I wish I had a photo of the "wall of faces" guy from Texas artist alleys. I feel like the visual would help explain. But he literally did hundreds, HUNDREDS of the same basic drawing. He had a display 15' high that dwarfed everything else in artist alley of just head after head after head. He'd draw a character, from anything, from the neck up, staring straight into camera, with no real expression and a very simplified style (to the point where most men and women had identical facial structure). And most of the time he didn't even draw the whole head. Drew half and mirrored it for most of them. He talked about how he could grind out like ten to twenty of these a day. He had every character you can imagine in any version you could imagine from anything.
My wife and I tabled next to folks like that, maybe even the same guy? It is an absolutely soul-crushing experience when guys like that eat your lunch and didn't even notice because it was just crumbs to them. Our local slop-jockey ran a sticker business and started churning out IP drek just to prop up his real business of producing stickers. He always made a killing.
Yeah. I feel the same way about Generic Anime People, as an artist and a consumer. Like it's not even recognizable that it's Your Art, it's just Social Media Generic Anime. And it always kills. I was talking about it with a very successful working artist and she said it hits her too but the reality is If they follow you or like you on social media it means nothing because they aren't there for your art. They are there for the IP, which will never convert to a sale for you anyway.
The absolute worst part for the guy I tabled next to was at one point an aspiring artist came by my table and started asking me about tools and techniques and such, and we were having a fine conversation and this jackass just cuts in to tell me how I use the wrong tools for my work. And I was just dumbstruck by the audacity. I shit better art than this guy and he's wanting to lecture me on tools in front of a younger artist who specifically passed him to ask me how I did my stuff.
Next time I'm in Texas, I'll go to the show and if you point him out I'll just spend the entire time telling him how much his stuff sucks and intentionally/aggressively talking other people out of buying his stuff until I get kicked out of the show. Sounds like a decent way to spend a Saturday, if you ask me.
*putting that into mental database* I'll just save that for later, thank you.
Ah, shoot, see, that's the only time they really catch my eye and I didn't even know they MADE BG3 ones. I would've picked up a set of those because the only other BG3 option was a sloppily painted set of minis from Wizkids. (Which I have, and probably overpaid for, but there are folks on this board who know I have never turned down a miniature in my LIFE)
I think anyone that's ever tried to browse a big BBTS sale or something can basically say the same thing. It's like 'oh, I'll just check out the sale items from cheapest to most expensive.' Then, 'oh, it's 1 non-POP item per page for the first fourteen pages... fuck sake this sucks to scroll through, I fucking hate these stupid, cheap, shitty goddamn things.'
And selfishly I feel like they probably bleed recreational dollars away from artist alley, though to be fair anyone at a con buying a pop is there to buy a pop and not likely commissioning and up and coming artist for a sketch or something. More likely they're funneling recreational dollars off someone buying an overpriced Marvel Legend they could get on Amazon for 15 bucks cheaper. (I've never seen a figure in a line I collect priced at a point I'd buy one at a con anyway. I always look and then decide to spend a bit of profits on prints from a new artist.)
