Artist Issues

I'm currently in the process of designing a gladiator game. I wanted the gladiators to be somewhat historically accurate, but I'm a stick man artist.
So, what I did was searched the web for commission artists. I started with the amateur artists because of price. You can find many talented artists at

http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/elfwood.pike

or

http://www.deviantart.com/

I gathered a list of artist and email them with info on what I was doing and what I was looking for. I asked if they would be interested and how much it would cost. Out of my first bunch of emails I got 2 responses, from there I picked the one I thought fit my needs better. Things worked out pretty well until he fell on hard times and quit. I guess this is the drawback of going the amateur route. I got some great work before he quit so it wasn't a total loss.

I then decided to go the professional route. I again gathered a list of artists and emailed them. I tried to pick artist that looked like they would have an interest in gladiators, in hope that they would do the project at a reduced rate because they liked the subject matter.

Here is site I eventually found my artist.

conceptart.org

I found an professional artist who had an interest in my theme, so he was willing to give me a discount. He and one of his friends did the work ( 7 illsu. gladiators) for me, and the whole project took about two weeks. They did an excellent job. You can check out some of their gladiators in my rules

xibus.com/ludus2_nt.pdf
xibus.com/combat_example.pdf

I hope my experience is helpful and sparks some ideas. I think the web is a great tool for finding artists.

-JR

FYI..

Here is a file with Designer Notes for Duel of Ages... If I remember correctly, they used internet sources for all of their card art.

http://www.bgdf.com/modules.php?name=Web_Links&l_op=visit&lid=44

The link above is for a zipped acrobat file. It should provide some valuable insight into getting your needed artwork.

Good luck!
-Darke

Hey, I'd be willing to help you out with some drawings. If you're looking to pay a percentage of sales, that's fine with me too. I'd be happy to help you out.

If you're interested, send me a message. You can go to my website and check out some of my artwork.

I worked as a professional illustrator for a while, but became disillusioned with the companies that were placing the job orders. Too often they were in the same situation as you, unable to pay in anything other than product copies.

While I've designed enough games to know how tight things are financially to actually get them produced, I also think that illustrators who work for free are hurting themselves professionally, as well as the profession as a whole. To work for little or nothing does nothing good for an artist's reputation, and the legions of artists that continue to do so end up making the market for illustrators a barren field: the average pay is... nothing!

So, in the end, I'd say you have to work with what you've got, or figure in the cost of artwork into you production total. Remember, the components of the game cost money, and the printing cost money. But if nobody takes down the box because it doesn't look good, what was the point? If the game plays well, but the players are embarrassed by the poor artwork (we've all seen these games), then what was the point? Remember, your current game is what's going to help sell you next game. Don't shoot yourself in the foot. Hire an artist who won't work for free.