I feel like most of the good artists already work for existing game studios. Is there an HN for independent game artists, where I can post a job listing / contract?
Thanks!
conceptart.org is a good go to community to concept artists. The community here generally stride for realistically rendered artworks. However, in the recent years this website became flooded with more newcomers and students. It may take you a while to sift them through.
polycount is a good go to community for 3d production artists. There's actually a good amount on top industry professionals who are active in this forum.
Deviant art is the largest community by user count. But you're more likely to find a mix bag of talent here. If you're looking for more anime / stylized art, this would be a good place to start.
Behance is mostly concentrated with graphic designers / motion graphic artists. So you can look for UI related talent here.
A source I would recommend is CGHUB (www.cghub.com). It's now the most active community among industry professionals.
What kind of game are you making. If you provide a little more detail I may be able to help you pinpoint where to begin looking.
Still in the (very early) planning stages. I was thinking a board game. I like the art styles and color palettes of games like Kingdom Rush and Hero Academy.
Odesk (odesk.com) also has game artists, although the quality is all over the map. You can post a job description and review the portfolios of the artists that respond to find a good fit. They allow you to do a short "working interview" project, too, where you have the artist spend an hour or two creating a piece or two of your game art so you can see how well they will execute your vision, how they are to work with, how fast they can produce, etc.
I haven't used twitter to find game artists before, but I'd image if you look for the right hash tags, you could send out a request for available game artists and get some responses from available folks.
Good luck.
I'd rather avoid generic contracting/freelance sites, as I feel like the quality would be "all over the map" as you say.
I'd prefer looking for artist communities, especially if they have forums that talk about iOS/Android game art.
Deviant art has some talented artists, but conceptart.org is where most of it's serious members end up.
There are a few other similar forums, but I can't remember what they are. Maybe there's some other artists on HN that can name them.