So, You're Interested In A Job With Precious Miseries?

We at Precious Miseries are hoping to find talented individuals, familiar with drawing sequential art, aka comic books, and are interested in drawing Precious Miseries short comics. While you do not have to conform your art to the Precious Miseries drawing style, a general knowledge of the characters is necessary.

Details About This Commission

We call it a 'commission' rather than a 'job' because you will, in essence, be drawing fanart of copyrighted characters in a comic book format. You will be paid for your art, bust since you do not have creative ownership of the property (Precious Miseries), you will not be paid royalties (Meaning you will not receive a cut of the issues/graphic novel that are sold since you have already been paid for doing the art). Your name will appear in the comic as the artist responsible for the issue(s) or particular story arch(s). You can be located anywhere in the country as long as you have access to a scanner, know how to scan well and can meet deadlines.

You should be at least 18, or have your parent's consent if younger.

Art Style

Think Tim Burton crossed with colorful patterns. Dark tone, whimsical, and detailed. Pattern, color and attention to detail is important. Iris Chen is a great example of a style that would definitely fit Precious Miseries (Except, not so morbid...). And before you think that you have to have a character style like Iris', please don't; I was referring to her colors and patterns in most of her work. Submit pieces that best represent your style.

Submissions Are Currently Open for 2009

Submitting Work

Please submit no more than 3 JPGs of your work. You should have at least one example of your sequential art, aka panel to panel work. The 2nd piece you send could be another sequential page, or it could be the 'best' art you've ever created. But beware, if you send us the best art you've ever created, we will be expecting nothing less than that. Also, please send your version of any Precious Miseries orphan in the email. The PM orphan of your choosing should be in the style you will be drawing in. Keep in mind, they are all children from age 9-14.

Do not send resumes or bios, we do not care what training you've had; your art speaks for itself. If you wish to add a little extra to your submission, include a website link for us to check out if we are interested in seeing more of your work.

The importance of sending a sequential piece should be obvious, but if you were wondering why we are requiring that you send us one we shall spell it out for you. We need to see that you are capable of telling comprehensive story in panel to panel format. You can be the most amazing artist in the world and still not be able to create a successful comic book. It says nothing about your talent if you are not a successful comic artist, it just means it is a language that needs to be honed and practiced.

Please read the rest of the information below before you email all art submissions

to preciousmiseries@gmail.com

People commissioned will be announced in the Precious Miseries Newsletters.

About Payment

We are offering a flat fee or $100.00 for every finished, colored page. The catch is, you can only draw a maximum of 4 pages per month; so you can only make, at most, $400 a month. You will get paid via paypal after the high res file has been received by Precious Miseries. You are also required to make a minimum of 2 pages per month. (High res files are at 300dpi, which is standard print quality.)

Just because you can only submit 4 pages per month does not mean you can't complete more than 4 pages per month. If you are extremely prolific and motivated, you could draw as many as you'd like and submit them in groups of 4 per month.

Your Responsibilities

Summary of Responsibilities

As stated above, you are responsible for making 2-4 pages per month. Most likely, these pages will be available as a webcomic until there are enough pages to print a comic issue. /graphic novel. Originally we were planning on having you complete 26-32 pages, which is a standard comic book issue length, but now we feel that might be asking too much. If you have it in you to do so, then you have our blessings. However, since this is paid per page, if you decide that you need to stop after a story arch is completed, we will commission another artist to start a different story arch. If you decide to stop, you are required to finish any story arch you are working on. If you wish to resume drawing Precious Miseries comics at any point after our business relationship ends, feel free to email us again.

Precious Miseries Stories/Scripts

We will provide story scripts for you to work with. We will also try to match up a story to your art style. So if you are an artist chosen for a Precious Miseries commission, do not 'fear' that you will be working on a story that you are not interested it. (You will get choices.)

While you will be paid the same regardless, you can propose a story concept based on the personalities of the orphans. If you decide to create your own story, you must get it approved in script format before you begin the drawing process. The stories should be short stories that span a few (script) pages. Any stories you write will be credited to you in the comic.

Concept Thumbnails

Before you start any personal comic project, you should be used to roughly sketching out the comic panels. Once a story is decided upon, you are responsible for creating rough, sketched panels in whatever format you are used to. Do not feel as though they need to be 'finished'; these sketches are generally quick.

Finished Page

All pages should be in color and already in a (11x17) format that can easily be printed into a comic book. After the approval for the thumbnails is received, you are free to draw in detail. Before you ink, if that is a part of your process, or color, it would be wise to email the drawn page for another approval (especially if it contains dialogue at this point).

Medium

Medium refers to the art materials you use to make the comic book. Precious Miseries loves any media. What ever you are most familiar or comfortable with is what you should use. Precious Miseries art is done with traditional watercolor as well as Photoshop, so whether you work in markers or Painter is fine by us. As long as you are good at what you do, everything should be fine.

Any other questions can be sent to preciousmiseries@gmail.com