Original artwork for cover

There's a lot of really fantastic artists on ConceptArt.org, and there's a subforum there for posting freelance jobs. If I were looking for an artist to do a SF cover, I think that's where I'd start.

Good luck!

I would suggest making sure they have done successful covers in your genre. Covers have a language beyond making a great picture of something that happened in the book.

For example Anne Cain is a great artists but just as importantly, she understand how every tiny subgenre just of romance has different requirement to reach that reader and make them buy. As a reader you can see all these subtle and not so subtle difference in her covers--the ones she painted hersel and the ones she assembled. http://www.annecain-art.com/covers.html

I just did this for the first time for one of my new releases. It's a New Adult book & I wanted an object for the cover. Luckily I have a close friend who is an artist & had her read the book & come up with what she thought would be good. She sketched the object for me and my husband who does all my covers is taking the artwork & will create the cover for me. My husband has hired her to work for him to do this for his company. He does websites & book covers. PM me if you'd like his info.

Oh, Bibliocrunch is a site to check for cover artists & anything else you might need to self publish.

DeviantArt is another place you might look for artists. Or check out the Art and Design forum here on AW. I think there are a few people there who do original artwork and there's a thread where they advertise.

I'll move this from Self Publishing to our Art and Design room, where you should get more appropriate help.

Just a Google search can turn up a lot of options. I'd suggest spending some time browsing designers' portfolios to see if their style fits your book. Good luck!