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George and I have just been approached by Keycon, the local science fiction convention, to do the color cover for their 25th anniversary memorial book. So we've been exchanging emails with them throughout the course of the day nailing down the details.
They've agreed to pay us in the form of one full weekend membership ($55), one Saturday pass ($25), and a free copy of the final printed book. While this is a long way from the $100/hour we generally charge for illustation work, it IS for a convention I've attended and loved for most of those 25 years.
What needs to be finalized is the actual nature of the cover art. They pitched a scene of a convention hospitality suite with many MANY people in it; I pointed out that this would be both difficult to make work as a cover and would take a lot more time than we're willing to put into the project for a measly $110 dollars. The counterproposal I just made via email is something along the lines of the Golden Boy and the Legislative Building dome in the foreground and three figures looming over it in the background: a bison in space gear (since the bison is the symbol of Manitoba) in the middle, a female wizard conjuring a storm of magical energy on its left, and a male gamer throwing dice on the right. We'll see if (a) they're willing to go with that, and (b) George is willing to go with it, because he'll be doing the actual finished illustration while I'll be doing the concept sketch and final color.
The deadline is a bit of a killer. Two weeks, and we have a LOT of work in the studio right now. But again, it's Keycon. Sure, I'm not very fond of the con chair this year (he and I have an acrimonious history going WAY back to when I was just a fan), but hopefully I won't have to actually have any dealings with him.
I'll post some of the concept sketches (behind a cut) in another post when I have some to share.
They've agreed to pay us in the form of one full weekend membership ($55), one Saturday pass ($25), and a free copy of the final printed book. While this is a long way from the $100/hour we generally charge for illustation work, it IS for a convention I've attended and loved for most of those 25 years.
What needs to be finalized is the actual nature of the cover art. They pitched a scene of a convention hospitality suite with many MANY people in it; I pointed out that this would be both difficult to make work as a cover and would take a lot more time than we're willing to put into the project for a measly $110 dollars. The counterproposal I just made via email is something along the lines of the Golden Boy and the Legislative Building dome in the foreground and three figures looming over it in the background: a bison in space gear (since the bison is the symbol of Manitoba) in the middle, a female wizard conjuring a storm of magical energy on its left, and a male gamer throwing dice on the right. We'll see if (a) they're willing to go with that, and (b) George is willing to go with it, because he'll be doing the actual finished illustration while I'll be doing the concept sketch and final color.
The deadline is a bit of a killer. Two weeks, and we have a LOT of work in the studio right now. But again, it's Keycon. Sure, I'm not very fond of the con chair this year (he and I have an acrimonious history going WAY back to when I was just a fan), but hopefully I won't have to actually have any dealings with him.
I'll post some of the concept sketches (behind a cut) in another post when I have some to share.
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