Artists for Steampunk Holmes: The Finalists Are ....

SCAPS Agent Game Guide by Firstbase

As I mentioned in a prior post I put a job posting up on Elance for artists and writers to work on the Steampunk Holmes project. I've had over a dozen responses to the Art post and have narrowed that down to four artists. I've asked the artists to submit a sketch of how they envision Steampunk Holmes looking - I hope to have those in my hands for review within a few days.

In the meantime I thought I would discuss each artist and why I like their style;

Daniel Kopalek
I really like Daniel's comic book illustration style, inking and coloring. I hadn't thought of doing a comic style but after looking at his work and another I've decided that it must be considered. I've always thought the current state-of-the-art in iPad comics fails to leverage the full potential of the medium. With work like Daniel Kopalek's I can take my own shot at how to integrate comic art with short-story format.


Manuela Soriani
Manuela is another comic book illustrator whose art I really like. It's different from Daniel's but like Daniel she is able to convey emotion, create complex environments, and works well in drawing, inking, and coloring.


Robert Schoolcraft
Another comic book artist who also sent me some line drawing showing victorian scenes which I really liked. I also like his the way he illustrates women as I've been thinking of making Steampunk Holmes a woman - a beautiful strong woman would be different and possibly wonderful.


Firstbase
These guys have a totally different approach: 3D. They already have lots of experience in doing Steampunkish 3D work in their own game multi-player game, SCAPS Agent. The problem with 3D is that it's really expensive and I don't know if I can afford it. However, they also do page layout and they sent me a sample of their work, the game guide to SCAPS Agent, and the layout was really cool (Click on image in upper left of this blog). So while they may be too expensive for basic illustrations they may be perfect in helping with page design and layout.


I want to choose the right artist but I also need to figure out how much art I need and compare not only talent but also - sadly - the price. My next step is to narrow down an author.