Episode 24: So You Want to be an RPG Artist?

As you read this, I'm probably over the Atlantic Ocean praying I don't end up on the ten o'clock news. As many of you already know, I got invited to Scotland to attend CONPULSION 2000. (You can find out more about their little sauré (did I spell that right; aw, who cares? I'm on vacation!) at http://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/societies/geas/CONVENTION/.)

However, in my absence, I have a little surprise for you. Thomas Denmark has done us the honor of writing a little essay about the work he's been doing. He also sent us three more sketches for the book, all of which are outstanding.

(Have I mentioned I couldn't be happier with Thomas' work? Have I mentioned that every time I say that, he impresses me a little bit more?)

Anyway, here are Thomas' words, all prepped and ready for you.

(And let me tell you how hard its gonna be for me to be in Scotland for Paddy's Day. I mean, I'm in Scotland, and that's pretty durn cool… but Ireland is right over there! Grandpa would never forgive me.)

Take care, and I'll see you next week!

(And go see Thomas' new sketches over at Orkworld.com!)

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So You Want to be an RPG Artist?

Why do RPG art? Simple, really. There are two reasons, first to fulfill some childhood dreams, and second for vanity. There's nothing like seeing your art published and on the bookshelf of the bookstore. I did some illustrations for the Mentalism companion, by Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) and I still get a kick out of seeing it in the local game store. But, this leads to a story about the biggest danger for artists working in the RPG industry.

Just prior to getting hired at Totally Games I scored a few RPG jobs. ICE commissioned me to do several pen & ink illustrations. I enthusiastically accepted the job and did the illustrations quickly, so quickly that the art director gave me more work to catch the slack of the other artists. I finished them and mailed them off, happily waiting for my check and three complimentary copies of the book. The books arrived, the check never did.

ICE went bankrupt, funny they had enough money to print the books, but not enough to pay their artists. Since then I've refused to work for RPG companies, and require 50% up front from any questionable clients. That runs off most of them, which is fine with me because I don't like to work for free anymore.

I want to get to the point of this article. Since this is a Game Designer's Journal I'll give you a peek at the art side of it, and the expenses involved.

If you don't know yet, I'm illustrating Orkworld for John Wick. Don't let him know this, but I was willing to illustrate it for a lot less, because I'm such a fan of his work. But, he's an honorable man and worked out a very nice deal. Doing something no one in this industry does, he paid in full, up front. Granted he got a bargain, but then again he is in effect publishing and distributing about three thousand of my "portfolios", with some nice filler text in it, and paying me for it! Okay, it's not nice to call John's writing filler text, but it is funny. So I'll use Orkworld as the example of a typical RPG job. Let's say the pay is $2000 (that's not what John's paying, but it's a nice round number) and figure out the budget.

The deal is for 12 full page, B&W pen and ink illustrations and a full color cover painting. Because I'm so nice I'm gonna do a little extra work, spot illustrations and the like and give him all the conceptual art so he can use it to fill holes in the formatting of the book. The contract could look something like this:

12 B&W full page illustrations: $80 each

1 full color painting: $1040

Illustrator will provide conceptual and rough drawings to be used as spot illustrations.

Total: $2000

Sounds exciting to get paid $2000 to do something you love, right? Lets look at what those numbers mean in terms of the time and resources it'll take to do the job.

The first thing I have to do is go to the art store and pick up a few supplies. This is what I actually got:

Sketch pad 11"x14" $5.97, Drawing pad 14" x17" $5.40, Erasers $1.73, Black ink $1.69, Plastilina (for fantasy work I like to sculpt for reference, very handy) $12.00, smooth bristol board $5.84, various paint brushes $24.95, tube of Alizarin Crimson $11.44, Titanium White $9.71, and finally a 20"x30" masonite panel $11.00

Total (with tax) $96.24

Now I dig into the project and read all the info the author is providing for art descriptions. Here I'm lucky because John's writing is entertaining, most of the time the art descriptions are dry and also require a lot of discussions with the art director over the phone, which makes for higher long distance phone bills that have to be taken into account. This means use email as much as possible! For Orkworld I didn't have to call The Wick too much, only about $5 worth (most of that was trying to get a hold of the busy boy in the first place).

Now I have to start working on the cover painting. I wanted to do this right so I went out and rented a costume for a Roman soldier (which turned out to be a good investment) $50. Then I go to Goodwill to flesh out the ork costumes with baggy linen shirts, pants, real leather purses and cheap jewelry and belts, $40. This turned out to be a very good idea, it's amazing what you can put together with used clothes and a little imagination.

Now I need models, and the best choice on a low budget are friends. Fortunately I have a buddy who makes a great Roman, with an aquiline nose and good build. Another tall buddy makes for a great ork, and my girlfriend is willing to be the Dowmga (boy I hated having to turn that pretty face into an ork). They let me off cheap, all I have to do is buy them lunch: $25.

At the photo shoot I go through 8 rolls of film (I went a little overboard here) at about $4 a pop. Then I get them developed for $6.99 each: $55.92.

Our total expenditure to date: $304.16, from $2000 still leaves $1695.84 profit, pretty good right?

There is still the most critical thing left to consider…time. Each full page, pen & ink illustration requires about 3 to 4 hours to sketch (if you're fast) and 6 to 8 hours to ink. At best, it takes a work day to do just one, at worst it'll take two days.

Then there's the cover. I set aside 80 hours just to do the final painting (hopefully I can do it in 60 if all goes well). The conceptual sketches took 3 days to work out, and 8 hours to make the actual comps that are good enough to show in public. Then the color rough takes another 12 hours (after all the film developing and whatnot).

Here's how the time breaks down:

12 pen & ink illustrations: 120 hours
Model shoot/film developing: 8 hours
Costume preparation: 6 hours
Cover sketches: 26 hours
Color rough: 12 hours
Cover painting finish: 80 hours

Total: 252 hours

Divide that into the profit of $1695.84, works out to $6.73 an hour.

Oh well, I guess it beats flipping burgers.