Some very interesting discussion here. I'd like to get back to Sylver's problem for a bit.

Franky, I think what he was offering was very reasonable. My impression of America is that everyone is rich and I bet even the street beggers make more than $25 an hour, which is probably why you have so many of them. I could be wrong, but it seems that way.

My first job as a graphic artist paid $NZ180 per week for a 40 hour week. That works out at $NZ4.50 per hour, a bit more if you count in my meager holidays, but I didn't get any special allowances for transport or a pension plan or anything like that. NZ$4.50 is about US$2! I was one of the lucky ones. Only one other person from my art course went on to a full time job afterwards, and that was because he went to London.

For my $2 per hour I would produce ink and chinagraph illustrations of the clothes the store was selling for newspaper advertisements. After a bit of practice I could kick out a finished peice in less than an hour often inclding cut and paste (it was an old fashioned department store. No computers).

If you paid anyone US$30,000 per year in NZ, it would put them in the highest tax bracket, and they would have to pay about half of it to the government and be considered wealthy.

The highly talented manga artists in Tokyo make less than people who work in comvenience stores. Starting programmers and artists in the game industry make make about ￥180,000 per month, which is about US$1,600. They tend to work longer hours for that, too.

For a talented commercial artist, kicking out a professional quality sketch in twenty minutes shouldn't be a big issue as it is something they do all the time. If they are not up to the level where they can produce art quickly and confidently like that, does not make them worth more because they need to spend more time on it.

Anyway, I just wanted to show you another perspective. Especially for artists, even making a living out of it can be tough.

In any case, Sylver, do not advertise how much you are prepared to pay. Call for portfolios first, then talk with the artists one on one and see if you can negotiate a price that you are both happy with. Here is not the only place to look. Go to a site like Deviant Art and browse. Also, as Ken said, a lot of people aren't doing this just for the money. You might find someone who wants to be a part of making a video game (but give them a contract and pay them anyway).