We are hiring skilled sketch artists to create hand-drawn character sketches from source video frames for an AI training dataset. For each source frame, you will deliver a package of seven sketch variants: a rough gesture pass, a detailed construction pass, three expression passes, a background pass, and two object-swap passes — supplied as PNG files with structured metadata.

The work rewards precision and consistency. A character's identity, pose, proportions, and

camera angle must remain stable across all seven variants, while the linework continues to

read as a confident hand-drawn storyboard sketch rather than a traced reproduction.

Responsibilities:

Produce all seven required sketch variants per source frame at the assigned difficulty level
Create roughs as true stick-figure blocking: line of action, head volume, limb direction, and a facial crosshair at eye level, without adding body volumes, ears, hair, or accessories.
Draw clean detailed linework with accurate anatomy, clothing and accessory structure, proportions, and perspective, removing all construction lines.
Reproduce the source expression faithfully, then draw a second assigned expression from the approved emotion categories.
Add simple, perspective-matched backgrounds in medium grey linework that remain secondary to the character, extending the ground plane to the bottom of the canvas.
Replace or add objects from the approved object list, positioned according to the character's left and right rather than the viewer's.
Apply the correct shading level: pure line art, a single flat tone, or a full light– midtone–shadow structure.
Complete metadata for every package, including pose description, view angle, expression types, object and hand placement, background description, filenames, and bounding-box coordinates.
Export to specification: PNG, RGB, 300 DPI, solid white background, lowercase underscored filenames, and layers named to match each variant.

Education and experience:

A diploma or degree in animation, illustration, fine arts, visual communication, or graphic design, or equivalent demonstrable skill through portfolio and professional work.
Typically 2 or more years of drawing experience in a production pipeline.
Relevant backgrounds include 2D animation, layout or in-betweening, storyboarding and animatics for film, advertising or gaming, comics and inking, character design, and visual development.

Required skills:

Strong figure drawing fundamentals: gesture, line of action, construction, anatomy, and perspective.
A portfolio demonstrating rough-to-clean progression, not finished illustration alone.
Confident single-stroke linework. Scratchy, shaky, or multi-stroke edges are the most common cause of rejected work on this project.
Ability to draw human, animal, anthropomorphic, and stylised characters while preserving species silhouette and recognisable features.
Expression work that changes only the face, leaving body structure and storytelling intent untouched, and that stays readable in side profile.
Flat and three-value shading applied without muddying form.
Careful attention to written specification, and the discipline to cross-check all seven variants before submission.

Preferred:

Experience in data annotation or AI training data, background and environment layout, and previous work assessed against a formal QC rubric. Comfort with steady, high-volume batch delivery.

Tools:

Adobe Photoshop using the default Kyle brush set, on a pressure-sensitive drawing tablet or display.

Quality standard:

Submissions are assessed against a formal error taxonomy. A single critical error, two major errors, or four minor errors will fail a task. Critical errors include an unrecognisable character, missing body parts, a missing or unreadable required expression, compositional drift across variants, a missing or duplicated variant, a non-white canvas, absent shading on Medium or Hard tasks, and a missing facial crosshair where one is required. Traced or mechanically copied linework is recorded as a major error.

Work Location: Remote