Archive for the ‘prints’ Category
January 5, 2009
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[“Bluetrain”- the new gapingvoid print. Click on image to enlarge etc.]
So yeah, the Bluetrain print sold out, two weeks before it even goes to press. No, I never saw that coming. Wow.
Since I announced that it was sold out, I’ve gotten a lot of emails from people asking me please, please, please, if a spare one turns up, could they buy it from me?
Well, like I said before, I kept a small number aside for myself, but I really want to hang on to them. At the same time, I don’t like people being disappointed.
So I decided I’d sell ONE MORE from my private stash. But who to give it to? The guy who asked first? The guy who knew me the longest?
Not being able to make up my mind one way or the other about who to give it to, I just decided I’ll put it on eBay, and let people bid for it. I’ve already done well enough from this wonderfully insane adventure, so to keep the good karma coming, whatever it sells for, high or low, I’ll give the proceeds to charity.
I’ll let y’all know when it’s up. Thanks Again. Seriously.
[UPDATE:] As for the people who have already ordered a print; we’re going to press hopefully in the next few days. I’m really behind in my e-mail [I blame the Holiday Season, mostly], so I should be contacting y’all shortly. Thanks for your patience AND your support. Rock on.
December 29, 2008
8 Comments
[Update: Video of me signing the first artist’s proof.]
[“Bluetrain”- the new gapingvoid print. Click on image to enlarge etc.]
[Update: Bluetrain is already sold out. Thanks, Everybody!]
The print is an edition of eighty-five. So far seventy-five are accounted for, including the few I’m keeping for myself. Sales were pretty brisk right up until everything closed down for Christmas. I’m still a bit stunned about how well this wee adventure has gone, frankly.
So now I have ten left for sale. Full details are here.
For the last ten, the price is $250 each, which far less than I think we’ll be selling the next edition for. Hope that’s OK with y’all.
Again, THANK YOU ALL for supporting this random act of insanity on my part. Rock on.
[UPDATE:] By the time I had finished writing this very short post, the number left was down to eight prints. 15 minutes later, that number was down to seven. Wow. [UPDATE:] One hour later– only five left. w00t. [UPDATE:] Fifteen minutes later– only four left. Eek! [UPDATE:] Five minutes later– only three left. Ummm… [UPDATE:] Next Morning– SOLD OUT!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!
December 23, 2008
6 Comments
[Update: Video of me signing the first artist’s proof.]
[“Bluetrain”- the new gapingvoid print. Click on image to enlarge etc.]
[UPDATE: 30th December. “Bluetrain” is now sold out. Thanks, Everybody!]
On December 4th, I announced I was going into the fine art print business, pretty much full-time, if all goes well.
Like I said earlier, the first edition will be coming out in mid-January.
I also said that the first twenty people who sent me an e-mail could buy the print at $175– once the print is made, the price will be around the $250-$300 mark.
To be honest, at the time I thought twenty wasn’t a very conservative number– I was thinking if ten or twelve took me up on the offer by Christmas, that would be pretty amazing.
As soon as I posted the offer up on the blog, I went out for dinner. By the time I came back two hours later, 24 people had already taken me up on it. Within 24 hours, the number was closer to 40.
Not bad for a limited edition of only 85, don’t you think? We’re talking about people buying something “Sight Unseen”- something that RARELY happens in the art business.
As for the kind people who e-mailed early, but not early enough to make it on the “First Twenty” list, I thought it would be unfair on the “First Twenty” to give them the same discount. But at the same time, it would be a shame not to do something to reward them for being early adaptors. Hmmmm… You can see my dilemma. So in the end, I told them they could have one for $200– it’s still a pretty good discount. They seemed happy enough with that, so all well and good.
The second thing I did was to let the First Twenty vote on which image they wanted to see printed up. I gave them a choice of three designs, the image above, “Bluetrain”, won the majority vote, so that’s the one we’re going with.
About the piece in question: It’s called “Bluetrain”, because yes, it’s largely colored blue, and also because it’s a re-working of the head cartoon in my business manifesto, The Hughtrain, which of course, was in turn named after one of my favorite books, The Cluetrain. “Blue Trane” is also the name of one of my favorite jazz albums. So it all fits together, somehow.
It’ll be a fairly standard poster size, approx 18x24”. They’ll all be personally signed and numbered in pencil, by myself. We’re also using a specialist fine art printmaker in New York City for the job, not a general commercial printer.
I decided to use color simply because I didn’t want to just blow up the original, black & white, bizcard-sized cartoon to poster-sized. I wanted to make it look totally new and different, yet totally the same and familiar. As for the “Pop” sensibilty, well, I am a cartoonist, so go figure…
Since that first big splash of interest from the First Twenty, we’ve had a steady stream of people signing up. There’s only about 20 left unsold in this edition, so if you’re still interested in having one of them, please send me an email as soon as you can [Thanks!]: gapingvoid@gmail.com
I hope y’all are as excited by this new venture of mine as I am. As always, thanks for your support, none of this would be possible without you. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
[UPDATE:] ONLY THREE PRINTS LEFT! Price IS $250 for the last ten.
December 19, 2008
9 Comments
[Click on image to enlarge etc.…]
This is a close-up section of one of the new litho’s I’ve designed. This section covers maybe 20 – 25% of the entire area of the piece. Just giving y’all a teaser etc.
Been spending a lot of time learning about printing, and the printing business over the last couple of weeks…
December 4, 2008
10 Comments
1. Sometime in the next few weeks I shall be releasing my first big, proper edition of signed, fine-art lithographs.
2. These will not be sponsored “social objects” from Stormhoek, Microsoft or whatever. These will be for sale. Cash. Moolah. Via this blog. No galleries.
3. They will be high quality. Very high quality.
4. I plan on using color for the first one, maybe black and white in the future– though I haven’t really thought that far ahead yet.
5. It’ll be an edition of 85 prints. I’m not planning on selling them all. I want to hold on to some of them, for posterity’s sake.
6. They’ll all be signed and numbered by hand, by me.
7. I plan to be blogging a lot about the whole process in the next few weeks. As with any new adventure, a lot of stuff still needs to be figured out long-term– I hope by talking about it with everybody, it’ll help me make better artistic decisions.
8. Though my work covers a lot of different themes and emotional states, for this first one I’ll be focusing more on the business-culture, Hughtrain sensibility. I want the print to be the kind of thing you’d want to hang up in your office.
9. This is not some groovy little side project for me. This enterprise is going to be a major part of my life over the next few years. Just letting you know.
10. We’ll be printing them up in mid-January. If you want to get in early, I’m going to make 20 prints available; you can pre-order one before the printing date for $175. Just ping me an e-mail. After they are printed the price goes up, to around the $250 – 300 range.
11. Thanks Again.
[Update:] Just got back from dinner. Tired. So far I have 24 requests for the 20 pre-orders. Looks like I may have to disappoint 4 people. Long day. Going to bed. Will talk in the morning. Thanks, Everybody!
December 2, 2008
9 Comments
[The Techcrunch Party print from 2007.]
I’ve been spending a lot of time this week, researching and talking to fine art print shops. Like I said a few weeks ago, I’m planning to spend more time in the print business.
This development has been a long time coming. In the last twenty years, I’ve drawn thousands of cartoons and shared them with tens of thousands of people, which has slowly built up what I believe to be a reasonably-sized commercial market for my work.
Besides that, I’ve been living in the West Texas desert for over nine months, and I’m finding drawing cartoons is far more aligned to that way of life, than being an “internet marketing guy” or whatever. Like a painter friend of mine told me the other week, “There’s not much to do out here, except make art and drink beer.“
Being a full-time cartoonist is still not something I ever plan on doing, but life has been pulling me more and more in that direction for a while, almost against my will. Maybe one day I’ll get tired of resisting it, who knows?
Wish me luck, anyway…
November 24, 2008
3 Comments
My friend, Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV fame and I have been talking on and off for the last while about me doing a lithograph for his wine business, in a similar spirit to all those Stormhoek lithos I did back in London.
Finally, yesterday, I stopped my dilly-dallying and just cranked it out. Voila!
Like I said a few weeks back, I’m getting more into the fine art print business. Social Objects at their finest. Rock on.
I hope Gary likes the design…
October 28, 2008
24 Comments
[Me working on “DesertManhattan”. Photo courtesy of Deborah Smail.]
After a couple of years of thinking about it, I’m finally moving forward in the lithograph department. Here are some initial thoughts:
1. Yes, I’ve done lithographs before e.g for Techcrunch, Stormhoek and Microsoft. Those were produced digitally, for high-numbered editions [one thousand or so]. This new effort will be much more high-end and exclusive. We’re talking very small editions [say, 25 or so], done not via digital, but by old-fashioned etchings on metal plates.
2. We’ll be using the highest-quality paper and inks we can find, bar none. We won’t be sparing any expense.
3. The pieces will all be framed by hand, using highest-quality woods and mats. No industrial factory-framing for these babies etc.
4. As of today, I have no idea how much I’ll charge for them. My plan is to put the first few ones onto Ebay, let people bid for them openly, and see what happens. I reckon this will establish a solid, relatively transparent market price, a lot better than mere guesswork ever could.
5. The size will be roughly the same as my recent large works on paper i.e. approx. 23x29 inches etc.
6. I haven’t decided what image, or what style of image I want to use for the first run. Do I go with my familiar cartoon format say, something like this, or do I go with something a bit more “arty” say, something like “Fred 44″? This is a conversation I hope to be having with y’all over the next few weeks, so please feel free to leave a comment below, Thanks.
7. Yes. I am SERIOUSLY excited about this project. Rock on.
