Hiring Artist - Cover and Headers

[Kuroyama]

Hello,

I’m looking to hire an artist, admittedly on a fairly light (but not pointlessly so) budget. The work would include the following:

• Clean, simple headers for each section of the gamebook. Prologue, Chapters 1 through 5, Epilogue. Black and white.

• Headers for the character sheets, which there are four of in this gamebook. They’d include Character Details, Character Statistics, Inventory, and Spells. Black and white.

• The cover art, which is of a crumbling stone monument in a grassy clearing, a pale moon lingering behind in the night’s sky. Upon the monument are engravings worn away by the elements and the passage of time. Although it isn’t clear why until the end of the story, the reason for the monument’s existence is central to the story, as is the pale moon. Could be black and white, could be color.

Would appreciate an opportunity to talk with you and see if you’re a fit for the project? The coder I’m working with is figuring out the project very quickly with me, despite all of the crunch of creating a gamebook, so I feel I’m ready to put a financial commitment to this personally important goal. Of course, volunteer work is also accepted if that’s your thing!

Please message me directly if interested. Sample work is appreciated, just to see if your professional style grooves with the project. Quotes for your work if you’re providing by commission are also gratefully accepted. Thanks!

PS: Ultimately, think more D&D swords and sorcery style art, rather than modern realism or manga/anime.

[trevers17]

Hi Kuroyama! I recommend taking a quick look through the Professional Services to find an artist. Lots of artists have active threads here!

I personally recommend @alexshu - he did the art for my WIP, and it came out exactly how I wanted it to! You can check out his thread below.

~ALEXSHU~ Illustrator for your story

Hi! My name is Alex (aka. Alexshu), I’m a freelance illustrator and a great fan of Choice of Games! It would be a great honor for me to be able to help you create the perfect cover and overall art for your story! I am well versed in character design and I am working hard to become a concept artist as well. I am skillfull in both traditional and digital mediums. Here’s a little sample of my works: [Mattepainting] [Muchacho] [cyborg back up 2] [boy ARROW coloreado mejor] You can see more…

[leo]

Hi, I’m interested! PM me with some details about what style you’re interested in- I’ve got some of my own work to show in a few different styles but it would be helpful for some examples if you have any!

[Jacic]

@Kuroyama

Epilogue. Black and white.

Just be aware, all you actually need is black on transparent headers. You can use the text image command and if someone changes from a black background to white, it’ll reverse the colour of the text. If you can’t get them made, they’re actually pretty simple. There’s a thread on it somewhere RETowers put up at one point I think.

If your budget is really low, I’d also suggest looking at deviantart or if it’s still too low, consider buying a good stock image which can be done relatively cheaply, or try free sites (make sure you adhere to any conditions) in places like wikimedia or pixabay.

Edit: Here’s some links

How to make quick and easy chapter headers

So, I see a lot of games come in without chapters headers, and I think this is a missed opportunity, because good looking chapter headers don’t have to be difficult. In fact, you can probably do them yourself for free! So, because I wanted to, I drew up a quick and easy walkthrough of how to make a good looking chapter headers in GIMP. For information on color in headers, see this post. First, you’re going to want to download GIMP. I recommend GIMP because it’s free, it’s available for Windows…

Stock art sites

Hi everyone, thought this list might be useful for people wanting to make their own coverart and icons for their games. As with everything, always check the copyright status on the images as they can range from “personal use with credit only” right through to “public domain.” If in doubt, it can often be worth running a reverse search through (such as tin eye) to make sure that the image hasn’t been taken from a copyrighted source (particularly true for sites like deviantart unfortunately.) Also…

[Kuroyama]

Just my opinion, naturally, but I think one simple cover illustration and a handful of really simple chapter headers should fall within the bounds of my budget (which is in the low hundreds). So, I’m hoping someone who likes the swords & sorcery genre / style will reach out with an interest in providing what I’ve requested. Or heck, even a volunteer if they’re interested in the project for interest’s sake! Can’t complain about free help, won’t deny!

As for your links, I had actually read the first previously. I sat myself down in front of GIMP for a while and … failed miserably. I can imagine great environments in my mind and describe them in detail, but there’s just no artistic talent in my family history. I’d much rather hire someone in the end and emerge with a higher quality publication for it.

[Jacic]

@Kuroyama

. I sat myself down in front of GIMP for a while and … failed miserably.

Don’t feel bad about that. GIMP is not user friendly IMO. (But it is free and does much of what photoshop can so can’t complain too much )
For something simple like a header, you could find any image editing software you like so long as you can make a transparent layer in it. (Sorry no suggestions, but they’d be out there.)

Anyway, if you’ve got the budget for it, I’m sure someone can help you out if you don’t want to make them yourself :). (Sorry my main computer is away on repairs and the one I have at the moment would fail miserably at even basic header editing.)

Sounds like you should be able to get someone to make something for you and that’s ideal so see what’s around, but if you do get really stuck, there are some surprisingly good stock images out there you could work with and get an artist to add titles and things to it instead of making an image from scratch.

Could also ask COG about their artists. I’ve got no idea what their fees are though.