AnimeCon Harem Character Artist Poll NSFW (Patreon)

   As you know, our previous main character artist for the game Zaphryon left the project back in April. Since then, I've been searching for a replacement artist to take up the mantle, via r/hungryartists and Twitter and Fiverr and /aco/ commission threads and a recruitment ad on F95. 

   While you would think steady paying work would make it easy to find someone, the fact of the matter is that many artists aren't comfortable committing to NSFW projects, and then there's a wide spectrum of factors such as style (most lean towards faux-anime/manga), skill and experience level, flexibility, price, and completion time. There's a plethora of surprisingly bad artists who will draw literally anything and on the cheap, but when you gravitate upwards towards the higher end artists they either have their own game project or are already very overwhelmed with constant commission orders.

   I've hired four different artists here to attempt their take on one of our characters, because from personal experience I know not to completely judge an artist by their presented portfolio—actually commissioning them for test pieces is much more indicative of what it'll really be like working with them and what we can expect art-wise.

Option 1: Mr. Rawrden 

• Stephanie Nude base + 4 outfits + 4 expressions = $260
• Started on 6/18/2021, incomplete; 30 days so far

Pros: Amazing looking art for the price, he specializes in illustrating lewd situations, and his painted style could complement our painted backgrounds well.

Cons: Popular enough that he has a commission waitlist, which equates to being very slow on finishing designs. I snagged a spot in his art queue 4/23/2021 and our order didn't get to the front of the list until 6/18/2021, then he broke our order up into two parts, marked the nude base complete, and went to fill other orders while our outfits and expressions are just now arriving at the front of the list again now. Rawrden's commission tracker is here.

Option 2: Yee McBear 

• Rebecca Nude base + 3 outfits + 2 expressions = $110
• Started on 5/31/2021, Finished on 6/07/2021 = 8 days
• Brian Nude base + 6 outfits + 4 expressions = $200
• Started on 6/07/2021, Finished on 6/16/2021 = 9 days

Pros: Yee is our background character artist, so all the character designs throughout the game would be consistent, has a very wholesome style, pricing is good.\

Cons: Her style may be too simplistic for our main story characters, her experience with NSFW art thus far has been almost exclusively yaoi (male/male pairings).

Option 3: Raichu 

• Kelly Nude base + 2 outfits + 2 expressions = $180
• Started on 7/10/2021, Finished on 7/18/2021 = 8 days

Pros: Illustrates in a more realistic style, good pricing. 

Cons: Style might not be best for AnimeCon Harem, doesn't quite picture what I'd hoped for.

Option 4: CookySpooky 

• Kelly Nude base + 2 outfits + 2 expressions = $214
• Started on 7/16/2021, Finished on 7/18/2021 = 3 days

Pros: Stylized sexy but simple, works extremely fast.

Cons: Style might not be best fit for our characters, would have been the cheapest option, but renegotiated original price of $94 to $214 citing the outfit design complexity which can be a potential red flag.

Option 5: Keep Searching

• None of the above are a good fit for us.
• Bide our time and keep searching for the right artist before committing.