissions of Homestuck characters!

This guy was a teacher who was getting sketches to show his students many different drawing styles. My first Aer Head commission! It's interesting to me to see the variety of people that come to comic con for different reasons :)

And ending with my favorite, Sonic! Didn't even need a reference for that because I drew Sonic all the time as a kid :) I love My Little Ponies too :)

The flyering worked well too - my friend Ellen passed around flyers and brought about 20 more people to the table, and of those maybe half signed up for the mailing list :) A few bought misfortune cookie mini comics, and half just took the free cookies.

All in all, New York Comic Con was a HUGE success. I made my table money back plus a huge profit! This was an eye opening experience because now I see that doing the comic con circuit can be a legitimate way to make a living, if you do it right. Next time, I'm going to do more sample sketches beforehand so they're ready to sell, and I need to practice drawing faster!