Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Looking for Stonehell Dungeon Art

I’m posting this both on the Three-Headed Monster Games blog and on the Society of Torch, Pole and Rope blog. Please forgive the cross-posting.

With the draft of Stonehell Dungeon rapidly approaching completion, it’s become time for me to start considering the elements of the book beyond my ability to produce. I decided early on that I’d resign myself to relying on stock art and public domain images if that was all I could acquire, but that any contributed artwork would be both desired and appreciated. The Stonehell book is not going to be an art-heavy supplement, but a few choice pieces would certainly be nice.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am hoping to turn a small profit of the book. Whether this comes to be or not remains to be seen. Until that time, I’m paying for all the preliminary costs on the book out-of-pocket, and my pockets are very shallow at the moment. In particularly, my art budget is non-existent. I’m hoping that the book accrues a small sum of money which I’ll be able to fund the sequel with or that my financial situation will improve by the time the second book is being prepared.

With that being said, I’m looking for a few pieces of interior art. For the first book, I can only offer the common coin of the realm for start-up releases – your name in the credits and a free .pdf copy of the supplement. I really wish I could offer even a token payment for original art, but that will have to wait for the next book, if at all. All contributed art will be on a one-time-use basis and ownership of the work remains with the artist.

If you’re a starting artist looking for some exposure or have an existing piece of art you’d like to see find a temporary home, please drop me an email at poleandrope[AT]gmail[dot]com. I have one concept piece I wouldn’t mind seeing a better rendition of, but I’m mostly looking for art that captures the megadungeon crawl experience. You’re free to explore your own ideas.

I offer my sincerest thanks to anyone contemplating contributing art to Stonehell Dungeon and I look forward to hearing from you.

4 comments:

John Miskimen said...

If this weren't finals week, I'd get straight to work, Mike.

JM.

Michael Curtis said...

Well, I'm looking at mid-September at the latest for everything to come together. If time allows before then, I remain open for contributions. I know you're especially excited about the book.

Matt Finch said...

I'll contribute $10 per illustration up to $30 out of the Swords & Wizardry warchest. That's low pay for artists, but it's a token of appreciation. This is one of the things the S&W warchest is for. Most of the S&W art is donated free, but that tends to be easier for the high-profile projects. Having a small amount of cash as a thank-you might turn out to be helpful, and I'd be happy to kick in.

Frankly, I think a lot of the artists who support the OSR would refuse the cash, but it's nice to have it on offer. And sometimes in these economic times, it might be nice for an artist to get a couple of bucks for coffee.

Michael Curtis said...

That'sa very generous offer of you, Matt. I'll be in contact with you once I have some firm commitments as to contributors. I'll need to see what I'm looking at number-wise with people assisting on the book.

While I truly want to be able to compensate those people willing to donate art to the project, I'm worried that I might end up in a stituation where, even with your contribution, I can't afford to offer everybody cash on the barrel. That leaves me with the perplexing problem of who get's paid and who doesn't.

I'll have to see how things develop, but the offer is certainly appreciated.