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I am so late to this post but I’ll put in my cents, just the same. Personally, I see the PYOs and being worth more than the production Windstones, just based off the fact that they are all hand-made original works of art done on a high end quality sculpt. You can’t put a price on that. I am just itching to see Melody post one of her own OOAKs.
What Nam said earlier was so correct…that people see a plumber and willingly charge $400 for a 2 hour service but wouldn’t think of it for a painter. That’s completely true in so many ways, but people see these things differently, and art is not always looked up to in the least. In fact, most people see my work as well…just a hobby type of thing not to be taken seriously because, while I work full-time at art I don’t make minimum wage on everything I do…therefore it’s not worthwhile. I personally put in about 20 hours per griffin, give or take. I know my Kesterl griffin took the longest. Good quality work takes time no matter the job, so it always irks me to no end when people scoff at my prices. I have been told by more than one person that my prices for custom paint jobs were unreasonable…even after telling them that the sculpts alone cost $40 and are factored into the price of say, a $125 winged wolf. That’s only around $60-70 profit spread out over 13+ hours. Just do the math…it’s barely minimum wage! But people honestly have gotten pissed off I’d dare charge so much. This is another reason I quit selling commissions over Ebay as well…folks just bought for opening bid on my last 3+ auctions, whereas they will pay more for a finished sculpture. Go figure. I don’t know why that is but it’s true for almost everyone I’ve seen selling on there.
Nam uses a lot of high-end paints too, as well as putting in her time…and on top of that the pieces are finished with Windstone’s sealants and made more official because Windstone is selling them. But I do have to say that no matter what the final price goes for, it beats out a machine-painted sculpture of any kind hands-down and no matter what it goes for, it’s a deal because it’s a one of a kind hand-done thing. It’s just so much more personal, and you can’t put a price on that really.
And for anyone who is reading this that did have a huge issue with my prices…I hope you rethink that your $75 jeans make a “great” deal and worth every penny. Someone sitting there painstakingly painting a sculpture by hand with a round brush with only a dozen hairs on it is worth far more than those jeans; and how dare you complain about someone wanting a decent minimum wage. Nobody works for free. You want quality jeans, so want quality in your art…unless you dig the whole overseas sweat-shop thing.
I’m sorry, this got a little heated. I’m just really annoyed with some things people said about my winged wolf auction and my commission prices. I wish Nam and Windstone the best of luck, and also luck to the bidders, who understand true quality worksmanship.
I posted up the Autumn wolf on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300064737989
Have to be able to get more PYOs so this one’s gotta go I guess. I can always paint another.I modeled this wolf after a character in my novel, except I made it a little too rusty-colored instead of all golden and then I just went all out with it.
Well, in real life she has a less red look and more rusty brown…the photos just don’t capture the reality as well as I’d like. I’d love to make a coyote one though…and sculpt the ears longer for that.
I may have to sell this one…don’t know yet. I really don’t want to but I can see myself painting a whole lot of these winged wolves down the line and have too many to handle, I love the sculpture so much.
I wish I had Nam’s job so then I could paint up as many as I could handle, and then have it be a real job to boot! It’s win/win…though I wish I could see more of Nam’s work.
That, and less overall feathers. I detail feathers a little bit at a time, so the more feathers, the longer it takes. Griffins take about twice as long, for me, than the wolf and KiRin.
Spark…I hear that, although now that I’m married I can’t really take liberal hours like this most of the time. I feel a crash coming on soon though since 5 am is usually my limit but I just had to finish the wolf, even though it needs some touch-ups.
BTW If you’re ever interested in getting a custom PYO from me, I am looking into getting fursuit parts for 2007.
Lol…thanks guys. Dude, what are we all doing up this early? It’s 5 am by me. I just got done painting and posting the pics., figured nobody would be around to see ’em though, and I’m gonna try to get some sleep before the craziness of tomorrow.
I thought it through, and I think I will add snaggle fangs to this a bit later on.
My latest PYO Winged Wolf…
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/45265764/
I was going to add barring to the wings but it looked good enough as-is.Ah, I meant because of the griffin breakage, to compensate you with my dragon PYO sculpt…unrelated to the future large dragon commission. Could always have a pink baby…and do the larger dragon to match once it comes out…:)
The problem with EBAY is that I can’t be assured of the final price on an auction. Someone may win at opening bid price and want a really detailed griffin that should cost a lot more, and visa versa. I know a lot of folks saw my auctions and the first few admittedly went for really high prices and I made sure to full-out detail those griffins to death to make it worth the buyer’s while. Of course I haven’t skimped on detail for the folks who won at the opening bid price. I’ve had my highest auction go for $250, and my lowest was just the price of the sculpte unpainted…so the range is wild and undependable, and I find that people prefer to not have the stress of an auction if they really want a commissioned piece…plus some people think that I may not commission on the side outside of EBAY when I actually do, using EBAY mostly to garner more watchers for my artwork.
I try to price fair always and work with the buyers. I have only had one person say they didn’t bid because of the waiting period. Most people who want a good job for anything art should expect soething of a wait and not instant turnaround. I do regret I can’t turn them out in a week or so due to my schedule of general work, but that’s just what artists who draw for a living have to do…we often work harder for have to plan ahead for jobs. Ebay was ok in the beginning, but I need more security than that and not make people feel left-out who don’t bid, or can’t sniper bid and what-have-you.
Thanks for all the compliments, I just wish the photos showed the griffin off better. The wings are not really white as they appear but a nice grey-ish aged look. But of well…anything you get from me in person looks 10 times better than these photos.
Skigod: I do have a felt pad, I thought I added it on, I can ship that to you. Also, I do have a PYO dragon on the side to compensate for that little mishap.
Rylie: TMNT refers to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Mirage Studios released a set of statues to comemorate the turtles original comic release. There are four turtles whose bases interlock together to make a whole giant statue set combined. I am only missing Leonardo right now. My main concern is that I won’t get a chance to get him because they are all Limited Editions and when the new movie comes out in March there will be no chance to get these guys. I can’t justify buying them with my own money or money I take in, so I take trades for them…someone else buys them and ships them to me and I in turn do the paint job. I am a collector of TMNT and just finished an extensive little collector sewer lair I painted up and made brick shelving for and need to post those photos to my forum.
Custom repaints on flap cats may not be necessary soon since I believe Melody said she was planning on making a flap cat PYO eventually. As for the winged wolf PYOs, I price them around $100-200 with shipping included within the US. For something like this, $125. I am really needing a final TMNT sculpture and I’d really appreciate a trade for one. The sculptures run the same price. If interested let me know. I’m always open to taking commissions. I probably won’t be offering commissions over EBAY again though.
Here’s a post on my forum of Kavic, the husky I painted the sculpt from. Sorry this is a huge forum topic area with lots of images, but scroll down and you’ll find it near the end.
http://www.watergazersden.com/node/32982#comment-403310Both of these pieces were painted a little differently than my usual way. For the griffin, because I wanted it to appear older I didn’t base it in white or grey first, allowing the access light grey paint to either absorb or not absorb into the sculpture, giving it a little more “dirty” look, if you will with the antiqing. I painted a lighter grey, darker grey, and finally a black for all of the spots and stripes, using a lot of watered-down paint so I wouldn’t get completely solid coverage but a more aged look.
For the husky, I had to go based on photos, and the husky itself was very solid-faced so blending the black into white more smoothly wouldn’t have looked realistic for this piece, so I painted the white areas, and then the black areas…the latter using a frayed old brush to help get a furry effect. afterwards I went back in with a tiny round brush for finer details with the white fur over the black, making a slightly greyer look more true to what it would look like in real life. Lastly I antiqued with light grey washes.
And yep, the pink nose was my favorite part.
Thanks! I do dislike working with direct black though because it really looks flat in photos. I will be working on a golden winged wolf soon and a black and gold winged wolf.
Here’s a better shot of the snow griffin, which I’ll upload here in the gallery as well:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/45164500/These were both done for a special commission/trade which a Windstone forum member took up. The first is a snow owl/snow leopard griffin I painted up to look aged and wise (though these photos due little justice and I need to post a better one later), and the second is a PYO wolf done as a memorial pet husky. I am pleased with the turnout for both pieces though I admit having more fun on the winged wolf PYO. I look forward to doing more.
Griffin:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/45148171/
Wolf:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/45148071/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/45148016/
