Thomas turned to face the camera and said——
“The creative sketches created from all seven drawings will be printed on a new mug launched on my personal shopping website.”
"The specific shopping link will be pinned to the top of the comment area below the video, and it will be shipped randomly after purchase. You only need to spend five dollars, and you have a one-in-seven chance of getting the same illustration worth one million dollars, please Remember, log in..."
When Thomas followed his usual practice of reading a large advertisement in front of the camera to bring goods for his personal shopping website.
The insurance specialist on the side has also opened the portable suitcase that is fixed to his belt with a locked handcuff to prevent it from being robbed.
He took out seven illustrations wrapped in velvet cloth.
Each illustration is small in size, only about the size of a children's book.
Regardless of whether they are high or low, all seven illustrations use the most exquisite mahogany frames and thickened glass panels.
In addition to unified framing.
In order to prevent accidental disclosure of information about the illustrator to Anna.
Only a few of the staff present knew the specific value of these illustrations. Even the insurance specialist in charge did not know which of the seven paintings was worth one million dollars.
Thomas finished the commercial break and turned the frame over through the velvet cloth.
He pointed to an area covered with stickers on the back of the frames of each of the seven paintings. That was the name of the artist of each painting.
After the comparative evaluation of the seven illustrations, the true prices of these paintings will be revealed to the audience at the end.
He took several blank cards from the staff, divided them into four groups, kept one for himself, and distributed the rest with markers to everyone.
The rules are like this -
It’s similar to the previous one dollar to one million dollar challenge videos to select your favorite water sports, favorite cars, and favorite special effects.
Anna as an art critic and Thomas as a collector.
The insurance specialist of the insurance company and a black man randomly selected from fans to participate in the video represent the perspectives of all ordinary viewers.
The four of them will serve as judges to jointly score each work.
Only Mr. Hyperion knows the true price of each work.
The full score is 10 points, and the lowest is 0 points. The 4 judges get the total score, and the one with the highest score is the winner.
Thomas was not in a hurry to lift the flannel covering the picture frame.
It's different from a sports car and a yacht.
He knows that many of his audience have no basic understanding of art, and do not know what kind of paintings are valuable and what kinds of paintings are not valuable.
Therefore, he first pointed at the camera and said to Anna.
"Before the evaluation, can you tell our audience as a professional what kind of market the illustration market is?"
"In a popular sense, illustration is an art form that presents textual content, stories, and ideas in a visual way. Its drawing forms are diverse, which can be pen drawings, colored pencil drawings, marker drawings, or even oil paintings, but generally The length of the painting will not be too large, and the colors..."
“How much does the most expensive illustration in the world cost?”
Thomas knew that his audience was not here for an art class, so he hurriedly asked a question that would be more disturbing to ordinary people.
"It's hard to say that compared to oil painters, illustrators are not so [artistic] in ordinary people's inherent impression. They have more works and lower unit prices, but the price fluctuations of illustrations are also very large. Speaking of the most expensive..."
Anna frowned and thought.
"What's not so 'art'?"
Thomas caught the other person's choice of words.
"How should I put it? It's like the content you requested is Batman..."
"Batman and I are co-signed, to be precise, my personal merchandise, thank you." Thomas interjected.
"Whatever you say. What I mean is that it is hard to imagine that painters such as Titian, Monet, and Van Gogh would paint the themes of popular novels in society at that time. Just like Picasso, he would not paint Sherlock Holmes and Watson. Portraits. But illustrations are different. Illustrations and comics have been connected with popular culture since their birth."
"For example, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, the specific value of these cartoon characters is difficult to estimate. If you include the IP value, it should exceed one billion US dollars. "The Wind in the Willows" is one of the best-selling children's literature works in the world. , the copyright fee for the illustrations of the artist Shepard's version is even higher than the copyright fee for Graham's text story content. Even if you can own the original published illustrations of the first edition of the Harry Potter novel, there are still people who are willing to pay a high price for it. "
"If you don't consider IP, how much can a simple drawing be sold for? What kind of illustrations can you buy in the art market for one dollar, ten dollars...all the way up to one million dollars?"
"One million is already the price of the top small-size illustrations in the industry. The illustration content that can be sold at this price is all from the top artists in the industry. Not only is the artistic style mature, but it also requires a certain historical story. For example, the most popular illustrations in modern times The famous illustrator should be Norman Rockwell, a student of the anatomical painter George Berryman. The German "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" once commented that his illustration art has reached the [peak of the 20th century]."
"Norman Rockwell, I think I heard this name in middle school class?"
Thomas said.
"Of course you should have heard of it." The girl was not surprised.
"The pinnacle of Norman Rockwell's life achievement was that at the request of President Roosevelt, he drew a series of illustrations of the Four Freedoms to boost national morale during World War II. Someone compared the newspaper that published this series of illustrations with the Independence Day printed in the Philadelphia Evening News. Declaration on par.”
Anna trimmed a hanging hair back and introduced: "He also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Congress, which is the highest honor a citizen of the New World can receive in his life."
"One million means he is the top painter?"
"The most top-notch writing, the most gimmick story, and the market's pursuit. So I say, since you are not the president, and it is not World War II, spending one million to commission a manuscript is not a good choice."
Anna nodded and joked generously: "It's a pity that the person in this room who looks most like Roosevelt is not you."
She was beautiful and cold, and her smile made the ice melt and flowers bloom.
(Note: Like Anna, President Roosevelt was famously disabled in his legs.)
"One hundred thousand to one million US dollars. This price can usually buy works by top painters, but it does not require too many historical events to support it. For example, an Indian painter depicting Hinduism was recently auctioned by Juste in the Himalayan Art Special. Mythological illustrations."
Anna took an IPAD from the nurse and clicked on an illustration of gods and fairies wearing crowns in the jungle.
The above information shows that this exquisite illustration was once used as a blueprint for books on Indian religions in France and England in the 19th century.
"The original painting skills of this painting are very good."
Anna enlarged the picture and commented.
"The brushstrokes are very delicate. Its starting bid was US$80,000, and the estimated transaction price was around US$120,000 to US$200,000. But the buyers that day seemed to like the painting very much, and the auctioneer's ability to mobilize the atmosphere was also impressive. Yes, the final transaction price was US$585,000. This figure exceeded market expectations by a lot."
"Ten thousand dollars to one hundred thousand dollars. At this price you can find very experienced second-tier painters. They may not be top artists, but everyone has their own mature artistic style. This is also a common price for high-end commissions. These painters daily The biggest customers are movie companies. The beautiful art posters you see in cinemas before new movies are released are mostly the work of painters in this price range."
"For about five thousand dollars, you can hire a very good professional illustrator, except that you don't have to pay too much attention to the artistic component. This is the price of a daily large order for a small painting studio."
"It's about a thousand dollars. There's no requirement for more, but you can still get an appointment with works that seem to be in the past. As for under five hundred dollars, I'm sorry, this is not my area of expertise."
Ana pursed her lips in a slightly mean arc.
"What do you mean it's not your area of expertise?"
“Not absolutely, but generally speaking, it’s substandard art.”
Anna thought about it and commented.
Art critics are not the same as auction house appraisers.
The latter needs to try to discover the advantages of a work, which is related to commissions and handling fees for failed auctions.
Art critics are generally quite venomous. They need to discover the shortcomings of a painting and identify the deceivers from the group of painters to criticize.
Even though Anna in a wheelchair looks like a cold little queen who doesn't like to talk, her art weekly articles are always known for being mean and cruel, and she is not an old painter with gray hair and beard. I scolded and cried.
She is such a person who goes her own way, otherwise she would not be willing to agree to Thomas' invitation.
Anna is not short of money, art is her spiritual sustenance.
She has no good impression of the low-cost painters who work part-time online. She hopes to expose the errors and mistakes in these painters' works.
In the field of art,
She has always believed that - as a painter you don't have confidence in yourself, how can you let others have confidence in you? How can you make the market have confidence in you?
Anna knows that this price is usually not for a piece of art.
Most of them are art students or amateur painting enthusiasts who work online. It is very happy for them to be able to sell a commissioned illustration. They may sell one painting and make an extra fortune in a month. Good cost of living.
Otherwise, her evaluation would not be so polite as "unqualified." According to her character, it would be nice not to call the other person trash.
"Okay, let's start with the first painting." Anna uncovered the canvas on a painting.
