I am looking to find sources for original AD&D artwork, beyond what may be available directly from artists like Caldwell and Elmore on their websites, which is nonexistent or limited.

Does anyone know of a website that supports collectors of original artwork or a website that tracks auctions for this type of artwork?

Thank you.

the short answer to this question is that if you are after 2ed and before, you are 5-10 years too late and there is none for sale, now or in the foreseeable (unless you want some B&W interiors) .. the only way you could possibly get some is if you stumbled across someone that had the odd piece and wasn't aware of the current situation..

My personal suggestion is to look for 3rd ed and above if you want to collect some artwork.. or different game systems

Brette:)

DarkHallway wrote in Locating original AD&D artwork:I am looking to find sources for original AD&D artwork, beyond what may be available directly from artists like Caldwell and Elmore on their websites, which is nonexistent or limited.

Does anyone know of a website that supports collectors of original artwork or a website that tracks auctions for this type of artwork?

Thank you.

You could track down the author Jon Peterson, the odds are he'll have more answers in one place than anyone else you're likely to find.

Is that you, then?
I don't know who the majority of people are here. Only a few of the old guard and those I have sold things to in the past.
If so, welcome. I must confess to not having read Playing at the World, I just don't seem to find the time to read most of what I have. That is the curse of collector, I have to spend my time doing other things in order to find the money to spend on things I want to collect. The alternative seems to be to have more time and less money unless you can figure out how to break the link, which I sure many find out how to do, but alas, that trick thus far has eluded me.

There has been a couple of discussions on chasing down historically significant pieces of FRP art, and your name comes to mind on account of the amount of research that I'm sure went into Art & Arcana. If a potential buyer was minded to park a considerable amount of his hard earned savings (not me and not my type of investment, although one that would appear to have considerable safety and possible upside against a deflationary currency), I would imagine you may know where some interested parties who may be persuaded to part with their wares in exchange for said considerable sums of money may reside.

That said, I suspect potential purchasers with the appropriate access to funds may either not realise what 'appropriate access to funds' really is, may not really understand what they are buying, and are only dipping their toes in the water looking for smaller doodles from smaller fish in the pond.

When EO goes looking for access to his own artworks, you know hard times are coming, and I don't imagine he'll have too much luck.

If you are looking for who the owners are of a lot of the pieces, you can simply look at the credits in the Art and Arcana book.

as someone that knows stuff;).. there are already people offering 5-6 figure numbers now.. this is what you are up against.. most of it has already gone by the simple fact that high prices have already been paid

Brette:)

shadeun wrote in Locating original AD&D artwork:
I mean..... theres a price for everything right?

I'm sure there are some pretty rich fans that could shake loose some art with 5-6 figure numbers

mbassoc2003 wrote in Locating original AD&D artwork:No-one is going to buy a copy of a digital file, even if the seller swears blind its the only copy on his original memory stick.

An interesting idea. If you want a high-quality print for display, is it practical to send the file to a printer, who would then ship the print to you or to a framer? Do POD services already exist for art?

mbassoc2003 wrote in Locating original AD&D artwork:But that is not buying an original piece of artwork, and the file you buy is just a copy of the file the artist created, and you then copy it again and send it to the printer who keeps it on multiple hard drives and doesn't destroy it after he's printed it either. So you are just buying a copy, which is a sub-$100 transaction, rather than buying a original art piece which may be 10 to 100 times that. Also, your print depreciates and can be replaced and/or replicated ad infinitum. Your original art piece cannot.

I can see why people want to buy and retain original artwork. I cannot understand why anyone would then allow it to be reproduced after the sale is done without compensation.

However, pencil sketches by some of the more talented modern artists may be worth something for those without such deep pockets. It'd be a scavenger hunt though, because many either have no idea anyone would be interested in their sketches, and others may be of the opinion that they will not part with the originals, lest they end up in EO's position 20 years down the line.

I suspect the days of oil on canvas are long gone, which can only add $$$ onto the price tags of masterpieces of yesteryear.

This is a massive discussion/movement within the MTG (Magic the Gathering) community. In fact, demand for orignal artwork has gone so high that many artists are chosing to do their work on canvas so they can make up to thousands (even tens of thousands) for the original piece (which they retain the rights to sell even though comissioned by WoTC for the card art.

mbassoc2003 wrote in Locating original AD&D artwork:I'd imagine an original art piece from some of the cards would be worth a fair bit

Original Magic art is INSANE.. should have bough some