Forums » Creative Corner » Read Thread

I probably know the answer to this question already, but I'll ask it anyway:

Are there any illustrators out there who would be interested in providing a portfolio of illustrations for a sci-fi storygame I am currently writing?

What I have in mind is a minimum of 12 drawings to illustrate key scenes in my story. I am looking for high-quality images from a talented artist, not doodles out of someone's math notebook. These drawings would then be embedded in the published storygame, with credit given of course.

The illustrations should help the reader visualize the characters as well as the setting, which is a world where life is still at an early evolutionary phase. The characters are people who fled political/environmental/societal troubles on Earth, but did so on a shoestring budget, and are therefore living relatively low-tech lives on their chosen new world.

If you think you might be interested, I have created a preview version of the storygame with several pages available. They include descriptions of scenes and characters, and each includes at least one "image prompt" at the top. If you can execute all four prompts (or come up with even better ideas of your own, based on the story excerpts) then it's possible we may be able to work well together over the next few months. I expect to be writing this story through at least January, and probably well into February based on past experience, giving plenty of time for someone to work on the drawings.

You can share your sketches here, or send me a PM.

Obviously, there are a few well-known forum members who are very skilled artists, and I'd be very thrilled if they responded. However, I can only assume that if some people were interested in illustrating other people's stories, they'd be doing so already. And there was a time when I'd do this myself, but… no, I just don't have the time anymore.

We’re not worthy! ;~(

Just so you know, this is awesome. That dog is the mirror of my dog.

You're hired! The way I see it, I better get you before MOMA does.

So what's my salary?

Unfortunately, I explicitly asked for no doodles in a math notebook. Your trigonometry triggered me.

Dang.
I thought having some from my English notebook would balance out the rest of them.

Better luck next time, scrub.

Though I should say, those cricket drawings should come in handy the next time I write about the Iib Ch'iib...

20% royalty pls thx

It's a deal. Done. (Because of course 20% of zero is zero.)

Smh, acting like I can't math after all I have shown you. This is already a stressful work environment.

The trig is a nice touch.

When I've commissioned title art before it's been in the $30-$60 range, per piece. There's no shortage of artists on the internet but finding one who creates things in a specific style and on demand in a timely manner usually requires paying them something approaching the equivalent of minimum wage for the time put in.

Good art is certainly worth paying for. And I should point out I was an art major, and I used to draw far more often than I wrote. But then things happened, and I found plenty of opportunities to write… and if I needed an illustration to go with what I was writing, a photo would do just fine. I did get out an old sketch pad last night and try and tackle my own image prompt, only to confirm my suspicion that my drawing abilities have atrophied from many years of disuse.

I would like to help! I have a bit of a cartoonish style, but if that’s ok, then I will gladly help!

If you think you got the chops for this project, there is a link to a few sample pages in my O.P. In it, you'll find a set of four "image prompts" of suggested scenes to illustrate. You can share your drawings here or send them to me in a private message.

However, I think you should read my revised guidelines in the post below.

 

Never mind. I'm reading the "Ban Mizal" thread right now.

There are some details I should clarify:

1. My goal is to write a high-quality storygame, so I am looking for (hoping for) high-quality images to accompany it, if possible. If not possible, then so be it.
2. This will be a mature story, dealing with, um, adult scenarios. The scenes I'm asking to be illustrated are clean, but some aspects of the finished story will probably not be suitable for all readers. I am anticipating a maturity rating of 7/8. Therefore I should have mentioned in my OP that the "successful candidate" should be 18+ years of age. I don't want to be receiving any angry letters from anyone's parents (or worse) that I had their 12-year-old child illustrate an adult-themed story.
3. This is an offer to collaborate, not a paying gig. No one is paying me to write the story, therefore I have no expense account to hire a professional illustrator. My interpretation of the purpose of this website (or one of the purposes, anyway) is that it is a means for fiction amateurs such as myself to publish some work in an informal setting and get feedback for improvement. Therefore I am extending an invitation to any aspiring artists who may want to try their hand at illustration.

The request for high quality art that has to meet specifications and "aspiring artist do this for free so you get feedback" are a bit at odds with each other ;) Basically, you are asking artists to work, for free, and even worse to do spec work (they have to "try out.") And it's to your vision.

Imagine the situation is reversed. An artist has a dozen images, and wants you to create a 100k storygame to go with them. But not just that, you need to submit a 10k first chapter according to their vision and specs to "try out" for the honor of writing their game for them.

And illustrators rarely lack places they can work for free for ;) Which almost never works out for them. (For example, the cover artist I got my Blade of the Hollow cover from which inspired the game (and my profile pic) is also a friend and her background is traditional art. Once she stopped working for free on other people's projects and started charging what her time was worth, *that's* when she started getting hired. She went from working for free or cheap for demanding clients to getting paid up to $900 a project for clients that would trust her to use her own skill within loose guidelines. People who pay more tend to respect the work more. She just recently started with the photo-manipulated book covers now that she has kids, but she didn't do a bunch of free ones or cheap ones first - just studied and practiced until she could enter at the $100+ tier.)

Even I wouldn't work on someone else's project for free, as I have my own projects and goals.

Your best bet might be to either hire a student artist who charges less (maybe scout Deviant Art,) or go in offering a genuine collaboration. E.g. "writer in search of artist" and be willing to brainstorm a new story that can be both your vision so it's something both writer and author care about equally. You might have to go hunting in other forums for that is well since a lot of people here are writers as well, but there are artists out there who do not write.
 

I'll do it.

Not because I have professional skills, no, you gotta be able to pay for those. Not because I have any semblance of quality assurance or any of those things, no no. I'll do it because I have no shame whatsoever and I'll take any motivation to practice. You want succubus tits? I've seen worse. You want gore? Mutilated people are the only ones I draw for fun, because it's hard to get it right for real. I'll draw all your filthy 7/8 scenarios in pencil as is my expertise. I may attempt to draw in photoshop, but because I don't have the hand-eye thing where you move your hand but look somewhere else down yet, well... You probably don't want me to draw in photoshop.

I don't for a moment suspect you'll take me up on this offer, but this should at least be a clear demonstration of what happens when you walk into a brothel waving a handful of fishsticks around and say "I'll pay with just these, and exposure. Now who wants a full vaginal?"

1. Unintentionally cultivate a fanatical base via story writing and force of personality.

2. Go about your usual life.

3. ????

4. PROFIT! (Suddenly get a single piece of really good artwork from a random fan for free.)

Oh wow this thread blew up lol

I kind of saw this coming. A person might write a story because they want to or draw a picture because they want to, but very few are going to be willing to do so on demand to match someone else's vision.

Added to that, there's a whole established etiquette for commissioning artwork which like it or not just doesn't exist for writing. Anybody who can draw decently at any level will have the internet clamoring to pay them to do it.

Have you ever gone into ghostwriting? There's an established commision-based commerce. Pricing scales aren't as established though which leads to some fun devaluing of labor. My favorite offer was to get paid $250 for writing 100,000 words. Took a hard pass on that.  

Oh, yes it does exist for writing. It doesn't exist for the kind of writing we do, but it does exist.

You have to build up a reputation for writing porn on any given furry site or deviantart equivalent, and then some autist with no better way to spend their free time will pay you to write... Stories, about their Original Characters™, usually to be the background for a fetish drawing that they paid someone else to make. At 20 bucks a pop, you don't even have to spell consistently.

Meh, as I said in the very first sentence in the very first post, I was reasonably certain I knew the answer to my own question, so the responses haven't been terribly surprising. When the only person to respond favorably was a 12-year-old, it seemed prudent to clarify the request.

I will say I disagree with some aspects of the above responses. For instance, I have had people happily contribute to projects — including photos and writing — with little or no expectation of being paid. And likewise, I have contributed to projects by other people with equal expectations. Granted, in all cases I knew the other people and they knew me, but my point is that money isn't the only motivator. Collaboration may be an unusual word to some people, but it is a thing that real people do.

I did not and do not expect a serious response, but sometimes we are pleasantly surprised. And I do appreciate the weekend thread bump!

Ok boomer

ok boomer

Ok boomer 

Lol boom

Wait.

Ok fagger


Damn, I forgot how it went.

Ok bingus