==> Please read carefully if interested.... We are a internet education company with several products, including a children's board game. ***Our new product is a series of 13 children's books.*** These are not fully illustrated picture books like your typical children's book. Some of the art will be full color pages, such as the covers and a few of the inner pages, and many will be more "sketch like." This is will be a big job, meaning we'll have a production schedule to stay on track. We have 7 books written, and ready for art. The other 6 will be written by the time you got to them. I am calling it a "big job" more for the time committment and length of the project, which may be 6-12 months. However, it's not something that would take all your time. It's a perfect "side job" for a free lancer. It's certainly not a full time job or anything. Being this is a series, we need to make sure we have the right artisit for the job from the start. ==> To not waste your time, we are going to perform our artist search like this... Round 1: Select up to 8 illustrators to design a fairy and pay them $50 for their work. Round 2: From the Round 1 artists, we will invite one or more (depending on what we see) to illustrate 5 pages of the first book. After Round 2, we will invite our favorite artists to bid on the official job. By that time, we will outline the full job, down to the exact number of illustrations needed in each book. This way, you will have ALL the information you need to bid acurately. You will also know by then if "this job is for you." This may sound like a big process, but being this is a longer job, we also want to make sure that YOU enjoy your experience working with us. It also wastes no ones time as we will be paying everyone who is invited for Round 1 and beyond. Also, no one is eliminated by what they bid, as everyone is bidding $50. We are focusing entirely on your portfolio, and your $50 bid bears no weight on our decision. ==> So... interested??? Your mission, should you chose to accept it, is to draw us a fairy. That simple. This fairy is not to be too cartoon like (and NOT in an anime style with big eyes), but also not too fine art like those coffee table fantasy books you see. We're looking for a children's book illustration style that captures the personality of the fairy. To tell you the truth, we're not exactly sure what style we're looking for. This is why we will select and pay 8 people $50 to draw us a fairy. We only want indiviuals, and not design firms. This will assure consitency in artists. It's important that the same person draws the entire series. We also enjoy supporting free lancers. ==> What should you draw? All you have to do NOW is bid $50. From your portfolios, we will select up to 8 people. If selected, we will send you a complete character profile of one of the fairies. We will do this after we fund the $50 job. (if you are selected) If you have drawn fairies or such characters before, make sure you upload them to your portfolio before bidding. ***Upload anything to your portfolio you think would help you before you bid.*** Please only bid the $50. AGAIN, this $50 is JUST for the first fairy. If selected, you'll have 5 days to send it to us (just a heads up). We will also be selecting Round 2 contenders based on meeting the deadline. Round 2 artists will also be paid for their work, and they will also go through eLance (as will the entire job so naturally follow eLance's terms). The final artist we chose will be paid per milestone, which will be each of the 13 books. All 13 books will be similar in size, so the payment for book 1 will the same for all 13 books. It will be easy to bid on. This job could be very lucrative for you, and an excellent portfolio piece... as it will eventually be published into print. We look forward to going through your portfolio. Thanks! Keywords: Illustration