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Kaiseto

Commissions Not Accepted
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Hey all, sorry for putting this up, but I get several requests to do freelance artwork every couple of weeks. I'm hoping that this will save me some time by notifying people that I am not available for hire, why not, and where they can look for good artists. I've done journals like this before, but it's been awhile, and people can't be expected to look through my old journal postings before sending me a note, so hopefully a front page posting will catch the eye.

I do not freelance work, take requests, or do commissions of any kind



Why?


You'll notice there are a couple pixel art submissions in my gallery where I will note that they were done for somebody as a request or paid commission. I tried doing paid work for others a bit back in college, but the experiences did not go well. I am not particularly good at budgeting my time to make art for other people, and I'm notorious for starting and abandoning pieces, doubly so when its something I'm not personally invested in.

You'll notice I haven't been submitting to this gallery very frequently for a few years now. I did the majority of my artwork back in college, when I had a lot of free time. Most of my artwork was doodled up during classes. Now I'm out of school, working a fairly mentally involved job for 45 to 50 hours a week, and I very rarely get around to doing artwork, even for fun. I've also been lacking any sort of real ability to motivate myself to start new pieces. I would honestly like to get back into doing artwork, but it's just something I rarely find the time or drive to do anymore.

For these reasons, I've decided to turn down all requests for commissions, trades, freelance work on games, etc.. This is very unlikely ever to change, unless I suddenly find myself out of a job, desperate for money, and with a whole lot of free time on my hand.

Where can I look for freelance pixel artists?


If you're working on a game, and looking for reliable, professional pixel artists that are willing to work on a freelance basis for money, I typically refer people to the following two sites:



These sites are home to some of the more active pixel artist communities that I'm aware of, both hobbyists (like me), and professionals who have done work for album covers, games, and advertisements. Check the Monthly Top and Hall of Fame sections on Pixeljoint to see some of the best that the members of the site have to offer. Both sites have a forum with a Job Posting section. If you want to attract a freelancer, it's worth putting up a paid job posting. You should put some effort into making your project sound attractive and interesting, and formatting your post in a professionally.

Be aware that professional pixel art is not necessarily cheap. It's a niche medium that doesn't have a wealth of great artists, so getting somebody who is very good is likely to cost you. That being said, I'm sure those who have worked as professional freelancers have a good idea about how to budget their time and rates much better than I would. If you want your game to look good, it probably is worth shelling out the money for a good artist. There are a lot of games out on markets like Steam Greenlight with poor quality pixel art; They look generally unappealing and unprofessional. By contrast, a game with well crafted artwork really stands out.

I hope this is some help. I'm sure there are other places you can look to hire good artists as well, but these are the two I'm familiar with (for pixel art specifically).

Thanks,
- Kevin Chaloux
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Hey there. I still continuously get asked by people if they can use X pixel art in Y project of theirs. I almost always say yes (with a few exceptions), provided they aren't going to profit from the use of the artwork in any way. I've decided to formalize this.

I just spent the last hour or so going through almost every single piece of pixel art I've submitted to DA and setting the license to the following:

Creative Commons
Non-Commercial
Share-Alike


Attribution would go to "Kevin Chaloux".

I don't know if anybody will get any real use out of any of this. The majority of things people want to use my artwork for involve games of some kind, and most of my stuff is lacking a complete set of animations to be in any way useful for that kind of project. Nevertheless, if you think it will be helpful, go for it. Here is a complete (?) list of all the things I set to CC:

Ferret Space Pirate
Spacegame Tileset (though I may still use this some day, however unlikely)
Lizard Warrior
Dark
Crystal Demon
EGG Shell
Jade Guardian
Old God
Wolf Where?
Odd Taur
Dragon KNight
Indigestion
Weird Thing
Arctic Fox Merchant
RPG Walk Cycle
Skull Plant
Skull Plant Death
Centaur
Dragon Portrait
Bad Company
Sky Background (This one seems to be especially popular)
Roland Sprite
Portrait
Dragoon Enemies - Dragon
Dragoon Enemies - Specter
Dragoon Enemies - Knight
With a Staff, I Guess
Jack of Diamonds
Monolith
Lizardman 2
SHMUPimated
Doodles on Black
Harmonia on Black
RPG Characters 1
RPG Characters 2
RPG Characters 3
Under the Red Moon
Detail Images
Two More (Detail Images)
Zelda - Hi Def
Attack Animation
Attack Animation 2
Attack Animation 3
Attack Animation 4
Attack Animation 5
Attack Animation 6
Jewel Wyvern
Wizard Portrait
SHMUP Extended Edition
Punkin
Fungus Lord (Somebody recently requested this one)
Monster Revamp (Possibly useful for a turn-based RPG sort of thing?)
Hero and his Dog
Fields of Harmony
Cosmic Fighter
Palette Practice
Super AA
Fugue
Shooting Stars
Toc's Tale (This one's a tileset, albeit grayscale)
Beach Parallax 1 (Grayscale background, goes with Toc's Tale)
Beach Parallax 2 (Grayscale background #2, goes with Toc's Tale)
Lord of Gale
Tailwhip
Bloated Effigy
Forest Guardian Axohuatl
Jewel Dragon
Overgrowth
Conductor (I'm not sure I even remember doing this one...)
RKA
Moss Cow
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On Commissions

2 min read
Hey all. I don't like having to write about this because I feel like it comes across as kind of pompous and self-important. Nevertheless, I'm still getting requests on a fairly regular basis about trades, commissions, etc.

I do not do commissions, of any kind.

I rarely took them on when I was back in school and had more time. I've always made a point to turn down commissions for video game artwork. I hate doing it. Unless I'm in charge of the art design, world design, and at least part of the gameplay design, I have a hard time mustering up the motivation to do sprites for a game. It's a ton of work, especially with animation and the fact that the quality of my better pieces comes at a cost of a lot of futzing over small details and spending a lot of time.

Artwork has always been a means to explore my own (often inane or fleeting) concepts and ideas. It's hard to get excited about it for its own sake unless. I usually just end up procrastinating on "artwork for art's sake" projects, or those that the only reward is money. I have a steady job now, and money isn't really a motivation for doing artwork anymore.

Hope this doesn't come off as abrasive or anything. I'm just hoping to cut down on the personal messages I've been getting where I have to politely turn people down on job offers. :p Nothing personal. It's just not something I'm interested in, and when I do find the time to work on artistic endeavors I'd rather get to do my own stuff).
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At least in any sort of grand capacity. I picked up pixel art back in early high school as a way of mucking around with RPG Maker sprites. Then I started to take it more seriously. I'd like to think I got halfway decent at it. Unfortunately I'm never going to be the best-of-the-best, and I don't have the motivation to try.

Pixel art was some fun, but it always took me forever. My larger pieces would take months. The only way I ever got anything done was by working on things during lectures at college, where my eyes didn't have to be focused on the board. The overall reward (that is to say, personal satisfaction) of completing something was short lived. I've started so many things in the last two years that never went anywhere because I just can't really do it anymore. It's too much effort for very little pay off. It's not fun anymore.

It doesn't help that I've since graduated college and I'm working 45+ hours a week at a real job. Also putting in time to exercise daily, to maybe finally get in some shape. That leaves me with precious few hours in a day, and I can't accomplish anything artistically worthwhile in that time. At least not pixel art. I've started fooling around in SAI here and again, and I enjoy that. Pixel art was my way of avoiding digital painting when I started, though the painting stuff was always more my actual goal.

Anyway, the tl;dr of it is that you probably won't see much pixel art (or updates at all) from my anymore. Maybe when the mood strikes me now and again, or if I ever try making a game again (what a mistake THAT would be). Anyway... 's rather anticlimactic, but there you go.
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So its like, 1:30 AM where I am, and I'm not tired. So, it's been awhile. I'm going to plunk around on the keyboard and record it.
You're welcome to come join me, if you like. Probably gonna last an hour or so? That's usually a safe bet.

It'll be over at the usual spot if you're interested. See you there (if you show up).
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Featured

Regarding Commissions and Requests (again) by Kaiseto, journal

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