Background: I'm developing a visual novel game. I can deal with all the story, programming, audio etc except graphs. Currently I'm using AI generated pictures / geometric shapes / my ugly handdraw for testing purpose.

Giving the rest part of game has made progress, I want to publish a demo for some feedback.

My Dilemma: I have considered several options...

1) Hire an artist now, and publish a well-turned demo. There'll be 4 characters plus their facial expressions / pose change and 4~5 cg. 

2) Publish the demo as it is (with AI pictures/ geometric shapes/my ugly handdraw)

I want to make the game free (so no pressure for me to complete the game IN TIME). It seems too expensive to have a proper artist at that early stage for a free project. On the other hand, using AI pictures/ geometric shapes/my ugly handdraw when publish a demo seems a BAD idea to get proper feedback.

Another idea is to use well-turned AI graphs in demo, which I'm capable to do myself, and hire a real artist to reshape the game in later stage, maybe after kickstart (if it really happen at all).

My Question

1) As a free VN, when will be the good time to get an artist to well-turn the game? Is it acceptable to have totally different graphics from demo to later updated version?

2) If I have to publish the demo as it is, is there any place I can ask feedback, despite it's ugly and abstract graphics?

Thanks for check my questions, and any tips and words will be appreciated!