[Sampster]

Hi everyone, I'm Sam. Most of you have probably seen me in the speedpainting thread once or twice (which i visit daily though I post far less often). I have some old threads that I started back when I was first getting into digital art.

As I've dealt with college work I've had less time for art, and i've also wondered what the value was in my spending so much time practicing art and creating images. I always wanted to use my art for something but recently I decided that if I always just looked to the future and said "some day" then I'd never actually do anything with my art. The promise of "someday" would just be an excuse to indulge in a hobby.

So I decided to get more active, and over the summer I laid the plans for and started http://www.paintlife.org.
I won't ask you to spend your time looking through the site. The idea is simple, I take commissions and donate the money to charity.

But I don't want to keep this project to myself, which is where my proposal comes in. I think many of the speedpaints done by artists here are fantastic, and I think if these works�which are "practice" for many of you�could be printed and sold that people would pay for them. I remember how 'star-struck' I was, as a high schooler who played videogames, seeing artists who worked professionally in that field posting work.
That community is still out there, and I think there are lots of kids who would pay for a poster, especially if it was done by a professional videogame/film/comic artist, and especially if some of the profit went to charity.

I know this (the sijun) community absolutely loathes people who come in and ask for free artwork. What I'm trying to do is ask for artwork you've already created, and wouldn't use for anything else. I know some artists publish books, but I don't think letting one or two works be printed would stop anyone from publishing.

Moreover I'm not asking for this for myself; I'm asking because I think these personal paintings could be used as a valuable resource to inspire young artists and then benefit needy kids around the world.

If you would not allow some of your work to be printed with profits going to charity I ask, would you participate by allowing half the profits to go to charity and keeping half for yourself (which I could send by way of cheque back to you)? Obviously it would be much much easier for me if you would let all profit be redirected to charity but I realize that's not the right choice for everyone.


I would upload the art and use the print-on-demand service redbubble.com. They seem like a company with a lot of respect for art and I'm using them to print my t-shirt designs for the same charity project.

If you would be willing to donate some old personal work or speedpaints for this cause please pm me or email me at [email protected]. to print posters I would need big files since I'll probably need them to be at 200-300+ dpi to print.

Please understand I'm looking for professional quality speedies/art. That's not to put down anyone else�I just mean I wouldn't sell posters of my own stuff, that's why I'm looking for a response from the professionals here. If you'd let me use your artwork please email me. Especially hoping to hear from Samson, Andree, Viag, Jamie, Mitsui-if any of you guys would think about supporting this please contact me at your earliest convenience.

PS: low resolution work could still be printed on greeting cards-though if you would consider this "beneath" your work forget I mentioned it.


Would love to discuss this here in the forum as well if people have comments, offers, or requests.

Thank you all for your time,
Sam Philbrick

[Synnical]

it's a cool idea, as I do see that there's lots of little gems in the speedpainting thread which people would be willing to pay prints for. And if you can get one or two well-known artist on the board to submit some entries, I can see the project taking-off.

just out of curiosity, what's the response been like so far?

[Sampster]

Well from the facebook side things are going well. I've had a rep from the business school from my university approach me about doing a commissioned tshirt, and I've had a couple other on-campus non-profit/community service groups contact me about doing design work for them.

From this forum, response has been noticeably non-existent

Thank you for the kind words though; they are much appreaciated.


To everyone else: if the wall of text is scaring you let me sum up: I want you to donate your old speedpaint files, making them available to be printed on posters to raise money for charity that will provide kids with food and education; please

PS: maybe I should edit/trim down the first post and change the topic to something more dramatic?

[gLitterbug]

[Synnical]

FREE BOOBS?? WHERE?!

looks around in disappointment/

Lies, all lies!

[Sampster]

Thanks very much for that sound advice.

I think a rephrasing is in order. I'm looking for art that people would buy (like "wow, yeah I would pay $30 for a poster of that in my room"). That's a much more broad category than "professional quality."

I posted here initially because I didn't want to abuse artists' time by asking them directly. Again I think you are right; I think a more forward and professional pursuit is in order. I'll do some messaging/emailing next weekend and see what I can do.
and change the title of the thread... "ONLY YOU CAN SAVE INNOCENT CHILDREN!!!"