Town Map and Building Maps - May be a regular gig (Monthly or bi monthly)

[leornere]

Hello!

My name is Erik and I am looking to work with someone on putting together maps for my tt GURPS game.

I am a GM, world builder, campaign creator, terrain builder, Mini painter, and map maker. As you can imagine putting together a new game is quite the production.

I am trying to outsource my map making.

I will need 5 maps:

1) Town
2) Forest
3) Insane asylum
4) Industrial Park
5) High School

First order will be for two maps. Will be needed by first week in September.

After that I will need one or two maps per month. If we work together well this can be a regular gig. I'd like someone that wants to work long term for style consistency.

If any of my requests are ridiculous just assume its because I don't know what I am talking about and feel free to correct me or help me answer the question for you.

I attached a drawing of a rough sketch of the map I had in mind for the town.
https://imgur.com/qOp48Yh

I have a better one I drew on paper. I don't have it with me but can share it with responses.

I think I am looking for 5000 ft per square inch. The town is about 20 sq miles so its a small town.

I am looking for a map based on the following styles:

https://imgur.com/E0KDUdK
https://imgur.com/x92C3MT
https://imgur.com/FAGX55r

Quality & Size

Professional or semi professional
Required for print
Dimensions of map: 24 inches by 36 inches. That's going to be for the final print so whatever dimensions that will be clear in that size of a posted.
Raster or Vector

Time Constraints

Would like to have it by first week in September but that is negotiable
I have not idea obviously what a reasonable time frame is for you guys so this is negotiable.

Copyright

I am only using the maps for a ttrpg. I don't think a copy-write is needed. You can use the maps you make for whatever.

I am offered $10.00 correction 20 per map (I now know this is not a lot. I don't have a lot of expectations that anyone will work for that but, may as well see if someone is interested). That is, unfortunately pretty set in stone but I am totally willing to talk about it.

Contact Details

leornere@gmail.com

I am very easy to work with. I have been a project manager so I know how to communicate this type of thing easily. My philosophy with things like this is "I give you to conditions, you do the art.

Thanks you so much for your time. I hope to find someone to work with.
Erik

[Wired]

I am offered $10.00 per map. That is, unfortunately pretty set in stone but I am totally willing to talk about it.

Erik, I'm wishing you the best of luck, but I know for certain that there are plenty of people here who wouldn't even boot up their graphics software for that (I wouldn't). Even given that we're looking at lineart maps, not color, most people probably wouldn't consider $100.00 a fair price. You're looking for pro or semi-pro content. At 24 inches by 36 inches most regulars probably wouldn't touch this below a $200.00 price tag per map, conservatively estimating here. Especially since there's a town map in the lineup, which are probably the most labour-intensive maps by far. Your stated budget, for everything, is $50.00.

Just so that you know, a good lineart map, revisions included, can take between 8-12+ hours depending on size, level of detail, and complexity. A quick google search will bring up the figure of an average of $25.00 per hour for illustrators. Now, pricing here is different for every cartographer, but these are figures you should keep in mind. Or, if you'd rather see it this way: how much would you consider to be a living wage for a full day of work? Take that as a baseline.

Would like to have it by first week in September but that is negotiable

Oh, and also: your deadline reads September. It's October already.

[Kellerica]

As someone who does commission work, I'd have to echo my esteemed colleague on what he said. Another thing that should be noted, if you're planning on using a service such as Paypal to pay the artist, they usually charge some sort of a fee from the money you transfer, so the artist would not end up with even the full 10 bucks, which, like W said, needs at the very least another zero at the end before most artists even briefly consider taking the job. Professional quality requires professional amount of work and effort, and unfortunately the fact that you are only looking to use the maps for a private campaign doesn't make the artist's job any less time-consuming.

[Tiana]

You might be able to buy pre-made map assets for that price, but yes, as has been said, you'd need a lot more to commission custom art. So I've searched for some historical maps you would be able to use non-commercially as inspiration.

A town:
https://picryl.com/media/map-from-th...rations-3b878d
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...1807221%29.jpg

High school:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/archiv...ream/lightbox/

Asylum:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...590722508).jpg

Industrial Park:
https://picryl.com/media/benicia-ars...no-county-ca-5
https://picryl.com/media/benicia-ars...ark-benicia-10
https://picryl.com/media/benicia-ars...ark-benicia-17

[leornere]

Hello,

Thanks for your responses I apologize if I offended anyone. I read a couple threads about how much to offer and it said better to offer some money than ask for something free. I can do my own map though if it's not reasonable. There are some people on fiverr .com that can do them for 15 so, unless someone wants to do them for 15 I can go to fiverr.com or just have to learn Inkscape. Figured I would try to keep my cash in the community but I totally understand wanting to work for your value.

I will leave this open in case someone is able to do it but I will adjust my expectations.

Guess I wasn't looking for a hardcore commission worker and just maybe a hobbyist that would like a small amount of extra cash.

Thanks again for the info and I apologize again if I offended anyone

Erik

P.S. You commission people may be able to pick up some extra work on fiverr,com. I do contract work on there. It can be very lucrative.

Thanks again.

[leornere]

Oh one more note. For moderators: It may be a good idea to add to the guidelines how much an average map would cost. That may help people determine whether or not to ask.

Thanks again.

[Lord Zuol]

Honestly man, if you're playing a modern GURPs campaign, I rec using Mapquest and the aerial satellite view. Just pick any town you want, or city, and print it off from your home computer. I'm sorry to say that a price range of $10-20 won't buy you much more than an 8x11 pencil drawing with a ruler.

[Tiana]

I used to work on Fiverr. There are reasons I don't anymore. I know the value of my time and labor, and what I can take on without burning out. Those people on Fiverr doing them for $15 will burn out the same way I did trying to do maps for that price, or, they'll sell mass produced products that aren't custom, or perhaps quick stamp maps made in a program like Inkarnate. Programs like that are limited in customization options, which means, what you want isn't easily doable for that kind of budget. You might find someone on Fiverr who'll take it. You might even get a good result, but sometimes you won't. I tried commissioning a couple of times through Fiverr and one went okay and some went poorly because people getting less than a livable wage give less than impressive services. YMMV. I got a nice song on Fiverr but never did receive my eraser stamps.

I gave you several things you could play with for free.

Anyway, there's no sense fussing about it. Sometimes people DO accept cheap commissions on here. Us pros will fuss and decline and provide you with alternatives to our time, but sometimes people get lucky, ya never know, sometimes there are newer artists who just want to do the art for the art's sake.

[leornere]

Hey Tiana

I appreciate the links that you provided and I found several that can totally work for building maps. I even found a mansion map generator (how random is that).

Thanks for evryone's responses and help. I have done several projects off of fiverr and always had a good result. The key is to find someone that is excited about your project.

Anywho. Thanks to everyone for your advice and the time you took responding.


Erik!

[Tiana]

Wanna share the mansion map generator? I don't have that on my list of free map generators yet and I'm trying to collect everything I can find. Because I do respect people be poor, yo. I am too. ^_^

Cheers.