Am still trying to get hold of Paul, the proofreader who rewrote the Introductions. I have not heard from him in over a week, so he must be pretty busy. I am going to tackle the main intro myself, using the tips he gave me and trying a less ambitious approach.
Went through the listed Hi-Rez images for the Vehicles and found that we’re missing one – the Werefox Martel. Vadim is aware it’s missing and is looking for the original to scan it again. I’ve nailed down the others – they were under different names (the original names associated with the original designs; we didn’t know then what was a duplicate and what was appropriate for a given House.)
‘Mech images all have Hi-Rez art (except the ones which have NO art, of course) and I am down to about five designs which need finishing or a new piece begun.
There are three ‘Mech writeups in Suspend status due to a conflict with canon 3063 events – the Vulcan VL-7M, the Vulcan II and the Guillotine GLT-8M. I am still waiting on Geoff to get back to me on those, but with the July 4th holiday fast approaching, it may be another week before he can help with resolving this issue.
Given that my current ‘stable’ of artists is either busy or away on a trip, I am going to go out tomorrow evening and begin trolling deviantArt.com for more artists. I contacted one who is working out of Irkutsk (in Russia), but he is not available for commission work at this time. Damn shame, too, because he is really good and his work is right up my alley…
Hopefully I will be able to get things moving on the art front within a few days. Money is still tight, but I am cutting back on expenses here at home so I can offer a decent price for each work. So far the max I can afford is $50 per piece. That probably won’t go up, given my finances, and it will limit the pool of artists I can call on. Some want upwards of $150 per piece. Maybe that is the going price, maybe not. I know no one in the gaming industry who could tell me different.
So far I have sunk $600 into this project on art alone (don’t tell my wife) and I am rapidly approaching my limit. Free work is something I have not yet considered, mostly because artists of sufficient caliber simply won’t work for nothing, and because the ones who will do it often won’t follow a deadline of any sort. And besides, it hurts my pride to beg. But if anyone reading this has a lead on a talented fellow who will take direction, produce on a schedule and be satisfied to see his name in print (or accept $25 per piece), let me know.
I really hate to take commissions away from folks who want (or say they want) them, but the show must go on and every day we am not reviewing a sketch or approving a final inking is a day wasted, so far as I am concerned. I get the impression that a few of the artists I have contacted do not work well with a deadline. Oh well. If I have to commission a separate artist for each piece, so be it. We *will* finish the project!
The only trouble with all this pro-activeness is going to be computer time. My wife has discovered Facebook’s social networking game, FarmTown. She can easily burn off a whole day on that game, and it is a daunting task to get the machine from her long enough to update this blog, search for artists and maintain communications with my fellow writers. In fact, it’s nearly impossible. I will have to hope her work schedule at J.C. Penny’s will include a few closing days, so the computer will be open when I get home.
Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment