[chalker]

I was looking at some paintings in scifiart : http://www.scifiart.com/cgi-local/SoftCa rt.100.exe/online-store/scstore/c-Science_Fiction_Paintings.html?L+scstore+ttlj0603+1015318479

and I see that people ask so much money for paintings . I previously also encountered this site by mistake : http://www.chevalet.net/agm/agm.html
and those pictures could craig mullins make in a paintover on the forum.

2500$ for a old city look.

I see many people here draw far as good, is it only fair of the people of the previous pages I named, to ask so much money. Sure looks like it, I can by a car from selling one painting !
Is this really the way to get rich ?.

[This message has been edited by chalker (edited January 29, 2001).]

[Flinthawk]

Well, the thing is, most of that stuff is done with traditional mediums like oils or acrylics. This means that when the piece is done that there is a physical piece of art to be bought and sold. Most of what is done on these forums is digital, just an assortment of 1's and 0's that can be copied over and over without much of any good way to prove if any one piece is the original. There's also the fact that I'm assuming paintings done in traditional mediums are a bit harder to pull off than those done in the computer.

When people buy a piece of art they want to know they have the only one, that there aren't copies all over the place. Digital has no solid way of assuring someone that they have an original. This means that traditionally done pieces will hold higher price tags than digital pieces. Right now, the only advantage digital has over traditional methods is that it can be produced faster on the computer...this being a very good thing for production like movies, video games, advertising, magazines, etc.

If craig or other notables here were to produce the same results they do on traditional mediums then sure, maybe they could command high prices if they were well known and respected enough.

That pretty much answers the question from my angle...funny because I had this same conversation not more than a month ago, me being on the asking end. I'm sure others here have other points to add as to why those pieces go for so much money.

-Flinthawk

[spooge demon]

Asking and selling are two different things.

Also, if you take the agent, gallery and taxes out, you are working for 30 cents on the dollar.

And again, technical facility is not directly related to is value in art. Value is determined by a whole bunch of things, not the least of which is people able and willing to pay for it. Present market value can change dramatically for many reasons.

I think if you really want to make money, do what Thomas Kincaid did. Whatever you may think of the art, he is a genius at marketing. That is as important an aspect of art as any other.

[ceenda]

Try www.talentx.com

They provide online portfolios for digital art where you upload a large version of your art and people can come and buy it (there are image protection algorithms to stop people using PrintScreen).



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Nicholas Anderson
email: [email protected]
web: Flying Islands

[Digital Genesis]

Hate to be a party pooper, but..

If anyone wanted to copy those images (lord knows why) at talentx, it would be a piece of cake..

Hypersnap a dozen or so frames, as the little 'birds' move, layer them in photoshop and just replace the marked areas with unmarked..

There are other more technical ways of doing it too. Remember, if it's in the memory of your computer, all you need is to extract it.

Seems the only way of 'protecting' images online is to clearly watermark/downsize them.

[chalker]

I don't want to sell anything myself. I just wanted to know, how people can ask so much for a painting.
Also if it is original and not digital. I assume that many people learned 'painting' the traditional way, and then the digital way.

It couldn't be that expensive to sell artwork via the internet, or in a hired exposition room , say : twice a year. And the costs for the materials can be discarded then ? or am i really, really wrong ?

So the discussion would be 'if you can make art the traditional way, and ask 10000$ ( like the guy above ) a painting ? why wouldn't you ?.



[This message has been edited by chalker (edited January 29, 2001).]

[Sumaleth]

The reason they can ask so much for them first comes down to the fact that they are one-off paintings. ie. The value is in the fact that they are hand painted originals.

This is an important point, because if they were prints, not the originals, then they'd be selling for $20 at local poster stores.

The second thing that creates prices is -name-. In other words, it's only once you've started to make a name for yourself among the people who buy original paintings that you can put those price tags on them.

When you're starting off you'd be lucky to sell a painting at all, it's only once there starts to be an established market for your work that you could start getting prices like that. The name of the artist is a brand, like Nike, Coke Cola etc.

Actually, once you've really started to develop a following even $2500 would be pretty cheap.

--

Interestingly, the price I've seen on Frazetta originals is as high as I've seen (some upward of $20k), but I read recently that he makes most of his money through poster sales.

--

Spooge; What did Kinkade do? The books, posters, calandars?

Row.

[Ben Barker]

Heh, Spooge mentioned Kincaid.
That guy sure gets his stuff around. He probably has a robot painting it for him now.

[spooge demon]

and plush dolls, push-up pops, bedspreads, nightlights, play make-up heads, key chains, toothbrushes, mugs, mouse pads, bicycle helmets, TV-dinner trays, T-shirts, pajamas, coloring books, paint-by-number sets, jigsaw puzzles, glow-in-the-dark stickers, videogames, interactive read-along CD-ROM adventures...

He does stuff a little like that snow scene I did over in the other forum. Very schmaltzy, little English cottages with the lights on inside. He is billed as "the painter of light," both I suppose from the Vaseline covered lens look of the paintings to the fact that he puts Bible verses on them.

He is IMMENSELY popular in the American Midwest.

I have a friend who roomed with him at Art Center. Said he did better work then, mostly western book covers.

If you go into many malls around the country you will see he has his own shops. Thomas Kincade galleries devoted to his work alone. The prints (the originals must be in fort Knox or with goldfinger) are low quality canvas textured cardboard. There are several levels of prints, however...

Bear with me...

The executive level- straight prints $1000

The monogram level, on better cardboard $2000

The premiere level, prints in which a real person put some paint right of the tube on some of the omnipresent flowers. $5000

The executive monogram level- where individuals actually OK'ed by Thomas Kincade do the "highlighting" $10000

The executive monogram premiere perpetual eternal orgasmatron level. The master, Mr. Kincade, actually sneezed in a room adjacent to where the prints might have been at one time stored. No, it�s even better, Mr Kincade, the painter of light, TOUCHED the holy prints with his own brush. Thusly breathing life into a once inanimate cardboard, this is worth, well, how much ya got? $100,000.

So Chalker, it�s a much brighter world after all.

Hmm.. orgasmatron is not in my spell checker.

So I do feel there is genius afoot here somewhere. Millions of people have earthshaking aesthetic experiences looking at his work, so there has to be something there. But yes, the real art is the marketing, the conceptualization of how to promote this work. Both things have to be there.

OMG, Rowan, you sprouted mandibles in the last few days. Congrats! Hey, where's that wooden pull toy you were gonna do?

[Flinthawk]

Wowwww, come to think of it, I have heard of that guy before, 'm sure I've even walked by one of his shops before. Never have I been more proud than to say that I'm not from the midwest (sorry to any of you reading this ). Those are some insane prices for prints.. prints. That's nuts but that's also life.

[spooge demon]

I made up the prices for dramatic effect. I don't remember the actual prices.

Copies of this disclaimer have been sent to all relevant attorneys.

[Flinthawk]

heh

figured they couldn't be that expensive but even knowing that people go nuts over this stuff is a little mind boggling at times.

Now if you want a real painter there's this Bob Ross guy..........

[Sumaleth]

Spooge;

Ahh, now I understand some of the comments you've made about Kinkade in the past. I do know of his art, but I didn't realize he was THAT big in the US - he sounds a lot like what Wyland is like in Hawaii.

I actually did a review of a Kinkade book about a year ago; http://sumaleth.telefragged.com - in the General Art section, last page.

--

The toy? Ack. I actually sat down one night, reference-lined the whole thing, and was well into the shading when the inevitable happened - windows NT froze up. And I was -so- into it that I hadn't saved since early in the referenc line work. You cannot even begin to know what I felt like at that moment.

So I didn't feel like getting straight back into it, and ended up taking up a couple of other projects instead (writing a movie script and making that web page linked above).

I would still like to get back onto it, but it won't be until I have a little bit more time on my hands. Although even just finishing that cube tute made a huge difference to the quality of texturing I do for work. It's amazing how getting the values good can make more of a difference than just about anything else.

Row.

[Brain]

Row, good to see a site back up from you. But is it gonna be all book reviews? We need Sumaleth brand Spiffy Art! @:-)

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Brain
http://brain.gamekey.com/

[Sumaleth]

Brain;

I've been thinking about doing a personal site for *years*, but... I haven't thought of a good idea for a site design yet. And I post all my pics here anyway so I don't really need a site.

Row.