Welcome to the last installment of my art walk prep blogs. This week, I’m taking you behind the scenes for all of the extra non-art related prep that goes into art walk.

Art Walk Setup

The week before the event is usually when I set up my pieces. Each dragon is to be displayed with a title card so that the public can learn more about each piece. I like creating my own in Photoshop so I have custom ones that are branded. For the first location, I’m at a local theatre, and I get to use the window sill to display my work. It works out really well as people can see my dragons before they even enter the theatre.

Sculpting

Last year was my first year sculpting at the actual art walks. I thought it would be more engaging, and it also gave me something to do so I wasn’t stuck behind a table staring at people.

In order to be able to sculpt at the event, however, I need to pack everything I need to make a dragon, with the emphasis on being overprepared. This means I need my clay, the armature, my work board, my tools, rubbing alcohol, q-tips, and cotton balls. Because mixing up colors can take me hours, I need to make sure I’ve done most of it beforehand so people don’t get bored watching me knead and mix clay.

Stickers

Another fun touch I like to add is stickers. I think it’s fun to have some free items available for the kids (or adults). These take the most amount of time besides sculpting the dragons, as the files have to be prepped in Photoshop, arranged in a pdf, printed, and then trimmed out. I try to have plenty of variety for stickers, and enough to last the 4 hour chunk, but they usually go pretty quickly.

Sales

While I would say it’s definitely not the primary goal of these art walks, we can sell our art at these events, so the last piece of prep is making sure I’m overprepared for sales. Since my dragons are very fragile, and people will be walking around to browse other galleries after they leave me, I want to make sure the dragon is well packed. I dress up brown paper bags with a decorative edge and a stamped logo for a simple custom bag to pack the dragon in.

When someone purchases a dragon, I wrap it in fiberfill for cushion, and then wrap all of that in tissue paper that matches my branding. I seal this package with tape, put it into the bag, add my business card, and staple the bag shut for a convenient package. This means all of the supplies need to be packed up and bags need to be made. I make one bag per dragon to make sure I have enough.

Speaking of purchasing, I also have a Square reader so I can take credit/debit cards. I’m not as good about carrying cash on me to help break bills, but I price my dragons in increments of five to help keep things easy.

I hope you enjoyed this series of art walk prep! I think this is pretty representative of the stages I go through to prepare. My first art walk is coming up on May 13, and since most of my followers are not in the area, the next blog post will be a recap of the first event with lots of photos, and hopefully video.