#RPG #Art – ZelArt Scholarship 2017-2018

YOU CAN DONATE MONEY HERE 

IF YOU WANT TO DONATE ART, SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM

Let me sum up…

Hi. I’m James ‘Grim’ Desborough, owner of Postmortem Studios. We’re an independent RPG game and fiction publisher with a large portfolio of genre stock art. I’ve been working in the RPG industry for nearly 20 years and have worked with a lot of great artists and publishers.

For many years I worked with a young, promising artists known as ‘DarkZel’, until he was tragically killed in an accident. In his memory I have run a scholarship fund for several years as a competition, helping out young or struggling artists with money for supplies or just to help them through school. I want to help them, in the same way, I helped Zel.

This year we’re doing something a little different. My ill health will not allow me to run a full crowdfunder and competition as I have in the past, and it has also become apparent that we do not have a large enough stockpile of stock art – yet – to make the scholarship self-sustaining. To that end, this year, I intend to solicit donated art and to use the money raised here to commission art pieces from young and struggling artists, all of which will be sold as stock art to help the viability of the scholarship long term.

By helping here, you’ll be contributing to aid for young artists for years to come.

What We Need

The money raised from the last year’s sales of the scholarship stock art will be combined with whatever is raised here to commission pieces from young and struggling artists. $500 will allow us to commission a number of pieces which will then be sold on sites like RPGNOW into the games design and writing community.

‘Exposure’ has a bad rap when it comes to creative work – I’m a writer, believe me, I know – but artists who donate art or get commissioned will get exposure to a large, potential pool of clients and their contact information will be disseminated to anyone who buys their art. I will also promote them on my blogs, social media and Youtube channels. Those commissioned will, of course, also be paid!

If we don’t reach the full goal, whatever amount is raised will go on commissioning art. Similarly, if we exceed our goal, all the money raised will go on commissioning art.

What do you get? You get to help create a legacy and to make young and struggling artist’s lives a little easier.

Other Ways You Can Help

If you can’t donate, what you can do is share the campaign and encourage others to do so. You can make people aware of the existing Scholarship stock art and encourage them to buy it and use it in their own projects. If you’re an artist, you can donate work and the details for that can be found on the Postmortem Studios blog.

DONATING ART

If you’re an artist you can donate art to the stock-art stockpile to help raise money in the future – and even if you can’t donate art, please let other artists know. Art you donate will be sold as stock art to other RPG companies and publishers with the requirement that you be credited and linked. ‘Exposure’ is bullshit, as any creative person knows, but you will get some of that in addition to helping other artists.

  • Art can be of any genre. Fantasy typically sells best, then science fiction, then horror and then the rest.
  • Art can be of any style. Realistic, stylised, anime/manga, traditional fantasy, painted, sketched or any other.
  • Art can be B&W or colour.
  • Art must be submitted digitally at 300-600 dpi and preferably at approximately A4, A5 or A6 international sizes.
  • Art may be existing art, provided you have the rights it has not already been licensed to anyone else.
  • Suggestive or nude art is permissible, but not ‘full on hardcore’.
  • Violent art is permissible.
  • Art can be donated year round, but this push will run until the end of January.
  • Please mail grim@postmort.demon.co.uk your entry (or a link to a download site) and include your portfolio web address and contact email for new customers.

 

The Darkzel Scholarship Scheme

Zel

*I’M EXTENDING THE TIME FOR ENTRIES UNTIL THE END OF JANUARY, ANNOUNCING BY THE END OF FEBRUARY*

Introduction
Earlier this year I discovered that my good friend, Zachary Harris – better known to you as Darkzel – had been killed. He was in Korea, teaching English, when he was struck by a bus crossing the road and killed. A tragic, pointless waste of the life of a talented artist who – I believe – would have had a grand future ahead of him.

I have struggled to think of a useful and respectful way in which to honour Zel’s memory and to continue his legacy. In many ways our relationship was defined by the fact that the work I gave him helped pay him through his schooling and that we became friends as I watched him grow.

Life is tough for students as a whole and art students, perhaps, in particular. All that work, often without the support of friends and family, chasing a dream that may, ultimately, never work out and never pay. Fantasy artists are being crunched quite a bit as well, work is scarce and pay hasn’t really increased – at least in analog gaming – for some years.

If in some, small way, I can help other art students to get through their schooling, even if it’s just to make sure they’re kept in ramen noodles, that strikes me as a good way to remember Zel and to continue to help.

The Scholarship
Every year, every December, I will announce the opening of the Darkzel Scholarship for applications. This will consist of the previous year’s takings in terms of stock art sales from Zel’s work and sales of previous winner’s art. This will help keep the project relevant, continue to add material and continue to increase the scholarship fund and material year by year to keep it relevant.

This year’s scholarship amount will be somewhere over $250 US.

The Details

  • You will submit a piece of art at least A6 in size and at least 300 dpi, by email to grim@postmort.demon.co.uk
  • You grant permission, should you win, for this piece of art to be sold as stock art on RPGNOW.com. Money raised from these sales will go to next year’s scholarship.
  • You will include the name you wish to be credited by. The terms of use of the stockart license requires the users to credit you.
  • You will include a link to your online portfolio, deviantart page or similar.
  • You must be able to accept payment via Paypal.

FAQ
Q: Does it have to be adult art?
A: 
It doesn’t have to be adult art. Zel worked on adult projects like Hentacle and Cthentacle but he also produced stock art that wasn’t suggestive (as well as some that was). Zel also did science fiction, fantasy and horror work for me and elsewhere he did comics, adult and not, furry and not, LGBT and not. Zel did a huge amount of different stuff and you can do what you want too. Do what you love. Equally, don’t feel you have to hold back on what you draw.

Q: Does it have to be B&W or colour?
A: 
It doesn’t matter. Do what you prefer. Colour is more work and more impressive – often – but it is also less useful in many cases as stock art. There’s pluses and minuses to both. It’s up to you.

Q: Does it have to be anime style?
A:
Zel started out with a much more typical anime style and I think a lot of people have gotten their start this way in the last 10-20 years in the way my generation got a lot out of copying the style of superhero and sci-fi comics. His style developed over time and he’d really begun to find his own artistic voice towards the end, away from those roots. So no, you do not have to stick to a comic/anime or any other particular style. The only thing it really has to be is genre based. That is science-fiction, fantasy, horror, pulp, superhero etc.

Q: Can I make more than one submission?
A:
You can submit as many pieces of art as you want to. They will be considered as a single entry however.

Q: When will I be paid?
A:
Submissions will be accepted through to the end of December each year and I will try to make a decision and pay by the end of January.

Q: Do I have to be a student?
A: 
Yes. The Darkzel Scholarship is meant to help up and coming artists of the future. To give them a paying gig, help them get through school/college, soften some of the monetary pain day to day and to give them genuine exposure and the chance to have their art appear in real products and pay-it forward to others in following years. You can be an adult student though, the problems are no less when you’re juggling family, ‘real’ work and learning.

Q: Can I donate my submission for sale without winning?
A: 
Absolutely! If you want your submission to go up for sale anyway, even if you don’t win, please say so. The more art we have, the more we can earn for the next year’s scholarship. When you make your entry, please say so!

Q: How will you be judging the winner?
A: 
What I’m looking for is an ineffable quality. It is hard to define. I’m just looking for something that excites and engages, that stands out as a usable and great piece of illustration.

Q: I can’t enter, how can I help?
A:
Spread the word, tell students that you know that this is available. Talk about it on forums, tweet, facebook, G+, youtube, whatever you can do to pass it on.

Q: Can I submit art I’ve already done or does it have to be new?
A:
I would prefer you make a piece for this, but I appreciate December can be busy what with Christmas etc. So long as the submitted piece was created and completed within the year of the competition that would be OK.

Q: What happens with the image rights?
A: Anyone who wins or allows their art to be sold to aid the scholarship allows that art to be used in projects by anyone who buys the stock. Otherwise you retain all rights. You can sell prints, make T-shirts, use it in your galleries and portfolios, sell it to somebody else. Whatever you want.

Q: Zel was very supportive of his LGBT friends and community. How does that figure into this?
A: If you want to do LGBT themed art to submit, you’re more than welcome. It won’t impact at all on your chances and would be fitting.

2013 Scholarship fund: $250+