Classic fantasy mapmaking request - continent, provinces and cities

[Evil_DM]

Hi,

for an upcoming D&D campaign setting that may or may not be published, I am looking for artists for some maps and towns. In particular I would need:
- 1 continental overview map
- 2 regional maps (about the size of France)
- 2 - 5 fantasy city maps
- bonus: sketches of landscapes and cities, if there are artists able to do that?

Since this is only a commercial project in potential, and I have no idea if this will indeed ever be published, let alone will make money, I am funding this out of my own pocket so my budget is in the 100's, not 1000's.

Preferred style - low fantasy/realistic/historically accurate
I am looking for a fairly classical fantasy/realistic style, such as used in most D&D campaign settings.

Way of working
I do have sketches of most maps, some simple linedrawings on paper, some even very conceptual block drawings of where certain areas are. This will give the artist some freedom, especially where it concerns cities, but also for logical placement of traderoutes, small hamlets and other logical content for maps.

Copyright
Since it may be published one day, I will need full permissions to use the work in online and/or printed media. You are free to sign your work, to use it (non commercially) for your portfolio, and credits will always be given to the artist.

Payment
I will pay through PayPal, and will need an official invoice for work provided, preferrably including taxes/VAT.

Time
No rush, I have time, would prefer 75% of all work to be done around september/october.

If you are interested, please provide me with your ideas, timeline, pricing and samples of your work (which may of course be watermarked or featured elsewhere) to info@air-productions.nl

Regards

Christiaan

[Tonnichiwa]

This is not intended to be rude at all but you have to realize something. It takes an incredibly long time to make a map of something like a city or a town or even a province for a country. Maps are not like art on Deviant Art. On deviant art I have seen people sell their product for five dollars. You won't find that kind of thing here. People on this site do this for a living and need to feed their families. And maps take a very long time to make. This means that the person making the map has to take all of that time to make your map for you. They could be out working and making money to feed their family. But if they have to devote time to making a map, that is money they are not making, and time being spent. How else would they be able to feed their family? So they have to make it worthwhile.

In all honesty you are asking the map makers to make you something that you might publish, that you might make a lot of money on, and you want them to sell you the rights to make money on it, but keep the map maker from making any money on it by restricting them to only use it in their portfolio and insisting they do nothing with it commercially. You must realize that this sort of thing costs a lot of money don't you? The map makers here are not going to sell you a map for dozens of dollars. Try a few hundred per map or more. This is more realistic, especially considering what kind of rights you are asking them to sell you.

Again, don't take this the wrong way, but a lot of people always approach artists like this. They seem to think that by having the artist make them something and paying the artist little, but promising the artist exposure by having the artist able to sign his art or put it in his portfolio, that somehow this makes up for not paying the artist. It doesn't. Unless a person is a representative of a publishing company that is well known, and makes the artist a promise that their art will get a lot of exposure using the publishing companies media, exposure means nothing. It gets the artist nowhere.

Now I know you didn't specifically mention exposure but it did sound implied by saying the artist can sign his work. This made it sound like you are saying that somehow, the artist signing his work will give him exposure.


I'm sorry if this sounds rude but it wasn't meant to be. It is only meant to help you see the reality of the situation.

[Azélor]

As someone who tried to make a commission recently (didn't work as planned) I can say that 1000 for the whole thing would be fairly low, even for a semi-professional.
You should use the [Unpaid] and offer the possibility of a payment instead. Otherwise it's a little misleading in my opinion.
Some people might accept to do it for free.

I'm not saying that your wrong to ask it but most people will not bother the handwork for such a small pay.
The city maps are the worst. A well made city, depending on the style, will takes a lot of time to make.

I have seen people sell their product for five dollars.

It's different. Some works require less work and can be sold to multiple people, like brushes. You can't do that with a world map because they are unique to the world they represent.

[Gamerprinter]

Not to fully repeat, Tonnichiwa's point, but consider I am working on a world map right now of four continents, and I am charging more than $500 just for that, and he does need other maps, and plans to money transfer a monthly fee as an alternative to separate commissions. So the idea of 1 continent, 5 regionals and 2-5 large city maps, you would expect to pay well over $1000 for that just from me (probably closer to $2000) - most maps I do are published by someone, and nobody ever claims full rights, at best, they get full rights for a year - that's all, but still need to pay the full amount. Other cartographers may charge less than I, but I wanted you to get an idea of what a professional map is going to cost you, especially for full rights.

And I know, Evil DM, whose a good guy, just perhaps not quite in tune with reality for this.

[Voolf]

As someone who tried to make a commission recently (didn't work as planned) I can say that 1000 for the whole thing would be fairly low, even for a semi-professional.

I agree with you and Tonnichiwa, but i would be hesitant to say it will take 1000 at least, before even talk what kind of style the client needs and how detailed the maps should be. I once had commission from a guy who didnt gave me much info to start with so i said it will take around $100. But during the process when a map was half done (in my eyes) the client said its perfect and was ready to pay, though i havent spent much time on it. This was good business for me but usually it is the other way around.

It is very crucial to provide as many details one can to estimate price.

Btw. I know Tonnichiwa you did not want to sound rude or anything, but Evil_DM haven't said anything about how much is he (or she) willing to pay. So i am not sure what trigger this respone.

Cheers

[Mouse]

I think it was this bit, Voolf:

...my budget is in the dozens of dollars, not in the 100's or 1000's...

[Voolf]

Woops... how could i missed that.

Ok then don't mind my last sentence in previous post . Yeap i can't see so many maps be done for less then 100...

[damonjynx]

Yes, as others have said, unless you're extremely fortunate to find an artist who wants to experiment with a new style/genre or whatever, I doubt you would get ANYONE to do what you're asking for the price stated. At best someone may do it for a couple of hundred $$ + a royalty on sold pieces. I was fortunate to strike a deal with one of the cartographers here where we split the profit on sales and unfortunately, neither of us made much money but he did get to experiment with a couple of different styles and try a new kind of map (to him) and I only had the rights to a single document.

If you're not willing to pay the $$ or simply can't afford it, you maybe better off creating your own maps. There are numerous tutorials here and on YouTube along with open source software, such as GIMP for example, that will teach how to create virtually any style of map you may require reasonably quickly and to a publishable standard. The folk here are very generous and positive with their advice, critiques and suggestions to help you on your way. I wish you the best of luck.

[Wired]

Unfortunately I'll have to second the general tone of the replies so far. Depending on wether we're talking about color or BW maps here your proclaimed budget might not even get you a single map done (certainly not in color). Truth be told, if I were tasked to do five large city maps in color for you I'd charge well in excess of €1000 for that alone because of how time-consuming those tend to be.

[Evil_DM]

Hi everybody,

thanks for getting me back to reality...

I admit that I am not very much 'in tune' with the realities of the Cartographers Guild. In my mind, I always thought it it was a group of hobbyists, of which some could make money out of their handywork. Apparently, there are quite a few pro's here. My bad. I stand corrected. Mea culpa.

So, I'll have to rethink my proposition...

I am willing to change my request to 100's of dollari, and perhaps lower the amount of work needed. Also, perhaps important (as someone pointed out) the level of detail that I expect is not exceptionally high.

I would prefer to have in a first tranche, the continent and 2 of the provinces, and 2-3 cities. For the cities too, not much detail is needed, just where the important locations and institutions are.

Is this a more workable request then?

Ps: many thanks for the very polite way in which you all 'educated' me, there are quite a few fora where you get grilled a lot worse for 'not being in tune'