Ballpark estimate of payment?

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WormHeart

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So ... as oodles of others before me I wondering about trying the whole web-comic thing myself.

Now, I have fairly solid credentials in my writing, and was even hired to write a webcomic that will go online in a few months (a one time job), so I have been through the whole process once.

The artist is incredible skilled, but equally busy, so I might have to look elsewhere to hire someone.

To make a long story short - what would be the ballpark figure for hiring someone with real talent?

I'm thinking 5000$ for 22 pages.

Does that sound right?

Yes, yes, I know I should go to a dedicated forum and ask the artists themselves, but I'm very early in the process here and try to figure out how much I have to calculate with.

I have seen the other treads on "how to get a artist", but my question is a bit more specific and I have no illusion (nor really an interest) in getting work for "free".

It would be either horror, weird fiction or something in that general direction. A creature feature, if you like :)

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GhostScout

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Oh, wow, I'd say that that's plenty adequate! It shows you're serious about your story. A lot writers I see in those forums offer like around $10-$50 per page. (And usually ask for professional artwork on top of that.) Which I find kind of insulting, because just a good comic page takes roughly around 10 hours to complete on average. (That is, if it's a lone artist doing all the work, instead of a team.) Anyway, I kind of rambled there. But yeah, but that's a solid amount to get an amazing artist.
 

Marta

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Agreed, you've done your homework. You might be able to get it done for about half that, or even less, but it depends entirely on the artist and type of art you're looking at. If you're trying to tempt someone away from projects with big publishers, it might not be enough, but if the artist has time to fit in other work or often has downtime between longer gigs, it should give yours a high priority.
 

Brutal Mustang

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Oh, wow, I'd say that that's plenty adequate!

That's what I thought at first.

Then I realized. It takes me five 16-hour days to do a painting (I'm a bit of realist painter with a detail obsession). And such a painting can and should sell for $500 or more.

To barely survive, most people need to pull in $100 a work day, or $500 a week.

So really, it boils down to the artist. For an artist with a 'loose' painting style, $5000 is a lot. For someone with a tight style like me, it's not nearly enough. I'd need 500 x 22, which is, $11,000. Or else, the money would be spent on bills long before the work was done.

And of course, medium, too, factors in. An artist could definitely afford to charge less if the work is digital instead of acrylic. Though, the benefit of a painting on canvas is it can be sold by the artist or commissioner (depending on the agreement made - I'm pretty sure Dan Dos Santos gets to keep his book cover paintings, and sell them).

A lot writers I see in those forums offer like around $10-$50 per page. (And usually ask for professional artwork on top of that.)
Yep. And it's absolutely ridiculous. We pros don't give those posts a second glance. What steams me, is that they often want an artist to put a ton of work into a piece of cover art, at minimal pay, when the story it's for is basically crap (bad grammar, no voice, no interesting characters, cliche after cliche after cliche, et cetera).
 

WormHeart

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See, this is why I asked in the first place :eek:)

I have several friends who are artists (never work with friends!) and they keep getting customers who believe professional jobs can be paid in a few bottles of wine or pocket change.

I would absolutely not come across like a clueless, but at the same time I obviously want to get as much art as possible for the money.

Both me and the artist on the finished webcomic are Danes, and we tend to have a higher income, since we pay 40% in taxes.

So it's really hard to estimate a professional rate paycheck from the outside.

It's way too early in the process to get into details, since I'm not yet sure which story to go with, but creature features tend to be fairly detailed, if I recall my own collection of comics.
All those tentacles and things from beyond need a lot of love to pop from screen. :)

So - I could try to go lower, but it not an unreasonable range of payment.

That is good to know.

Brutal Mustang - that's an awesome level of detail. :)

I know I like a clean and non-blurred pen, but since I'm not a visual artist, I would have to learn the lingo or pony up some examples before approaching anyone.

WormHeart
 

zblock

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$100 a page is pretty tough to get but you're not far off. If you find a single artist who does it all, you can save on the costs. Otherwise you're looking at:
penciler - $75 page
inker - $75 page
Color - $100 page
Letterer - $40 page

Most ppl don't get that granular so you can absolutely set a budget of $200-$300 a page and find loads of good artists.
 
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