Free DM's Guild Project - Free Dragon Art Wanted (please)

Hey, I'm making a "Draconomicon" for 5e, and I'm done with everything except the Artwork. I've started doing some myself, but its slow going, and I really want to get this finished soon so I don't get Ninja'd. Plus, I'm not really an expert with graphics programs and such.

Anyway, if anyone could link me to any (free) public domain art of any of the following dragons (or, better yet, draw it for me), that would be cool. If I use the artwork, I can offer you a free copy of the PDF when its ready.

Here's what I need (and where to find it):

Brown Dragon (2e Monster Manual)
Gray Dragon (Dragon Magazine #146)
Orange Dragon (Dragon Magazine #65)
Yellow Dragon (2e Monster Manual)
Purple Dragon (3e Dragon Compendium)

Adamantine Dragon (4e Monster Manual)
Orium Dragon (4e Draconomicon 2)
Mercury Dragon (2e Monster Manual)
Mithril Dragon (4e Draconomicon 2)
Steel Dragon (4e Draconomicon 2)

--- Ferrous Dragons (Dragon Magazine #356)
Chromium Dragon
Cobalt Dragon (also 4e Draconomicon 2; I'm doing both)
Iron Dragon
Nickel Dragon
Tungsten Dragon

Cloud Dragon (2e Monster Manual)
Deep Dragon (4e Draconomicon "Purple" dragon)
Fang Dragon (3e Monsters of Faerun)
Mist Dragon (2e Monster Manual)
Sand Dragon (4e Draconomicon "Brown" dragon)

I'll scan some of the stuff I've already got done and add them to this thread later, so you can see what I'm talking about.

Also, does anyone know if there's a way to ask WotC for permission to use a specific piece of art from the books? Has anyone done this and gotten an affirmative?

That's a lot of art you want! Several hundred dollars worth at a minimum; more like a couple of grand at fair rates.

Maybe work your way up to being able to afford art by working hard on a line of (slowly) increasingly attractive (artwise) products. Or release a version without art and invest any profits into updating with art. Or use Kickstarter to raise funds so you can pay the artists. Lots of easy options which work great and don't involve asking artists to work for free.

Well, I'm not asking for professional quality art that takes weeks to finish. I know I can't get that for free. I'm just talking about decent quality fan art type stuff, like you'd find on deviantart. Like I said, I'm already working on some myself, but it'll take time, so I'm just seeing if anyone felt like contributing. I'm not trying to screw anybody over or anything.

ChameleonX said:

Well, I'm not asking for professional quality art that takes weeks to finish. I know I can't get that for free. I'm just talking about decent quality fan art type stuff, like you'd find on deviantart. Like I said, I'm already working on some myself, but it'll take time, so I'm just seeing if anyone felt like contributing. I'm not trying to screw anybody over or anything.

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As long as you pay 'em a fair rate, you're not screwing them over. I'd advise against telling them their art isn't professional enough to deserve pay, though. That might not go down too well.

If you really really do want 20 dragon pieces for your book (and that is, honestly, hundreds of dollars of art for the minimum quality) why not try a Kickstarter? Go for, say, $2K, which you'll spend on art. And hey, if you get more, that's profit! You can then sell it on DMs Guild just fine for even more revenue. It's a good - and fair - way to approach it. You get your art, a bunch of artists get paid for their work, and you likely make a profit. Win, win!

There are some good artists I know on Deviantart do cheap sketches (about 20 bucks a pop) yeah that's still several hundred dollars for the whole thing, but I'd really suggest you pay for it, though I don't know what their terms might be for commercial use, which is what you're doing. I'd really suggest being willing to pay for it, even though a kickstarter, than begging.

Here is some free stuff that is probably already good to go that I found with a quick search (I haven't looked at the actual art so it may suck though).
Other than that, just go to google and search for "dragon stock art", look for something that is a close proximation for what you are looking for and then chuck it through an Oilify filter. It should come up okay.

Giant2005 said:

Here is some free stuff that is probably already good to go that I found with a quick search (I haven't looked at the actual art so it may suck though).
Other than that, just go to google and search for "dragon stock art", look for something that is a close proximation for what you are looking for and then chuck it through an Oilify filter. It should come up okay.

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Just please make sure you're getting actual stock art. Google image grabbing is a big no-no.

ChameleonX said:

Well, I'm not asking for professional quality art that takes weeks to finish. I know I can't get that for free. I'm just talking about decent quality fan art type stuff, like you'd find on deviantart. Like I said, I'm already working on some myself, but it'll take time, so I'm just seeing if anyone felt like contributing. I'm not trying to screw anybody over or anything.

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Not trying to nitpick, but "taking several weeks to finish" doesn't necessarily mean professional quality. I work with a lot of artists, and pretty often. Most black and white images go for about $100-$200 per page, color goes for about $500-$1000 per page. And these are professional artists. If it took weeks to do that, they would have to sell it for $2K-$3K just to make a living. Art is by far the most expensive part of my products, but it's worth it because artists have to eat too. So a professional quality piece of b/w art could take only a couple hours for a half page or so, but I'd still pay $50-$100 for it. At the low end, that's about $20 an hour or so. Not very much for a job that typically isn't 8 hours straight, 40 hours a week, but is sporadic.

I'll second (or third) the suggestions to go look for stock art. DTRPG has a TON of it, and it will be well worth your time to sort through it all. You'll save a bunch.

Well, why don't you just draw 1 dragon, change the head & re-color the pic as oft as needed?

As someone with No Budget, what I've taken to do is using the art I can get to inspire the products, rather than vice-versa.

"Oh, WotC is putting out some monster art, here's some monsters" kind of thing.