Sketch First, Then Scan and Color

If you possess rudimentary pen-and-paper art skills, it's often an easy job to draw something by hand, scan it in, and then color it and shade it on the computer.

This technique works really well with player or character portraits. And, it also allows you to solicit artists who may not be interested in making games - they can draw on plain old paper, and you can take the drawings, scan them, clean them up, and use them in your game (with permission, of course).

Conclusion

One final suggestion: As you're drawing, repeat this phrase over and over: It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be good enough. Your art isn't standing on its own here - hopefully, there's a fun game design and a solid gameplay engine behind it. Given that, your art simply needs to be functional - the players need to recognize that a boomerang is not a banana, and that a gun is not a stick - it doesn't matter if there are slight blemishes in either drawing. If you can convey the correct message graphically, you're home free, regardless of if your art looks "perfect."

Also, remember that, contrary to popular belief, drawing ability is a skill, and like any other skill, your art ability will get better with practice and time. Yes, it's true that some people are born with a talent for art - but that doesn't mean that the rest of us are out of luck. Like with anything else, if you practice a lot, and push yourself to do better, your drawings will improve.

Mason McCuskey is the leader of Spin Studios (www.spin-studios.com), the game development team building Quaternion, their first retail release. He will answer mail that's sent to mason@spin-studios.com, even though he'd rather be playing Solar Jetman.