[publishing] Getting Art

Depending on how much art you need it might not be as expensive as you think to hire someone (or several someones) to illustrate your game. What I would do is first decide exactally how much you can afford to pay. Often when people contact me to do art, they dont really know how much they want to spend. So thats one of the first things I ask. So decide how much money you can spend. Can you spend $25? $100? $150? 500? Okay, good. Put up a post here, on RPGnet, and any place else you want stating the nature of your project, the kind of illustrations you are looking for and how much you are paying. Whether you want to list a set price for the whole project or per illustration is your call. Once all your information is presented up front artists can look (and we do look) and decide if they are interested in the project. If someone contacts you it will because they want to work on your project at the price you listed.

I think (and this is just what I think) that you can usually find an artist in your price range, whatever your price range is. I often go below my normal price for projects that seem interesting, and I know many other artists do as well. And it is absolutly tue that you get what you pay for. You cant expect A level work with E level payment, and few artists are ever going to put their best effort into someone elses project. However, there are plenty of people out there who will do you some damn fine art for far less then you might expect. So dont be afraid to ask. At worst no one will answer your post.

As far as some of the other stuff mentioned here, ieven if you cant draw it yourself, theres plenty of other cool options you could explore. Photos and photo collages are always options. John Harper did some cool photo manipulations for Stranger Things (check his site). As far paying artists with a percentage of the profits, I'm pretty wary of it. There are a lot of well intentioned people out there that promised their artists a percentage of the profits in exchange for their work, and then were never able to pay them because the project never got off the ground or never made any money. That happens a lot. Its happened top me more then once. So for that reason jobs that offer a percentage of the profit instead of actual money dont usually get my attention. However, a percentage of the profit can be a nice way to spice up an otherwise lackluster upfront rate.

Anyway, hope that helps.

Jake Richmond