My GM had to point out she doesn’t actually have a lightsaber yet… (Art by Elle Owls)
I’m a very visual person. When I dream, it’s like scenes from a movie, full of color and detail. Usually very weird details, but still details. When I read a book, I’m irritated if the cover art is completely off from what the author is describing. When I play a roleplaying game, I want to SEE the characters.
Luckily, our hobby is home to a wide array of artistically talented people. Art is an intrinsic component to the success of pretty much all RPGs. They provide the shorthand for the experience the game is offering, from both the style and substance of the art they use. From that iconic D&D cover of the thieves prying a gem out of a statue’s eye, to the deliciously dark and moody art woven through Vampire the Masquerade, you know what you’re getting when you start flipping through those books. Just look at the art used in Masks. Right away you know you’re getting a comic book extravaganza built around young heroes.
Great. There’s art everywhere in the industry of roleplaying games, but how does that translate to me getting MY character drawn? Well, that abundance of art also means there are a ton of artists out there available to do commissions of your characters.
Recently, I bought my first house. One of the first decisions I made was that my office would be decorated in artwork of my characters and the various games I’ve played or run. I had a few existing pieces to go on the wall — a copy of a comic book cover a friend did of our Champions game in the 1990’s, a digital piece a friend commissioned of our reluctantly partnered characters, and a piece our very own Avery had done a couple years ago of one of my favorite super hero characters. It’s an okay start, but I definitely wanted to add more artwork of my favorite characters from over the years.
The early sketch. Can you see the Pink influence in her? (Art by Avery Liell-Kok)
Finding Artists
If you attend conventions, it isn’t that hard to find artists that are available to take commissions. Some conventions will have an artist’s area where the artists display examples of their work as well as prints available for sale. If you see someone’s work you really like, stop and talk to them to see if they’re available to take on a commission. They should be able to tell you what their prices are and if they’re available. At the very least, you can collect business cards of the people you like and contact them later.
The internet also offers a multitude of ways to find artists. While I’ve never hired any, I have contacted a couple of artists I’ve found on Deviant Art to see what their availability and price would be. Some have the information listed right on their gallery’s info page. Some artists have their own websites, or share their work on something like Tumblr. Regardless of where you find them, do a little research and make sure they’re someone you want to work with.
It’s Not Free
Be prepared to pay a fair price for the work being done. The value of a good artist is often notoriously underestimated. You’re not going to be getting an oil painting for $20. Even if you think an artist makes it look easy when they’re sketching something out, what they’re doing has required a significant investment of time and talent. If you want a full color, full body piece of your character, that is hours of work for the artist. Think about how much you feel you should be paid an hour for a professional job and you’ll have an understanding of why you need to be prepared to pay a reasonable price for that artist to bring your character to life.
Describing Your Character
Once you and an artist have agreed on a price and what final product you’ll be getting, it’s time to get that image in your imagination explained well enough so the artist can bring it to life. There’s no need to write a novel, but it’s important to give them as much detail as possible. This includes everything from the shape of their face, color of their eyes, style of their hair, clothes they wear, and so on. Also, don’t underestimate the importance of sharing some of the character’s personality and mannerisms. That can help provide the artist with the little bit of extra they need to get the character just right.
When I’ve described my characters for artists, I’ll often include whatever actor, model, or celebrity I’ve been using to describe the character to other people in the games I’ve played. One character I described as a skater punk in plaid sketchers with wildly colored hair, but it was saying that I think she’d look a little bit like Pink that really helped the artist. The Jedi in the picture above was described as looking like Misty Copeland, the ballerina. Basically strength and softness combined in one determined package.
Most artists will provide you with an early sketch to make sure they’re on the right track. Give honest feedback, but also don’t be a demanding jerk.
A digital sketch for one of the characters in the group piece. (Art by Chris Mann)
Have Patience
You are likely not their only customer, and being an artist may not be their only job. Be patient and understand the time it’s going to take to get the finished piece. You and the artist should have established a timeline at the beginning, but understand things can sometimes take longer. Many of the pieces I’ve commissioned have taken between a few weeks to a few months to be completed.
In one case, I have an open ended timeline with a friend who agreed to do a group piece for a completed campaign I had played in. This is something we both agreed upon and I’m fine waiting for him to have the time to do what is essentially a fairly complicated piece.
So, there’s my perspective from the side of someone commissioning artwork of her characters. This summer, after closing on my new house, I approached Avery and commissioned another piece from her. She’ll be sharing her side of the story later this week.
Have you ever had an artist bring one of your characters to life?
I have and it is a fantastic experience.
We have these mental images of what, and who, out characters are. So it is so gratifying to have them “come to life” in the hands of a skilled artist.
I enjoy the thrill of getting a new artist lined up and the anticipation of the wait. When the final reveal comes it is all worth while.
I have even changed things about my character to reflect some of the art I have had done.
I’m very excited to get some additional pieces done. I’ve been keeping a mental list of the characters I’d like artwork of. I’m glad to hear that I’m not alone in my excitement. 🙂
Back in the 90s, it was all the rage in the Amber Diceless community. I had a couple done — my favorite was the one Wendi Strang Frost[1] did of my character Faris[2] from Sarah Wishnevsky’s “To Reign in Hell” PBEM. That still hangs on my office wall.
Wendi stopped doing commissions, I got married, and spending money on PC art seemed wildly extravagant. But it wasn’t just me, it seemed like everyone I knew who got art done took the Naughts off. Recently there’s been something of a revival connected to Lords of Gossamer and Shadow, as Rite Publishing has done two card decks of character paintings, including a number representing characters of friends of mine.
Frankly, there definitely have been three or four characters in the last 15 years that I regret not having art for. But not enough to sacrifice, say, an accordion to have paid for all of them.
I did get my 7yo to make me a minifig of my most notable current character [3].
[1] http://sfpro.com/
[2] http://ralf.org/~colomon/amber/faris-small.jpg
[3] https://www.pinterest.com/pin/544935623644880255/
I really appreciated that you included the links. 🙂 And I LOVE the fact that your latest ‘piece’ is one your 7yo made for you. I have friends with an 13yo in art school who has promised to do one of my characters. I’ve been just waiting for a time to sit down with her and figure out which one she wants to do. 🙂
Not to wander off topic here, but if any game is more suited to having character portraits done it would be for Amber Diceless. Games generally revolve around PCs to begin with of course, it just feels a bit moreso in Amber given the nature of the setting and its characters. A great example of this are the Trump cards (let’s leave politics out of this, shall we? 😉 ). I’ve never paid for any character artwork, but I have had several characters I’ve always wanted brought to life by an artist, several associated with Amber. Imagine being able to have an entire cast of your PCs and NPCs brought to life through Trump cards done by an artist!
To the best of my recollection, I’ve never played in a campaign which had a Trump deck for all the PCs, but I’ve certainly seen people showing their campaign’s decks off at conventions over the years.
I should maybe add that while proper drawings / paintings have been something I haven’t seen much recently (LoGaS decks excepted), it’s still very common to have photo references. For instance, I’m in a PBeM with a bunch of old Amber hands at the moment, and our cast list [1] has photos for most of the PCs. They typically don’t get the details right, because they’re just clips from other things. But they give you an idea what the PC looks like. I’ve also got a Pinterest page [2] for my character for that game, with lots of visual and cultural references bundled together in a terrible mishmash. (I’m assuming lots of others do this sort of thing too?)
[1] http://www.gamera.cc/wiki/index.php?n=LostEggs.PlayerCharacters
[2] https://www.pinterest.com/colomon3801/renny-ideas/
I’ve used two artist from Google+ to draw character art. The first artist was having a ‘flash sale’ of sorts but wasn’t used to doing characters. It was great to see my character done in his style (linked below).
The second artist actually sprung to mind as the perfect person to portray my character. When I was ready, I asked her about commissions, and we went from there. I’m happy with both products, though they are very different. Each one seems to be the perfect artist for their respective characters.
(The second one I don’thave on my blog yet. Oops!)
http://alifefullofadventure.blogspot.com/2015/10/mordrin-art.html?m=0
The ones you do have up are awesome. Very stylized, but look like they convey the essence of the character quite well. 🙂
Thanks for the notion that you have to pay a reasonable price. My wife is an illustrator and on cons we are often approached by people that want art for nothing! Most roleplayers doesn’t know that the rpg industry, with some exceptions, pays extremely low. In fact so low that most of the illustrators have to had a second job or went off to board games, advertising or game design to make a living. The only one who got it worse are the mangaka. They are so desperate that you can get character scetches as low as 5$ or less.
So the next time you look for an artists for your own game or characters, remember that those guys spend thousands of hours to train themselves to make a scetch in five minutes.
Absolutely! It’s similar in the photography field to have people not understand the value of the work they’re asking for.
As someone who does commissions, this article reads pretty true. Just remember that you need to choose your artist carefully, *don’t* ask your chosen artist to work in a style that they don’t work in, and *do* expect your artist to interpret your character slightly different than you imagined. Keep the descriptions loose and to the point too; no one has the time to read a 4 page backstory.
Oh, let me add that some artists don’t know what they’re worth. Make an offer.
It always makes me a little sad when I see an artist that doesn’t have enough confidence in their own skill to know that they’re worth far more than they’re asking.
Thanks for adding the point of looking for an artist who works in the style you want rather than trying to make an artist change their style just for you.
If I can ask, about how much do artists charge for character portraits? I’m not trying to get into anyone’s finances or personal space. Just wondering what the cost range is?
Do they send you and original paper copy as well, or just a digital file?
Thanks for any help.
It differs from artist to artist and what you expect, but I will share some of mine experience which are from Germany. A pencil sketch on Con normally goes about 20-30$ for one character without anything special, which means rough. Details mean more time and more time means that the artist has to charge more. If you want more characters (like your group), you can expect to pay for every character again 20-30$. The next step is normally inking or colouring, if the artist is not already offering this. Expect this to be in the 40$+ range. If you want background than expect anything from 70$+. Normaly you get the original (Don’t forget the mail fee), except the artist works only in digital, which of course can get you only a file or a printout.
If you are looking on a Con for artist to scetch some of your characters remember that some Cons charge money for the artist alley. As example the SPIEL charged this year 50€ per day, if look at San Diego Comic Con you go pale. If this charge is steep, expect that the cost goes up. On a Con check your favorite gaming company, sometimes they give space to their artists and because they don’t have to pay for the booth, they work for less.
Another thing is that on Cons sometimes artist can get very bored, especially if they are not standard style. Pick these ones, not only that they are glad to have something to do, but most of the time (if you are nice and interesting) the give you some specials.
If you are trying to get online a scetch for your character, check out the shop of the artist. Most of them have one or a link where you get there products. There you can find prices and you can estimate in which price range they work. If not email them, even the big names answer polite emails quickly.
Most of what I’ve gotten has been between $35 and $75. The lower end of the spectrum were ‘deals’ the artist was offering as a one time thing, to either experiment with in a certain medium or because they were trying to raise money for something. In the cases where they worked in traditional media, I’ve gotten the paper copy. I’ve also gotten pieces that were 100% digital and those I got the file and printed out.