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

[ccs]

I'm not trying to screw anybody over or anything.

Of course you aren't. They get the joy of drawing you a dragon for free , you get $. Sounds perfectly fair.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

You could ask Wizards if you are allowed to use the pictures of the Dragons from Previous editions.

 

[ChameleonX]

So, just to clarify; my primary goal in making this thread was to get links to previously completed fan art. Once I had such links, I was going to ask the original artists if I could use them in exchange for some kind of non-monetary compensation, like a shout-out or cross-advertisement for one of their own products, or so forth.

I wasn't intending (or expecting) for somebody to just crank out a bunch of dragon pics for me on command. I was merely saying that if someone was interested in contributing a pic without being paid for it in cash money, that would be great.

Also, thanks Giant2005, that's the kind of thing I was looking for. I mean, the .zip file is actually just a few recolors of the exact same image, which is disappointing, but it looks enough like the 4e version of the Cobalt dragon that I can use it.

I did actually send WotC an email asking if they were going to release free dragon art. It's very frustrating that Dragons are literally the only creature type that doesn't have a bunch of free pics on the DM's Guild website.

 

[SunGold]

So, just to clarify; my primary goal in making this thread was to get links to previously completed fan art. Once I had such links, I was going to ask the original artists if I could use them in exchange for some kind of non-monetary compensation

This is the problem. If you are (or are hoping to be) being compensated in money, then you need to compensate the people whose works helped to create your product, full stop. Yes, even if it's "fan art." If you don't have the money up front, consider offering a share of the profits.

I don't think you're trying to be a jerk here or anything, but there seems to be some trouble viewing this from the artists' perspective. When you e-mail an artist and say, "Hey, can I use that thing you spent time and effort working on, but like for free and then I'm going to sell it"...well, the responses you've gotten here are going to seem tame by comparison. If an artist wrote to you and asked to sell your writing after slapping a few drawings in, but without paying you anything, would you be cool with it?

I hope this helped to clarify what's getting people's backs up. In any case, good luck on your project and I hope it works out.

 

[Sacrosanct]

So, just to clarify; my primary goal in making this thread was to get links to previously completed fan art. Once I had such links, I was going to ask the original artists if I could use them in exchange for some kind of non-monetary compensation, like a shout-out or cross-advertisement for one of their own products, or so forth.

I don't think you mean any ill will, and I'm sure your interests are genuine. But what you're asking for is going to go over like a fart in church. As I mentioned, I have worked with A LOT of artists over the past 10 years. And if there's one thing that gets them worked up is someone who asks for free (or relatively free which includes comp copies, exposure, or the dreaded royalties) art. Even though you might not mean to insult them, they hear requests like that ALL THE TIME. And it's incredibly frustrating because art is how they feed their families, for the most part.

You mentioned how you didn't want to get ninja'd on your project. You also mentioned how you don't really have any layout or design experience either. For something pretty big like this, maybe you should let another handle it and start smaller? Or release it as text only and no art? Rushing to put out a low quality product just to get it out first will not be good for your product, your customers, or your reputation. I have a feeling (and I could be wrong), that you want to get this out there because you saw $ signs when the license was announced. You know how end up with a million dollars in the RPG industry? Start with two million. It's a joke, but there's some truth to it. No one makes a lot of money in this industry. Treat it like a hobby, where you don't care about making any money, and do it for the love of creation is my best advice.

I'm gonna be very transparent for a minute, which is something I don't really feel comfortable doing and I wouldn't normally do. I create things as a hobby, spending probably less than a dozen hours a week or so in creating things. Publishing is not my full time job by any means--I have a regular job to pay the bills. Last month, my earnings from DRTRPG was $765.36. That was my cut, not the total sales $ amount, and I'm betting that that figure is more than most everyone who doesn't do this full time, or near full time or hasn't been doing this for a long time. And do you want to know a secret? I've still spent way more than I have made in earnings over the years. My tax person thinks I'm crazy. As mentioned, a lot of that was art. But I never started this to make a bunch of money. I did it to share my ideas with others, because the best feeling in the world isn't a paycheck, it's knowing that other strangers had fun playing with my creations.

 

[thorgrit]

Others have replied with advising caution in how you approach artists and possibly rephrase your original request. I don't think I can do better myself, so I'll just agree with what's been said, and know you didn't mean anything mean by it.

On to resources! "What is DM's Guild?" has a section on art/logo rules, which you're aware of, but also includes a bit of advice. "Most of the stock art sold under the Publisher Resources category on DriveThruRPG includes a license that would allow it to be used in your DMs Guild titles." (publisher resources+dragon) Not sure if any are free, but you might find something usable for a couple bucks. If not grand illustrations, possibly one bit of cover art, or some silhouettes that would look nice in chapter headings or the like.

I also found Public Domain Pictures (Dragon). The cool thing with public domain images is you don't need to scrutinize licenses or negotiate with the artist, you just flat out use it for whatever you want, in any way you want. The tricky part comes in when you have to do your best to verify something actually is public domain, and not something posted somewhere without the artist's permission. Assuming this site is legit, there's cool things like Red Dragon In Flight, along with an optional link to "buy a cup of coffee" for the poster.

Google Image Search (hold on wait till I finish) allows you to refine searches by license. Dragon, labeled for reuse with modification turns up some interesting results. As always, do the best you can to follow up and make sure the image actually is available under the license you want and the original creator has given those permissions. The Creative Commons site has a Search tool that works with other search engine APIs, too.

Hope that helps!

 

[ChameleonX]

Thanks for the helpful replies, guys. I've decided to just do the art myself. I'm fairly competent with MS Paint, as I used to use it to make Megaman sprite comics, so I've just been using that. Results have been okay so far... I just have trouble with digits (hands/feet) and humanoid faces.

 

[Sunseeker]

Thanks for the helpful replies, guys. I've decided to just do the art myself. I'm fairly competent with MS Paint, as I used to use it to make Megaman sprite comics, so I've just been using that. Results have been okay so far... I just have trouble with digits (hands/feet) and humanoid faces.

I'd like to recommend to you: Gimp, https://www.gimp.org/ it has all the powers of Photoshop, but is free!

 

[GX.Sigma]

I know it's been a while, but I just wanted to add my opinion, since no one has said it yet:

We all already know what a dragon looks like. You say "brown dragon," and I get a clear picture in my head. Why do you feel you need art?