Our illustrators are among the best in the world. Only professional artists with the neccessary education and experience can qualify to become Dragonpencil illustrators. These are highly professional individuals with strong communication skills and reasonable rates.

How do I hire an illustrator?
For picture books, we recommend you consider purchasing the Picture Book Package which will save you money on your illustrations. For all others, call Josh Jurgensen at:
(888) 497-6831 ext 4
or email: Josh@Dragonpencil.com
Josh will help you decide on an artist and walk you through the process.

How much does it cost?
For a variety of reasons, we cannot publish exact rates for our artists. However, the colored guide below will give you a good idea of what you can expect to pay per illustration. Also, the artists are placed in the order of their rates; lowest rate on top, highest on the bottom.

A typical picture book has between 12 and 28 illustrations. The exact number of illustrations needed for a book is usually determined by the author/publisher with advice from the book designer. A Dragonpencil book designer is assigned to each of our projects as part of our publishing packages. If you aren't using a package, we can still make recommendations as to how many (or how few) illustrations you might consider including in your book.

The rate above is for a single-page illustration. Double-page illustrations (also called 'spreads') are 50% more. Spreads can be a handy way to cut your illustration costs without appearing like you cut corners.

Can I hire a Dragonpencil artist for something other than books?
Sure, we have all kinds of clients from Hollywood movie studios to Madison Avenue advertising agencies to Silicon Valley software companies. We can handle any type of project that you would like to throw at us.

Is there a contract?
Yes. When illustrating for books, it is very important to use a contract. The contract establishes and protects your rights to the illustrations. You can view a sample Dragonpencil illustration contract here:

 

Cover illustrators for fiction and non-fiction books.
Lew Clayton

Cover artists specialize in creating less child-like art for novels, self-help books, cookbooks, etc. Children's picture books do not need a separate cover artist. The cover design is done by your books designer, not by the illustrator.

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Illustration

Click on the artists below to learn more about each artist and see samples of their work. Artists with the lowest rates are listed on top and the highest rates are on the bottom. There are many factors that go into a artist's rate, not least of which is supply and demand. A lower rate should not imply that an artist is less skilled or experienced.

Discount Alert Dragonpencil artists have the most competitive rates of any professional artists and Publishing Package authors get a further 15% discount! Click here to learn more about our publishing packages.

 

Can I talk directly with my illustrator? Yes. Email is the most common method of communication between an author and illustrator but the occassional phone call is not unheard of. When you hire a Dragonpencil illustrator, you are given a project manager and most of your communications will be done on our Book Creation Center so all parties involved can participate. Do the artists get royalties? No. Due to the tricky nature of tracking book sales, we avoid royalties. Once you have paid for your artwork, it is yours to do with as you please without further compensation to your illustrator. I hired an artist but they didn't finish the job or are taking too long, can one of your artists copy their style so we can finish this? Sorry, no. Each artist has their own style of artwork and it is very difficult to match existing artwork. You won't encounter that kind of unprofessional behavior from our artists. Perhaps you should consider starting over with a Dragonpencil artist.

Kind Words Seeing the cover, it really hit me hard that this dream of mine is coming true. You have no idea how that feels after all these years. ~Lisa Read more kind words from our authors.

Featured Artist John Ewing Click here to see John's portfolio

Black and white "line art" is used most commonly in chapter books and novels. Rates range from $90 for a small chapter heading on up to $300 for a full page illustration. There is a 10% discount if your book requires 20 or more illustrations.