Suggestions for Outsourcing?

If you’ve followed my blog or know me, you probably know that I like art. I draw. I mess around with digital graphics. I even have a stinkin’ nice computer so I can draw digitally as if it were a sketchbook.

Well, we’re our own worst critics, right? Okay, maybe that’s not true, because I’ve met people who are super critical over something I’m proud of, but you get the point. Despite my practice and everything, I’m just not good enough for myself and what I want to do. And I want to do a lot.

The big vision: a portrait of each of my characters, and I’m not talking just the POVs.

Do you realize how huge this list is? I’ve got the POVs, the elementals, the jespers, the guardians, the upholders, the shape-shifters, the druids, the Skittle-skin-colored people, the cult members… Not to mention I’ve got four versions of the main character and three of the main female. (It’s gonna be like 50 portraits.)

I realize that I don’t have enough skill (nor enough time) to depict everyone inside my brain.

But that’s not all!

Once I get all my people, I want to build an interactive tool (likely a website with JavaScript) that will allow me to set up character profiles and link them to books and other characters. For instance, I’d have Derek. By clicking on Derek, I could see which books he appears in. By clicking on Book 1 with the context of Derek, I would be able to see his profile and all the relationships he has. He’d be linked to MaTisha, because he loves her, to Alistair because he worked for him, to Alissandria because she’s in love with him, and so on. But from Derek, I could click on MaTisha, open her profile up in the context of book 1, and see all the books she’s in, and be able to navigate from there. Or I could click on book 1 and see all the characters that are relevant. But I want it to look cool, not just a static wiki style. I want to see a map of all all my characters with all their pretty portraits, laid out with all the connections they have to everyone else, and maybe even be able to grab them and move them around just for kicks. (I love the hyperlinked graph even though it isn’t useful for what I want to accomplish.)

I know I could build it. I have the background for it. But between family and work and writing and trying to stay sane, I don’t have the time to build it.

So who are your favorite artists and how affordable are they? And do you know of any tools like the one I want? What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever wanted to make or have made for you?

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