I've struggled with finding 3d artists to work on my project ever since it's inception in 2008 (it's a profit sharing project).

If it's a profit-sharing project that's dragged on for 8 years, that might be a good part of the problem. If you've taken 8 years so far - apparently just for sound and code, how much longer will it take for art? If i was a potential artist considering working for you, i'd be hesitatnt to do any "profit share" project with you just based on that number. "Profit share" to me translates to "very slim chance of getting paid, but at least you'll get exposure". But, if you've spent 8 years on it, what's another 4? I want exposure now, not in 4,5,or 6 years.

Also, if you don't have any art assets yet or just ugly placeholders, it's harder to find an artist. Catch-22 for sure, but that's how it works. Programmers might be drawn by clever design and examples of existing code and promises of an artist making their code look like a game, but artist don't want their hard work crammed into a game that looks like crap. If i were to work on a profit-share project, I'd hope that the existing assets looked good enough to compliment the assets i contribute. Then, even if the project is never completed I can still use screenshots in my portfolio.

Another thing you may not have considered - how much pressure are you trying to put on potential artists? If you've been developing this game forever, you probably have a massive list of assets you need made. If you list looks something like this:

Concepts, Textures, models and animations for the following:

-5 player character models : each with 6 seperate outfits.

-20 weapon models

-3 attack-types for each weapon for each character

-20 enemy models

-10 levels

And this kind of list would be fairly modest for a 3d game, but if you want aproach a single artist and say "we need this" they're just going to laugh and move on, because even this modest list is more of a job for 3-4 people.

Since you didn't provide a link or screenshots or anything else, all of this is just speculation on my part, but those are a few possible reasons. A potential solution to the issues i mentioned: Hire an artist/artists (pay them $$$ not "profit share") to finish part of a level (enough to run around in and work as a demo segment) , 1 character, 1 enemy, and animations. Get that little segment of the game working correctly in code. You'll have a segement that looks like the final version, which will give incentive to better artists to join for profit-share, give them a nice backdrop for their portfolio pieces if the project is never finished or never makes money, and it will also motovate the existing team.

I think overall its probably easier to find programmers to work on a game because programmers depend on artists to make their code look like a game. Artist do not depend on programmers to make their art look like art.

So where are better places to find artists?

Have you already tried art forums?

"It's a profit sharing project."

That's the problem. If it was profit-sharing, no artist wanted to work with me. If I paid them, it's a different story altogether.

But art doesn't have to be expensive. I spent about $400 on art for my current game, using a combination of asset packs and a good artist to make the custom ones (about $10 per medium sized asset).