On Making Your Own, #5: Finding Creative Partners
Sunday, November 6th, 2011 -- by Dr. Faustus
Having written four somewhat theoretical posts on why it’s a great idea to get busy making your own erotic art, I would like to turn to some more practical matters. Let’s begin with finding creative partners, particularly creators you can commission.
Some people are truly multi-talented and can see a project through from concept to finished piece all on their own. If you’re one of these I congratulate you, but I regret that I am not one of them. I have ideas, and I can write some, but I can’t draw worth a damn: even my stick figures look wooden and unconvincing. (And yes, there can be vivid stick figures — see xkcd.) If want visual representations and not just words, then I need artist partners. I’ll write here from the perspective of a writer looking for artists, although I think much of what I have to say here will apply, mutatis mutandis, to artists looking for writers or indeed anyone looking for collaborators.
So if you’re in the position I was about two years ago, you might be asking yourself, “I have ideas and scripts and some money to spend, but how on earth do I go about finding artists?”
Here are some things that worked for me:
Hitting the books. There are a lot of publications having to do with erotic art, and if you’re like me you’ll have some on your shelves. Newer ones will generally include web contact information for the artists, or for agents who work on their behalf. One of the first commissions I ever placed was with Glass House Graphics, when I found a piece I very much liked by one of their artists in a volume of erotic fantasy art. They directed me to the Brazilian artist Hugo da Cunha Araújo, whom they represented and who created the striking, sexed-up image of the Maria/Maschinenmensch transformation from Metropolis that now graces every page over at Erotic Mad Science.
This method of finding artists can produce some really terrific art, although it is likely to put you in touch with high-priced professionals, so you need to be prepared for large commissions if you pursue it.
Hang out where the artists do. There are a number of spots on the Internet where a lot of artistic talent congregates, and you can find people you like there. And what’s better, these sites frequently offer ways (usually requiring registration, which isn’t ideal but which is at least normally free) to leave comments, get known, and get in touch. The one that I’ve had be best luck with has probably been a huge site called DeviantArt. I think I first encountered Lon Ryden, who draws the Tales of Gnosis College for me, over there, and also Lucy Fidelis, Roe Mesquita, Bokuman, and the alluring Dark Vanessa there. Another site I’ve much enjoyed — one the specializes in CG art, is Renderotica (registration required for almost everything, unfortunately), where I first found Niceman (who did a CG illustration that has been featured twice at Tiny Nibbles), KristinF, and Russkere. But these are only suggestions. Pretty much every forum devoted to whatever kink you are interested in will attract artists, so hang out and find out who they are. Look for stuff that appeals to you and take notes.
Just search. No matter how weird you are there stuff that’s appealing, and probably Google Image Search or its equivalents) can find it for you. For example, I’m pretty damn weird. I’ve had this strange fantasy about a mad scientist making a girl orgasmically dissolve into liquid in his laboratory (top that, kinksters!, but please don’t try it in real life). Eventually I got it illustrated for me thanks to both Niceman and, later, Lon. But rolling back the clock a bit, let’s ask how I might find someone to do this sort of art if I didn’t know anyone. I mean, it’s a really weird interest — could I be all alone here?
Well, let’s try a Google Image Search on “liquid girl.” What comes up? Keeping in mind that results might have changed between the moment of my writing, the very first result leads me to this. Exquisite! And right at DeviantArt, too, so I can contact the creator easily. And at DeviantArt also this. And then there’s this — with a phone number right at the bottom of the page. Let’s try “melting girl.” Well, there’s easily more fun to be had. Obviously there are a lot of artists I could have been tracking down in addition to the excellent ones I’ve already met.
Whatever you are, you are not alone.
But okay, you’ve searched around, and you’ve found artists who you think are awesome. What now? How do you approach them? That will be the subject of next week’s post.
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