I had a discussion with another artist last year, and one of the things that he pointed out was the trends in the industry. It seems that a few years ago everything had fairies. A year later, everyone had mermaids. And so on. If you aren’t doing cards for a CCG or board game, then your best sales will likely come from the following:
- Dragons
- Faeries
- Mermaids
- Any type of anthropomorphic character
- Kittens with wings (or, for that matter, any animal that doesn’t normally have wings, with wings).
I discovered some truth in this at Origins: my first sale ever was an anthropomorphic character I made last year to describe Second Life. My second sale was a mermaid image that I created for an educational poster. That’s fine. I’m enjoying what I am doing, and I’ll deliver what the customer wants. Hopefully it goes over well at GenCon.
