art - How do I find artists to work on my game?

I ask "how" rather than "where" because there are undoubtedly lots of artists that are just plain lousy or unreliable.

Let's assume both paying and non-paying (mods, free games/open-source) positions.

Answer

One tip I've heard is to build as much of the game as possible before looking for artists. Build the game with placeholder art before you post about the game so that artists can get a feel for the game, its play style and environment, etc before building assets for it. They can also use the prototype to decide if it's a project they'd actually like to work on.

Another tip I've heard is to avoid asking for people to "join your team" as this seems "noobish". Instead post the prototype and say that you need an artist or artists to finish it. If you post at the right communities someone will almost always come along that is interested.

You can, of course, pay an artist per asset, etc from a more "professional" site. This is really a personal choice. Modelers, musicians, voice actors, etc can all be hired from sites that can be found with some quick googling. However keep in mind that you should still provide these people with as much of a game as possible so they can create something that "fits". You can also easily determine if a model will deform properly, light well, etc before accepting the asset if you have build as much of the game as possible beforehand.

One final note, if you are building any artist tools: be sure to have them rock solid and well documented before sending them to an artist, or you will waste time and money sending them revised versions of the tool or having them rebuild assets.