Hey, you can buy a bunch of my stuff online now

I've been fooling around with Society6, a site where you can put your art on prints, laptop skins, iPhone skins, all that kind of stuff. So now you can buy my art there and associated accessories!

The Obsidian Labyrinth Show in West Seattle

I've kept it quiet because up until the last moment I wasn't sure it was going to happen, but my art is now hanging in the West Seattle Cupcake Royale!



Getting these hung was an epic four-hour death march in which everything went wrong, and I made my retired mother-in-law stand on a chair and hold paintings up for half the time. Let us never speak of it again.



Based on the success of the Microdungeon 10, I've put up a custom microdungeon request sheet. Cost is $10. The constraints are based on the show. Sorry, but you have to go to the venue to get the rules. Please no cheating!



The space at West Seattle is pretty small, so there are only 9 micros included in the show, but they are 9 of my favorites.



No plans for a party for this one, but if there is an Art Walk in the neighborhood, I'll try to be around for it.

Fine Art Pricing

I'm trying to figure this out (fine art pricing), and near as I can tell it's pretty messed up. How do you figure out how to price your art? There's a lot of of contradictory and self-serving advice out there.

Some sources say you should just charge as much as you possibly can or even more than that. This is the same advice I got when I started as a consultant and again when I started selling games. It presumes a profound disrespect for the people buying your wares and it's also just plain bad business advice.

Other sources say that there are some very strict Rules that One Must Follow. They say that you start by pricing your art very low, then gradually raise the price over time and never, ever, ever lower it. Art is a long struggle, the story goes, and the rewards come only with time and must be earned, which sounds reasonable enough. The problem with The Rules is that they were created to support the industry of art is an investment, to be bought principally by people with money and to gain value over time, which isn't how I want my art to be bought at all.

And there's a whole camp that says selling art is the province of dealers and galleries and that the artist shouldn't deign to sully himself by getting involved in it. Which has the effect of taking the artist out of the loop and giving dealers exclusive control of the pricing and evaluation of art, which surely isn't to the benefit of the artist or the people the art was meant for.

All of this strikes me as extremely bunk. It grates my indie instincts to the core!

So here's what I propose to do. I'm going to start selling some art on a pricing scheme that makes sense to me and see how it goes.

I'm now selling original microdungeons for $25.00. I will keep this price as long as I can. Maybe forever. The goal is to sell original artworks at a price that is affordable, but still reasonable to me. Matted or framed individuals will cost a little more. Many originals won't be available until after my big microdungeon show in January.

Prints of individual microdungeons, including everything on this blog, will be $5, but just for now until I figure out how much trouble it's going to be to print and ship them and how many people want them. Maybe the price will go up a bit. These will be acid-free individually-printed by the artist archival prints that you can frame and keep for hundreds of years. I'm aiming for something a little high-end here because if you just want something quick and cheap, you can always just print the Web-ready images from this blog; I don't mind in the least.

Special projects, large originals, limited runs, and other such miscellany I will sell for whatever price I please, probably a high one, because if I can make a little money that way, I can spend more time making pictures.

PayPal buttons, storefronts, shipping rates, and that sort of thing will be forthcoming as I figure it all out, but if you're interested and want to jump in right away, email me at tony.dowler@gmail.com.

How's that sound?

The Purple Worm Graveyard is Available

OK, now that vacations and Go Play NW are done with, I can finally get around to selling copies of The Purple Worm Graveyard! You can find it now at The Purple Worm Graveyard Home Page. The adventure was very well received at Go Play NW, with several people picking up copies, and one person even running it right there!

Hey, also if you're going to be at Gen Con, copies of The Purple Worm Graveyard will be available in the Indie Press Revolution booth, so you can save some shipping!

A Week of Custom Dungeons

It's custom order week! I'm taking orders for custom dungeons at a reduced price. I'll keep taking orders until Tuesday of next week or until I get so many orders, I start getting worried about completing them in a timely fashion. That isn't very likely, but it's good to have an escape clause anyway.

To get a custom dungeon, email me at tony.dowler@gmail.com and give me up to 10 words you'd like included in your dungeon. If you name one of my dungeons as well, I'll do your dungeon in the style of the dungeon you named. Feel free to include extra details too.

When I'm done, I'll send you your dungeon original in a simple matte frame. The price is $30, including shipping (normal price is $40 PLUS shipping). The money may be sent via paypal to the email address above. Each dungeon will be black and white drawn on 3" x 4" cardstock paper. Unless you request otherwise, I reserve the right to publish the dungeon on this blog and elsewhere.

PS I also take requests. If there's a dungeon you want to see, post it in the comments and I'll add it to my list for the blog!

Store Woes

So setting up the dungeon store is turning out to be more than a pain than I thought. Specifically, trying to have art appear in the store at the same time as I put the dungeons on the blog is a pain. I'm still figuring out the solution to this one.

Now you can buy the Dungeons

I'm still working on the Microdungeon Store. In fact, it's quite a mess if you care anything about Web design. Nevertheless, I'm now going to be making the original artwork for each dungeon available as I publish them (with the exception of some that already have homes). You'll find a little link at the bottom of each post going to the dungeon store. I'll also be adding past dungeons to the store as time allows, and announcing it here on the blog.

UPDATE OK, it turns out that posting the dungeons for sale as I post them on the blog isn't going to work logistically. So for now I'm going to post them sporadically as I'm able to update the store.

The Dungeons of January

It's time to put up some of the originals for sale! These things are just cluttering up my desk and I need to stop moddlycoddling them and let them go out into the world -- to good homes only!

Some of these dungeons have minor scuffs, dents, or discolorations. This is because of the process by which they are created. These dungeons travel with me. I work on them in coffee shops, on the bus, and in the diner while I'm waiting for lunch.

Each dungeon original is $25.00, plus $3.00 shipping.

The first batch will be January dungeons only, with more to follow soon: Microdungeons.com Store. Most of the dungeons I posted January were given away at Gen Con or to friends, which is why there's only a few dungeons there to start with.

If you order multiple dungeons, I will refund the shipping charges for all but the first dungeon.

Dungeons for Sale?

I've gotten a few inquiries already on buying dungeons. I'm planning to sell more of them soon. I just need to take care of a few little infrastructural matters. It won't happen this week however, as I've been blessed with an abundance of work! Probably over the weekend I'll set up some Paypal stuff and then make some more dungeons available for anyone who wants to buy them.

Original Art: The Old Crypt

This art is for sale!

The shrine is an original microdungeon, drawn in black ink on cardstock paper and framed with a simple matte.

Also, any of my artworks may include small vestigal pencil marks that are part of the process of creation.

What the Miners Found
Original Art, Matted
$30.00
US Shipping: $5.00
SOLD

Original Art: What the Miners Found

This art is for sale!

The shrine is an original microdungeon, drawn in black ink on cardstock paper and framed with a simple matte.

Also, any of my artworks may include small vestigal pencil marks that are part of the process of creation.

What the Miners Found
Original Art, Matted
$30.00
US Shipping: $5.00
SOLD!

Original Art: Shrine of the Doomed Celestial

This art is for sale!

The shrine is an original microdungeon, drawn in black ink on cardstock paper and framed with a simple matte.

Also, any of my artworks may include small vestigal pencil marks that are part of the process of creation.

Shrine of the Doomed Celestial
Original Art, Matted
$30.00
US Shipping: $5.00