Where Can I Get Art?
We are not affiliated with any of these places and we are not responsible in any way for any legal problems that arise from your dealings with these organizations or their products.
Indie Publishers Art Tutorials
Folks, if you want color art cheap, you really need to learn how to color line art and just commission people to do some lineart for you. You'll spend your own time instead of a lot of your own money. So, if you are on a budget, get some software and go to town.
- Phil Reed over at Ronin arts has a great article on obtaining art for small press projects. It also includes a tutorial on colorizing black and white line art that is worth the price of the publication. It also talks about prices you can expect to pay and sources for art.
- Fontcraft has some spectacular fonts, as well as a tutorial on colorizing black and white art. It is different than Ronin Arts' tutorial, and talks a little more about adding textures to black and white art.
- Ginmau has a comic-style art coloring tutorial
- Louis Porter, Jr. reviews getting art in his RPG Publishing Gauntlet. He also publishes a wide variety of great black and white character clipart collections.
- Dean Welsh has a number of art tutorial podcasts on Itunes under the category "Broken Pencil Tutorials" if you have the Itunes software
- Gutter Zombie has lots of educational tutorial downloads on coloring lineart as well as many Photoshop tricks & techniques.
- Spike Comix has a variety of tutorial pages on coloring art and doing it yourself. This tutorial features a nice "lineless" style for some images. Worth a look.
- About.Com maintains a list of other coloring tutorials.
- Finally, Steve Firchow did a multi-hour tutorial for professional colorists which is available from Gnomon Workshop as a download or on DVD. It's $50.00, which ain't cheap. So decide for yourself how much help you need in this area.
Fee-Based Services
Be really careful about using so-called free art online for a professional game. Lots of people just take art wherever they can find it and call it free. Use that stuff in a professional release and welcome to lawsuit central. Stick to the fee for service places.
- Clipart.Com sells tons of art. Pay a subscription fee and download as much as you want.
- Corbis sells photos online.
- Jupiter Images has a lot of images for download.
Packaged Art for Cheap
- RPGNOW has great clipart collections in the Image Portfolio and Otherworldly Art Portfolio lines, but browse around for other clipart there too. Make sure you are buying clipart and not just something that is for personal use only. Check the product details.
- Steve Jackson's E23 is another place to find art.
- Paizo
- En World
- Fontcraft not only has great fonts, they have art packages and graphical textures on CD-ROM.
- Dover makes great clipart books and CD-ROMs. Sometimes you can find them on Ebay. I think Clipart.Com (listed above) has much of Dover's clipart in the Clipart.Com collection, but if you want to have a book and CD-ROM for some reason, then order direct from Dover.
Hiring Artists
These are lists of forums and galleries where artists show off their wares and advertise their services. Good hunting!
Public Domain
If you are at a college library or major city, you may find books published
prior to 1923. Their contents are public domain.
Now you may have heard that all U.S. Government artwork is free for use.
That just ain't so. It used to be. But times have changed and the government
has gotten sneaky. Almost anything originating in the U.S. Governement is
public domain and you can use it with few or no strings attached (certain
seals are public domain, but have certain government regulations on display,
such as medals of honor). However, sometimes the government hired art agencies
to take photos or make art for them, and then buys the copyright. Those items
are copyrighted and not public domain. Look for a Read Me or Legal Link on
government websites or email somebody regarding permissions before you use
U.S. Government stuff in a pro release.