FREE cover art/illustrations for your work

[Dark Squiggle]

Hi, I should have made this thread a while ago, but I was a little discouraged after trying this in two forums with no success. I would very much like to illustrate your book for you, or even just do your cover. I do work in pencil, charcoal, pastel, acrylic, and I am starting to teach myself digital painting. Unless I suddenly become inundated with requests or become the next hot illustrator, I am willing to do it for free. I give no time guarantees as of right now, other than I will probably not being doing any art until my finals are over next week. One final caveat: I am a religious person, so please do not ask me to draw anything very sexualized.
Here are some clips of the thread that got me to finally post:

I know. I can't even get someone to commission my artwork when I offer to do it for free, and when I show people my stuff, they say, "oh someone'll buy that", because everyone thinks it's like the better mousetrap - build and they'll come, but it never happens. I haven't made a thread on this forum, but I did on two others, offering to illustrate or do cover art for free, and the only replies I got where "Nice stuff, someone'll take you up on your offer.", and the one mod who told me I was selling something (for free?), pulled my thread and threatened to throw me out of the forum. Even the artists themselves somehow just don't get how hard it is to get your stuff seen.

If you're really willing to do a project for free, let me see your work, and if it's any good I'll find something for you that'll get at least a few hundred views.

And here are a few pieces of artwork I have on my computer:

 

[Dark Squiggle]

Devor
I only uploaded the first five pics, because the forum dropped the rest. Sorry.

 

[Devor]

I'm hoping you can get the rest up. The aquatic life is strong, but the guy in color isn't good enough for much. What else do you have?

 

[Dark Squiggle]

Some more.

 

[Dark Squiggle]

Even more.

 

[Dark Squiggle]

Some more. Some are copies of Marie Grandpre's work on the Harry Potter series.
It's scary how old and crude so much of this seems. I'll have a lot of catching up to do at the end of this semester. The birthday card was clumsily edited to remove the name.

 

[Devor]

Dark Squiggle, thanks for posting your art.

Unfortunately I don't think you're ready yet to create a professional book cover. I took a moment to look up a list of resources that might be useful for you as a next step with your skills. I would encourage you to pick up a few of the books on the list and follow up with their exercises. I do believe you can get there. As a tip from a non-artist, I would also suggest that you try scanning your line art and adding color via photoshop (Photoshop Essentials is under $100), something that's become the norm for many artists.

That said, I promised you a decent project to work on and I meant it. If for any reason you don't like this project I can find you another one.

These two characters are Ladybug and Chat Noir, from a kids' cartoon in France called Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir. It's available in English on Netflix. The story is a light romance between these two characters, where she is in love with him without the mask, and he is in love with her with the mask, and they don't know it.

I'm writing a fanfiction project on this show. Although it's a romance, it's not sexed up (I'm Catholic). The first chapter of which you can find here:

A Kitten's Heart - Chapter 1 - Devor - Miraculous Ladybug [Archive of Our Own]

In the story, Chat Noir poses for a photo. Here's the corresponding text:

“Whenever she puts a bruise on my heart, she’s only giving it another spot to prove that it’s her lucky charm.” He rushed his claws through his hair and shook a little sewage to the ground. “Now this cat’s got to clean himself and get a catnap.” He briefly stuck out his tongue and winked. “You can put that image on the Ladyblog.”

In an upcoming chapter that image of Chat Noir becomes a minor plot point. If I can include the picture, it'll help the story work out.

In addition to being posted in the corresponding chapter on Archive Of Our Own, where it'll receive a few hundred views, I can include it in an article I have planned for Mythic Scribes about my experience writing fanfiction, which will receive several hundred more (or thousands, if it's good enough to be the lead image, which many people would see who don't click on the article).

If you're up for it, let me know. And again, if you don't like the project I can find another one.

 

[Dark Squiggle]

Dark Squiggle, thanks for posting your art.

Unfortunately I don't think you're ready yet to create a professional book cover. I took a moment to look up a list of resources that might be useful for you as a next step with your skills. I would encourage you to pick up a few of the books on the list and follow up with their exercises. I do believe you can get there. As a tip from a non-artist, I would also suggest that you try scanning your line art and adding color via photoshop (Photoshop Essentials is under $100), something that's become the norm for many artists.

That said, I promised you a decent project to work on and I meant it. If for any reason you don't like this project I can find you another one.

These two characters are Ladybug and Chat Noir, from a kids' cartoon in France called Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir. It's available in English on Netflix. The story is a light romance between these two characters, where she is in love with him without the mask, and he is in love with her with the mask, and they don't know it.

I'm writing a fanfiction project on this show. Although it's a romance, it's not sexed up (I'm Catholic). The first chapter of which you can find here:

A Kitten's Heart - Chapter 1 - Devor - Miraculous Ladybug [Archive of Our Own]

In the story, Chat Noir poses for a photo. Here's the corresponding text:



In an upcoming chapter that image of Chat Noir becomes a minor plot point. If I can include the picture, it'll help the story work out.

In addition to being posted in the corresponding chapter on Archive Of Our Own, where it'll receive a few hundred views, I can include it in an article I have planned for Mythic Scribes about my experience writing fanfiction, which will receive several hundred more (or thousands, if it's good enough to be the lead image, which many people would see who don't click on the article).

If you're up for it, let me know. And again, if you don't like the project I can find another one.

Sounds great. I'll get to work on Sunday, when finals are over. I guess you don't want anything painterly. What kind of backdrop do you want? Trees? Buildings? Here is a quick charcoal sketch:

 

[Devor]

I don't care about the backdrop, just about the character. It can even be blurred out, or you can draw something that looks like the events in the scene.

These characters are popular with fanfiction communities, so you can even look up "How to draw Chat Noir" and find a lot of direct resources.

I'm in no rush - my projects move slow.

 

[Devor]

I guess you don't want anything painterly.

l'm looking for something of about this quality:

Which is straight from a how-to:

How to Draw Cat Noir from Miraculous Ladybug, Step by Step, Nickelodeon Characters, Cartoons, Draw Cartoon Characters, FREE Online Drawing Tutorial, Added by Dawn, January 30, 2016, 12:31:06 am

 

[Dark Squiggle]

Does Chat Noir clean himself with his tongue?
Somehow I imagined a ladybug as an armored monster with massive jaws and wings. The character in the show is very tame compared to a real ladybug
Thank you for the tips about learning digital painting and how illustrations are done. I've never done anything other than animal pictures, portraits, and landscapes before and I have 0 art education - I have a long way to go.
Here are a couple of sketches I've done. Is it what you want?

 

[Devor]

To me that looks like great progress for such a short amount of time. Yes, the one on the left is pretty close, but it needs the wink, the tongue, and the sludge in his hair. I'm not an artist, but I think you have skills if you can continue to learn the techniques to apply them.

 

[Dark Squiggle]

Thanks, the sludge in the hair is going to be fun
It's not that I've progressed; I may not know about anatomy, or drawing scenes, or illustrations, but I do know how to draw what I see, as long as I'm not learning how to use Krita, or Gimp, or Paint.net, or really anything on the computer while I'm doing it.
I'll have some time off until winter classes begin, so hopefully I'll be able to learn the computer stuff and the other goodies well enough to be reasonably proficient in that time.

 

[Devor]

That's why a lot of artists draw in pen (over a light pencil sketch that gets erased), scan it, and color it in on the computer. It's harder to master the same level of control with a computer drawing and the end-result isn't that different.

Good luck with your finals, this can wait a bit.

And no, he doesn't literally clean himself that way, people around Cat Noir just like to make cat jokes about him.

 

[LWFlouisa]

Charcoal happens to be my favorite medium. What genres do you like illustrating?

 

[Dark Squiggle]

Charcoal happens to be my favorite medium. What genres do you like illustrating?

I like to draw more or less everything. I like variety. I guess I prefer pictures that include animals or machines, but I'll do any kind of illustration if I can get it.

 

[LWFlouisa]

I like to draw more or less everything. I like variety. I guess I prefer pictures that include animals or machines, but I'll do any kind of illustration if I can get it.

What it seems to be is your primary strength is in backgrounds. I'm more of a character artist myself. What I might recommend is continuing to work on this aspect, and eventually you might find a character artist that will work with you. I know it took a while for me to find cover art.

But I see nothing but potential here.

Good luck.

 

[Devor]

I thought similarly, LWFlouisa. He's got a lot of potential, but he's severely lacking in the character skills, and he needs to branch away from sketching what's in front of him and create something from his head. That's why I gave him the Cat Noir project. It's an easy character with plenty of tutorials that he can just about copy - perfect for a first character project. But he has to get the expression right - he can google expressions, but will have to adapt it to Cat Noir's face. Finally, he's going to have to show a little bit of his own creativity when it comes to the sludge.

I would say it's premature to dismiss his character abilities without first seeing his ability to learn those skills.

 

[Dark Squiggle]

Sorry for the ridiculous delay. I have suffered a hard drive crash, and am still struggling with Krita/Medibang etc., and am unable to cough anything decent digitally. I can still whip upsomething like this up in a minute or two, though,
I even signed up for a digital art course, which I am dropping, because it's not about digital painting. I'm getting there!

 

[Nomadica]

I see you get proportions well. Definite potential but need to work on how you use color and shadow