#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 #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 #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.

 

#RPG #Art Darkzel Scholarship 2016-17 Commencing Soon

The Darkzel Scholarship for 2016-17 will be starting fundraising soon.

This will be the fourth annual fundraiser in memory of my long-time art collaborator ‘Zel’ Harris, cruelly taken from us in a terrible accident, putting paid to what I always thought was a very promising career in art. In his memory and given working for me helped him through his education, I have set up an annual scholarship to aid genre artists working their way through college or in reduced circumstances such as disability, long term unemployment, mental health crises and other hardships.

The fundraising part will run through the month of December and we’ll be accepting entries through December and January before awarding the scholarship by the end of February.

We already have a fund of $100 from this year’s art sales, I’ll be seeking to raise another $500 on top of that for a total of at least $600 as a scholarship.

The aim is still to make the scholarship self funding and it has become apparent that a much stronger effort is going to be needed to make this happen. As such I’m doing a big push this year for donation art. As well as supporting with financial contributions, sharing on social media etc I will be hitting up artists for contributions that can be sold to help support the scholarship in the coming years.

More information will be coming soon, but for now if you’re an artist or know artists and are willing to help, please contact me about submitting a piece for sale (as stock art) to help continue to fund the scholarship. Your work will be sold electronically and will be used – with credit – by multiple role-playing and publishing companies as well as contributing via the sales to the fund.

These pieces should be genre fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror, superheroes or similar) and 300-600dpi. Old pieces or concept pieces you haven’t otherwise sold are perfectly acceptable.

I think you, in advance, for your aid, whether in donating art or helping with the publicity and fundraising in the near future!

Love and bunnies,

Grim

x

Zelart Scholarship Winner 2015-2016

This year’s winner is Erika Markkinen, a talented young artist and tattooist from Finland.

Erika is heading back into full-time education to train in digital media and has had some recent setbacks including a nasty car accident and some broken equipment, and so best fit the criteria for the award (supporting young genre artists in education).

Erika’s piece is available for sale HERE and she is available for commissions and, if you’re in Finland, tattoos.

(Full disclosure: Erika has worked for me before on FLICKPIG, where she did outstanding work drawing an adventuring party of humanoid pigs. I consulted with several people to avoid positive discrimination on my part).

***

The runner up, who kindly donated their submission to support the scholarship was Inna Vjuzhanina.

Inna is a brilliant colour artist with some outstanding work who is, nonetheless, struggling at the moment to find commissions. If you look at her work this is somewhat hard to believe. Here portfolio contains many outstanding pieces of work, which can be viewed here. She also sells prints of her work which can be found here.

Her donated piece can be purchased and downloaded HERE.

***

The scholarship faced a lot of challenges this year. It was extremely hard to get entries for reasons that aren’t 100% clear, but we did – even – face active sabotage with an apparently obsessive troll trying to ‘warn people off’ from applying and casting various aspersions. This is an enormous shame and a horrible thing to do as it only ends up hurting the very bright, young artists we’re seeking to help.

I hope we can up our game next year, perhaps by contacting colleges, schools and universities more directly, and earlier, to encourage both donations and applications.

Advice welcome.

ZelArt Scholarship Extension

Unbelievably, it appears that artists don’t like free money as there have been no applications for the Zelart Scholarship.

As such I am extending the application period until the end of February.

Here’s the cliff notes on how to apply:

1. In order to apply you need to be in full-time education or to be in reduced circumstances (disabled, long term unemployed or in need of the money (around $600-700 at the moment) for a good reason.
2. You need to submit a piece of artwork to be considered. Ideally this should be a new piece of art and it needs to be of publishable quality (at least 300dpi and at least A6 in size).
3. Your artwork and your area of interest must be science fiction or fantasy, more broadly ‘genre’ fiction pieces are what is desired. That can include horror, post-apocalyptic and other sub-genres as well.
4. The winning piece of artwork will be sold in future in order to help fund and perpetuate the scholarship.
5. Send a query to grim AT postmort DOT demon DOT co DOT uk if you need more information.
6. As and when you win you’ll need to be able to receive the money via Paypal.

The fundraiser appears to still be open for late donations. If you ARE an artist who wants to help you can also donate art for sale to help perpetuate the scholarship.

Once again, I ask any and al SF&F artists out there to help spread the word to art students and struggling artists everywhere. A few hundred dollars isn’t much but it’s enough to eat for a while, get art supplies, replace a broken tablet or tattoo gun and to make a difference.

If we continue to have no applications I will either roll the money over to next year, or find a deserving charity (perhaps the CBLDF) to donate to.

HELP NEEDED – ZelArt Scholarship 2015-16

We made our target, but I suspect a couple of donations may be fraudulent so I’d like to get a bit of a safety net, plus I’d just like to be able to offer whoever does gain the scholarship more money.

There’s a bigger problem though. Usually by this point I have received a half-dozen applications. This year I have received…

…none.

This is a problem. There’s no point having a scholarship scheme if you can’t give it to anyone.

So PLEASE HELP!

Share, tweet, Facebook, G+, mention on Youtube, pass this on in your blog, let artist forums and communities know, send up flares, smoke signals, whatever you can.

The scholarship is for science fiction and fantasy artists, primarily in school, college or university who could use the money for supplies or to make life a little easier. It’s also open to SF&F artists in reduced circumstances like the long-term unemployed and the disabled.

So please, pass it on, let people know.

I can be contacted at GRIM at POSTMORT dot DEMON dot CO dot UK

Darkzel Petition & Scholarship

Two things.

First, while it has been a couple of years now since my friend Zel’s death (Zachary Harris) the court case around his death rumbles on and compensation relating to it is still being disputed. I’ve done what I can to help by offering my testimony and perspective, but another way in which his family’s lawyers have decided to try and pressure the court (who only want to pay out on a beginning freelancer’s salary) into acknowledging that Zel was a talented young artist with a bright future who could have and would have made a lot more as time went on.

So, that said if you appreciated the art in anything Zel worked on for me (Blood, Cthentacle, Hentacle, Final Straw and others) PLEASE sign the petition to show your support.

That petition can be found HERE.

I would also appreciate support for the DarkZel scholarship, which is my way of honouring Zel’s memory by doing for others what I did for him in helping a bright new talent get through education with a little less trouble and stress. The link to that can be found HERE.

Thank you in advance for your help, and if you are a young artist or an artist living in reduced circumstances, please consider making an entry to win the scholarship yourself.