Fortunately for me, this scenario represents only about 5% of customers at any given art show. The majority of customers who purchase my work, do so without requesting any sort of discount. I will discount purchases from time-to-time, but mostly when customers are repeat ones or making large transactions. The most common type of discount that I will offer is; picking up sales tax on a purchase, throwing in a free book or giving free shipping on orders to be shipped. However, these customer are spending hundreds of dollars, not $25.

I would just like to remind this small percentage of patrons, that you would not likely go to work on Monday and agree to work for 20% less pay, so please don’t ask me to do the same. This is my full-time business and how I make a living. I work hard to offer a great product at a fair price. In fact, the matted print that I offer for $25 is printed on canvas with archival inks, then sealed to protect it from fading and UV rays. It is not a cheap process to produce it this way, but I want my customers to get a print that will last a lifetime.

In addition to the cost of producing the product, please keep in mind what it costs an artist to bring their work to you. Such as, booth fees, fuel costs, hotel fees, tax permits, etc. A great deal of expenses have to come out of that $25 before I start making a profit, but my hope is, customers will see it like this; I just came across some really unique artwork. Its vibrant, energetic and I really like it. Its original and I won’t find anything else like it. It is also made with quality, hand-signed by the artist and reasonably priced. I’m willing to purchase from this artist, without discount, to strengthen the odds I will see more one-of-a-kind work like this in the future.

I recognize the art show business is a system open for interpretation. We are street vendors and some might think we’re desperate for sales, not matter what price is offered. The sad thing is, this patron approached me like a car salesman. He was unfriendly, challenging and tried to bully his way to a better deal, without a hint of appreciation for the artist, the originality or the craftsmanship it takes to create the work. Would he have gotten different results with a nicer approach? No. Its just bad business to sell a $25 item at a 20% discount.

As the warm weather begins to return to Phoenix in the month of February, I often like to venture out to local shows in the area. Gold Rush Days, located in Wickenburg, AZ, came across my radar via Craftmaster Magazine. It had some descent reviews and it is not far from home, so I decide to give it a shot.

The primary draw for Gold Rush Days in Wickenburg, AZ is the Rodeo event, held on Saturday and Sunday. The numbers state ten of thousands of visitors, and that figure probably seems right for the entire weekend. The art show event is put on by the Wickenburg Art Club and vendors set up around the outside of the city library. The staff working the festival were professional and helpful. They came around often to admire the work of the artisans, while volunteering to booth sit when needed. They also provide a vendor parking lot about a 1/2 mile from the shows, for both cars and RVs. An absolute necessity on Saturday when the town is overflowing with traffic.

The selection of art works was very nice and mostly high-end wares. I would estimate they have a total of about 100+ art vendors at this show. There is also a more commerce-driven set of booths across the street, along with a carnival event, seen in the backdrop of the photo. All of this entices visitors to stick around for the day.

Setup for me on Thursday went smoothly, being able to park just across the street from my space. Friday morning the weather was cool but it was the beginning of a nice day. However, foot traffic turned out very light for the day. I had but three transactions for the day.  Saturday was the busiest day. Transactions were numerous and foot traffic was steady. Sunday slowed down, but higher-priced transactions, for me, made it equal with Saturday’s returns.

The one complaint I would level against the show is the many vendors who disregard the parking rules. The Art Club clearly requested that no one park on the immediate streets surrounding the library during show days. But each day, more and more vendors ignored this rule and by Sunday, the majority of spaces on the street in front of my booth were vendors. This is simply laziness on behalf of the vendors and the Art Club should take steps to enforce the parking rules. Customers who can’t easily find parking will eventually get frustrated and move on without visiting the show. I’m not sure why this is so hard for vendors to understand.

Overall, this is a nice show to fill in the slower months of January and February, but I would say only if you’re local. The weather was pretty good all weekend, but it got progressively cooler each day. My feelings are this would  be more efficient as a two-day show. However, I realize they want to get the artist vendors setup and out of the way before the chaos of the weekend begins. In my experience, customers seem more motivated to purchase when the length of the show is shortened.

As an artist who makes their living by selling my art and storybooks, I consider it important to discuss my creation process for my customers. Originally, I started out as a colored pencil artist, but due to the long hours this medium demands, I transitioned into digital art in 2004, believing it would lend itself better to the business model I was developing. The appeal digital art had for me was its ability to produce artwork, rich in color and detail, but also in a timely manner to make a business of it. On average, a digital work of art will take about 40 hours to complete as opposed to 80-100 hours using colored pencils.

The process I use to create a painting always begins with a pencil sketch. More often than not, I may have several pages of sketches that I plan to use in my final art, so I will scan them into the computer, then assemble them in Photoshop to craft the final composition. I don’t draw a great deal of backgrounds in my sketchbook. I generally add those in digitally once my composition is finalized. The next step is to open the sketch within Corel Painter and begin the painting process.

Here, I will begin to build value, color and eventually texture into the picture. It is always my goal to make the painting look authentic, as if it were painted with acrylics or oils. It took me about a year of experimenting with various brushes and textures to get a more painterly feel from my art and reduce it from looking “too” digital. Each piece is created stroke-by-stroke using a Wacom table to generate the strokework. My art usually contains a great amount of detail, and most of my drawing time is spent layering those details in. After the art is complete, the next stage of technology kicks in to my process.

I have always printed my own artwork and it is essential for any good artist to survive in these economic times. Nearly three years ago, I moved away from framing my artwork under glass to creating gallery-wrapped giclees. In addition to better economics for my business due to increasing cost of frame materials, it also increased the “wow” factor of my art. I’m still amazed at how fantastic these canvas prints look and the authenticity it brings to my digital work. I use an Epson 9900 and this printer is capable of producing extraordinary detail and sublime nuance of color. Once the printing is complete, I take the time to seal the canvas with a protective polymer, stretch the canvas or insert them into matted prints. Everything step in producing my artwork is done by hand.

The results are exceptional works of art that I can pass on to my customers at reasonable prices. Most of my revenues are derived from selling my work at art shows and my customers are very grateful, even surprised, to find art that is well-done yet affordable. It is true the only original art is my pencil drawings from my sketchbook, but this process allows me to create the artwork I always envisioned, while also keeping up with the demand for new images. And with the affordability of my art, many of my customers become repeat buyers.

Each year, I apply and travel to some of the biggest art shows across the country. Many of these shows are beginning to recognize digital art as a medium and adding it to their list of show categories. In my opinion, digital art is a medium with a great future, for both the artist and the customer.

Shortly after I completed my “poker” piece, a flood of requests began coming in for “billiards” art. I never realized so many people owned pool tables. This is the final work of art and my goal was to do it justice. I took the theme of the old pool hall and put a more contemporary spin on it. Think wine bar. The palette is more muted to lend to the sophistication, but contrast that element with the bad behavior of the patrons.

Welcome to our new website. After creating and maintaining Gekkards.com for over ten years, I decided it was time to turn it over to the professionals. Thank you to Skyhook Marketing for an inspiring design. The Gekkards are pleased as punch.

Our goal in creating the new site was to give the Gekkards a fantastic new home, where visitors can easily navigate content and purchase our products. More great content will be coming to the site soon, including some videos, so stay tuned.

Halloween is always a favorite time of year around our household. For many years, I have wanted to paint a spooky image featuring the Gekkards, but timing has never been in my favor. This year, I found enough time to create a solid sketch that I hope to paint for Halloween next year.

My childhood occurred during the mid-seventies through the early eighties. One day, my parents brought home a collie that I would name Macintosh. I don’t actually recall giving him the name, but we often called him Mackie for short and he quickly become a treasured part of my life. Although, I was unaware of the profound part his name would play later in my life.

In 1984, my father took me to work with him. He worked as an metallurgist for a steel mill. He realized I had little interest in this field, but he knew I liked computers. In his office were several computers, one being, the original Macintosh by Apple. There, I spent the day exploring this machine, fascinated by the things it could do and games it could play. One program in particular, MacPaint, immediately captured my attention. MacPaint was a program for painting graphics on the computer and once I understood the fundamentals of how it worked, I didn’t want to do anything else.

Since the early nineties, I have made my living in one way or another by working on a Macintosh. Either as, a typesetter, a production artist, or a graphic designer. Eventually, I bought my own Mac and started a design business. My wife, who was then still my girlfriend, actually co-signed for that loan to help me buy my first Macintosh computer.

It is astonishing how my life has changed since my first Mac. Although my business started off as a graphic design biz, it soon morphed into an art business where I have been fortunate to make a living as a digital artist since 2004. It was on that first Macintosh that I painted the first Gekkards, digitally, after years of creating them with color pencils. It was also on that Mac that I built the very first website for the Gekkards and used it to make the very first prints of my art.

I feel blessed, to have a father who sensed my interest might lie elsewhere, to have a wife who believed in me enough to help support me, even though she was a single mom at the time. I am so grateful to have grown up in the age of Apple computers and all the possibilities their technology offers. These things aligned in my life to open extraordinary doors for creativity and success. It has allowed me to do what I love and share my sense of humor with the world.

I followed my heart and intuition as Steve Jobs suggests in his 2005 commencement speech for Stanford graduates. My journey has been exciting, astonishing, heartbreaking and hard, harder than I ever imagined. But, I like to think if Steve ever met the Gekkards, he would feel pride, for trusting my gut, for staying hungry, for staying foolish. He would be even prouder knowing it all began on a Macintosh.

Godspeed Mr. Jobs.

Here is how Chopper feels about the recent round of changes from Facebook. I tend to agree with him.