Every now and again a piece of art comes along that you really like. So you place your bid and hope for the best, right? Not necessarily, my dear reader. Sometimes there’s someone out there who wants it more, has more money to play with, or simply overpays. Whatever the reason, there’s always going to be ‘the one that got away’. This is a post about one of those.
Valkyrie by Rod San (original)
Colorized version by ssjmihoshi
It was a simple, 8×11 or so drawing by a chap from South America (I think) named Rod San. You can see his stuff at comiconart.com, a studio in Brazil (I think) for artists. I guess Rod is on staff, or maybe not. I’m not really sure.
What I do know is: about once a week a few pages from recent books come up for sale on eBay and along with them are sketches from these artist that have no book pages to sell. They tend to be very cheesecake ‘booby’ art. Silly stuff, but that is what gets the bids (you pervs). But some of these sketches that come up along with the original published pages are actually pretty good and catch the eye. This was definitely one of those.
Copy by Moby (not original)
The problem for Moby was that someone bid about three times what Rod’s stuff had been going for….more than I bid, obviously. And I even went back and added some to my max bid, just in case. I think it was after this incident I started using a bid sniper for those gotta-have pieces. But anyways….this one got away. So I did what anyone with a table, art supplies, and the itch to get back into drawing would do. I made my own copy.
I lightboxed out this 11×17 copy on comic art board (bristol) and used an H2 pencil. I tried to get it as close to the original as possible…but I don’t have an proper lightbox. I think it came out well, though the fur on the shoulders is particularly weak.
Still, at the time I had no clue to look up Rod on deviant and see if I could get a print or some. I just thought to myself that I wanted it larger, I really do prefer 11×17 anyways. I mean, who doesn’t? Maybe one day whomever bought the original will sell it and I’ll be looking about that time. It could happen, right? Until then I have my copy of ‘The one that got away’ to put up on my wall…next to a very cool Batman.
Sorry Rod. I did bid on your work, so I hope that’s something.
Update!: It did indeed go on sale again. I was not looking….
