I am an indie developer and I need some detailed artwork. How much is reasonable to pay an artist for say 20 character designs? I know it depends on the artist's skills, etc, but I am wondering what to expect so that I can budget it.

Edit:

Let's say cartoon-ish art (Example - not necessarily in that level of detail but that kind of cartoony-art style). No 3-d modelling - The art will be used as still images in game and for promotional reasons. I'd provide a base sprite design for them to expand on and detail.

Also, some numbers would be nice - I like numbers. Even a range is helpful.

Like: expect to spend $x2 ~ $x1 for top-notch and $y2 ~ $y1 for decent quality.

I understand I can ask at some indie-help site but, if an artist says something like $1000 for 20 designs, I wouldn't have any idea if it's reasonable / good deal / bad idea etc.