Networking and Conventions

Uhhh mama! Yesterday was quite a day. Got another chance to sell my art at an art show here at the island. Met some really cool artists, and some really great people. Made some money and such things.... Damn! It was just really fun. But on to the important things, I believe it's time I make some business cards, just a little something, something that people can take with them when they both make a purchase or simply pass by the table and like what they see. A lot of people enjoyed my work, they would stand at the table and ell me it was awesome, but not many of them actually both anything.

Statistically speaking, out of say the 100 people that came by, if 10 of them bought something, that's too much. But out of those 100 people that came by, at least 30 or 40 of them had a positive comment about my art. And with that in mind I figured I could turn these people into fans, a long with the ones that bought stuff of course. So I figured if I made some business cards with my links, I could gain "double" the profit from each show, because what I don't make by selling merchandise I can get by gaining more followers and likes on Facebook. Hopefully making it so more people go to the next show I do or the next thing I post. Trying to grow my fan base is a crazy little thing, but truth be told, it's a very fun thing.

One last thing I learned yesterday is that people go freaking nuts over stickers here. I have some small prints I did that feature only half the bodies of popular characters and almost everyone that came by asked if the prints were stickers and many of them put a sad face when I told them that they weren't. Thankfully I have those prints in 200dpi so I can just go into illustrator and make them into stickers so I will definitely think of that when I go to make some new merch.

Got some new prices for printing and I might be saving a lot of money on this new run of stuff. Lastly I'm gonna start painting at the Town Market here on the island, so that's fun. A bit scared about the whole thing but it technically sounds like a wonderful idea. I can just go and paint and be happy. And at the end of the day I can maybe make some money and if not then I can at least donate art  to the beautiful people of my island.

What a wonderful world!

Oh what a day, what a day! Today I went over to the local Town Center to ask for permission to go sit and paint every weekend, simply have my little spot where I go sit and paint what I see and also sort of offer my art up to the people that go there. Not many of them have actual access to art so I'll be bringing it to them. Whatever I paint that day,they can either take for free or give a small donation and take the piece with them. Sort of like a live "Pay what you want" method. I was gonna store those painting at my studio anyways, so I figured why not give it to the people instead. And whatever I don't get monetarily I gain by having a new fan.

Speaking of fans, I'm trying to grow my fanbase, we're talking not just online but actually have a fan base of dedicated people willing to buy my art. I started doing that by friending everyone I've ever met in my life. Now that I have all them in one place, I can release content that hopefully they will enjoy enough to like, comment and share to their friends. Because I figured that everyone you ever meet is a potential fan, all you gotta do is show them your work. And if they used to be my friends at some point, then they want to see me do my best and not fail, so I figured I could show them my work and if they like it then they can show their friends, and their friends can show their friends, and so on and so on.

Speaking of all that, I'm gonna have a mini website release hopefully tomorrow, that includes almost all of the backbone to the site without all the artsy stuff I want to do such as banners, and icons and stuff that I actually want to draw. I can do those things slowly and at my own pace, slowly building up the site as I go. This is due in part to the fact that I'll be selling some of my art at a local marketplace the 28th of June and I'd like to make the most amount of profit possible. And that implies bringing my own fans and friends to buy my art. Since I want to make it as sort of an even, I still haven't invited the new friends to like my facebook page, but hopefully tomorrow I'll be releasing a timelapse video of the creation process of the most expensive piece that I'll be selling at that show. Expensive as in $10 but still expensive to some people. Once I make that video and release it, I will of course put it up on all my social media sites, so that when people see the video they can see the piece at the end of it and hopefully come and buy it at the show. It might fail miserably but truth be told, there's no way I lose. I'll make the video and release it on youtube, I'll contact a musician to do the music for it and then I'll also post it on my website and on my facebook/instagram/twitter if even only one person sees it and becomes a fan, that is one person that I didn't have before. Gotta start slow but if all works well this might turn into a sort of snowball effect and I will actually have an international fan base willing to buy my art online from my website or come to my shows to buy it. Slowly but surely.

Another thing, I'm postponing the release of the mixtape because of two things. I have this even on my hands and I want to promote it as best as possible so I can sell some of my art and because I've decided to make the release of the Mixtape a long term project. That means once I have the EP done and ready to publish, I will. And I'll give it all the hype possible, and then I'm gonna wait a week and release the process video that I made for the creation of the mixtape's cover art and I'll use that as both a marketing ploy so more people hear the songs or hear them again, and also as a music video because I'll be using the same songs that are on the Mixtape. Gonna also do short morph animations for each video so I can repeat the process every week, but with a new song. And at the end of the whole process when I have all the videos done, I'll compile them into an awesome music video for the next song I'll be making. Basically re-using assets so I don't get bored and can keep focus on me as an artist and my projects. Because while this is happening, I'll be working on more content, I'll be a constant stream of content for people. Always trying to make the most amount of impact in my fanbase so I can motivate them to move my content forward to their friends, and their friends move it as well. It's an elaborate plan but it could work. Also thinking of using the cover art I did for the mixtape and turning it into a shirt design. Got myself some quotes and stuff and it all seems  like a great idea, just need a bit of a budget. We'll see what happens.

One last thing... I might be able to also sell stickers of my art!! I'll keep you all posted. That was all for today folks. Be sure to check out my facebook page. http://facebook.com/mabsmusic and if you like what you see, give it a like :)

So much to do!

Today was quite a nice day. Got some work done during the morning, and then passed out because I didn't sleep for 24 hours straight. That wasn't as fun as I would personally like but oh well, such is life. When it comes to things I did in order to live my life as an artist, well I did a lot of unfun synching up. It's a cool little concept in theory as it basically means that no matter where you are in the internet you'll be linked back to one place where everything is. So people can find your work and follow you in different social medias. It's cool, right? Well when you've been using the internet for about 13 years of your life, it's a bit difficult to keep track of where you've posted and such things. Still got some stuff to fix up like:

- Blogger
- Deviantart
- Tumblr

But we're getting there. Started to promote myself a bit more through facebook, and instagram, it's good though I'm not sure if I'm actually going to get sells from there. We'll see what people actually end up doing. That being said, I'm crazy excited to start selling through the website. It seems like the most logical "investment". As soon as that's up, which I'm hoping it's gonna be soon, I'll go back to posting videos on my youtube channel and linking back to my facebook and the website. Going to try and get cheap camera so I can record some live stuff and hopefully get my point across faster and better.

Also need to do all the art for all the pages/social media stuff. Like for the About Me Page, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and one for each devilish page on the website.

It's a lot but I got this. Still hoping to release the Instrumental's mixtape, just need to sit down and mix all the track's volumes so they don't blow out your ears, and finish the cover-art.

A lot to do, a lot to do.

PS: Gonna make the website's blog completely devoted to the process of the actual art creation.

My schedule's a mess

Turns out, if you sleep during the day and work at night, you stop understanding the whole concept of time. That being said, here's the update for the day.

Haven't slept at all since last night but I had the pleasure of making yet a new song an incredible Bass player who also happens to be my neighbor. Gonna try and release it sometime in the next two weeks after I get my voice back and get a chance to record my lines. 

Speaking of music though, I finished the sketch for the coverart of my instrumetal mixtape. Still debating wether I should post sketches and such here; considering as that would make it a progress blog and I already have too many of those. Instead just go to my instagram to see the W.I.P. For now I think I'll only be posting my finished pieces here. 

I'm really bad at trasitions. I should learn how to properly write... So I place the order for the pokemon pins! Check some of them out!!!

You can order yours by sending an email to antonioluis (dot) rodriguezpad (at) gmail (dot) com

Be sure to tittle your email "Pokemon Pins" 

Prices: 

1 x $2.00

3x $5.00

Plus $5.00 shipping and handling 

Website's still under development but it's getting there. Just need to set-up the photoshooting for the "promotional"; look I'm a real person stuff. Either way, it's getting there, should have a fully functional shop that accepts many more payments and has much more merchandice when that happens. Till then. Have a good day, and farewell.

http://twitter.com/antoniomabs

http://instagram.com/antoniomabs

https://www.facebook.com/mabsmusic

Almost forgot

Hello sexy people! You're sexy!!! Damn!! You's hot! Well anyways I almost forgot to post today. It was quite a productive day, I recorded the video process of a 14sec animation we're making, gonna somehow start posting them to Instagram and such. But for the actual process so you can check out my youtube. Either way, it was quite fun, the whole idea of going back to animation, feels fucking amazing! Maybe I can restart my career as an animator slowly by doing short little films like this at first, and graduating to longer stuff.

I also did a bunch of wok on the site. You can check out the wok in progress at antoniomabs.weebly.com 

As soon as I start making money I'll upgrade it to a sexy .com site, either way it's just a name, it shouldn't really matter. Point is I added all the information for the prints, and pins and t-shirts. The whole thing, still thinking of the pictures I need to make and the stuff I have to write but we'll get there. 

Bad Segways and Pokemon Pins

Gotta say this is starting to become quite fun, just sitting with a cup of coffee and writing the day's "achievements". Makes me feel like I'm actually doing something with my life, it's very fun.

So today, I finally got around to sending my music to a singer friend of mine in hopes of having her sing choruses and backing vocals for my first project as a rapper. Hopefully that goes well, we'll see what happens with that. Hoping to release a little 5 song ep during the summer as Mabs (the rapper).

 Speaking of releasing stuff as Mabs, I'm gonna be releasing a Producer's Mixtape soonish, like in the next 4 days, with all the instrumentals I've made in the last two years. I think it has a total of 12 songs, which is quite a lot, it's funny how I don't remember doing a lot of this songs since it was a while back but sitting down and listening to them brings me fond memories, which is why I have to release it soon. Just need to put everything in order and make the cover art for it, and I'll be good to go on that. You'll probably find it on Soundcloud and on Bandcamp on a pay what you want manner. If I could fully sell my art this way, I think it would be an interesting little thing, if it wasn't for the fact that I have to spend money into making prints and such I would sell everything this way. Feels like this way your art makes it's way to everyone that wants to hear it, instead of alienating the audience. Gonna have to try that out, soon.


Speaking of selling things and bad segways, I'm currently making that website I was talking about yesterday. Got the domain name picked out and I started doing the backbone of the site, with the shop, the blog and all that. It still needs a lot of work if I want it to both look nice and serve it's purpose but one thing at a time you know.


Speaking of using the same segway. I'm making pokemon pins (or buttons)! You'll be able to order the ones you like soon, once I have them of course but here are all the designs I've made so far. I'm planning on doing all first generation pokemon because I think those are the best but who knows, maybe some day I'll make second generation and third and fifth (I don't know how many pokemons there are right now, but I saw the whole car key pokemon and it's obvious Nintendo is running out ideas.)

Also I just found a wait to experiment with these blog posts compositions, so take that!

Gonna spend the rest of the night drawing up sketches for my freelance job and probably gonna check out my buddies band tonight, but other than that today has already been a very productive day. I'll keep you updated about the progress of the projects, I'm currently working on. Gonna be posting some timelapse videos on my youtube channel soon, and an awesome collab with my buddy Chongo. He's a voice actor and he's awesome at it!

I'm reaaaaally dumb

Let's start this post by saying that I'm an idiot! I've been out of work for the last 4 days because I thought the pen on my Yiynova MSP19U (mini shout-out) was broken, but it turns out that it was just the batteries. Kids before you go and buy a $60 tablet pen, be sure to check the batteries! 

That being said I am back to work, ready to make things happen. Currently I'm working on taking my old art and turning it into merchandise such as pokemons pins and prints and such. Be on the lookout for that! Also I'm gonna go ahead and make a cute little website for myself where I'll sell everything. Super professional stuff up in this house. Still gonna post everything here, I simply love this UI. It's simple and awesome, so I'm probably just going to feed it through RSS to the website. Assuming the world still runs on RSS. But yeah, that's what I'm currently doing. Also gonna go back to work on youtube videos and such in order to gather a nice little fan-base. Even if that fanbase is composed of my mom and my dad, that's more of a fan base than I already have. 

I'm scared this won't work out. I have to pay rent soon and I'm not sure where I'm gonna get the money from but hey, I's rather be broke and incredibly happy than rich and freaking miserable. So if this doesn't work, expect to see a bunch of pictures from below a bridge and in a cardboard box house. It'll be great :D

I heard you liked that dpi

Today's update comes right from the printing shop. Where I realized that if you don't print shit at more than 150dpi your art will look horrible. I mean I knew this but, I was just hopefully hoping there was still a way to save it. Sadly I lost all of my old art when my hard drive broke down, and now that I'm actually doing this for real I thought I could print that old stuff and sell it. But oh well, that's the curse of the digital artist. 

Here's a picture for your taste buds. 

I'm using the blogger app and I gotta say this is awesome. So disregard my last post, you'll get a lot of pictures now that I can post right from this fricky fracky phone.

I'm happy today. Have a beer in my name :)

Never been one for titling things, so...

It's been quite a while since I use any type of blogging app to actually well... blog but I figured the best way to track the way my life will be moving from now on is to keep a sort of, hopefully, daily dairy of my artistic "escapes".

Let me introduce myself; my name is Antonio "Mabs" the "Mabs" name comes from my mom, whose name sort of rhymes with that and I figured that the best way to honor my very loving mother was to do everything in her name. Chill though, I'm just an artist, not a serial killer. Though in many places being an artist would be on about the same social scale as serial killer, either way your parents and your friends don't want you through with either one.

Anyways so two years in college, a lot of controlled substances, many friends and unhappy lovers I've decided that the way I want to spend my life is making art and music for the rest of time. So yeah this is what this blog will be about. Me trying my best to make the most amount of noise in the world, hopefully creating a name for myself in the archives of art history in the process. We'll see what happens.

This is not a progress blog, but a full on investigation into my life as an artist, expect a lot of words and possibly one or two pictures here and there. The progress stuff and the actual art can be seen at https://instagram.com/antoniomabs/ and on twitter and tumblr and all that, but this blog is not about promoting my arts. It's about a 20 year old trying his best to follow his dreams. So yeah, that's pretty much it, hope you dig it!