What Jim Lee has just done for the art community is an absolutely masterful strategic move.
In one post he's re-established art as something of great value at a time when so many people are doing everything to reframe it as valueless
I have heard my old classmate, who is internet famous but not Jim Lee famous, is also charging thousands for comms. And while I don’t agree with him on everything, on this one, good for him that he has fans willing to pay for his time.
Yeah definitely. It’s very much like getting a bag, you can get one for $20 or a brand name designer one $2000+.
It’s not that one bag is inherently better than the other. But there are people who will buy the $2000+ bag coz they like it and can afford it, and it’s their choice.
Yup!
I also think that... if we can do away with the high brow culture vs low brow culture in academia, maybe it's time we did it in art as well and started treated artistic masters to the same level of respect whether they're fine artists or popular artists
Ah no I just meant in the sense that in academia this has been a movement for a long time with relative success, and maybe it was time to repeat that in the art world
In the sense that there shouldn't really be a sense of class between popular art and fine art
The only thing I'm mad about is the $1000 service fee, but hey, if you've got $20k for art, what's another $1k, just hate that it goes to PayPal and not the artist.
My understanding is that comics has a big problem with folks buying commissions at cons and then reselling them for 10x the price. Seems like Jim Lee is just setting his prices at that resale value, and good for him. If the art is worth that much to collectors, the artist should get that money.
This is a really good point, and something I've seen several others mention as well.
It's been a huge problem for centuries in the fine art world, so it really is no wonder that it's seeping into the rest of the art world as well.
Good to see artists are finally catching up!
Yeah, it's an issue with any collector's market, and comics is very much that. It compounds with the problem of many comic artists being chronically underpaid/not getting royalties for creating important characters because comic art was work-for-hire.
This times a million. I've long collected sketches/alters from Magic artists, and was bummed when artists started charging a ton more about 10 years ago — until I realized they were responding to scalpers
I'll gladly kick a few more bucks in the pot if it's going straight into the artist's pockets
This. An artist I work with had this problem. Arses demanded he lower his pricing and they “rewarded” him by immediately reselling the piece.
Far too few people enjoy art. Too many supposed patrons just see it as a profit center.
That price is very out of my league, but having a commission from a god should not be cheap. Especially in time like now, when asshats are trying to sink artist’s value down to the earth’s core, someone have to remember mastery have a huge value
It's also kind of nice to see more artists moving back to traditional art too, as in physical media rather than digital, to avoid the likes of Adobe and other AI bastards stealing it.
I mean it’s Jim Lee. If you know all he’s done for the industry and were expecting a cheap price for commissions from him that is entirely on you. If you don’t know what he’s done and just want cool art you probably should learn more about who you were considering commissioning.
Looks like someone got one too many "bbbbbbbbut I have so many followers on social media, if you do this for free you will get a ton of exposure that could launch your career" emails.
There was a similar imbroglio over the $20k fursuit. www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3FI...
Prices went up since then, and that's a good thing. There are more makers than ever because the bottom end of the price range is high enough to support more people.
Maybe this will do the same for illustration.
Jim Lee is honestly a master of art and those prices are in my opinion cheap for his godly talent.
Anyone fortunate enough to obtain a commission better have that thing framed in a water proof box like the relics of time people are defacing with paint and soup.
Bless him for opening his services
