Real Art Costs Big Dough

An artist, a jolly good one!, gave me an estimate today for what it would cost to do up a simple image for a book cover and lease the thing for a year.  $1000.  (That's not a typo).  I'll try to do it myself and see how it turns out.
See--that Intuous Pad is going to come in handy.  I have an idea for the sketch.  It has to be simple enough for me to do it, of course.

These are the kind of problems authopreneurs will have well into the future.  Do you try to buy stock photos or vector art and make it work, or get very lucky and find something that fits what the book is about?  It seems to me that someone could make a very nice supplementary income  providing cover ready artwork to indie authors.

PS.  New day, new art.  I'm working on it.