I need art for my new RPG book - Help me GitP, you're my only hope!

[Blacky the Blackball]

Hi All,

As some of you may know, I'm the author of the Dark Dungeons RPG. For those of you who don't know, it's one of the "retro-clone" games that reproduces the mechanics of an old and out-of-print game so that people can still play it. By amateur standards it's been relatively successful, with over 12,000 downloads of the game in PDF format and over 300 copies of the physical book ordered (despite the availability of the free PDF).

Well, I have a new sister-game coming out alongside it - Darker Dungeons!

The main text of Darker Dungeons is now complete, and it just needs artwork adding before it can be packaged up and sent to the print-on-demand publishers.

And this is where you come in!

I'm looking for OOTS-style cartoon art that I can put in the book, and I'm hoping you guys will be able to help me out by providing it.

I'm committed to making all my games completely free, which means I have zero budget to pay for art (but by the same token, I'm not making money from other people's work)

The technical details of what I'm asking for are as follows:

I'd like artwork done with OOTS-style characters, but NOT including images of existing copyrighted characters, for obvious reasons.
I'm looking for one large full-colour image to use as cover art, and as many line-art (i.e. black and white only, not greyscale or colour) images as I can get to use as internal illustrations.
If possible, I'd like images in vector format because that way they can be scaled and/or printed cleanly.
Ideally, the images should show things actually represented in the book, but some of them being more generic D&D-ish fantasy images should be fine.
You retain copyright on all images, and I am granted a perpetual non-exclusive license to use those images in the Darker Dungeons rulebook. (This means that the images remain yours and you can use the images elsewhere, and can already have used them elsewhere; but I have permission to use them in the book and you can't change your mind later and take that permission away from me).
You will be fully credited for any images used.
Yes, I did clear this request with the Admins before making it!


So who's interested in contributing to the project? To repeat, it's not a paying gig - but it is a chance to show off your work.

[Dr.Epic]

I'm interested. Need to see some sample work?

[Maxios]

I'm interested. As soon as I get a new keyboard for the computer I have my templates on, I'll whip up some samples.

[Kaytara]

Hoo, this sounds cool. :D I might contribute something. OotS style, you say?

[Derjuin]

I'm interested as well! Would you prefer contributed art linked here, or through PM?

[Blacky the Blackball]

Excellent!

Thanks for the offers. I think the best way to do it is for you to link to your pictures here - that way it might encourage others to contribute too! I'll assume that any pictures linked to on this thread are okay for me to use unless you tell me otherwise.

Does anyone want to step up to the mic and volunteer to do the full colour cover illustration? Without someone clearly "owning" that we might end up with each of you doing it independently and that could then get awkward...

Just to recap:

The cover illustration should be approximately 7" square, although the exact size is less important than the aspect ratio since if it's a vector image we can scale it as appropriate. It should also be full colour.

The interior illustrations can be any aspect ratio, and should be line-art, so black and white only with no colours or shades of grey. They can contain areas of solid-filled black, providing they're not too big. As for size, I'm assuming that none of them will be full page, so the level of detail should aim for a variety of sizes from a 7"x5" half-page scene if you're feeling ambitious all the way down to 1"x1" doodles of individual characters or monsters.

Speaking of monsters - no Beholders, Illithids, Carrion Crawlers, Drow or Displacer Beasts! They're not OGL...

Also, to return to the size issue, this is a 350ish page book, so it would be better to have a larger number of relatively simple illustrations that just four or five highly detailed masterpieces; although again variety in size and complexity is key.

Thanks again for offering to help (and the offer is obviously still open to anyone else who wants to contribute)!

[Dr.Epic]

Does anyone want to step up to the mic and volunteer to do the full colour cover illustration? Without someone clearly "owning" that we might end up with each of you doing it independently and that could then get awkward...

I'd be interested in doing the cover. There's one thing I should mention: I have photoshop elements and can't do vector. I can make the image really large so you can just shrink it down though.

[Derjuin]

Here are a few black-and-white offers:


http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc273/xilobucket/BWFaerie.png

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc273/xilobucket/BWElfWizard.png

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc273/xilobucket/BWDemon.png

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc273/xilobucket/BWDarkElf.png


And some full-color, roughly square cover page offers:


http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc273/xilobucket/SacBorders1.png

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc273/xilobucket/TempleofIo2.png

Let me know what you think! If the ones vaguely resembling dark elves in one way or another are a problem, I'll remove them.

[Dr.Epic]

So here's a recent sample of my work. It's not OotS, but if you need something with more detail, I'm good at that.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/9066/slugknightcopy.jpg

[Blacky the Blackball]

Here are a few black-and-white offers:


http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc273/xilobucket/BWFaerie.png

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc273/xilobucket/BWElfWizard.png

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc273/xilobucket/BWDemon.png

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc273/xilobucket/BWDarkElf.png


They're great - and just the style I'm looking for!

I'm not so sure about the third one, since it doesn't look like anything in the game, but the others will definitely make good interior artwork.


And some full-color, roughly square cover page offers:


http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc273/xilobucket/SacBorders1.png

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc273/xilobucket/TempleofIo2.png

Let me know what you think! If the ones vaguely resembling dark elves in one way or another are a problem, I'll remove them.

The second one in particular would make an excellent cover illustration.

[Blacky the Blackball]

So here's a recent sample of my work. It's not OotS, but if you need something with more detail, I'm good at that.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/9066/slugknightcopy.jpg

It's great - but it's not really the cartoony OOTS style I'm after, I'm afraid; so I'm not sure how well it fits with the other images to give a consistent look and feel...

[Dr.Epic]

It's great - but it's not really the cartoony OOTS style I'm after, I'm afraid; so I'm not sure how well it fits with the other images to give a consistent look and feel...

Well, it's still cartoony, and D&D (and various other RPG) source books often have illustrations by various artist with extremely different styles so there's hardly ever a consistent feel in those when it comes to the art.

[Maxios]

Here's two submissions. I might come up with more later
Guy being menaced by an ogrehttp://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy59/maxios5/s1.png
The Underground Duelhttp://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy59/maxios5/s2.png

[billtodamax]

http://i55.tinypic.com/169jihl.png

I also have the vector file.

[Blacky the Blackball]

Here's two submissions. I might come up with more later
Guy being menaced by an ogrehttp://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy59/maxios5/s1.png
The Underground Duelhttp://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy59/maxios5/s2.png

They look great, and it's particularly nice to have some action scenes, but I'm having trouble getting the very thin detail lines to show up properly when I re-vectorise the image using Inkscape. Is there any chance you could either make them a bit thicker or give me a link to the original vector files?

[Blacky the Blackball]

http://i55.tinypic.com/169jihl.png

That's excellent. Thanks!

[Serpentine]

Everything I've done can be found here (http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h287/serpentine16/Avatarables/) and here (http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h287/serpentine16/IronAvatarist/). Everything (except maybe the very oldest) can be changed to black and white with ease.

[Blacky the Blackball]

Everything I've done can be found here (http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h287/serpentine16/Avatarables/) and here (http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h287/serpentine16/IronAvatarist/). Everything (except maybe the very oldest) can be changed to black and white with ease.

That's wonderful! Thank you very much indeed...

[Serpentine]

No worries, mate :smallsmile: Let me know if you use anything.

[Maxios]

They look great, and it's particularly nice to have some action scenes, but I'm having trouble getting the very thin detail lines to show up properly when I re-vectorise the image using Inkscape. Is there any chance you could either make them a bit thicker or give me a link to the original vector files?

Okay, I made them thicker :smallcool:.
http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy59/maxios5/s2-2.png
http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy59/maxios5/s1-1.png

[Mr_Saturn]

I have an OotS art collection that I don't find to be much coveted intellectual property. See if any is of interest to you, I know some of my art style fluctuates here and there and may not be the most DnD themed.

http://s87.photobucket.com/albums/k125/Yitsockl/

.svg files available.

[Blacky the Blackball]

Okay, I made them thicker :smallcool:.
http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy59/maxios5/s2-2.png
http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy59/maxios5/s1-1.png

Excellent, thanks!

[Blacky the Blackball]

I have an OotS art collection that I don't find to be much coveted intellectual property. See if any is of interest to you, I know some of my art style fluctuates here and there and may not be the most DnD themed.

http://s87.photobucket.com/albums/k125/Yitsockl/

.svg files available.

That's lovely, thank you!

[Blacky the Blackball]

I've put up a First Draft, including your art, here (http://www.gratisgames.webspace.virginmedia.com/files/Darker%20Dungeons%20First%20Draft.pdf) (that's a direct link to the PDF).

I've given you all credit for your images using your usernames here. If you'd like to be credited under your real name instead, let me know and I'll change it.

Thanks again to all of you for helping - it's looking very good!

[Serpentine]

Yay! :smallbiggrin:
Hmm, lets see now... So many of my dragons! :smallbiggrin:
A heads up, I'm actually using the purple dragon head as a business logo. Don't think it'll matter, but just thought I should say.
A few of mine look a bit busy the way they've been decoloured. If you're happy with it no worries, but I am happy to do black and white versions.
Are you aware you have a pokemon and Charlie the Unicorn under your monsters? :smalltongue: I think those need more pictures, by the way. Maybe treasure, too...

[Blacky the Blackball]

Yay! :smallbiggrin:
Hmm, lets see now... So many of my dragons! :smallbiggrin:
A heads up, I'm actually using the purple dragon head as a business logo. Don't think it'll matter, but just thought I should say.

As long as you don't mind me using the black-and-white version, then I don't think it matters either.


A few of mine look a bit busy the way they've been decoloured. If you're happy with it no worries, but I am happy to do black and white versions.

The ones I had most trouble with were those with low contrast and the ones with avatar-sized bitmaps. If there are any that you could do me cleaner black and white versions of then I'd be very grateful indeed.


Are you aware you have a pokemon and Charlie the Unicorn under your monsters? :smalltongue:

Ha! No I wasn't.

I'm obviously aware of the existence of Pokemon, but I've never seen the show or played any of the games so there are probably only a handful that I'd recognise. It just looked like a wolf or something to me. Is it so close to the original that it would be a clear copyright infringement, or is it just vaguely similar enough to be left in as an Easter Egg for those who might recognise it?

As for the unicorn, I was in two minds about that picture anyway, since not only was it hard to find a good place for it, it was also one of the images that I had the most trouble trying to convert to black-and-white cleanly and I'm not terribly happy with the result. I think I'll just drop it.


I think those need more pictures, by the way. Maybe treasure, too...

True, but since there are nearly 300 monsters I doubt we'd be able to do more than scratch the surface, anyway!

[Blacky the Blackball]

I'm just bumping this to say that the book is now finished and available (see my announcement thread here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219700).

Here are some pictures (of the softback version - there's also a hardback version):

http://gratisgames.webspace.virginmedia.com/files/darker_dungeons_cover.png http://gratisgames.webspace.virginmedia.com/files/darker_dungeons_inside_1.png http://gratisgames.webspace.virginmedia.com/files/darker_dungeons_inside_2.png

Thanks once again to everyone who contributed art. You've all got credits in the book!