#TTRPG – Zelart Scholarship Winning Art Available

The winning piece for the ’20-21 Zelart Scholarship is in, and available.

You can get it HERE, and use it for your personal and professional products for a small fee. All proceeds go to next year’s Zelart Scholarship fund. There’s also a bunch of new stock art up, if you’re looking for something else to fill out your projects.

Here’s Mike’s story:

I am an adjunct faculty member teaching courses in Art and Game Design at a local college and university. When the world is normal, I am also working as a Graphic Designer and selling prints and drawings at various conventions. It’s been a ride of year to say the least! Schools are looking at major cutbacks, with enrollment plummeting. This means I have no confirmation if I will be given any courses to teach in the Fall. My Graphic Design job also dried up when the shop I was working for suddenly closed. And well, conventions, those are on an obvious holding pattern. Needless to say, it’s been disaster management for the last 12 months, with an unknown recovery time expected for the near future.

That was the glum reality, not far what many artists have faced this year. Now for the art. I focus heavily on monsters – both designing them mechanically as well as illustrating them. On occasion, I may dabble with other things like a map, full scene, or even portraits, but it always comes back down to the monsters. My artwork is mostly digital these days with some pen and ink to keep my hand still working with some traditional material. The creature I included here is a Greater Wisp from some game and world building I do on the side. These act like vacuums for living energy and will suck areas dry of life. That is the shorter description, I won’t go into lengthy detail here.

So onto the main thing. That “What will I do with this money part”. I am holding on financially. This means I can maintain a rent, food and a vehicle, but it’s difficult to keep the business functioning at all. Recent issues relating to poor service forced my to get rid of my webhost. Some of the money would go into resurrecting the site and giving it a functioning store. I would also like to get into setting up a mentorship and moving at least part of my studio into art content creation. This will take a few pieces of new gear. Anything left over I would place into printing new inventory. Sounds ambitious but a quick breakdown of how the funds would be spent – Website is around $250 for the first year. Capture card and new mic are around $150. And the remainder would go into prints. I can probably get together 2 new prints with runs of about 25 each.

I hope all this helped Mike out. That’s what we try to do with the scholarship!

Zelart Scholarship Seeks More Entries! Win $500!

The Zelart Scholarship fully funded, but we have still had very few entries. While you would think artists would be clamouring to get a $500 award, especially in times like this, social media algorithms and over-sensitive spam detection make it hard to get this in front of anyone. Sharing this post would, in that context, be greatly appreciated, putting it in front of more artist’s eyes.

Here’s the short-short version:

This is a scholarship fund, intended primarily for college and university students with an interest in genre art.

It is also open to any artists who are in reduced circumstances (long-term unemployment, homelessness, disability etc).

To enter all you need is a piece of print-quality art, to which the rights are available and which you have created.

You send that to me, explain your circumstances and if you win you get $500 and the art you submitted goes on sale as stock art within the RPG community to help support next year’s scholarship.

For more details contact grim@post-mort.com

#RPG – ZELART Scholarship for 2020-2021 is up and running!

Fundraising has begun for the 2020-2021 Zelart Scholarship.

The long and the short of it is that each year we raise money for struggling genre artists, or those currently in education. This year more people are struggling than ever. We’d love your donations, but we also accept art donations to be sold as stock art to fundraise for next year.

You can get some of the details on this blog, or at the fundraising link.

We’re also looking for entrants, so if you ARE a genre artist who is hard up or in education, you can enter for a chance to get a £500 payout to help you out (payment is usually in February).

To enter you need to send a piece of (at least) 300 dpi, A6 art, black and white or colour, to grim@post-mort.com marked as a Zelart Entry.

This should be genre art (SF, horror, fantasy etc) by you and free to be re-sold as stock art to help raise money for next year. A winner will be chosen by the end of February and paid out.

Please spread the word both to people who can enter, and those who might be able to donate art or money to the project.

Thanks!

#RPG – Zelart Scholarship for Genre Artists 2019-2020

It’s only January the 6th and I’m already a bit overstretched. Despite one of my resolutions being not to let that happen.

This is for good reasons at least! I used the end of last year to raise money for my friend Jamie’s wheelchair – which he should be getting soon, but we do need a bit more funding to cover fitting and customisations should you feel generous.

I’ve also done a couple of things and have given money to help fight the Australian Fires. I’d encourage other people to do that too.

I’ve also had to help out a couple of hard-up friends (worse off than me) over the holiday period.

I don’t know that I have the energy to do justice to another fundraising campaign right now, and there’s always a great deal of negativity from certain quarters when I run the scholarship. Negativity I don’t feel as equipped to tackle as usual.

I did, recently, discover some of Zel’s art that hadn’t been published yet. I will be putting the usable parts of this art up for sale, piece by piece, in the coming weeks and days.

Sales raised just about $100 specifically for the scholarship last year. I will invest that money in new pieces of art, from people that need commissions.

Otherwise, I throw this open to artists associated with the game industry or fandom, if you want to donate any pieces to the cause of raising money for next year and helping more young artists, it would be greatly appreciated.

You can contact me at grim@postmort.demon.co.uk

#RPG #Art – Zelart Scholarship – LAST CALL

I honestly don’t know why it’s so difficult to give away money, but apparently, it is. I had selected a winner of the scholarship but unfortunately, due to injury, they are unable to complete work and get the funds. I’m going to throw them a couple of commissions down the line, but I’m uncomfortable sitting on this money any more.

So, last call.

If you are a genre artist (Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Military or other genre work) and are currently hard up (unemployed, disabled, medical expenses, in education or otherwise struggling) please get in touch, with a sample of your work and/or an entry within the next SEVEN DAYS.

Entrants, if accepted, will be awarded a scholarship/hardship grant of $500 USD in exchange for their entry, which will be then sold as stock art in the RPG industry, hopefully leading to more work and contacts in the future, as well as funding the next scholarship fund.

Contact me at grim@postmort.demon.co.uk or via social media for more details.

If I do not receive any entries by midnight on the 8th of March 2019 I will do what I did a previous year and use the money to commission works from artists offering commissions to help ease hardship (#commissionsopen, deviantart and so on).

Please share this everywhere and alert people you know who could qualify.

#RPG #ART – Zelart Scholarship 2018-2019

DONATE, SHARE, ENTER!

Many artists are struggling. The gig economy, the degree of competition, university or college fees, it all adds up to be a massive discouragement to many artists and for those who make their living from their art, life can be extremely precarious. The Zelart Scholarship seeks to redress this for those who have the biggest challenges ahead of them, young or disadvantaged genre artists. For several years we’ve been doing all we can to help.

The Zelart Scholarship

Hi, my name is James ‘Grim’ Desborough. I’m an author and roleplaying game designer from the UK, with my own small press publisher, Postmortem Studios. I run the Zelart Scholarship in memory of my friend and collaborator, ‘Zel’.

Zel was an artist I worked with and helped through his education. We met through friends and formed a strong working relationship together. We made card games together and he provided illustrations for several of my gaming books. I got a great sense of satisfaction from helping a young, budding artist through school and watching his talent blossom.

Sadly, Zel was killed in an accident before I got to see him fully achieve his artistic potential or the success he so richly deserved.

Casting about for something I could do to commemorate him, I remembered how we had met, how the work I gave him had helped him so much and how good it had felt to nurture that talent. The best way to remember Zel, I felt, was to do the same for others.

In my day to day work I do what I can, deliberately seeking out young, marginalised, disabled, unemployed, homeless and other disadvantaged artists to give them a leg up, money and help in getting the attention of the RPG and publishing community to get them into more regular work.

The Zelart scholarship is a natural extension of this. A way to hunt out and promote new talent and to give them a lump sum of cash to smooth their way.

What We Need & What You Get

We sell Zel’s back catalogue of stock art, along with donated artworks and the artwork of past winners to raise funds over the year and supplement that with what we can raise via this fundraiser. This isn’t about selling a product to you, but what you get out of it is more, reasonably priced stock art, a way to nurture new artists and a warm sense of self-satisfaction.

Whatever money we get will go to the scholarship winner, if we raise a great deal over and above our target we may institute second or third tier awards. Whatever we raise will go to artists.

Risks & Challenges

It can be challenging to find people both to sponsor and to enter into this scholarship. Previous years this has proven very challenging. Whatever you can do to spread the word to potential sponsors, donators and entrants is greatly appreciated.

Other Ways You Can Help

Besides a contribution, you can help out in many other ways.

Are you a young artist or an artist suffering from reduced circumstances? Then enter!

Are an artist who is doing OK for themselves and has some spare personal pieces they don’t mind being sold to support this enterprise? You can donate art!

Do you know a young artist or an artist who needs the money due to disability, unemployment or other issues? Tell them about it!

Rules for Entry

Entries to try and win the scholarship award should meet the following requirements:

1. At least A6 at 300 dpi and able to be delivered digitally.
2. It is preferred that you have a Paypal account for ease of payment.
3. You must be either a student, or an artist in reduced circumstances, whatever those might be.
4. Your art must fit into the loose definition of ‘genre art’. That is science fiction, fantasy, horror and similar.
5. Adult art is permitted, but nothing ‘hardcore’. Consider your limit to be that of ‘burlesque’.
6. Contact for further clarifications and entires is grim AT postmort DOT demon DOT co DOT uk.

#RPG – Stock Art – Celtic Smith

We have a new piece of stock art, by a new artist, up for sale. This piece depicting a celtic-style smith, hard at work in his forge.

Postmortem Studios sells a metric shitload of stock art, so if you’re a budding (or even established) games studio or want to add a little flair to your handouts, we’re your one-stop shop for all things artsy fartsy. There’s even a 400 piece bundle, which makes a great ‘starter pack’ for amateur publishers, and a 100 piece bundle with a more varied array of artists and styles, sales of which go to support our artist scholarship.

If you’re an artist we’re always looking for more contributors and if you need to make some quick cash, we might be willing to buy unsold art you have to sell on as stock art. You get money short-term, we get money long-term, and you get The Dreaded Exposure to a potential audience of new clients. Don’t hesitate to get in touch, and follow us on social media for opportunities.

Please do get in touch if you’re interested.

#RPG #Art #Cosplay – ZelArt Scholarship Commissions

The ZelArt Scholarship fundraiser has paid out and combined with the private donations there’s about $600 to play with. As I’ve covered, this year we’ve done things a little differently. To increase the sustainability of the project and the scholarship, this year the money will be going to as many art commissions as possible to be sold as stock art to support the scholarship into the future.

To that end, I am now looking for artists to commission.

I would prefer, still, to hire artists who are at school, college or university or who need the money due to some hardship or necessity. I’d still like to help people, even doing things this way around, as much as possible.

• Obviously, the cheaper people can provide work the better, as we can get more work to sell. That said here’s what we’re looking for…
• Original content – you can provide suggestions or we can.
• Fantasy, science fiction, horror, post apocalypse, steampunk, modern cop/spy/soldier, occult and other genre material.
• Characters, weapons, ships, vehicles, anything that fits. Spot-art for pages would also be good, several smaller pieces (like spot art) on a page would also be acceptable.
• Quarter, half or full page at 300-600 dpi, colour or black and white (B&W sells better).
• We’re opening up to cosplayers too, the same sorts of requirements apply and your content must be original. There isn’t the money to commission costumes or shoots, but you would be helping a good cause and making a little bit of cash!

Commissioned art will be paid on completion and your contact details and portfolio link will be included as part of the stock license. This means that any company or individual using your art will be given your information and must include it in any products that they produce. ‘Exposure’ has a bad rep, with good reason, but on top of being paid it can’t hurt!

If any artists want to DONATE art, they can also do that and it would be greatly appreciated. We’re open to that all year round.

Contact HERE for more details or to put yourself forward.

#RPG – Darkzel Scholarship Winner Announced!

The winner of this year’s Darkzel Scholarship is Emily Vitori, who received a $600 payment thanks to the fundraising at IndieGoGo’s Generosity Platform and money raised over the last year from legacy sales of Zel’s art and those of previous winners.

Emily is a keen and enthusiastic member of the gaming community, known and loved by many. She’s also a brilliant artist with an Art Nouveau quality to much of her work, mostly accomplished via traditional media and techniques.

Emily says:

Inspired by gaming and mythology since I first overheard my brother play Dungeons & Dragons as a child, I’ve been drawing fantastical characters and creatures to help others bring their creations to life and for my own personal art therapy for many years now. I received an Art Education degree in college and did my best to instill that same joy in others through teaching art to young children for five years in Ohio, but unfortunately had to give that career up in order to help support my husband who has since become disabled. Now I work in the insurance industry but I still haven’t given up on the joy that art brings to me and others as I do freelance illustration and fantasy portraiture by commission. 

And I do suggest you give this lovely lady some commissions. I’m loathe to put her contact details up here, but if you contact me privately I can pass them on so that you can commission from her.

Emily also – very generously – offered seven pieces of art for sale as stock art and these will be going on on RPGNOW over the next few days. All art sold from the Zelart section goes on to support the scholarship in the future.

Scholarship Report for 2016/17

Weirdly, running the scholarship seems to get harder every year. I’ve stepped up publicity as much as I can, my social reach has increased (thanks to Youtube and maxing out followership on Facebook) but in spite of this and expanding publicity to directly emailing the art and design departments of every university and every college in the UK it has still proven very hard to get entries.

If anyone would like to volunteer to help publicise in the future, that would be greatly appreciated.

I also received a lot of promises of support from various people that never materialised. Only Ben Rodriguez who promised a piece of donation art to help support the scholarship delivered. If you are a fantasy artist who wants to donate work to support the scholarship, you can donate at any time. Not just when we’re fundraising. Just let me know.

We’ve also suffered, again, from attempted sabotage. Because my name is attached to the project and because of my stances on free expression, along with various other issues, some people have taken it upon themselves to ‘warn’ people not to get involved or not to support. While I hope plugging away and continuing to confound the scuttlebutt will disarm these attempts it does cause damage and interferes with fundraising and getting entries. Why someone would seek to prevent hard-up artists getting aid in this way… I don’t know, but it happens.

Whatever the case, running the scholarship has become increasingly stressful and difficult and I think I will need to recruit help next year if I am to keep running it.

Watch this space.

#Art #RPG – Last call for Darkzel Scholarship Entries

All entries for the Darkzel Art Scholarship must be submitted (to grim@postmort.demon.co.uk) by Midnight UK time tomorrow.

This is your last chance to enter, it can be a pre-existing piece or a new piece, you qualify if you’re in education or in reduced circumstances.

We’ve had very few entries this year, so you’re really in with a chance if you can submit anything half decent.

Good luck!