A few years ago I became seriously ill. I was in a coma on heavy duty meds, and had a kidney transplant. I’m much better than I was, but I can’t do a lot of things like I could before.
We’ve now got quite a few kids in the extended family, so a while ago I wrote a short story to try to make it easier for them to understand. My wife and family like the story and have suggested making it into a picture story book. Problem is, I can’t draw and my imagination isn’t very good.
How can I get pictures for the story if I can’t do it myself and don’t have the money to hire someone? I want to avoid using AI tools because of the potential copyright issues.
I haven’t tried the services like Fiverr because I’ve heard that they force a race to the bottom on prices, but does anyone have any experience, or have any ideas of what I can do please?
Thanks in advance :)
I want to acknowledge that this question is generally well-intended, but also want to point out that artists are working just like anyone else. If you want good artwork, you should expect to compensate the artist for their time and expertise. I’m not an artist, but IMO paying someone on Fiverr values art more than looking for a free option. I think that’s probably your best bet for the criteria you have. Alternatively you might try to commission someone you find online. Hope you find what you’re looking for!
Thanks for the advice, you’ve hit the nail on the head.
I’m in an awkward position where I think I’ve got something that will make the kids happy, but I can only do part of it, and I don’t want to take advantage of someone for the other part. I’m looking for something that can hopefully do both.
Give the person who helps you credit for it. Like, put their name on it.
Sometimes people like to do things just for the satisfaction of doing them.
Use a whiteboard notebook so the kids can do the drawings themselves?
I’ll double this, I’ve got a kid’s game called CoraQuest where they got kids to make drawings/sketches of their ideas, and had an artist touch them up for production. The art in the game is great because of this.
Why would you do that to me! :o
CoraQuest looks amazing, but it’s out of stock everywhere here :(
That’s a good idea, thanks :)
Now to see if any of the little buggers can draw :D
This made me laugh, thank you :)
While I’m not averse to sailing the seas on occasion, this is one of those times where I should do everything by the book.
I mean, unless you just have the absolute worst narcs for a family, it’s not like it matters what you send them
You can use royalty free stock photos, like from https://unsplash.com
I hadn’t thought of photos, I was leaning more towards cartoony drawings. I’ll have a look, thanks :)
Learn how to draw poorly, stage photos of what you want to showcase in the picture, then trace over it. It’d be 100% more genuine and unique. This can be learned in a week at most.
That’s a good idea, I’ll give it a try, thanks :)
Another option would be to hire an illustrator and draw up a contract where they may have a small upfront cost, and give them a cut of the sales.
Or you can contact a school and see if anyone would like to do it for
freethe experienceThanks for the suggestions :)
It’s not something that I’m planning on selling, hence the low budget and why I haven’t gone down that route. If it did sell I’d be over the moon, as well as really shocked :D
Have you considered www.OpenClipArt.org ?
XOR, you can simply learn actual-drawing, which isn’t difficult, it does require a kind of honesty/patience & the actually right instruction…
The book you’d need is “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, the 4th Definitive Edition”, by Betty Edwards.
These drawing-pairs are from her 5-DAYS killer-class.
https://www.drawright.com/before-after
Unless you’re autistic, like me, 5 days is possible.
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Have you considered www.OpenClipArt.org ?
I hadn’t, mainly because I hadn’t heard of it before :D
It looks like a great resource though, so thank you :)
Unfortunately, the chances of me learning to draw are slim. I can draw a passable doodle if I can get my head in the right place, but as I said in the post, my imagination is awful. I can’t picture things properly, so can’t get a mental image of what I want the thing on the paper to look like. I’m waiting on a diagnosis of autism and ADHD and possibly aphantasia. Trying to get things down on paper is very difficult for me.
Before cheap, ubiquitous photographic reproduction, drawing was taught to people as a skill.
You might not be the next Gary Larsen (I’m no dillitente) but I bet if you tried you could become a good illustrator.
Having said that, you still have to learn inking, coloring, etc.
Just wanted to say I think most people can learn the skill in the same way most people can learn to write a rhetorical essay or do arithmetic.
Edit: not trivializing your issues, friend, just offering encouragment!
not trivializing your issues, friend, just offering encouragment!
Don’t worry, that’s how I took it :)
You make a good point. I need to try drawing and keep practising. Even if it does turn out to be useless for the book, I can still draw with the kids.
I might even make them feel good be being so much better than me! :D
Can you help me understand what you mean by “ Unless you’re autistic, like me, 5 days is possible”? Are you saying you think you can’t learn to draw in that time frame because of your autism?
Search for creative commons or public domain artwork - Wikimedia Commons is a good start, or a google image search (under the image search bar select tools -> usage rights -> creative commons rights)
Or don’t worry about the copyright issues of AI and learn to use that to create things you want - I suggest SDXL is the best option
Use AI but lie to people about it.
I like your style :D
Well, here in Vietnam a lot of art students and graduates would probably be quite happy to take this on.
I recall RMIT has a local job forum, for small jobs for current students and alumni. The instruction is all in English, so communication should not be a problem. Maybe other universities have the same.
Or maybe an art school in the Philippines where English language instruction is also common? I bet they have job forums too.
In my workplace we’ve got a 3D designer or two, probably not ideal for your task though :(
BTW using AI to generate an image as an artistic brief is a great application that supports both human and machine artists. This is my biggest use of the tech in production so far – really great especially when language barriers are present.
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Another option is to shop it around agents and publishers and make the illustrations someone else’s problem!
@Tippon if you are going the traditional publishing route, publishers don’t actually expect children’s book authors to provide the illustrations necessarily.
If you are self-publishing, I suggest you reach out to the kidney transplant community (support groups etc) to see if anyone can volunteer.
There might be someone else in your shoes who can draw and not write, who would love to be part of this project.
That’s a great idea, thanks :)
I’ve just mentioned in another reply that the book is currently a bit too personalised, so probably wouldn’t appeal to other people. If I can rewrite it a bit to remove any personal details, that could work though :)
I think that might be a good thing to do if you can; there are probably others in your situation who would love to have a book like this.
You could even do something like donate proceeds to a kidney charity or hospital.
That’s a good point. I’m lucky enough to have received my kidney from a live donor, and the story is about how they saved the day, and because of that I was able to have a family with my wife, so it could go down quite well. I’d have to remove the personalised information, but that shouldn’t be too hard :)
