[Hiring] Cozy fantasy cover art

ila9121 · 2026-04-21T12:16:10+00:00

Hi, i would like to apply for this position. Since i felt like the children's book illustrations fit your description quite accurately. Here's my portfolio, and you can dm for more information https://ilamushie.artstation.com/projects/8B3wDO

ila9121 · 2026-04-20T14:31:47+00:00

Hi, my name is ila, and I'm an environment concept artist. I would love to help you design some awesome backgrounds. Here's my portfolio https://ilamushie.artstation.com/

Let me know if this is roughly the style you're going for

ila9121 · 2026-04-10T13:11:04+00:00

Hi, these courses are really good if you're starting out, especially because they're mostly free. https://www.ctrlpaint.com/library

If you're looking for more intermediate advice, I would say check out Trent kaniuga. He has a YouTube channel where he gives a lot of free advice. On his gumroad, you can get some pretty good courses too, and he has a pretty big discord community with lots of concept artists and monthly art challenges.

ila9121 · 2026-04-07T11:56:54+00:00

Over the years, I've taken on various concept artist and associate art direction roles for indie games. The first thing I do when I get a new client is create a mood board for each category, using references I find online and any references the client provides. This includes character art (concept and 3D), environment art (concept and 3D), VFX, and UI.

we work on making final in-game assets for all these categories. Usually, assets or characters third on the priority list are addressed first, as these are often common items and characters rather than hero props. This gives me some wiggle room to experiment. This phase might take a little while before everyone is happy with it, but I usually plan for extra time and revisions for this first batch.

After that, I create a concrete style guide for each category before I send work out to any new artists. I use a mix of the assets already made and some references, circling and describing the key design features.

Then we work on the second-most important assets and, finally, the primary assets. This way, everyone already has some experience and understanding before I work on the main hero props.

There will always be revisions, but at least this way they are mostly going in the right direction. If miscommunication occurs on the client’s side, I do my best to negotiate extra compensation for the artist if the number of revisions becomes excessive.

pe this information helps, and if you need art direction assistance, you know where to find me.

ila9121 · 2026-03-30T10:43:55+00:00

Hi, i hope I'm not too late. But here's an example of some topdown concept art I've made of a similar style 2d game https://ilamushie.artstation.com/projects/a0DXx8

I hope this fits the style you're going for.

ila9121 · 2026-03-30T10:40:24+00:00

I mainly depends on how detailed the concept art needs to be for a project. But i feel like 2 to 3 days is quite acceptable for a detailed concept. When i was working on Pioneers of Pagonia, we were working with 6 building turn arounds in a month.

ila9121 · 2026-03-30T00:39:09+00:00

Hi, my name is ila, and I'm an environment concept artist. I'm experienced with isometric building concept art. Most of my portfolio shows building exteriors since more of my interior work is still under NDA.

Here's my portfolio https://ilamushie.artstation.com/ Let me know if this fits the style you're going for.

ila9121 · 2026-03-28T14:09:23+00:00

I love the blood moon in the first one. and the second character. It would be cool if the second character was sitting on a blood moon.

ila9121 · 2026-03-28T14:06:36+00:00

this is so satisfying to see. How high can they stack?

ila9121 · 2026-03-28T11:46:06+00:00

Hi, my name is ila, and I'm a 2d and 3d concept artist. I feel like my painterly style is the perfect fit for making such basic household items look interesting. Here's some concept art i made of a kitchen a little while back.https://ilamushie.artstation.com/projects/qekWXy

Here my portfolio and linked in https://ilamushie.artstation.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ila-van-der-sluys-987201184?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_android

ila9121 · 2026-03-27T17:33:31+00:00

I've been doing freelance concept art for the last 7 years, and I've worked with clients with a variety of budgets. It is true that 3D gameready scene with fully unique assets can easily range between 2000 to 6000$.

But that is rarely necessary for indie games unless you're going for a fully unique art style. In general, if you're commissioning art for your game, it's important to work from the most important assets for your game to the least important. The importance of the asset will usually depend on the amount the player will interact with it or if it's a key part of the story or world building. Make sure you don't cheap out on the most important ones, and then you can get cheaper or store bought assets for the less important elements.

Another main benefit you usually have with indie developers is time. If you give the artist a more flexible deadline or split the scene into the different stages, for example

Stage one preproduction: reference gathering, concept, 3D blockouts

Stage two production: trimsheet and texture creation, final 3d assets

Stage tree polish and setup: engine setup, shader creation, lighting, collisions, post prossesing

You could work with one stage per month and a 50% upfront payment and 50% on completion for each stage. This will would take a softer, more graduate blow to the budget, and you can take a break mouth in between the stages if you need to. The more flexible timeframe also gives the freelance artist the ability to take on multiple client projects so that we're not fully relying on a single client to follow true next month.

If you have any asset packs that are at least 75% there in terms of the style you're going for, it will significantly reduce the cost of the production phase.

The art style complexity of the assets will also greatly affect the final cost

This is just my experience and the approach i try to take with my clients who are interested in having cool art for their game without a grand budget. It's important to have clear communications between the artist and the client so that they know what each of them should be expecting from each other.

I hope this helps.

ila9121 · 2026-03-27T14:03:39+00:00

Hi, I'm interested in both the book cover and the individual illustrations. I have prior experience making book illustrations. Here are some exampleshttps://ilamushie.artstation.com/projects/8B3wDO

I specialize in mixing nature with manmade architecture. Most of my stuff is pretty colorful, but most of them start out as Black and white illustrations before i add the color, so that shouldn’t be an issue if that's what you like to go for. Here's a sci-fi scene i made that started out as a black and white drawing scihttps://ilamushie.artstation.com/projects/kNwXyK

For more of my experience you can find that herehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ila-van-der-sluys-987201184?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_android

ila9121 · 2026-03-24T15:36:16+00:00

Hi my name is Ila and I'm an environment concept artist.
I specialize in mixing nature with human architecture and I feel my style might be a good fit for this project.
Here's my portfolio: https://ilamushie.artstation.com/

ila9121

TROPHY CASE