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I'm in need of someone with good art skills to do a cover for a book that I am in the process of writing. This isn't a commercial project, but rather something I'm doing that will eventually be posted to the web for all to read. Trouble is, I don't have any skills whatsoever in this department and I need someone to do a cover and a smaller picture for the chapter pages.

Would anyone be interested in working on this? I'm willing to pay significantly for such work (which will vary depending on the quality) and I know there are a great number of talented artists that post to this forum. Just to lay the ground rules, I'm looking for something hand drawn (sorry all you CG/Paint artists), although it won't be anything too extravagent. Please let me know if you are interested.

My skill is rather moderate compared to others like Gil, but perhaps I might be interested.

But if I were you, I probably wouldn't go with me.

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:My skill is rather moderate compared to others like Gil, but perhaps I might be interested.

But if I were you, I probably wouldn't go with me.

Tell you what, why don't you either post here or PM me an example of your work. I don't need technical merit so much as a specific drawing style that I'm interested in. The genre of the work is fantasy if that helps any.

Well, here's a picture I did back in freshman year in pencil and sumi ink:
http://ironmouse.za.org/dragon/mihoshi/011/023300.html (slow server)

That's probably the best that I've done. Most of my work is of somewhat lesser quality and generally a rather simplified style. Although I do need more practice.

Unfortunately, I don't have access to a scanner or camera down here, so I can't show you anything else for the moment.

Depends on what kind of genre you're working on and the overall style of the book (dark, comedy, romantic, sci-fi, etc., etc.).

~ver

I'm always looking for supplimental income. What do you have in mind?

I ain't to interested in the cash. Just tell me what your looking for.

What I had in mind was a drawing of a long, slender grey dragon with a rider carrying an thin, oversized lance (about 15 feet long) riding bareback. The dragon would be flying away from the point-of-view of the image, so you wouldn't need to put much detail in the rider. I wanted the background to be a series of tall peaks with an open valley in front of the range. The setting would be nighttime, so the colors could be very subdued, mostly greys and and dark greens.

I'm out. I don't do dagrons.

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:I'm out. I don't do dagrons.

Too bad, I really liked your drawing. Guess I'll have to get someone else to draw my "Dagron".

BTW, I am not sold to this particular design if anyone wanted to do something creative. The only thing I really want is the long, slender dragon with the rider carrying the long lance. If you guys wanted to do it in another fashion, I'm open to suggestions.

The Kernel wrote:What I had in mind was a drawing of a long, slender grey dragon with a rider carrying an thin, oversized lance (about 15 feet long) riding bareback. The dragon would be flying away from the point-of-view of the image, so you wouldn't need to put much detail in the rider. I wanted the background to be a series of tall peaks with an open valley in front of the range. The setting would be nighttime, so the colors could be very subdued, mostly greys and and dark greens.

That's no problem. I'll see if I can get a rough drawing to you by next week.

Why do you want him riding away? Is it critical to the story or just an idea you had?

Cal Wright wrote:Why do you want him riding away? Is it critical to the story or just an idea you had?

Just an idea, which is really compounded by the fact that I hate covers that depict characters differently then they appear in the book. From the POV I suggested it eliminates most of those issues, plus it would lessen the need for the artist to add too much detail (especially to the rider). If you have another idea then I'm willing to listen.

It occurs to me that since several people have shown some interest (Durandal, Gil, Cal, Ver) maybe what I should do is hold a competition for the best concept trace and then award prize money to the winner who can then color/ink it. What do you guys think about this? I was thinking perhaps $100 would be appropriate, although I'm willing to pay more depending on the amount of work involved.

BTW, I know you said you don't care about the money Cal but I firmly believe that artists should be paid for their work (it is work after all) and I want to do my part to support aspiring artists, even if they don't make careers out of it. I'd much rather support an amateur artist then one who doesn't need my business.

I agree with you on the covers part. The X-Wing novels were usually pretty good about that. The cover would be a scene from a battle part.

It's interesting to me to show the dragon flying into the cover, away from the viewer, but it's usually a no no in most regards. At least comic book wise. I'll try to whip up two for ya and get them out.

A question. What sort of armor is your lanceperson wearing? A practice sketch I made has him wearing centurian armor, just because I wanted to draw him with armor, but I'm curious on how you want him to look.

I might be tempted... like Gil said, what's he wearing?

Gil Hamilton wrote:A question. What sort of armor is your lanceperson wearing? A practice sketch I made has him wearing centurian armor, just because I wanted to draw him with armor, but I'm curious on how you want him to look.

Very light, mobile leather armor.

Okay, I'm going to make this official now, since I've already informed at least one other person over IM about this. Here are the official rules of this contest.

Everyone who wants to participate, get me a rough scetch by next friday (this can be extended a bit if a few of you are swamped) but don't spend too much work on it, I have a pretty good eye for seeing what I like. Don't be discouraged if you don't win since I'm going to select one of the runner ups to do a cover for another book I'm doing in the near future.

I've decided to raise the prize money to $150, which will be given as soon as the final of the cover is recieved. You can take as much time as you need for this (within reason), but I don't want to drag this out for more then a month or two. I can either Paypal or send a personal check, which is up to the winner.

Any other questions/comments?

I'm not planing on participating in the actual contest, but I think I might send you some of my art next week after I get some of it scanned this weekend anyway.

Why, you may ask? Because I feel like it.

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:I'm not planing on participating in the actual contest, but I think I might send you some of my art next week after I get some of it scanned this weekend anyway.

Why, you may ask? Because I feel like it.

Please do, perhaps you might like doing my next cover which is going to be a girl in the Vatican Library with no fantasy creatures in sight.

Heh.

I will give you a small warning, though. Much of my stuff is in a more simplistic and stylised manner. It's not crap, but it's not fantastic.

But I'll stop now before my Crappy Self-Critical Artist frame of mind scares you away.

EXTREMELY ROUGH SKETCH

Thoughts?

I am impressed...

EDIT: One thing though, the lance isn't quite what I had in mind. I was thinking more of a long, multi-pronged all metal spear (like a trident, but with different length tips). And I really like the tower in the background, but I think it should be a little more primative, like the Orc Watchtowers in Warcraft II/III.

Question, is anyone else making a sketch, because if no one else is doing it, I'd like to begin work on the good version of mine.