Dev approaching indie game design assets production/inspiration Thread

Hello everyone,
I find this community very encouraging, and I would like to start asking a very noob question.
I am a dev, not a game dev, with some years of experience in Java, I've also implemented a game with Unity 3D but it was very basic, and it was years ago.
This time, I would like to leverage my knowledge of Java, so I decided to go for LibGdx.
After spending some nights playing with the framework, I felt even more excited to start.
In my daily job I work using git, and splitting the workload in tickets using Jira (it's like Trello but more enterprise), so the management of a small project should not be a problem for now.
What I'm try to achieve is the production of a simple 2D cross-platform game (Android, iOS and maybe PC and Mac).
My weakest point at the moment is the production of the graphic assets, I know how to use photoshop but in a very basic way.
Some solution I'm considering are:
- buying a Wacom tablet and learn how to draw
- paying an artist or buying from a third party like Turbosquid the assets
- forcing the concept of my game to use a set of assets so simple I can produce them easily

I have previously posted the question on Quora but with no luck (Quora.com)

I am worried the first option might be too expensive in terms of time and the second in terms of money

Any other option or consideration will be much appreciated.
Has anyone ever faced a situation like this?
Are there any affordable suite of Software/Tool to help a pseudo-artist to produce graphic assets? What about pixel art, it would be a good compromise for a cross platform game (I mean in terms of computation for small devices, not in terms of beauty, I don't want to piss off any artist )

ModDB and IndieDB is a place for passionate gamers and developers. I would not suggest to buy a tablet to start learning to draw. In order for you to produce quality art, it takes years and years of experience, it really is not easy (it's very different from learning Java). The community on here is very helpful though, so why don't you just try your luck in the recruitment section. Look for an artist and if you have a strong vision for your game and done your typical game dev homework beforehand, you'll find someone.

Best of luck!

Having a tablet to draw is not a must, you could do just fine without it; Pixel art would be great too.

Good questions.

There are always lots of options.

It depends on your preferred approach and available time. I'd say your first probably option would be to have a look into InkScape, a 2D vector drawing software.

I think it would be a good fit with the scope of your project. Let us know what you think of it.

I know it's been a while (sorry for the long silence), in the end, I went for this simple approach:

• a lot of graphic assets are available for free at Kenney.nl and it's a great website for inspiration and as a starting point.
• Gimp is totally free and very good for my basic needs when I need to apport some minor modifications at some assets.
• I've bought a background for 5$ with a parallax effect on www.gamedevmarket.net/
• Found on PeoplePerHour.com a good graphic designer who for an honest price produced the main character

So far it has been just a part-time project with a limited amount of time allocated to it but I would like to start focusing more on it.

Here is a screenshot,

comments are welcome!