Simple caricature illustrations for cartoon book

We are seeking a talented cartoon illustrator to help with the graphical content of a cartoon comic book of approximately 100 pages. It depicts a community of prehistoric tree dwellers - their lives, their antics and their dialogue. General outline of book theme The setting is pre-historic Earth at just before the time “man descends from the trees”. Though tree dwellers at this time would have been ape-like, the tree dwellers in this story are effectively already human, and their dialogue and thoughts reflect this. The cartooning is inspired by John Hart’s famous B.C line-caricature cartoons (see [login to view URL] ). There is one important difference with Hart’s cartoons: the actual faces and bodies of the tree dwellers are never shown. Only a very limited part of their anatomy is visible. Essentially, the cartoon characters in the story are comprised of a combination of the tree dwellers and the trees in which they live. Target readership The book is aimed principally at an audience that is familiar with philosophy and science. However, the cartoons should in general also delight even the casual reader. What is involved and how we will work The storyboards, dialogue, jokes and satire are all provided by ourselves. We will always provide a draft illustration, clearly depicting the graphic situation required, which you will then reproduce to a professional level of caricature cartooning. Your studio will be responsible for bringing the scenes to life with creative and engaging character depictions, as well as background artwork. Generally, each page of the book will contain a panel of between 3 to 6 frames . Though there are a handful of principal locations/trees, once you have created your characters and backgrounds you will be able to reuse much of the material. However, each situation will need a few separate background illustrations to give variety to the scenes. Also, there are a number of principal characters and situations that are worked and reworked, with the occasional auxiliary character and situation introduced to provide variety. Scenes range from philosophical to pure slapstick and punch line content. Story themes can be either prehistoric or modern, and sometimes can combine both. To summarise: You will be given a draft graphic depiction for each panel consisting of several frames. This will be a rough depiction of what we want in the final illustration for that panel. You will see clearly what is going on visually - where the dialogue is taking place and precisely who is talking or thinking. Your job will be purely to render the graphics engaging, lively, humourous and unique. Your studio must have excellent communication skills in English and be able to confer daily with our writer via email and file transfer and when necessary via Skype or MSN. Deadline: We are flexible. Copyrights and Remuneration We require full ownership of all character designs and project files at project end. All artwork and source files must be delivered to us at end of project, after final payments have been made. As remuneration, we are offering part payment ($250) and part opportunity to receive full credit (but not copyright) for the illustrations in the book when it is published. Your name will appear in the published book. This would constitute an important credential and publicity for you and your studio. Payment: First off, partial payment in milestones - 20% of agreed final amount upon project acceptance and after we approve your portfolio. An additional 30% after the "halfway" mark. The 50% balance will be paid after the cartooning for the book has been approved and all source files delivered. Please note that you will be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement before we share any material with you. We look forward to receiving your portfolio and bid offer.