How to find game art work as an indie artist
If you draw, paint, pixel, model or animate and want to make art for games, the work shows up in a handful of places: IndieGuild, ArtStation Jobs, Work With Indies, Polycount's job forums, r/gameDevClassifieds and r/HungryArtists on Reddit, #PortfolioDay, and itch.io game jams. Which one fits depends on your style and whether you want commissions, freelance gigs or a studio job.
I founded IndieGuild, so keep that in mind when I talk about it. I've tried to be fair to everyone here, because each of these is the right pick for somebody.
- Want devs to find you, with matching roles in your inbox? Make a free profile on IndieGuild.
- Want a studio job or a bigger contract? Check ArtStation Jobs and Work With Indies.
- Do 3D? Polycount's job forums and critique boards are a good fit.
- Want paid one-off gigs? Answer [PAID] posts on r/gameDevClassifieds and [Hiring] posts on r/HungryArtists.
- Just starting? Join itch.io jams for credits, and post your best game work on #PortfolioDay.
| Where | Better pick when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| IndieGuild | You want indie devs to find you by craft and genre, and roles that fit you sent to your inbox, for free. | It's new, so there are fewer roles than on the big boards. |
| ArtStation Jobs | You want studio roles and freelance contracts, right next to the portfolio you already keep there. | Freelance listings come down after 15 days, and big-studio roles are mixed in with the indie ones. |
| Work With Indies | You want a contract or staff role at an indie studio, in pixel art, 2D, 3D, animation or VFX. | It's a job board, so there are few small one-off gigs. |
| Polycount | You do 3D and want job forums plus feedback from other game artists. | Most of the crowd is 3D, so 2D and pixel artists get less out of it. |
| r/gameDevClassifieds | You want paid gigs and a free place to post your own [FOR HIRE] thread. | Lots of competition, and you need to watch for scams. |
| r/HungryArtists | You do illustration or character art and want paid commissions, often with the budget in the post. | Most posts are personal commissions, so game work is a small slice. |
| #PortfolioDay | You want a lot of clients to see your work on the same day. | It's for every kind of art, not just games, and it only happens a few times a year. |
| itch.io jams | You need finished games and credits fast, and want to meet devs by working together. | Jam teams are short-term and usually unpaid. |
Where game art gigs actually get posted
IndieGuild
This one's mine. You make a free profile with your art right on the page, your rates up front, and tags like "Rev share OK", "Hobby projects OK" and "Human-made". Devs browse creators by craft and genre on Discover or use Find my match, and when a dev posts a role that fits you, it lands in your inbox. Every role on the Job board shows the pay type up front, and some show a budget. Devs can also put your piece next to a screenshot of their game in the Gameplay studio, which helps a lot when your style fits. It's free, I don't take a cut, there are no ads, and nobody can pay to be seen first. Portfolio art has to be human-made, with no AI-generated art.
Better pick when you want devs to come to you. Not the best pick if you want the biggest pool of jobs today, since it's newer than the big boards.
ArtStation Jobs
If you already keep your portfolio on ArtStation, ArtStation Jobs is right there. Companies post full-time and freelance roles, from big studios to small indie teams, and they pay to post (a subscription or job credits, per ArtStation's help page). The same page says freelance listings stay up for 15 days, so check back often if you want contract work.
Work With Indies
Work With Indies is a job board just for indie games. Its Art and Animation section is where pixel artists, 2D environment artists, 3D modelers, animators and VFX artists find studio roles, and many of them are remote. They also run a Discord with resume and portfolio reviews, which is worth joining before you apply anywhere.
Polycount
Polycount is a forum for game artists, and its job boards are split by how you get paid. Freelance Job Postings is for paid freelance work, there are separate boards for full-time roles, royalties and unpaid collabs, and Artists Looking For Work is where you post your own thread. That split is handy, because you know what kind of deal you're looking at before you click. The crowd leans 3D, so it's best for modelers, texture artists and character artists, and the showcase and critique boards are a good place to get honest feedback before a studio sees your work.
r/gameDevClassifieds, r/HungryArtists and r/INAT
r/gameDevClassifieds is for paid game work. Devs post [PAID] roles, and you can post your own [FOR HIRE] thread with a flair for 2D art, 3D modeling or VFX. r/HungryArtists is a commission board where people post [Hiring] requests, often with a budget in the title, and artists post [For Hire]. Most of it is personal commissions like character portraits, but indie devs do post there for things like key art and 3D environments. For rev share and hobby teams, r/INAT is where "Artist Needed" posts go. Read each sub's rules first, because they remove posts that break them.
#PortfolioDay
#PortfolioDay calls itself "a creative job fair of sorts" on social media. Four times a year, creatives post their portfolios with the hashtag, and clients search it to find people to hire. Its newsletter says the official home has moved to Bluesky, and that clients can search the tag plus a keyword any day, not just on the day itself. It covers every kind of art, so lead with game work and put words like "game art", "pixel art" or "3D" in your post.
itch.io jams
Most jams on itch.io have a community tab where teams post "looking for an artist." A jam gets you a finished game with your art in it, and a dev who's seen how you work, in a weekend or a week. On IndieGuild, tap "I'm in" on a jam in Jam Crew so teams can find you too.
What your portfolio should show
Devs aren't hiring one great painting. They're hiring a whole set of assets that look like they belong in the same game. Whatever you make, show game-shaped work. Here's what I'd put up front for each kind of art.
2D and illustration
- A character in a few poses or expressions, not just one hero shot.
- A background or environment, plus a few props or items in the same style.
- UI and icons, if you do them. Plenty of indie games need them.
- A mockup: your art put together like a game screenshot, with a character, a background and a bit of UI.
Pixel art
- Sprites at the grid size you work in, like 16x16 or 32x32, shown scaled up cleanly so devs can see every pixel.
- Animation as sprite sheets or GIFs: idle, walk, attack, and a hit or death. Animated sprites show a lot more than still ones.
- A tileset that actually tiles, shown in a small scene.
- A palette you stick to. Steady colors tell a dev you can hold a style across a whole game.
3D modeling
- Turntables or a few angles of each model, plus a wireframe shot.
- The specs: triangle count, texture sizes, and whether it's stylized, hand-painted or PBR.
- Models in an engine like Unity, Unreal or Godot, not only in a render.
- A plain answer on whether you rig and animate. Modeling, texturing, rigging and animation are separate skills, and devs will ask.
Concept art
- Process, not only finished paintings: thumbnails, silhouettes and the option the team picked.
- Turnarounds and callouts a modeler or pixel artist could build from.
- Designs that solve a game problem, like enemies you can tell apart at a glance.
Animation
- Loops like idle, run, attack and jump, and make sure they loop cleanly.
- Clips at game speed and in context, on a background or in an engine.
- How you deliver: frame-by-frame sprite sheets, skeletal 2D in a tool like Spine, or 3D animation as FBX.
Keep it tight. A small set in one consistent style beats a big pile in five styles. If you work in two styles, split them into two sections so a dev can find the one that fits their game.
My guide for devs on how to find an artist tells them to check for consistency, the asset types they need, animation and game-ready work. That's the checklist your portfolio is being read against, so it's worth a skim.
Steam capsule and key art commissions
Every game on Steam needs capsule art: the images people see in search, on the store and in their library. Many devs commission one key art illustration and have it cropped into all the capsules. If you paint characters and scenes, it's a clear, well-defined job to aim for.
- Know the shapes. Steam asks for header, small, main and vertical capsules plus library art, and they're all different shapes. Valve's Steamworks asset page lists every size, and its rule for capsules is "Just your game logo and artwork."
- Paint with room to crop. One big piece with space around the focal point can become both a wide header and a tall vertical capsule. Ask for every size before you start.
- Check it small. The small capsule is 462 x 174 pixels. If the logo and the genre don't read at that size, it needs another pass.
- Ask about the logo. Some devs bring one, some want it designed. Price it either way.
- Show capsules in your portfolio, cropped to Steam's shapes, for the genres you want more of.
Capsule and key art requests get posted on the same boards as other art work, including r/HungryArtists. If a dev whose game you like has a demo or a launch coming up, a short, friendly pitch can land. For what devs actually pay, with sources, see how much Steam capsule art costs.
Rates, without guessing
I'm not going to put made-up numbers here. Game artists usually charge per asset, per animation frame, per hour or per project, and the price moves with detail, animation and how fast the dev needs it. My guide on how much game art costs has sourced ranges, including pixel art. Put a starting rate on your profile so the right devs reach out and you both skip a round of messages.
From commissions to studio work
Here's a path that works, one step at a time:
- Jams and small gigs. Get a few finished games with your art in them. A weekend jam game is a real credit.
- Paid indie work. Answer [PAID] posts, pitch devs whose game you like, and be easy to work with. My guide to pitching a game dev has a sample message.
- Bigger indie contracts. With a couple of shipped games, roles on Work With Indies and ArtStation Jobs start to fit.
- Studio roles. Studio art jobs are usually specific, like environment artist, character artist or animator, so shape your portfolio around the one job you want.
Through all of it, stay friendly with every dev you work with. The dev from your first jam might be hiring for their next game.
Red flags
- Anyone who asks you to pay to apply or to "unlock" a job.
- A free "test" that's really a finished asset they need.
- "Exposure" as pay on a commercial game, with no rev share in writing either.
- No written agreement on price, revisions, who owns the art and when you can show it in your portfolio.
- Requests to clean up AI-generated images, if that's not work you want to do.
- Pay in tokens or NFTs instead of money. IndieGuild doesn't allow NFT, blockchain or crypto-token roles at all.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I find game art work for indie games?
The main places are IndieGuild, ArtStation Jobs, Work With Indies, Polycount's job forums, r/gameDevClassifieds for paid gigs, r/HungryArtists for commissions, r/INAT for rev share and hobby teams, #PortfolioDay on social media, and itch.io game jams. Studio roles mostly show up on ArtStation Jobs and Work With Indies, while quick paid gigs show up on Reddit.
How do I get game art work with no experience?
Join a couple of game jams so you have finished games with your art in them, then build a small portfolio that looks like game art: characters, tiles or props in one consistent style, plus a mockup screenshot. Make a free IndieGuild profile so devs can find you, answer [PAID] posts on r/gameDevClassifieds with work that fits, and take small paid gigs to build from there.
Where can I find pixel art work for games?
Pixel art roles show up on Work With Indies, r/gameDevClassifieds, IndieGuild's Job board and itch.io jam team posts, and devs often post "looking for a pixel artist" on Bluesky. Show sprites at their real grid size, animated sprite sheets and a tileset in a small scene, so a dev can picture your work in their game.
How do I find 3D modeling work for indie games?
Check Polycount's Freelance Job Postings and Artists Looking For Work boards, ArtStation Jobs, Work With Indies and r/gameDevClassifieds. Show turntables and wireframes, list triangle counts and texture sizes, include models running in a game engine, and say clearly whether you also rig and animate.
How do I get Steam capsule and key art commissions?
Put capsule art in your portfolio, cropped to Steam's shapes, for the genres you want to work in. Then watch the same boards devs use and pitch devs whose game you like. Ask early about every size they need and whether the logo is included, and check the art still reads at the small capsule size.
Is IndieGuild free for game artists?
Yes. Making a profile is free, and I don't take a cut of your gigs. You and the dev agree on pay and rights directly.
Let devs find you
Make a free artist profile with your art on the page, your rates and what you're open to (paid, rev share or hobby). When a dev posts a role that fits you, it lands in your inbox. It's free, and I don't take a cut of your gigs.
Make my profileMore guides
- How to find work as an indie game developer
- How to pitch a game dev (for creators)
- How much does art cost for an indie game?
- How much does Steam capsule art cost?
- How to find VFX work for indie games
- How to find an artist for your indie game
- How to find a pixel artist for your game
- How to find a 3D artist for your game