Animation : Writer seeks artist for collaboration by John Richard Sullivan

Hi, John Richard Sullivan! Stage 32 has a free job board that you can use to post available jobs or search for any jobs in your profession. To find it, click “Jobs” on the top menu bar, and you can search by profession, location, and pay. Here is a link that you can use to go to our job board directly: https://www.stage32.com/find-jobs

Good luck with your project!

Congratulations on the really positive feedback, John Richard Sullivan! I second what Ashley Renee Smith said. You could also search the Browse Section (www.stage32.com/browse). Hope you find an animator/graphic artist. There are a lot of talented ones on here.

John Richard Sullivan be advised, depending on the degree of work you need done ( pencils, inks, lettering), hiring an artist can cost you around $100.00 or more per page. Depending on the page count of your graphic novel, that could get costly.

You can get an artist to do those things for a bit less. But, as the adage goes, you get what you pay for. Therefore, DON'T hire anyone who won't show you samples of what they've already done and at least, storyboard a page or two for you so you can see how they'll interpret the script. And, make sure they have software like Clip Studio Paint EX which will allow them to work on an entire book as opposed to Photoshop which only allows you to do 1 page at a time, leaving you to get additional software to put an actual book together,

Oh, and Cover Art is a separate issue. Covers can go from $75.00 to $175.00 each. And, choose the artist carefully and make sure they understand the story as your cover will be the first thing most people see and it needs to convey what the story is. ( I've included the cover of Book 1 of my current SciFi-Horror graphic novel wip as an example ).

Also, it will help you to have an idea of what art style you want: Manga, DC, Marvel, etc.

I have an Editing Client who uses Daz Studio to do the artwork for one of his comics. there's a bit of a learning curve, but it could save you money and time.

And, have you decided how you're going to publish the book once it is done?

Sorry, hit the wrong button. Here's the cover.

And, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me.

Elaine Haygood, thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my post. An earlier version of my post acknowledged that most artists prefer to do paid commissions for clients. I'm looking for an artist (my version of a "unicorn", I guess :-D) who is interested in a collaboration where we share the rewards (as well as, of course, the risks). Does that artist exist? In today's landscape where it's every man, woman and child for themselves, probably not. Which is completely understandable. However, I thought I'd give it a try here and in other forums.

As far as publication goes, a completed work could be shopped around to independent GN publishers; or be used as a kind of storyboard for a live action or animated series (not personally a fan of adult animated series but I'll take what I can get). The important thing is to GET SOMETHING MADE. :-D Easier said than done, I know. How did you publish your horror/sci-fi GN (great cover, by the way)? Or is it self-published?

I looked at DAZ Studio and yeah, it's a bit overwhelming. But I will explore it further and see if I can make some use of it. In my desperation, I have also considered AI (the thumbnail for the GALLA logline was created on Night Cafe), but I'm not sure if the technology is there yet; and anyway, I'd prefer to work with an authentic artist.

Thanks again for your advice, Elaine!

John

Hey John!

You can find an artist willing to participate as a Co-Creator on the project. I recommend you get a very clear-cut contract that you both sign that clearly delineates what each party is required to put into the project, and what they will receive as compensation.

I would suggest you see if there are any artists that you know, first. A friend will often be more likely to go without pay in order to help you out. However, you can lose a friend if you don't have a clear agreement on what will get done and by whom.

You can contact your local Layers For The Arts chapter to get help with the contract.

I will offer you this caveat: Consider that we ALL have bills to pay and want to be fairly compensated for our work. So, if you get someone to agree to work pro bono. ALWAYS take into consideration that this person is working on spec. Depending on what's going on in that person's life, they may have to prioritize. They'll do the work. Just not that quickly, or they might blow through the work and not take as much time with it, Thus, you could end up with lackluster work.

As for my artwork. Thanks for the compliment. I will be publishing under my company's aegis via Amazon and Comixology.

Great! Thanks, Elaine! Yes, I'm a big stickler for everyone involved being fairly compensated and all agreements being legally binding and above board. Another future possibility would be to create a concept from scratch with the artist, with writing and graphic duties then divvied up respectively. I'll keep plugging away though. Thanks again! :-)