Dealer's room, Artist's Alley, etc questions + Sketchbook question

Sales in the Dealers Room are very simple - you give the vendor your money, they give you your purchase. Some dealers might take credit cards, but it's best to assume they won't and be pleasantly surprised.

The Con Store, which sells the convention DVD's, tapes, and T-shirts, as well as badge holders and (NEW THIS YEAR!) 8.5" x 11" plastic page protectors, does take credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, and Discover).

Sales in Artists Alley are a bit different due to tax laws in the state of Pennsylvania. As an example, let's say you want to buy a print from an artist. The artist will give you a white receipt and a pink receipt that you take to the cashier table. There, you pay for your purchase; the cashier keeps the pink receipt and stamps the white receipt and gives it back to you, as well as a cash register receipt. You go back to the artist and give them the cash register receipt to show that the print has been paid for, and they give you the print (you keep the stamped white receipt as your copy of the transaction).

Trust me, it's more complicated to explain it than it is to actually do it

For more information on the rules of Artists Alley, see the Artists Alley page.

I'll leave the question of sketchbooks to those more familiar with the process.
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Tom Brady/Duncan da Husky
Artists Alley and Con Store Manager
For fastest replies to questions about Artists Alley, e-mail me at

For sketchbooks: Yes, you provide a sketchbook and walk up very politely to the artist. Ask if they are accepting commissions for that day. (Yes they may only have a fixed number of drawings available per day..and many popular artists will fill up QUICKLY.)

If they can accept the commission, give an explanation of what you'd like drawn. Then they can provide you with a cost for the drawing. One of the biggest no-no's is to try and negotitate a price down. Remember, the artist is earning their living from what they do. You are asking them to lower the value of their work. Also many artists have pre-posted prices for their artwork. They may get very offended if you ask to pay less.

Finally: put your name and contact information in your sketchbook. Anthrocon has several sketchbooks that get lost and turned into Con Ops every year. Without a name or identification in it, nobody will know how to get it back to you.

#2: Based on my observations, about 5-10% of the Dealer's room takes credit cards; most often well-established artists, and sellers of comic books, books, plush animals, T-shirts. Some artists may take checks as well. Everyone takes cash.

The ATMs at conventions are notorious for running out of cash, though; as I recall Anthrocon was no exception last year despite our warning the convention center a lot. My advice is to get the necessary cash at your local bank, and store $20 of it somewhere that's not your wallet just in case. For the dealer's room, figure to spend cash there, and utilize credit cards at restaurants (though tip in cash if you can!), for hotel payment, and the like.

#3 As for Sketchbooks; Most dealers have set prices for a sketchbook, depending on amount of characters, whether it'll be pencil, ink, or color artwork. You tell them what you would like, give them model sheets of paper description if you think that would be helpful, though good results are often had from requests simple as "I like cougars, can you draw me one?"

Artists may well refuse to draw nudity or certain situations, or be full up on sketchbooks and not take any. (The con doesn't last forever, you know!)

I personally advise having a ledger, even in as simple a manner of tucking a folded index card in your wallet; Write down the name of the artist you give your sketchbook to, and whether you have paid them yet or not. There is often the confusion of "Hey.. did I pay you?" "Uhmm.. I dunno, did you?" which can be a hassle.

K.P. said it already, but I'll stress it: Put your Name and Contact information in your sketchbook. (Email, address, phone number, the more the better.) This also makes it much easier for a time-pressured artist to take the sketchbook home, and mail it to you post-convention.

--Chiaroscuro

Since I'm married to a "name" artist and hang out with the core of the artists, I can offer a couple of thoughts.

- Everything said above is spot on. Make sure your contact info is painfully obvious in the front cover of your book. Doesn't hurt to have you name, at least, on the outside but not mandatory.

- Know what you want before you hand over your book. You don't need a theme for your book, but many people do.

- If you are asking for a specific character, being able to show an example of what they look like to the artist helps a great deal.

- If you are describing your character to the artist, keep it simple. Only give them description of what can be seen. Hidden objects, long winded inscriptions on the back of the medallion they where around their necks, intangibles don't help the artist. And long, complex back stories of your character, while interesting, aren't important to the artist.

- If you have pre-made description sheets of your character be she you start with the important details. Height, build, color, shape. EYE COLOR, "normal" or digigrade legs and such. Many people hand over nice write ups but forget basic details infavor of the epic tale of where their swords came from.

- Remember, the artists at AC are B U S Y. Respect that when interacting with them at their tables.
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David M Stein, DI

"Not Unlike the Toaster, I Control the Darkness"
-- Abby Normal, "You Suck"