tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18907156.post612892198559691145..comments2024-03-28T12:12:53.989-04:00Comments on Today's Inspiration: Stories from the End of "The Last Golden Age of Illustration"leifpenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07232334860061949895noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18907156.post-48255584876293393922011-10-23T19:05:47.011-04:002011-10-23T19:05:47.011-04:00Thanks, Leif, for this really well researched stud...Thanks, Leif, for this really well researched study. It is sobering. How in the heck can we hope to put the time in to match those old guys when we're getting 1/10 or 1/20 of the prices they were getting? <br /><br />One upbeat side of this story is with original prices, which inverts the pyramid. As commission prices have gone down over the years, original values, at least for the top artists, have gone way up. Frazettas have recently sold for over a million and Rockwell's "Breaking Home Ties" sold at Sotheby's for 15.4 million. In those old glory days of high commission prices, great pictures were routinely sold for dirt cheap or just thrown out. An artist can make up the difference selling originals, something to keep in mind for a young artist deciding whether to go digital or not.James Gurneyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01870848001990898499noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18907156.post-33813768053527818142011-10-20T14:30:20.242-04:002011-10-20T14:30:20.242-04:00Truly fascinating series, Leif. Rockwell's $2,...Truly fascinating series, Leif. Rockwell's $2,500 translates to over $39,000 today! Per cover! Incredible!<br /><br />In many cases I'm pulling in almost half what I was making for a cover 25 years ago. The steady rate decline over the past decade or so is something I don't see reversing. If it weren't for after market sales of originals making ends meet would be tough indeed.Joe Juskohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00372481990907532158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18907156.post-75895165917302564702011-10-20T14:24:45.353-04:002011-10-20T14:24:45.353-04:00At the same time that the Post's rates for ill...At the same time that the Post's rates for illustrators were diminishing, its rates for writers were diminishing too, because its advertising revenues were diminishing because its circulation was diminishing. <br /><br />I promise that all of the writers, editors, printers, managers and even newsstand operators were going through the same distress as the illustrators. How could they feed their families? They couldn't get work at one of the other magazines listed in those 1936 Society of Illustrators minutes, because most of them were wiped out too in the same Permian extinction. The few that survived did so by abandoning any pretense of publishing illustrated fiction (better leave that to television). Cosmo changed from printing dozens of illustrations in each issue to printing photographs of designer lipstick and running articles about "17 new errogenous zones behind your man's left ear" (which I suppose counts as fiction of a different type). But at least they survived.<br /><br />I hope this fascinating series of yours will follow through to the consequences of all this creative destruction. When Rockwell abandoned the sinking Post to start painting for Look Magazine, it freed him up to address civil rights and other issues he could not address at the Post. One of those important paintings is hanging at the White House today. Rockwell became free to experiment with a looser style, and did award winning work in his old age. <br /><br />Meanwhile, the only lasting economic value remaining where the mighty Post empire once stood is the licensing value of Rockwell illustrations. The sharp dealers who bought the remnants of the magazine have made a fortune by exploiting the royalty value of that art.David Apatoffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11293486149879229016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18907156.post-91789374915463179922011-10-20T12:30:45.714-04:002011-10-20T12:30:45.714-04:00Thanks Adrian; that's an excellent attitude - ...Thanks Adrian; that's an excellent attitude - and one I'd highly recommend to anyone who leaves these posts feeling depressed. Tomorrow I hope to address how illustrators dealt with these changes, so perhaps that will be helpful to some readers. <br /><br />I do think the decline in remuneration is something we illustrators need to acknowledge - and analyze - and use that information to our benefit. :^)leifpenghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07232334860061949895noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18907156.post-1081424878713495402011-10-20T10:43:08.658-04:002011-10-20T10:43:08.658-04:00This has been a highly fascinating series of artic...This has been a highly fascinating series of articles, Leif. As a artist trying to piece paying gigs together in the marketplace today, I don't find these article discouraging at all. But rather, encouraging as there will always be someone who is willing to pay for art on some level. Yeah, an illustrator making Leyendecker or Rockwell will never happen again, but having a decent living for me and my family sufficed by creating art would be satisfaction enough. Thanks as always, Leif!Adrian Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03762571727363685060noreply@blogger.com