Free Stuff of the Week - Inkwell Stock Art: Ogre

I know a decent number of the smaller publishers in our hobby, and I'm constantly reminded that one of the biggest expenses in getting any product out isn't the writing, but the art. Getting original pieces of art made for your project can be cost prohibitive, thus the use of stock art.

With stock art, you license the use of the art for use in your projects  but others may also do the same. You license isn't exclusive - others may also use the art in their projects, but the price is generally much more affordable then getting artwork made specifically for your project.

Inkwell Designs has a large amount of high quality monster stock art for sale at RPGNow, and they even have their Ogre Stock Art available for free for you to use in your projects. Can't beat that.

Inkwell Designs also has a Kickstarter running with a whole new assortment of Monster Stock Art.

A Kickstarter Full of Art - Monster Stock Art & Minis II

Inkwell Ideas is not new to Kickstarter funded projects. I love my Dungeonmorph Dice. I'm very happy with the stock art I acquired with the first Monster Stock Art project. Heck, the only reason I didn't jump into the successful Cityographer Mapping project is that my players spend very little time in urban environments.

So, if I already have a bunch of stock art from the first Monster Stock Art project, why am I about to jump into a Second Monster Stock Art project. Because not only is the art in the second project at least as good as the first project (and it was very good), but now the pieces also come in line art and background versions.

Here's some samples art pieces from the Monster Stock Art & Minis II Kickstarter page:

You can support for different dollar amounts, which converts to points that allows you to cherry pick different sizes of art pieces that you want.

Or you can do what I'm doing. Support at $200, and get at least 100 art pieces, with background, without background and line art (so really 300 pieces). Everything the project produces is yours.

If you just want laminated stand up minis, you can do that too: 25 bucks gives you 8 laminated sheets of miniatures, 16 stands and an organizer box.

Damn it, but there's a story behind Simon Buckyord's Mite. I just need to figure out what it is and write it up ;)

More on the Monster Stock Art Kickstarter Project.

I find myself checking into Kickstarter on a daily basis, to see how the projects I'm supporting are doing.  The latest Adventurer Conqueror King System expansion has already hit it's first stretch goal and is closing in on it's second.  Way cool.

Just as cool, but maybe in some ways even cooler, is the Monster Stock Art (& Minis).  With this project, you get new stock art from the core OGL monster list.  Depending on the amount you decide to pledge, you can choose the number of at pieces, web or printing quality images and of course, the laminated minis.

I'm in for the complete collection of whatever they produce at print quality.  Now, I'm not publishing anything these days and I don't even have anything on the burner.  I might have something on the countertop waiting to be put on the burner.  I figure it's best to be ready, and when the time comes, art will be one less thing I'll need to hassle about.  Besides, I can also use the art on my blog.  It will most certainly get used ;)

Some new stuff from the Kickstarter:

Backgrounds

The images of each monster have transparent backgrounds.  Included with the project we'll create at least eight background images. A couple of these may be basic (just a swirl of colors) but some will be a dungeon or a wilderness area.  These backgrounds will come as layered PSDs (photoshop images, openable by GIMP as well) so you can place a monster or a few in the image with some foreground items in front and the main background behind the creature.  This gives you more variety.  Combine that with the fact that you may modify the images (as long as you don't purposely make the artwork look bad--something called the artist's "moral rights") and you can easily get a much different look than someone else using this same art collection.

Here's a sample/example with just a basic background. As mentioned above, we'll have several more varied/interesting backgrounds as part of the project.

The lower left dragon is the original.  Some color shifting and a background made the green dragon version in the upper left.  The lower right simply lowered the saturation of the dragon and darkened it.  The upper right was back to the original with a different background and a slight darkening of the dragon.  By the way, this isn't the green or black dragon for the project.  They will each be new art.  But it is helpful to see you may be able to change some to fit other colors in case you don't like the one of the others in the set.

Kickstarter - Monster Art & Minis

The Monster Art Kickstarter Project is now the Monster Art & (Laminated Paper) Minis Project.

I'm going to let the art speak for itself:

Be forewarned - if you opt into this Kickstarter, one of these buggers is going to have my face ;)

Here's some more from the page:

What is the Monster Stock Art project?

We're attempting to create a library of stock art for all the creatures in the 3.5 RPG SRD.  While initial goal is 100 images covering the most commonly used 50+ creatures, we'd love to do a much larger set of creatures with added funds.

Note: We're adding some extra rewards to this project from the related Monster Stand-Ins (Plastic-Card Miniatures) Project.  See the very bottom (just above the FAQ) for details.

It is a great resource for small print/PDF game publishers, video game authors, web sites that have anything to do with monsters (fantasy fiction, RPGs, etc.), writers who blog about games, etc.  How often have you written about a monster or need a graphic of a monster for your computer game or run into a similar situation where you need monster art? With this project, you'll get a vast collection of high quality Monster Stock Art.  You'll have them ready instead of having to pour through stock art websites, PDF collections, etc.

Plus, if you want if for personal use only there is a PDF option which has the monster images as print-them-yourself paper miniatures. Select this option by itself, or pick another reward and add $10 for this extra reward.

If our initial KickStarter goal is met we'll create 100 monster images, but if we exceed our goal, we'll keep adding more art to the overall collection.  I personally would love to make the collection match every monster in the 3rd Edition System Reference Document.

What size are the graphics?

The monster images will be created as mostly 1/4 page (5.5"x4.25" @300dpi) graphics.  Some (at least 20% and probably quite a bit more) will be done as full page graphics @300dpi or larger.  However, to keep your costs down, I'll scale them down to 600 pixels by roughly 400 pixels which is appropriate for most web site and other electronic uses.  These "web-size" graphics are available at less expensive reward levels.

Which creatures will be in the collection?

If we meet our initial goal, we'll have a little over 100 of the most common creatures:

• 4 kobolds (when there are multiples of a creature, you'll get 4 versions where the weapons vary and/or the poses change slightly, etc.)
• 4 goblins
• 4 hobgoblins
• 4 lizardfolk
• 4 orcs
• 4 drow
• 4 mummies
• 4 zombies
• 4 skeletons
• 2 stirges
• 2 pixies
• 2 will o wisp
• 2 gnolls
• 2 troglodytes 
• 2 gargoyles
• 2 ghouls
• 2 vampires
• 2 wights
• 2 rakshasa
• 2 worgs
• 2 rust monsters
• 2 centaur
• 2 minotaur
• 2 ogres
• 2 trolls
• 2 owlbears
• 2 horses
• 1 medusa
• 1 dryad
• 1 lich
• 1 spectre
• 1 hellhound
• 1 werewolf
• 1 werebear
• 1 wererat
• 1 cyclops
• 1 griffon
• 1 pegasus
• 1 unicorn
• 1 gelatinous cube
• 1 treant
• 6 dragons (black, blue, green, red, white, gold)
• 4 elementals (air, earth, fire, water)
• 3 giants (frost, hill, storm)
• 1 to be determined

But of course, that's the tip of the iceberg.  There are more giant types, naga, metallic dragons, genies, angels, demons, and a slew more!  So for every $1000 we'll add 6 to 10 more creatures (the exact amount varies) that we exceed our goal, we'll add another creature to the collection!  As mentioned above, I'd love to have the project's artists do every creature in the 3.5 SRD.

If we get close to the initial goal, I'll post a poll to help determine the next 10-20 creatures.  If it looks like we'll be able to do all of them, I'll do another poll and so on.

Who is behind the project?

First, let me introduce the artists and which of the samples each artist created:

• Bruno Balixa (cyclops) http://jumpei.deviantart.com/
• Nicole Cardiff (blue dragon) http://www.artofnicolecardiff.com/
• Storn Cook (gnoll) http://stornart.com/
• Keith Curtis (owlbear) http://kacurtis.com/
• Malcolm McClinton (red dragon) http://hangedmanstudio.blogspot.com/
• Eric Quigley (goblins) http://www.ericquigley.com/
• David Rabbitte (hill giant) http://www.davidrabbitte.com/
• Jason Rainville (frost giant) http://www.rainvilleillustration.com/
• Ryan Sumo (werewolf) http://ryansumo.blogspot.com/
• Jeff Ward (lizardfolk) http://stungeonstudios.com/