As a kid, I used to excel at various visual arts. I enjoyed sketching, drawing, painting, etc., and some of my work was even briefly displayed at a quite silly our-children-are-the-future event. As I grew older, though, my interest in art waned and I eventually abandoned it for other hobbies. These days I can draw a stick figure as good as anyone else, but that’s about the extent of my skills. As such, I definitely needed some help with the visuals of Tribes of Mexica.

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To start off, I wanted to commission two illustrations for the game. They’d serve as the “face” of the project, helping to garner some attention and provide a token of my dedication. Since Aztec pictorials are not the most instantly identifiable style, I also wanted to Westernize the imagry in a way while keeping its underpinnings, hoping it would eventually serve as a reference for in-game art.

I wasn’t sure what was the best way hire artists, but I figured ConceptArt.org was a good place to begin. The site was filled with varied portfolios, a lot of them by professionals from the videogame industry, and its message boards were very active. I started off by making a post asking for some advice on Mesoamerican art, after which I scanned the jobs section. I read the FAQ stickies so I wouldn’t make any introductory faux pas, and I checked out a bunch of the other offers just to get a rough idea of the pricing.

Then I made my post.

What I asked for were two illustrations in a painterly style — one for a boxart mockup, and another for the game’s title screen. I had some rough ideas for their compositions, but I didn’t dwell on those. Instead, I focused on details such as: theme, compensation ($200 USD, half upfront and half after completion), due date, payment method (PayPal), and delivery format (Photoshop PSD files, with the title screen divided into various layers).

Now $200 USD isn’t a very large amount, so I wasn’t expecting too much interest. Maybe an application or two from some talented speedpainters, although I suspected that even those might be turned off by my desired level of detail.

The post was eventually viewed 1000+ times, and I received 90+ individual offers. I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least.

At least half of those responses came within the first two days, which I spent almost exclusively browsing portfolios and answering e-mails. I responded to every submission, and I was genuinely surprised by the lack of links to amateur-ish deviantart galleries. Everyone seemed fine with the price as well, with a few notable exceptions. One person offered to do it for $175, another requested $300, and one individual (with no link to any works) complained in broken English that it was too little money and I wasn’t going to find anyone for the job.

A lot of the submissions were not necessarily in the style I envisioned, but there was a lot of talent being displayed. In the end, I decided to pick out 5 “finalists” from each sub-style, i.e., dreamlike, blotchy, hyper realistic, etc. This would allow me to weigh the pro’s and con’s of each approach, and eventually come to a decision on the look of the game as a whole.

After mulling it over for a few days, I needed to make a choice, so I asked each artist if they’d be willing to provide me with a quick sketch of the boxart motif. I couldn’t really offer much money for these concepts, so instead I proposed to write a blog post (this one) about my experience and maybe get them some extra exposure. Three of the artists agreed, with one stating that he was too busy at the time, and another refusing to do it without some monetary compensation. That was understandable, though, and I hope you still check out their websites.

Here they are in chronological order based on their submission date:

1). Davy Van Verdegem

Davy was actually the first response I got, and it certainly started off on a positive note. His incredibly textured work had a very storybook feel to it, and although he didn’t have many examples of character art, his stop-motion animations were very impressive.

2). Alejandro Gutiérrez Franco

Alejandro has a lot of commercial experience, and his style — which combines pencil drawings and digital texturing — is certainly unique. He’s also done quite a bit of background and character work, with some of his pieces resembling the setting of Tribes of Mexica, and he actually resided in Mexico City!

3). Alice Duke

The proportions, colours and overall style of Alice’s works reminded me of James Jean’s famous Fables covers that have been renowned for years. Theirs is a very iconic look that worked wonders for that series, and I thought a similar approach could make a great fit for my game.

4). Kamjar Fadai

Although Kamjar’s strengths are not his characters, his background work is simply amazing. The animation of the above image — complete with flowing water and falling leaves — was exactly what I had pictured for my title screen.

5). Mélanie Bourgeois

Mélanie didn’t have a lot of examples in her portfolio, but her ethereal, dreamlike illustrations were instantly appealing. It wasn’t quite the style that I envisioned for Tribes of Mexica, but I could still see this more whimsical look fitting the game quite well.

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In the end, I decided to go with Alice. Her artwork was filled with fine detail, vibrant colours, and great backgrounds and characters, which ultimately made the difference for me. When she began work on the illustrations, Alice also asked me if it’d be OK to put the piece(s) in her portfolio, which was fine by me. I jokingly said it’d ensure her putting all her effort into it, but maybe it was a bit too much work as it pushed us past my original due date. Still, I was so happy with her work, I actually decided to pay Alice an extra $100, and here’s why:

Overall there’s a few quick lessons I learned from this experience:

• ConceptArt.org is great for recruiting artists from all over the world (aside from Antarctica, I received responses from every continent on this planet).
• It’s best not to do ask for help on a tight deadline. You never know what might come up or how long it will take to find someone you think really fits the project, so I’d advise posting an ad well ahead of schedule.
• Although it’s great to have one artist do all the work to ensure a consistent look, scope and time constraints might prevent this from happening. Furthermore, visual arts are a very nebulous field, so it’s likely that you might find artists who fit one part of your requirement but not another.
• Finally, if you haven’t settled on a concrete look for your project but feel pretty confident about the quantity of potential responses, feel free to skip out on stylistic details. You might be surprised by the offers and find an ideal style that never even occured to you.

Next Tribes of Mexica post.

Previous Tribes of Mexica post.

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