1) Where did you find source pics for this?
2) What software are you using to vectorize?
edit: I think I found my own answer to #2. I downloaded Frostillicus's tutorial on Illustrator, that helped. Is that what you're using?
On a side note, what's the going rate for artwork requests like this?
1) the source for artwork can be very different. The source for this picture was found on a fan-site for Jeff Scott Campell. Other sources are comic books or even stills from DVDs. Sometimes the source can be a pencil sketch.
2) most of the people on this board use Illustrator. I actually use Microsoft Visio 2003 (which isn't designed to draw pretty pictures but flowcharts and network diagrams etc.). There are other vector software packages that work great, Illustrator is the most commonly used (I guess I'm the only one who uses Visio). There is a thread in this forum about (also free) software.
Having said that: Frosty's tutorial is a really good start to get the basics, those work fr whatever software you use and is a must read for starting-artists.
Like other vector artist on this board, going rates aren't generally discussed. See also the 'discussion' in the
Proving Grounds artwork discussion.
Suffice to say, a full artwork package (sideart, marquee and controlpanel) like this is not within everyone's budget.
Think 30-50 hours of work and a basic $-per-hour fee and do the math.
It takes lots of time to vectorise this stuff and most of us are doing this in their spare time. Anyway, it has been discussed before and check the Proving Grounds thread for more on this subject.