resources for free or low cost art?

Yes, the images are either public domain or you pay a fee for commercial use. It is worth noting that some sites charge for public domain images that you could find for free with a little work. These are usually illustrations from old books. Some places sell you rights to use an image, but the rights aren't exclusive. If you commission work directly from an artist and purchase exclusive commercial rights, you will pay more than for a private commission, but you get the rights for reproduction. Make sure you draft a good contract though.

There's a guy at http://recedingrules.blogspot.com/ who posts up public domain art for gaming, plus silhouettes that he generates himself, which are free for commercial use. That inspired me to start making silhouettes of my own for some projects, which work out phenomenally well.

Dover also puts out a line of clip art books that come with CDs of image files. You can check many of them out at the library. I think they have a caveat that you can only use ten or so images from a given book in a commercial work, although its hardly enforceable seeing as how they are public domain compilations. The actual images are readily available elsewhere, and there are plenty of similar books.

For commissions, you can often name your price if you live in a college town. Put a flyer up in the art building, but get to know the artist, get a good look at their portfolio, and have a signed contract in hand before any money changes hand. Likewise, lots of hungry artists on deviantart. On top of that, some big name industry artists do accept commissions from the public and give surprisingly reasonable rates (biggest hurdle is usually their overbooked schedule). I had good luck approaching an artist who was doing stellar work online but clearly getting underpaid because of the genre of her work.

I found it helpful to lay out specifics for myself and plan out what I was looking for, which informed my search. What established artists inspire your vision for this particular game? For my most recent, Will McLean, Jim Holloway, and Ushio Shinohara. Is there a style of art that best suits your game, like the pointilism pen and ink you see in a lot of older Cthulhu game art, Manga, Art Nouveau, etc.? Is there a color palette that you envision? I picked a cover artist partly because they did great work with a purple palette, which fit my game. Figuring this stuff out can save you some time in the long run and help you maintain a consistent aesthetic throughout your work instead of being all over the place with the art (manga on one page, Soviet realism the next).

Are you under the impression that the pictures you find on Google are public domain? This is not even almost true. Very little of what you find on Google or other search engines is free for commercial use.

There are a few sites that offer free clipart. It's mostly pretty bad, and the free stuff is only teasers to get you to come to their for-pay sites. However, if you are willing to be patient looking, you can find decent art for around $3 or $4 per image, where you have a single-use license that is not exclusive.

I made my game Jelly Bean Farmers this way. (I don't want to put a sales link in order to avoid being a spammer, but you can Google it if you're interested.) Here are all the cards. http://zag.net/farmers/ You can see that the quality is not as good as if I had hired an artist, and there are two or three different styles being mixed. However, since it's the first game I made, the only one I've actually published (self-published) and it was all done before I even knew about this site or BGG, I think that the (many) mistakes I made are forgivable. Anyway, I'm still pretty proud of it.

Glide -

While this isn't fully comprehensive, this is a great post on getting started with finding artists:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1000737/tips-soliciting-artistdesigners...

I'd try to have some of those things thought out before I reach out... And important, especially since you are low-no budget... Don't be offended when people turn you down. It's not personal. Even with cash, sometimes artists are busy, and sometimes they just don't resonant with your project. Be willing to keep trying until you find the person who you connect with.

But make sure your game is mostly finished from a mechanics perspective! It sucks to commission art that you can't use... And it sucks for an artist to spend time putting together a piece that gets dropped (regardless of whether or not they were paid for it).

Haha oh ya, I'm expecting to get turned down a bunch by artist. Part of the fun of it all, right?

For the game I'm working on, I first approached Jim Holloway, because his had shaped my vision of gaming since I first started playing 1st ed. AD&D at the age of 5. Plus, from a commercial standpoint, he did hilarious illustrations for the older Paranoia books, which fit my game and would appeal to my target demographic. I know that Mr. Holloway did commissions, so I contacted him through his website. I received a nice email from his agent with a follow-up by Mr. Holloway himself, who shared some kind words but turned me down on account of his busy schedule. It was a nice experience.

After that, I remembered some illustrations I'd seen a long time ago by a niche market artist. I am not a fan of her subject material, but her style was a perfect fit for what I wanted on my cover, and I knew that my RPG wouldn't be a genre outside of her ken. I shot off an email through her site and received a response within an hour. We discussed things, I gave a timetable for funding and production, and I'll be receiving an initial sketch sometime soon.

The gist of what I wrote was:

"Hello. I was curious if you do commission work for commercial use. I am finishing up a tabletop role playing game and am in need of an artist for a full-color [B&W, etc.] cover illustration. The product deadline is X if that suits your schedule. I am very impressed with your work [citing some familiarity and how it is compatible with your needs helps]. This is my Xth project of this sort, and I have Y and Z credentials [to a) demonstrate that I'm not some Internet creep, b) give assurance of an amiable relationship, and c) ensure that the product is likely to be completed, artist will be paid, and work will grace a cover seen by more than 2 people]. Thank you very much for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you."

I don't bring up rates, revision policies, and other fine details right away because the artist may not be interested anyway but also, because the character of their response will help me determine how to negotiate terms.

My biggest suggestions are that you visit clientsfromhell.net so that you can get a picture of what graphic designers, artists, and the like deal with on a regular basis, and that you inform yourself about art and graphic design enough that you are easy to work with. For example, it's frustrating to have to explain what 300DPI means to someone who says that they plan to publish a book.

Short answer: Yes, just email people on deviantart and see who is interested, but if you aren't ready for production then be straightforward about your timeline. Tell them if you are six months away from starting a KS, for example, after which you could contract the work and would then require it within one or two months. Not only are you being up-front, but you have the opportunity of making a reservation in their busy calender. Never jerk people around, because the artist who turns you down today may be the one who illustrates your next game.

Probably everyone here can tell you more about entering competitions than I can, but what I've noticed overall is that good game mechanics retain your players but art brings them to the table. Worse still, whatever style of art you do select won't appeal to everyone. There are three reasons I don't want to buy Dominion, and the bland artwork is one of them.

What kind of game is it and what kind of art do you need? I might have some art you can reuse for a nominal cost (such as a copy of the game).