I've seen a couple of your thread looking for an artist and agree with what both @moontokkym and @jwabeasley stated. I do want to also include that we're in a really bad economy, which means people's priorities are shifting, a lot of artists I follow have completely stopped taking commissions, whether that's because the market have moved to Vgen or some artists have given up on the big dream idea and are looking at things differently compared to a decade ago. More people back then were willing to gift free art, and it probably was true that unpaid long-term relationships can benefit both author and artists, however, with generative AI comes the disrespect for art. A lot of artists see that the future looks bleak, especially for beginner artists, established artists will have no problem surviving this economy. However, that come at a cost, small artists can't afford to make poor decisions or else they lose that momentum they have. Meaning, giving out free art has to guarantee a long-term client. Not, "if it does well you will get paid", that's the same as gambling your life away because every week of not being paid is closer to being homeless.
And I've seen some writers feel frustrated about artists not helping authors out even though they're only asking for a few free artworks, a few artworks are several days or even weeks worth of time, that is if the artist only spend their free time drawing without socializing with friends and family. If anyone is going to be mad at artists for not helping them because they believe their story is really good, they should focus that energy to either to save money to pay for the work or learn to draw themselves. You can't help others if you can't feed yourself and/or your family.
Of course, there are artists out there that do just make art as a hobby, but even those artists prefer to get paid as well. They might not express it, but when they do take on an unpaid position it will lead to low self-esteem and even feel like they aren't appreciated as much compared to their peers who were paid.
In short, If you want an artist, set a realistic price, they will come to you like nobody's business. I do want to recommend a second pair of eyes to help you look through applications because AI stuff can slip through, especially if you're not an artist or haven't trained yourself to try and distinguish human made work from generative work.
Honestly, good luck on finding your future artist.
