Freelance Illustrator

Black Mack Studios is seeking a freelance illustrator to design and paint the final cover artwork for the Core Rulebook of our original tabletop roleplaying game, Chronicles of Myth. The finished piece will serve as the printed cover and as the primary key art across our marketing and promotional material.

The cover will emulate the front board of an ancient bound book. Rather than depicting a scene, the artwork should present the rulebook itself as a physical object: a worn, ornamented grimoire with the look of tooled leather, aged metal fittings and hand-worked decoration. The overall effect is comparable to the textured, object-based look of older core rulebooks, pushed further toward genuine early medieval and ancient bookbinding.

Art Direction

• Integration: The game title and the accompanying Aspect (elemental types) talismans must appear fully integrated into the cover, as though tooled or set into the binding by the same hands that made it. They should read as part of the object, not as graphics placed over it.
• Skill Requirements: Texturing is the deciding skill for this commission. Leather grain, worn gilt, tarnished and polished metal, stitching, cracked lacquer and the play of light across raised and recessed ornament make up the entire visual language of the piece.
• Technical Capability: Applicants should be able to demonstrate strong material rendering in their portfolio.
• Bonus Skills: Familiarity with historical ornament and period lettering is a significant advantage.
• Medium: Painted, rendered or mixed approaches are all acceptable provided the result holds up at print size.

Scope of Work

• One completed front cover illustration.
• Print-resolution, full-color digital artwork.
• A composition that can be cropped and adapted for marketing and web use.
• Reasonable revision stages, including sketch approval and color review.
• Final flattened file and layered working file.

Submission Requirements and Policies

• Portfolio: Please only apply if portfolio or past works can be shown to demonstrate the above criteria.
• Artist Agreement: The selected artist will be asked to sign the Black Mack Studios artist agreement before work begins. The agreement sets out the deliverables, revision stages, payment schedule and usage rights.
• Portfolio Usage: The artist retains the right to display the finished work in their portfolio once the book is announced.
• AI Policy: Generative AI and AI enhancement tools will not be accepted at any stage of the work. Applicants must be able to confirm that their submitted portfolio pieces and the commissioned artwork are their own original creations.

Company Profile

Black Mack Studios is an independent tabletop game studio with one mission: produce games that provide entertainment and escapism entirely focused on fun.