Ask HN: How to Find Artists for Mobile Game?

One good source is Behance (behance.net). A lot of good game artists have profiles and portfolios on there. You can message them directly or post a job for applicants.

Odesk (odesk.com) also has game artists, although the quality is all over the map. You can post a job description and review the portfolios of the artists that respond to find a good fit. They allow you to do a short "working interview" project, too, where you have the artist spend an hour or two creating a piece or two of your game art so you can see how well they will execute your vision, how they are to work with, how fast they can produce, etc.

I haven't used twitter to find game artists before, but I'd image if you look for the right hash tags, you could send out a request for available game artists and get some responses from available folks.

Good luck.

I would probably go for odesk. Tried it before, saved a lot of money but choosing the right person to do the job is critical.

Go to conceptart.org, establish an account, enter the job listings and employment forum, read the stickies so you know how they want ads structures, and then post accordingly. There are quite a few amazing artists on that site looking for a chance to work on a real project. Some of them are amateurs trying to break into the industry, some are seasoned veterans that have worked for major game publishers. I'm sure you will find something within your budget.

Deviant art has some talented artists, but conceptart.org is where most of it's serious members end up.

There are a few other similar forums, but I can't remember what they are. Maybe there's some other artists on HN that can name them.

http://www.conceptart.org

Check out http://www.polycount.com. Its a community of VERY talented artists dedicated to game art. Most of the people make 3D models for current/next gen console games, but there are a bunch that do mobile (both 2D and 3D). Some of the best artists on the internet that also have experience and passion for games.

Odesk isn't a place for quality artists. If you are not confident in your ability to identify professional artists from amateurs than I would not advice you to go through odesk.

conceptart.org is a good go to community to concept artists. The community here generally stride for realistically rendered artworks. However, in the recent years this website became flooded with more newcomers and students. It may take you a while to sift them through.

polycount is a good go to community for 3d production artists. There's actually a good amount on top industry professionals who are active in this forum.

Deviant art is the largest community by user count. But you're more likely to find a mix bag of talent here. If you're looking for more anime / stylized art, this would be a good place to start.

Behance is mostly concentrated with graphic designers / motion graphic artists. So you can look for UI related talent here.

A source I would recommend is CGHUB (www.cghub.com). It's now the most active community among industry professionals.

What kind of game are you making. If you provide a little more detail I may be able to help you pinpoint where to begin looking.