Sprite artist(s) for Artemia: an imaginative hand-drawn fantasy

Who we are:

Blackthorn Games currently consists of a writer/designer (me) and a concept artist. We're both a part of several commercial and hobby projects, including Fallout: Lonestar. Artemia is the first game we're making on our own, a hand-drawn RPG using RMVXAce. We've got a design document, several scripts we want to put into the engine, and we're starting to churn out some beautiful concepts.

What we need:

A wonderful artist (or several!) to make sprites for Artemia. Art style will be similar to The Banner Saga (semi-realistic illustrated sprites with a hand-painted background), so we're not looking for pixel art at this time. We would love someone who can make sprites that look very similar to the concept art provided! There's also lots of room for creativity here, as we have plenty of NPC's and creatures to dream up.

This project is absolutely AT LEAST revenue-share. We also plan to kickstart this game, so if funding is successful it'll turn into a paid gig. We'd love someone who loves our project as much as we do and wants to see it succeed! It's also a plus if you're willing to/want to help with environment design, but not a requirement by any means.

Synopsis:

Artemis is a 13-year old girl living in rural Solrich, a land with a dark problem: once a year, children are kidnapped and dragged off by the faceless, insect-like Araki to feed to their queen.

When horror strikes and her own littler brother is chosen for this reaping, Artemis embarks on a journey to get him back. She must defeat the queen's four children and face the queen herself, a feat not even the most powerful warriors of Solrich could accomplish. With the help of her pet bearhound Sif, a teenage magic apprentice, and a metal golem, Artemis seeks to end the Araki's nightmarish raids.

Inspirations:

Mythology (Greco-Roman, Norse, and Native American)

Mongolia, Tibet, and feudal Japan

The Banner Saga

The art of Moebius

Concept Art:

Currently we have the completed concept for Artemis. Our concept artist is also working on battle screens and concepts for the other companions.

 I must say, this seems to be a really interesting project. I'd love to see a rpg maker game with this style of art and sounds like you have everything figured out.

 But if I may ask:

 Considering the sprites are gonna be hand drawn, have you find a way around the resolution limitations of rpg maker vx ace? 

 How big are you willing to make characters?

Thank you!!

I would love to really ramp up the resolution, but I've been told I can't go over 640 x 480 without breaking Enterbrain's terms of use. So I settled for 640 x 416, which I call "baby widescreen."

I was thinking in the neighborhood of 64 tall by 32 wide for characters, but I'm open to suggestions. I'm following the example of the only other hand-painted RPG I've seen on here, The Amber Throne.

http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/13345-the-amber-throne/

But I am having animated battlers, and those would be a bit bigger than that.

  Hello there!

How are things going with this project? Did you find a spriter(s) for this game already?

Not yet! We're still open to anyone who's interested in helping out.