Hi,

from memory, I thought Larry Elmore was asking about $4 -5,000 last year for a large colour commission.

Cheers,
Malc

lawrenson wrote:from memory, I thought Larry Elmore was asking about $4 -5,000 last year for a large colour commission.

This doesn't surprise me much.  IMO he is the most well known artist in the RPG industry.

I think we now also know why most starting artists are starving:

Hell, I advise student artists (I teach too) to price such minor efforts as 10 x 12 black and white photo (digital) prints for $75 - $150 each!

This seems quite high for someone who has no background and no proven talent.  I'd be surprised if 1 in 10 students are able to sell anything other than prints to their parents.



TSR and Wizards of the Coast have released various limited edition prints over the years but I don't think they have sold like hotcakes and their resale value usually seems like crap.  I have a 4 picture set of Dragons by various artists (Caldwell, Easley, etc) that came matted - I bought this for under $25 on Ebay.  A more recent print is here:




** expired/removed eBay auction **




A well known and established artist who's limited print doesn't even get any interest at $50.

Sorry you all are a bit shocked by the price I mentioned above for student artwork.  I should clarify that they "sell like hotcakes" in comparison to much more expensive student sculptures, paintings, etc…  The price reflects the hours put into the development of the skills, the cost of the (often expensive) cameras and either software or developing chemicals, and the value of their education/training.  Certainly there is a HUGE range for pricing art.  Even the prices I quoted for student work is dirt cheap to the massive amount of money I paid a few years back for a hack wedding photographer who retained the negatives so that I could only buy copies from her at truly absurd prices.

I do agree that $2500 is a good price  - but that would be for a single original work and not a limited edition project. Of course I freely admit that I could be completely off-base since I know little about the genre of fantasy illustration as a field/career/business.  

However, as I mentioned earlier, I am not sure whether you are simply making a deal with an illustrator or negotiating with an artist.  I only raised the point because I have known a few illustrators who DO consider themselves fine artists.  I doubt Otus is an art wh…prostitute.  Just because he has sold his work in the past doesn't mean his talents are for sale.  Frankly, in this case, I hope they are!

Lastly, how much would you pay for an Otus print?  $50?  $100? $500.  I suspect there are a handful of collectors here who would shell out more money for a more exclusive print run.  Surely Otus is also aware of this too.  Why would he sell 50 copies so cheaply (undermining the value of his previously collected work) when he could sell 10 (perhaps exclusively through the website he is building) for far more money?  Likewise, for those of you who may have already purchased older works by Otus through auction sites -- you risk devaluing your older purchases by supporting this new work being made available so cheaply.  

I didn't mean to come in here and be a downer.   I think it is a great idea, but perhaps made more plausible with a tweak in strategy.

Why would he sell 50 copies so cheaply (undermining the value of his previously collected work) when he could sell 10 (perhaps exclusively through the website he is building) for far more money?

I'm unsure what the "value" of his previous work is? The thing that's problematic here is that he's not a breakthrough artist ala Keith Parkinson or Brom who sort of transcended beyond the gaming genre. I'm unaware of any limited edition prints from TSR artists being worth anything substantial. Mars is correct about that.

I don't understand the context you're using though cheesepaws

The idea (we all agree is a good one!) is to give EO, or another classic TSR artist, an opportunity to produce an artwork that will make us all happy. In return, we want to fairly compensate that artist and hopefully give him needed work. Because we want to have the limited prints we also want to own the publishing rights (to not have the image published after said prints are created) so that we own a "limited" copy and maybe the site here uses that image somehow. You're implying that were not compensating him enough? But you agree that $2500 is fair.
Were ruining some percieved value (which is an unknown quantity as far as I can see). The fact of the matter is that his old work will always be highly valued and anything new will not be seen in the same context and will be less valued. The same goes for every TSR artist. 1979 and 2009 is night and day in this matter. You're trying to escalate an already very fair offer imo. The piece should take a week or less. Were no different than some game publisher entity business wise except that were already talking about a considerable amount more $$$ (especially in this economy). There's genuine goodwill here as well!

  Some people are mentioning $$$ amounts that are just out of the box for what it actually costs for this type of project...

Add me on the list.

Has anyone contacted Ottus about this yet?

Hi,

my point being that Elmore is probably one of the more expensive artists, and that was what he was asking.

You can pick up published colour originals for very cheap if you just want "a piece of art".

CCGs have made sure there is loads of fantasy art about - very good, very bad and indifferent. The wife bought a dozen fairly good legend of the 5 rings paintings for less than $20 a pop, and gives them as prize donations when we attend a big event.

I think Cheesepaws if being a little hopeful imho.

Cheers,
Malc

bclarkie wrote:Badmike commissioned an original piece from Jim Roslof a few years ago for like $300 or so, if that.

Also interesting to see that Goodman Games pays $75 for cover art on their modules.

bclarkie wrote:Badmike commissioned an original piece from Jim Roslof a few years ago for like $300 or so, if that.


Ahh here it is:

viewtopic.php?t=3049&start=40

The piece is beautiful also.....it's ten times better than the actual cover of Q1.  And yes I believe the price was under $400 ($350???  Can't remember).

I think it's been mentioned that these artists are paid very cheaply to the for a DCC cover ($100 or so) while getting to keep the originals (which presumably they make a good chunk of change on for themselves).

As relatively cheap as original artwork is, I'm always surprised more people don't have commisioned works from their favorite artist.  You can have a beautiful, original piece for far less what something more common would cost, and you can dictate exactly what you want to see on the print.  If I had more spare cash I'd throw more work at guys like Jeff Dee, Roslof, Holloway, and others in the industry.

Mike B.

benjoshua wrote:Clue me in here.  You can PM me if you want.

Just a reference to the thread that Grimball started last time he posted:

viewtopic.php?p=56986

He had posted a pic that he had commissioned by Roslof that looked great - well worth posting again.