Are You an Artist or Cartoonist?

Wanna make some money?

I may be good at putting things together in a visually appealing way and making inanimate stuff but I'm not so skilled at the creation of characters.  So, I want to see what y'all might have to offer.

If you (or someone you know) is an artist or cartoonist (or anything similar) and can create a mascot to use in ads, online, t-shirts, etc. I kinda wanna know.  (A logo is forthcoming so we don't need that.)  I'm looking for a style somewhere along the lines of the images below.  (Not specifically and only these styles, mind you.  These are from my clip-art collections.)

In general, muscular is better than soft.  Doesn't have to be a bear but we are primarily a bear bar.  A team mascot look or super hero look are nice places to start.  And we are open to non-human ideas.  (A dog?  Something else?  I'm not sure a phoenix or other bird would work for a mascot as it may contrast too much with a logo but we can see.)

I'd like to be able to ask the selected artist to "Put the mascot in a boat; happy and waving" or "Peeking out from behind a wall with just his head and a confused look" (or similar requests) and within a reasonable amount of time (two weeks?) receive said image with any requested revisions.  Such requests would be infrequent (maybe once a month).

I'd prefer to receive the image as a vector, but I'm sure we can make raster images like .jpg, .png, .tiff, etc. work as well.  I'm pretty darn certain we can even work with pencil and/or ink sketches on white paper; the darker the lines the better (not unlike a comic book).  Scratch board would work too, but who wants to send a scratch board through the mail?

If you're interested, send me (Bryan) a note on our Contact page or leave a comment on this blog post with a link to your portfolio.  (Free advertising for yourself!)  I will want to see samples of previous work (paid and/or published is nice but not necessary).  I'll also want to know whether or not you'd charge by the hour or by the piece and about what your rate would be for such a job.

You do *not* need to create me a mascot to be considered; that will come after being hired.  All I'm interested in now is seeing what you've done before and whether you can do again in the future.

This would be an ongoing paid gig.  Copyright ownership is negotiable.  Usage rights are negotiable as well.

Please share, pass along, and spread the word.