Hi. Anyone looking for a cover artist or an illustrator?

In an effort to gain exposure I am offering free original illustration work for any printed jobs. Find out more here. Expect me to respect deadlines and deliver quality. So long as the project involves a printed component, I will waive all associated costs (work, materials, shipping). This includes book illustrations, magazines, product packaging, advertisements, and other such media.

I think you will find that I can handle a large variety of mediums and styles. I have years of experience and have sold many works -- I just don't have the kind of resume I hoped I would have by this point. So, this is your chance to cash in on a mutually beneficial opportunity.

If you are not involved in any projects yourself, please pass this offer along. This may be particularly suited to independent publishers of rpgs (hence my visit here). While I am not likely to take on self-published pay-per-print works, please feel free to contact me -- depending on the project, I could be eager to participate.

If you have any questions at all, please ask!

Craig Houghton
http://fineart.leversandpulleys.com

find out more here or try a few direct links first
http://www.leversandpulleys.com/goodaim.jpg
http://www.leversandpulleys.com/metro.jpg
http://leversandpulleys.com/artblog/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/stickman.JPG
http://www.leversandpulleys.com/ch_image_ltcmdrSeda.JPG
http://www.leversandpulleys.com/ch_image_toadstool.JPG
http://www.leversandpulleys.com/ch_image_exis.JPG

While I'm sure no one is averse to free work, I don't see any reason why you should give yours away. What I looked at is really quite good, enough to make me believe your experience, so it's not like you're in need of experience as well as exposure.

I would charge, at a minimum, your basic costs for materials for any project, regardless of whether or not it will be for a printed book. Anything beyond that, I wouldn't have any idea. Part of the reason I've never seriously approached anyone for art is that I've not got any clue what to offer, and it seems to be that most artists don't list their "standard rates" on their portfolio sites. The other part is that all of my projects, even after years of work, are still in the playtesting stages.

Even so, with a base-line cost of free and going up from there, I suppose it does make it easier to approach you. I'll add you to my list of artists I'm keeping in mind.

Also, on the art in particular, I notice that you do primarily color work. Your monochrome pieces also look good, but I'm wondering, do you do clearer line art, like that which is often found in RPG interior art? In my extremely limited experience (ie. looking at the products of others) I've noticed that clean lines tend to print better on the mass printing process used for a lot of books. Any with experience in this sort of thing is welcome to educate me on it, but that's been my observation.

Wolfen,

Many thanks. I appreciate it. I think though that I would rather do free work than have none at all (which is where things are at the moment). I love working on projects when I know the final result will actually head somewhere. It also helps that I have a decent day-job. As for interior rpg style b&w work, I don't think that should be much of a problem, but I'll work up a few portfolio pieces.

Also, most of my pen and ink stuff starts out as linework that could stand on its own in a b&w printing, so I should be able to handle the interior work. This egret (http://www.leversandpulleys.com/egret.jpg) is a good example of some linework that would translate fine to b&w and the ink-only (actually charcoal in this case) version of the dancer on the right side of this piece (http://www.leversandpulleys.com/uploads/hawaii_sketch_and_charcoal.JPG) would be another example. I'll see if I can't dig up a few more. Otherwise, I'll do some rpg specific b&w portfolio pieces.

And, thanks for considering me for any future projects!

-Craig

I'd be interested, for my game, a horror rpg. Is that kind of stuff OK with you?

northerain wrote:
I'd be interested, for my game, a horror rpg. Is that kind of stuff OK with you?

See, now those are exactly what I was talking about. If I'd have had more time to look, or seen those when I was looking, I probably wouldn't have said anything at all about the line work. Very clean lines on the both of them.

Wolfen wrote:
See, now those are exactly what I was talking about. If I'd have had more time to look, or seen those when I was looking, I probably wouldn't have said anything at all about the line work. Very clean lines on the both of them.

Craig,

I love your work. The stickman looks like a painting one could find framed somewhere--very professional.

If I get an appropriate project ready for illustration, I'll definitely keep you in mind. (Not for free, though, sorry. :)

Hi Craig,

While I'm not interested in free artwork, having looked through some of your works on your website, I would be interested in representing a few of your pieces for our new POD Art Print and Merchandise service we plan to offer in our new retail store we're opening in 08. The details of the program are as follows.

8.5" x 11" B&W Art Print. $2.99
11" x 17" B&W Art Print. $4.99
8.5" x 11" Color Art Print. $4.99
11" x 17" Color Art Print. $6.99
Bookmark $1.50
Custom Greeting Card $5.99
Custom Book Dust Jacket $9.99

For art prints we will pay artists a 20% commission. We will only be able to work with artists that have a Paypal account set up, or who are willing to wait until they have earned $100 in commissions to receive a check payment. For artists with Paypal we will pay out as early as $10 in commissions earned, but if an artist would prefer to wait until a higher amount is generated, we will let them set their pay out level.

For bookmarks, custom greeting cards and custom dusk jackets, we will pay a 10% commission. Logic being there is a bit of layout design work and customer hand holding on our end to get that product ready for sale.

The contract for this would grant us a non exclusive license to reproduce and sell the artwork for the above items. Artists would be able to terminate the contract at-will, excepting that for each piece of artwork submitted under the service, we would retain the right to reproduce it for use with the service until that piece of artwork had generated at least $10 in commissions for the artist. So after receiving notice of termination, we would retain the right to use the artwork for this service until commissions of $10 had been earned, at which time our rights would cease. This clause is a safety net allowing an art piece to earn out the minimum overhead needed to establish it within the system in the first place.

Each art piece will have a listing in our art folders for customers to browse through. It will list the artist name and any contact information you care to list.

Feel free to e-mail me at dowrie@guildofblades.com if you are interested.

Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Publishing Group
http://www.guildofblades.com
http://www.1483online.com
http://www.thermopylae-online.com

Hey Craig,

There's some hot work in there. I have two projects I'd like to talk to you about.

The first is something called Dostoevskyan Murder Ballad, which is a game about pathetic wretches pulled straight from the pages of Russian Lit, and the unfortunate, chaotic mess their lives are. It's full of things like bizarre love triangles, midnight poetry duels, vodka, lustful seamstresses seducing clients in the sizing room, anarchist playwrights trying to incite revolution through their art, vodka, gambling with security guards, arson and vodka. My current plans are to develop it for two forms: a free online PDF, and a "by donation" simple book (production qualities mirroring a good zine, which I give out for free with an option/encouragement to support printing costs with a Paypal donation). It will be available as a print book, I plan to initially produce 50-100, but it won't be a for-sale product. Does that qualify? If so, some of your stuff is super hot and would fit the tone very well, IMO.

The second is something called Perfect. I'm currently working on a second edition and would love to commission some stuff if you're interested. I'd like to offer you payment for your work in the case of Perfect, but would take you up on the free art offer if you refused payment.

Interest in those? Email me at joethomasmcdonald (which is a gmail.com account) if so.