On Thursday September 5th, 2019 the original painting, pencils, and inks for Chris Seaman’s Animating Faerie were sold via a Buy It Now option of the auction run on the MTG Art Market. The painting and inks—of the Alternative Variant Showcase version of the art—were sold for $7,000 to one collector with the pencil sketch going for $700 to another.
Animating Faerie by Chris Seaman, acrylic on board, 13” x 16”
This sale was a little bit different than how auctions usually pan out on the MTG Art Market, so we’ll cover it a bit differently as well. Let’s walk through the timeline of what happened, as it happened:
6:01 PM: Auction begins, $2,000 bid on painting, $100 and $200 bid on pencils.
6:21 PM: Bidding ensues, painting stands at $2,700 and pencils at $350.
6:24 PM: More images requested from potential bidder.
6:43 PM: Ink sketch found as a result of additional picture request, auction begins at $100.
7:03 PM: Buy It Now Option added; $8,000 for everything.
8:39 PM: Offer made, Buy It Now Exercised, Painting and Inks sold for $7,000, pencils remain.
8:41 PM: Buy it Now Option added for pencils; $700.
11:39 PM: Pencils pending sold.
11:47 PM: Pencils sold, sale complete.
In case that was a lot to follow, the TL;DR is that in less than six hours, this suite of wonderful illustrations went from available to sold, and for quite the impressive sum.
Animating Faerie (Sketch) by Chris Seaman, graphite on paper, 13” x 17”
Throne of Eldraine is Magic’s latest expansion, set in a brand new world in which the Camelot of Middle-Age lore meet’s the Germanic Grimm’s Fairy Tales of old Bavaria. It incorporates an incredible variety of fables and tales, and some have a very direct connection to recognizable stories, like this card’s representation of Pinnochio. This relationship and resemblance to everyone’s favorite nose-talgic puppet, in addition to the excellently executed storybook-style artwork, could have very well been the catalyst to the strong sale.
Animating Faerie is Chris Seaman’s 31st card for Magic, and he has quickly become an illustrator we see every single set. His bright color palette and imaginative scenes make for vivid and exciting card illustrations, and it’s wonderful to see Seaman becoming a regular in the Wizards roster.