Bast

This is a pastel drawing of Bast from many years ago. It’s not quite on model, her features are too delicate. Bast should be queenly.

I think there’s a lot of Kelly Freas influence in this piece. He was my mentor when I was a kid. The way I rendered the stones and cloth, the set of the head, the overall style is very Kelly.

I recall donating it to one of those industry charity auctions. They had no idea what it was, and my art wasn’t worth much back then, so they sold it as “Portrait of Spanish Lady” and let it go for about $30. I was not amused. I am more careful about donating my art today. I also prefer to donate money to charities I carefully research first rather than taking a risk with letting art go for a song.

I’ve been on a hunt for some of the art that went for nothing back in the day, and sometimes I get lucky. But most of the time I can’t afford to re-purchase it! It goes for a lot more now.

16 Comments

  • Jeremy_A

    I talked with an artist at a con who said he doesn’t donate art to a certain charity anymore after he found the pieces up on eBay due to someone from the charity pocketing it for themselves and the reps from the charity had an “oh well, too bad” mindset.

    I do kick myself for when I saw some of your “Sandman” pages up for sale years ago (either by you directly or elsewhere) and thought “That’s too much right now” and now the asking prices are jaw dropping and could easily afford those older prices now!

  • Colleen Doran

    Yeah. I’ve had a similar experience, where donations have gone missing. Not happy.

    My personal favorite though is this one group that was really pushing creators to donate. And that year I was so broke. I gave them a really good Wonder Woman page anyway, one of my last pieces from the 1980’s. It ended up selling for about $35, maybe $10 over what it cost me to Fedex it to them after all their pleading.

    So the following year, when I was even broker, I decided not to donate. I didn’t like their approach, and letting art go that cheap doesn’t help anybody. My mailbox was spammed by them, they were so obnoxious. I mean, I was flat broke, lots of medical expenses, just couldn’t see paying for the postage on something they would sell for the cost of the postage. I could have used some help at the time, for crying out loud!

    So their revenge was to name and shame creators like me who did not donate. How dare we not support them? Don’t we care about battered women? Why would we not support their charity? WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN?

    And I’m like, dude, there are other causes I can donate to. Some of them even have good charity rankings on Guidestar…unlike yours. You will never get another penny from me.

    The Sandman pages…I swear, I could cry. My agent found the original price list from when I sold them, most of them went for between $25 and $35. Now they go for $1500!

    c

  • Jeremy_A

    When I was unemployed and had to move in with family, I got a call from my college’s alumni office asking for donations. I had to keep saying that I couldn’t, I was unemployed. That’s when the person went “What? You’re too poor to donate five bucks to your alma mater?” Not proud to say I swore very loudly on the phone and have never donated since. I toss out the mailers they send me now.

    $1500 I could try to save up for but one dealer had a really nice page featuring Thessaly so I inquired what the price was (he doesn’t list prices, requests you email any inquiries) and the price was more than what I made in a month, gross, at the time. Found out later from other collectors that the dealer has a rep for gouging potential buyers. Page is still unsold all these years later. The hunt continues!

  • Colleen Doran

    True story, when I had some Sandman art to sell awhile back, I actually had one dealer contact me privately to demand I sell it to him at a greatly reduced price. He was really abusive, swearing my work was overpriced and no one would pay what I was asking. I couldn’t believe it.

    I spoke with some other artists about it, apparently, some of the dealers are like that, they harangue creators. One told me a dealer actually yelled at his wife in his own living room trying to bully her into giving him a lower price.

    Most of the dealers I have dealt with are really nice, but hoo boy.

  • Jeremy_A

    Woah! That’s one reason why I had no sympathy for a comic shop owner whining about how artists and publishers were having exclusives for fans at some conventions but won’t sell to dealers. Gee, make sure fans can have a copy rather than some vendor jacking the price 3x or more, how rude!

    I wonder if that dealer who contacted you is this same jerk who has some amazing pieces but charging obscene prices. Making a profit is one thing but that’s so egregious.

  • Colleen Doran

    I can’t remember. It was ten years ago, and the guy was hassling me over ebay, trying to get me to end an auction, demanding I sell to him for about 10% of what some of the art was going for. It was weird.

  • Jeremy_A

    I’ve heard of lowballing but that is insulting. I’ve had some collectors (and dealers based on their galleries) send me messages about some of what I own. When I say they aren’t for sale or trade, most move on but some get belligerent and take the position the trade would be doing me a favor and I’d be getting something better. That and “everyone has a price”.

    Some get ticked when I say “contact the artist” when some ask what I spent on a commission. 1)I don’t like discussing money and it’s none of their business 2) maybe I got the commission before rates got raised; thus I don’t want some artist to have to hear “But you did a piece for someone else for less!” Most art collectors are a different sort of fan but every now and then I meet some doozies!

  • Colleen Doran

    Yeah, it gets bad. I had a major art sale some years back, and I was on a private page talking about it. I was happy with the price, but I wrote that my agent was going to try to negotiate a higher price. In just an hour or so, someone had gone to the buyer and tipped him off, and the buyer then refused to negotiate further because I’d said I was happy about the price on a private post. Seriously, this was from my private FB page where it’s nothing but colleagues. I was pretty pissed.

  • Colleen Doran

    Oh, and yeah about prices going up, I used to get very low prices for my commissions, and sometimes I have people come up to me expecting to get one of those huge drawings I do for $150. And I’m like, are you crazy?

  • Jeremy_A

    That is such a betrayal of trust, don’t blame you for being pissed. Only time I divulge what I pay for something is when I’m at a con since the prices are clearly stated at the artist’s table but figure I’d save the potential customer time and any awkwardness of having to keep on walking past the table if it was out of their range.

    I just don’t see why someone purporting to be a friend or fan of an artist would pull those kind of stunts. I’ll negotiate with a dealer but I mostly now try to buy directly from artists so I’d feel awkward trying to aim lower in price.

  • Jeremy_A

    For $150, I’d be bankrolling quite a bit! ;-). Showed a non-comic friend of mine (though he likes Gaiman’s work) the commission I got from you and he and a mutual acquaintance praised it but seem to fall into the thinking of undervaluing art when they asked “What the set you back? $50?” Bit my tongue.

  • Jeremy_A

    Yeah. Maybe it being in all-pencil had them think that, don’t know. Changed the conversation after saying quickly along the lines of “It was within my price range. Very happy with the results.”

  • Jeremy_A

    More times than I’d like to recall I’ve had to say to myself “He knows not what he says” after I show someone some of what I own and they go “Nice posters” or think it was made digitally. I try explain how it’s hand-drawn, one of a kind. Some get it and are impressed; whereas others I might as well be speaking Pig Latin.

    I can only imagine, with all the details put in, how labor-intensive it is. Amazing results; though I did think for a moment “She’s going to want to kill me for asking for all pencil on those pieces.” 😉

  • Colleen Doran

    Yeah, it’s tedious, I don’t bother with most people. A relative by marriage was dissing me royally awhile back, and I’m all whatev. Then she went online and looked me up. Now she’s all “Gosh, you’re kinda famous.”. And I’m all, whatev.

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