THE DRAWING BOARD - Daily updates
August 20th, 2009
The Business Side Of Sketch Cards
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A Jean Grey commission in the works.
I’ve had this recurring question show up in my email box over and over. I thought I would go ahead and answer it here. Usually this question comes from other artists, basically, have I ever worked on any official card sets? The answer is no, but I'm not opposed to it if I’m paid a reasonable rate.
I seem to take a lot of heat for my attitude about this. I would gladly work for Topps or Ritten House or anyone else that asked, but only if they offer me a descent rate of pay (and this is the part that gets me in to trouble) $1.00 or $1.50 per card, in my opinion is not a fair page rate. Its an insult, its pathetic and its lame!
I know that the artists on these sets get a few cards returned to them, that they can turn around and sell. I've seen some of these return cards going for six or seven hundred dollars on EBay (I’ve also seen returns going for two bucks on EBay)
I’ve heard the argument "I'm not really doing it for the money, I'm doing it for the exposure" and I say good luck with that. Personally, its not enough for me.
Every editor, assistant editor, employee at a company like Topps is being paid and makes their full time living at their job. None of them are going into work every day for the exposure. I wonder how many of their artists are making their full time living at $1 per card.
So That’s why I haven’t worked on any official sets, 1. nobody’s asked and 2. I probably couldn’t afford to say yes even if they did.
See you tommorrow
Jeff
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