has anyone worked with some one who is affordable,and dependable for creating
art work for both the web,and print I am in dire need of both.

Jeff Diamond.

- Ron can vouch for him -

I do vouch for Jeff, of course, but I think it's most important to consider how to approach an artist. Many of them (rightly) consider their work more valuable than many of us can afford. Many of them are interested in working for corporations who can pay a lot. Many are not interested in working for some yahoo who "sort of wants to publish an RPG."

Bear in mind that all professional artists have been ripped off at one time or another. Publishers steal artwork - they print it and don't pay. They commission artwork, on contract, so the artist puts in 100 hours, and then they cancel the project or simply ignore the artist. Artists are VERY suspicious and rightly so.

How do you present yourself to an artist? The first thing is to be honest about your resources and your expectations. If you want a color cover, say so. If you want five black-and-white half-pages, say so. If you plan to spend $1000 per artist, so say; if you can only spend $350 per artist, say so; if you can only spend $20 per artist, say so.

The second thing is to understand the various sorts of business arrangments available and to pick one. Are you buying the art outright, to own forever? Are you leasing it for exclusive first-use? Are you asking for usage only, regardless of who might also be using it and when?

The third thing is to pay up front - just pay up front. (I'm breaking this rule right now, as a matter of fact; I ought to fix that immediately. Most of the time I do it.)

And ALL of this pre-supposes that you understand and have chosen carefully just what kind of medium and mode of publishing you are doing. Going to book? PDF for free? PDF for sale? What? "Putting out a game some day" is NOT sufficient to make the above decisions.

So hunting for the actual artist is important, but you need to get all these ducks in a row first. Believe me, if you're talking about someone as good and reliable as Jeff (for instance), you DON'T want to approach him in an unprofessional way.

Best,
Ron

I can vouch for the following:

Jason Gunn: MAXPANIC@aol.com (site: vortexconvector.com)
Erik Tillmans: Dionysian1@aol.com
Paul Carrick: http://www.nightserpent.com
Brian Bradley: Brian47126@yahoo.com

Those are the ones that fall into both the "affordable" and "dependable" range. If you want other names/contacts, let me know and I'll track some others down for you.


Dav

Thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate your confidence in me.

Poppocabba, please visit my site and contact me if you like what you see.

Best,
Jeff Diamond
6-0 Games

I might also recommend getting your agreement with the artist in writing. I failed to do that when I commissioned my first artwork for a web site. I ran into quite a hassle when I wanted a scan of the image, since I didn't have anything in writing that showed I had any rights to the picture. None of this came from the artist, but from the companies that I tried to get to scan the image for me.

The moral: even if your relations with the artist are amicable, get the assignment of rights in writing. Nobody's willing to have anything to do with the piece if they think there's a slight chance of a copyright lawsuit.

Clay

thanks for all the help guys.
for more info on the projects I am working on please visit my posts in the indie design forum