Concept Art, Illustration and more

Artist, Geek, Scientist... Hi and welcome on my site. My name is Maxim Lingert and I am a freelance Concept Artist and Illustrator with several years experience as a painter, draftsman and digital artist.

Do you want to spice up your product with some nice illustrations or a cover to let the customer visually dive into your world? Are you looking for a concept artist to support you and give your project that special something that makes the difference? Then I certainly have something to offer you.

It’s done.

After dreaming about your book or tabletop game for years, you finally sat down, designed and wrote it. Your plot is everything you wanted and the story itself is a literary gold mine. Maybe you have already a playable prototype of it? (I mean the game, not the book… or is it an interactive book? Hmm, why not...) Great! But what’s next? Because I have already written several drafts for novels and games myself, I have often asked myself this question.

Years ago, there was a simple answer to that question. You sent your manuscript to an agent or publishing company and crossed your fingers. After weeks you might get an answer or it might not come at all. Nothing unusual these days. Today, traditional publishing isn’t the only kid on the block. Traditional publishing still exists, but if you want to bypass all the waiting and the lower profit margins, you can self-publish.

Don’t like the templates of covers made by your self-publishing company? Want to hire someone else to make the absolutely perfect artworks for your book or tabletop game?

If you want to hire a professional freelancer to design your cover or illustrate your book, maps, cards or game characters, I can help you out.

Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, your theme is fantasy or science fiction, it’s absolutely crucial that you have a great illustrator who can help communicate what your product is about. Any painting you see or poster or advertisement or cards were designed by someone. But You determine exactly what you want your product to look like. This kind of creative freedom does not exist when going the traditional route. Your agent or publisher will have demands about how you edit your product or what the design looks like.

But it was your idea - you're the one who make the decision.

Well, that depends on a few variables, such as the scope of the job, the usage rights of the artwork, and more.

For example, prices for book cover designs range from free to $5 to $500. A high-end designer can charge way more. If your cover design requires unique illustrations or custom graphics designed from the ground up (like drawing and rendering your character from scratch to appear on the cover) the price will be higher than average.

Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide how much you want to spend on an illustration. But there are many free riders out there and you have to pay attention not to get ripped off or scammed by a shady illustrator. Such people not only harm you as a customer but also all those illustrators who want to deliver quality work at a fair price. 

So what does this mean for self published authors or new authors looking to hire an illustrator…?

Yes, you can get great designs for just $5 on an online marketplace for freelance services, but you should expect to pay more than that. When you hire an illustrator on this kind of marketplace, you can’t call them up on Skype or the phone. You can’t exchange emails. The only way you can communicate is through the messaging system or the gig page after you purchase the cover design gig. My reason for not being there is that all online marketplaces takes a large part of the profit on every order made through the platform. But it is entirely up to you whether you want to support this way of dealing with artists. If you are a self published author I guess you understand the point.

If you want to know what prices I have for what kind of illustration, feel free to contact me. If you already have a concrete idea of what you would like to have illustrated, I can also make you a concrete offer.

Usage rights govern the artist’s and client’s ability to use the finished work in creative collateral beyond what is specified in the initial scope of work. Some illustrators typically specify a few common types of usage rights, and others give clients a choice that is reflected in the total project cost. Explicitly formulated rights of use are the basis for legally secure cooperation with illustrators. The calculated usage factor, which is made up of the type of usage, the purpose of use, the scope of use, the usefu life and the useful area, is then offset against the work fee, i.e. the pure creation price of the illustration.

The right to reproduce artwork legally transfers to you only after final payment. I retain the right to utilize the illustrations produced for my self-promotional needs. As an freelance illustrator I depend to showcase my work I have produced as a means to acquiring new clients.

If you would like to contact me for a quote, please fill out one of the following documents and send it to me as an attachment. Simply select the rights of use you would like to claim for the illustration. If there are any questions regarding the completion of the documents or problems with opening them, please contact me.

I specify one revision cycles in a creative project scope of work. In my experience, more is not needed. Redundant or contradictory revisions as well as client changes that hamper the deadline cause a quoted price to increase after the fact. 

Hiring a professional illustrator provides multiple benefits. You’ll have illustration work that’s up to your professional standards. Your product will be protected in regards to copyright laws with a clearly outlined contract that spells out your usage rights to the images and whether it’s work for hire, rights managed, or royalty-free. Most important, you’ll have unique artworks that give your product an added edge.

As an illustrator I offer you a wide range of visual possibilities to support your projects. My fields of activity and fields of work roughly cover the following areas:

• Concept Art for video games

• Illustration for journals, magazines, books, tabletop games

• Artworks for covers, flyers and posters

• Pixel art, logo and icon

• Avatar, Caricature and Mascot

• etc.

If you are interested in one of the above mentioned areas, just use the contact form to contact me for a non-binding offer and let me surprise you with my fair price-performance ratio.

"Every artist was first an amateur"

- Ralph Waldo Emerson