Con Sketches .... what happen to them??

[MONSTER]

Originally Posted by Scottsdale Saint

Sounds like you want your cake and eat it too...but not surprising, coming from THE BATFAN. You can go to about any medium sized con and bigger and find artists at all price points, enough to keep all factions happy.

I got a nice sketch with with decent amount of background from Eisner award winner Rob Guillory (Chew) for thirty dollars this weekend, and also picked up a pencilled commission with tonal wash from Patrick Scherberger, who's done some extraordinary stuff on Marvel Adventures Spider-Man for $120. Both were nice pieces, and I was extremely happy with them.

This issue of price and name recognition is prevalent in just about every segment of our lives from coffee (Circle K to McDonald's to Starbucks), automobiles (KIA to Ford to Mercedes to Ferrari) and so on and so forth. All these artists live in the same world that we do, and if they can make more money at a con by charging more, why shouldn't they? Some people will pay, and some will not, and spend their money elsewhere...free market system, which seems to work for most, so what's the big deal?

You spend far more money on art, and I can appreciate that, and everyone wants value for their dollar, including me, but you always bring up secondary value on original art, which is a factor, but it is far from the most important one for lots of people. J.Scott Campbell was charging $300 for tonal bust shots this weekend, and while I wouldn't want ten of them, I'd love to have one in my collection, as would all the people that signed up for one...yes, I could get 3 full figured commissions from Artist X, or 6 full figured commissions from Artist Y, but that wasn't what I wanted...you wouldn't pay three bills for Campbell, and I don't want six pieces from the artist you found on Deviantart that charges $50 per...no judgement, you get what I want, I get what I would prefer.

Everyone should be happy, but you seem to feel like we're keeping you from getting cheap art from 'name' artists...not the case, and you with all of your art collecting expertise should know better. Many "BIG NAME" artists don't even bother to go to cons, they do at home pieces only, and even though they are at home pieces, they aren't necessarily nicer than a con piece, so that is a myth at times as well.

Not picking a fight with you, not at all Lee, it just gets tiresome seeing you taking shots at artists that charge more at cons, and making it seem like they are committing some sort of robbery...their prices are very up front, and people elect to pay them, which is what this free market system was based on...YES?

You have said that big name artists charging more would have a trickledown affect and allow lesser artists to charge more and make this a losing game...while I see your point, isn't there a possibility that artists were charging too LITTLE ten years ago, and the market has corrected itself? The economy has been very down the past few years, and yet prices have either stabilized or escalated in the con sketch game, which to me, seems like a pretty definite indicator that prices for established artists were way low at that point, and have reached an equilibrium for the most part now.

Just another viewpoint, back to your regularly scheduled, "I am right, you all suck..." monologue.

Thanks for being the voice of reason George.

[joefixit2]

I ain't made out of money so what I usually do is fine the one artist I really want at Heroes Con and try to see if I can justify what they are charging. For the rest of the time, I am just trying to parley my money wisely and try to get as many cool sketches as possible.

I can see some high name artists charging higher dollar amounts but the lesser names are starting to up their prices way too much that I will just walk on by.

[MONSTER]

Originally Posted by joefixit2

I ain't made out of money so what I usually do is fine the one artist I really want at Heroes Con and try to see if I can justify what they are charging. For the rest of the time, I am just trying to parley my money wisely and try to get as many cool sketches as possible.

I can see some high name artists charging higher dollar amounts but the lesser names are starting to up their prices way too much that I will just walk on by.

When I go to a convention and look for commissions, I usually go for 1 or 2 of the top names I want. I've always gone the less or more approach when it comes to commissions. I don't want a ton of commissions, I just go after the artists that interest me.

[jasong888]

Originally Posted by MONSTER

When I go to a convention and look for commissions, I usually go for 1 or 2 of the top names I want. I've always gone the less or more approach when it comes to commissions. I don't want a ton of commissions, I just go after the artists that interest me.

ditto

[Scottsdale Saint]

Originally Posted by MONSTER

When I go to a convention and look for commissions, I usually go for 1 or 2 of the top names I want. I've always gone the less or more approach when it comes to commissions. I don't want a ton of commissions, I just go after the artists that interest me.

It's funny, when my con budget was two grand or so, I'd want ten to fifteen pieces in the 50-200 range...now that I'm saving for my move, I just want one to three pieces, and if one piece eats up my 500 or so...so be it, as that's the one piece I really wanted.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by joefixit2

I ain't made out of money so what I usually do is fine the one artist I really want at Heroes Con and try to see if I can justify what they are charging. For the rest of the time, I am just trying to parley my money wisely and try to get as many cool sketches as possible.

I can see some high name artists charging higher dollar amounts but the lesser names are starting to up their prices way too much that I will just walk on by.

I saw the same sort of thing last year, and I wasn't even interested in sketches then.

[Sam]

I have a game plan this year though. I have a list of artists I want to hit, and a backup list. If any on the list are full or too expensive, I go to the backup list.

[MONSTER]

Originally Posted by Scottsdale Saint

It's funny, when my con budget was two grand or so, I'd want ten to fifteen pieces in the 50-200 range...now that I'm saving for my move, I just want one to three pieces, and if one piece eats up my 500 or so...so be it, as that's the one piece I really wanted.

Its very rare for me to walk away from a convention with more than 4 pieces. I'm normally 2 or less.

The only artists on my commission radar right now are Coipel, Cheung, and Nord. I'll have to check to see who is attending SDCC that catches my interest.

Lee Bermejo won't be at SDCC this year so he's out until 2012. I set up 2 commissions with Timmy earlier this month but I'm not sure when he'll have a chance to get to them.

[The Batfan]

Originally Posted by Scottsdale Saint

Sounds like you want your cake and eat it too...but not surprising, coming from THE BATFAN. You can go to about any medium sized con and bigger and find artists at all price points, enough to keep all factions happy.

I got a nice sketch with with decent amount of background from Eisner award winner Rob Guillory (Chew) for thirty dollars this weekend, and also picked up a pencilled commission with tonal wash from Patrick Scherberger, who's done some extraordinary stuff on Marvel Adventures Spider-Man for $120. Both were nice pieces, and I was extremely happy with them.

This issue of price and name recognition is prevalent in just about every segment of our lives from coffee (Circle K to McDonald's to Starbucks), automobiles (KIA to Ford to Mercedes to Ferrari) and so on and so forth. All these artists live in the same world that we do, and if they can make more money at a con by charging more, why shouldn't they? Some people will pay, and some will not, and spend their money elsewhere...free market system, which seems to work for most, so what's the big deal?

You spend far more money on art, and I can appreciate that, and everyone wants value for their dollar, including me, but you always bring up secondary value on original art, which is a factor, but it is far from the most important one for lots of people. J.Scott Campbell was charging $300 for tonal bust shots this weekend, and while I wouldn't want ten of them, I'd love to have one in my collection, as would all the people that signed up for one...yes, I could get 3 full figured commissions from Artist X, or 6 full figured commissions from Artist Y, but that wasn't what I wanted...you wouldn't pay three bills for Campbell, and I don't want six pieces from the artist you found on Deviantart that charges $50 per...no judgement, you get what I want, I get what I would prefer.

Everyone should be happy, but you seem to feel like we're keeping you from getting cheap art from 'name' artists...not the case, and you with all of your art collecting expertise should know better. Many "BIG NAME" artists don't even bother to go to cons, they do at home pieces only, and even though they are at home pieces, they aren't necessarily nicer than a con piece, so that is a myth at times as well.

Not picking a fight with you, not at all Lee, it just gets tiresome seeing you taking shots at artists that charge more at cons, and making it seem like they are committing some sort of robbery...their prices are very up front, and people elect to pay them, which is what this free market system was based on...YES?

You have said that big name artists charging more would have a trickledown affect and allow lesser artists to charge more and make this a losing game...while I see your point, isn't there a possibility that artists were charging too LITTLE ten years ago, and the market has corrected itself? The economy has been very down the past few years, and yet prices have either stabilized or escalated in the con sketch game, which to me, seems like a pretty definite indicator that prices for established artists were way low at that point, and have reached an equilibrium for the most part now.

Just another viewpoint, back to your regularly scheduled, "I am right, you all suck..." monologue.

Nah you dont all suck just some of you lol.. I actually agree with most of your points it is the market that is causing them to sell pieces at what they do. But you also have to look at how the market has changed and IMO not in a positive way.. you now have lots of dealers buying con sketches to sell on the secondary market as well as flippers these 2 were NO that big of a factor 5 or so years ago. I personally never look at what a piece will be worth in time as I never sell my art.

my big gripe is why should artist A charge 50 bucks for a sketch he puts an hour of time into and artist B charges 500 for the same amount of time put into a piece just because of the name. IF both pieces are equal in quality to me I cant see it being worth that huge of a price difference at least not in my eyes.


we all have our view points on stuff...

So if artist X is drawing at 1 pieces per hour and artist Y is drawing at 5 pieces per hour why cant I get delivery Chinese at 3am??

I don't even go to cons anymore all of this is based on what I see online.. I would rather sit at home and get stuff than have to deal with lines and crap at cons anymore..

ps what wrong with it coming from "THE BATFAN" lol

[Scottsdale Saint]

While flipping is still an issue, it has decreased mightily, due to the increases in pricing on the artist's part, not to mention, awareness on the artists themselves. While you can't catch all of them, ComicMonster and their ilk have to be much more devious to clip treaured spots on commission lists, as regular con sketch collectors are very quick to point them out...even the legendary ComicMonster is having to do much of his legwork these days, as the cost of attending cons and procuring artwork has become prohibitive. I'd say at least 75% of the sketches and commissions at cons are going into collections, which is, as it should be, IMHO.

As far as it being from THE BATFAN...nothing wrong with it at all, let's just say your posting style can be a bit brusque and intolerant of other's opinions...not a slam, just an observation. I don't take it personally, as it's how you roll, and I know you help others as often as you can, but you must realize many of us have become friends and/or friendly with these artists, and when you take shots at them , we tend to get a bit irked...no, just for clarity, I'm NOT talking about AH. Never had the good fortune of getting a commission from him, and as it looks now, I won't, but so be it. Lots of other artists to throw my money at...