I'm looking for a good illustration artist who paints in classical/realistic style. Computer painted is okay. Absolutely no AI (Artificial Intelligence) painters or artists. I'm active on Fiverr, so if you can recommend anyone from there I'd be happy as well. You can recommend them through a private message if you prefer. I've also heard that you can get artists on other sites, but I have no experience outside Fiverr. If you want to share your experience, that would be most welcome. Thank you for your attention.
I've used deviantart for artists and fiverr for beta readers. iirc DA might have more selection and make it easier to browse people's portfolios more clearly. The problem is sifting the responses, but I didn't mind that. My suggestions would be:- don't promise to reply to them. Also to be careful of the legals in yours plus the artist's jurisdiction in case e.g. any artistic contribution gives rise to rights over the text. A professional brief with a good budget helps bring out professional artists. If you say "no anime" in the brief there will still be 100 anime style submissions. I don't like to exclude on style, and think some anime has plenty of artistic value, but it's also become the go-to for people who can't draw. AI wasn't so widespread last time I used DA. I imagine the sifting could be much worse now but hopefully without having driven off the good ones. Hopefully it has more impact on the art-sweatshops that use humans to produce crap pictures for a fixed price on any subject. It was a more positive experience than finding a warm Big Mac still in its box at the bottom of a dumpster.
