timguerrero

I definitely do NOT post everything on CAF. I used to when I first started collecting but then I made a trade I immediately regretted. After that I decided I would no longer post art I was not willing to trade or sell. This last year I decided I would start posting once again but with the caveat that I would price my art for sale at a price point I would be comfortable receiving in order to let go of the art (mostly very expensive prices except on those pieces I really want to sell or out of my collection). I am sad to report this has not deterred CAF members of making low ball offers.

Additional reasons which I will not go into have led me to stray off CAF again and also from the YouTube videos which I eagerly looked forward too previously. I never thought I would say this but I think I am very worn out of collecting original art partly because of how the market has outpriced me on the art I would most love to have and in a big manner by some of the people in the community.

I will say something positive that I have made several dear friends from this hobby that I have been pleased to meet in person and talk and enjoy art with. One of those such persons I've yet to meet in person but look forward to do so this coming year.

I hope some time away from the hobby will help me fall in love with it once again.

I use a toploader to hold my biggest art but I guess I have to look for a mylar that is big enough for it so it doesn't get damaged.

Non that I one. That is for certain!

I try my best to do artist/rep first, after that comes other collectors, then ebay and lastly dealers. Just 2 years ago I made my first purchase at Hake's and this year my first purchase at Heritage.

On 9/20/2022 at 12:28 AM, thethedew said:

I always use the Photoshop 'Photomerge' option.

See if your version of Photoshop has this:

...after which you should be prompted to navigate to the directory where your individual raw scans reside.  Select the ones to be stitched, and see if the automated process works to your satisfaction.

It still won't be perfect, I stress.  If you insist on zooming in closely and taking a look, you'll probably find minor imperfections and faintly blurry blended lines here and there.  But it's better than doing it manually. 

In general, I've found it's sufficient for graphics for the WWWeb, and for 'personal' printing.  I'd guess professional printers or publishers may well turn their noses up at the results.  YMMV.

Hope this helps!

Andrew

thanks! I'll look into it

I speak for myself when I say that I appreciate comments on my art that have more than just 1 word on them but even those 1 word comments make it worth having published the art on CAF, even if I remove it a day later. 

I use photoshop but when I stitch the images together the lines don't align properly if I zoom in on the image and I can just tell where I pasted the images together. It is really frustrating! Any help would be highly appreciated.

Don't have any covers. McNiven stuff is going to rise in prices seeing as he's taken his published art off the market.

I know I really appreciate other collectors leaving comments on my art but I rarely publish any art on CAF anymore. I also used to look at the featured Galleries in the CAF newsletter and leave comments on the pieces I liked. I really don't have time to do that anymore regrettably.

What are you looking for from McNiven?

The biggest collecting goal I have achieved is proving everybody wrong who told me I was foolish to spend my money on comics and comic book art. I decided recently I would sell some art and see how I did and it turned out really well. I was able to make all the money I had ever spent on art. Proving all those people wrong is the biggest incentive I can ever get out of my collecting habits. I must say it sometimes is tough deciding to sell but once a big wad of money is in your hands, man that feels good! Of course I just turned around and bought more art with the money earned, lol.

A friend of mine keeps all of my comics and art at his house until I can travel to get them myself to save on international shipping fees and import taxes. Last stack I retrieved had items purchased since November 2018 until December 2021 (over half of the comic book boxes is stuff I purchased directly from my friend). That period has been the period were I have purchased more art and more comics than I ever did before so I had to make 4 trips to the USA in order to bring everything back with me home. Fun days, now I just have to classify everything I brought back, lol. Waiting on a big lot of BCW boxes in order to get them ordered and see what else I am sending to get graded. Some of the art I brought back and I already sold 3 or 4 of those pieces too, so they went back to the US of A.

On 7/14/2022 at 11:22 PM, ExNihilo said:

At the risk of creating competition (), Chrissie Zullo.  She commented in one of her Instagram posts that there would be limited spots and different options available at her table.  To the best of my knowledge, her commission list has been closed for a while except for limited spots she makes available at some cons.

Apparently this is the case with Chrissie Zullo. A friend of mine was commenting how he wanted a commission from her at Heroes Con this year and she was not taking any. So when this week Amateur DD was on an a Chrissie Zullo commission came up for sale I jumped on it.

On 7/11/2022 at 2:12 AM, The Meta said:

 

1) Cyber. I love Cyber. I am a fan of Sam Kieth, and I know his OA is much further away from my reach than this piece

 

he's a great character. I think I might have a Wolverine page with him on it but it isn't by Andy Kubert. Last time I bought a Kubert piece it was over $2k more on the $3k side.

which show did they have it for sale? who was selling it? Anthony or Mike? weird that they'd do false advertisement. 

Definitely hard no.  

isn't his name David Ceci? I get his emails but don't remember were I signed up for them

I don't remove tape if a DPS comes with it. I store them in a proper sized Itoya that someone in Comic Art Live recommended and the DPS look wonderful fully displayed in them, I can't recall what size those are but I can look after work if you are looking to purchase them. I have to look into getting Mylars for that size art. I had a DPS that wasn't taped together so I kept it that way before sending it off to Heritage to be auctioned.

On 5/31/2022 at 9:40 PM, Varanis said:

Here are the various storage methods I use for 11x17 modern art:

1. 12x18 mylar with no flap and matching archival backing board. The backing boards make these really sturdy to handle as loose pieces which can be stored in a flat file or other container and flipped through.

2. 12x18 mylar with no flap and matching archival backing board (same as above). Art is inserted "upside down" and placed in 13x19 Itoya profolio so that the opening of the mylar is in the bottom of the profolio page in order to prevent dust or other debris from entering the top of the binder. This would likely be considered overkill by most. I like it because the boards give the art more rigidity and help frame the art in the larger profolio page so its not so loose.

3. 11x17 mylar with no flap. Art is inserted "upside down" in 13x19 Itoya. I use this for less expensive art I'm storing in a binder. I generally use a mylar for everything as they're the most archival thing available and make handling the art less perilous.

Were are you purchasing the archival backing boards that are those sizes? EGerber is not making them anymore.

For DPS I use the 17x22 sized Itoya's

On 6/1/2022 at 3:59 PM, Taylor G said:

I use 24" x 18" for twice-up.

Polyethylene is archival, but not as clear as polyester.  Spend the bit extra so you can see the art.

If you are really anal, in addition to storing the art in a mylar sleeve, attach the art to an acid-free backing board with archival photo corners.  That prevents the corners of the art from being damaged as it moves around in the sleeve, though if you keep all of this in portfolios, they can get heavy.  Nice to keep complete stories in books, though. 

If you are putting art in sleeves with flaps, you are a braver man than me.

What is the size of twice up art?

On 5/31/2022 at 12:00 PM, Jay Sing said:

 

For those that do use mylar, do you tape the flap down? I find the flaps a little hard to work with without a backing board, as taping them down tends to create a little bulge. I have just been inserting the open mylar into the sleeves being that they are shy of 19" tall. I suppose, if I did switch to a 13x19, I could just trim off the flap.  Just curious what everybody else is doing.

If you purchase the archives mylar from EGerber they are 4 mil mylar and have no flap which is great to store the art without having to tape it. I also find if you use the 2mil bags with flap and bend the flap it may inconvinience you when trying to take the art out as any bends in mylar are permanent and may damage the art.

I recently found out that Itoya is doing a new Itoya sized 12"x18" which is perfect to store art that has been placed inside an 1x17 Mylar 4mil mylar from EGerber. I like to have the best protection for my collection so I have purchased 300 mylars sized 11x17 and several of those new Itoya's. A friend of mine recenlty showed me a zippered Itoya that has clearer plastic sleeves which also makes the art pop better so now I am debating if I should also look for those type of Itoya Portfolios. 

Here's a link to those new 12x18 Itoya's in case you are interested in purchasing those.

https://www.dickblick.com/items/itoya-original-art-profolio-18-x-12-black-portrait-24-pages/

I thought last round would be my worse one but no it had to be this last round. I got an awful 13 points on this one throwing me out with a total of 37 points. I really need to go to that grading seminar!

Grades in. I hope I fair better than last round. 

my worst round. HtD cannot be a 9.6 with multiple color breaking creases, back was also dirty. this book killed me. I'm finding out that the worst part of my grading skills is determining 9.4 or above grades.

Done. I am trusting my instinct and only changed 1 grade after seeing the lower part of the image. Let's see it I can improve my score and hit some bullseye grades!