Paying For Assets & Hiring Artists

For my game projects, I don't have the talent or time to create good art or music (though I do try with both). This means I usually need to pay for assets, which I do enjoy gathering together to fit one theme. The recurring problem, though, is that I end up with a world that doesn't reflect what I want or artistically doesn't feel consistent. The worst is when I'm not able to find what I'm looking for, which means I need to create it myself, resulting in a lack of quality. This can be frustrating.

Paying for assets is usually my approach, but I would love to be able to always hire artists to create art or music rather than only occasionally. The problem with this is that I'm a hobbyist game developer, so I can't invest too much money into it, sadly. I love the idea of having a full-time or part-time artist and musician on the team, but realistically, I don't think this is possible for me at this stage.

I can never see myself using AI art or music to get around any of these issues, and that's assuming it could fix the above issue. I still see game development as an art form & it's a collaborative effort. I only wish it were easier to hire people for smaller creators; maybe it is (and I think this might be the case), but I just don't know how to approach it.