[vebjorn]

Ok..here I present a scanned version of my latest conan cover featuring my "Lizardbabe" Now if you check my site [URL=http://=http://home.enitel.no/vebsart]
you can see the original at teh gallery there.

But right below here is the scanned version ..They flipped it without my permission and cropped it to death. A nice way to ruin a decent picture:-

and here is my suggestion to how it should have looked. Which one looks better. The publishers above or my version below?



[This message has been edited by vebjorn (edited July 15, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by vebjorn (edited July 15, 2000).]

[BooMSticK]

Hey Vebjorn

Nice cover... Even though they flipped it. (sigh!) There is always one jerk who has to put his/her finger on a cover, right? They even took your signature of the pic? DOH!!

nice painting anyway! How is that tuturial comming along?

,B

[AprilYSH]

what can you do, it's published now?

i hope you got credited for it though. and paid, of course.

it's still a great pic. this might be hard to accept cos you're the artist, but i'm sure fans won't mind!

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April http://april.cjb.net

[Nex]

Well the lower version is a lot better.. the composition of text and picture is better.

Why do these geeks fuck up your picture like that?!


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- Nex

http://on.to/nex

[Frost]

It really sucks that they screwed it up like that. hmm.. I really love that babe. =)

[Rinaldo]

I feel really uncomfortable with the top one. the eye-flow is shocking. anyone with a shred of design knowlage (or a pair of eyes) should be able to see that it looks better as it was originaly intended.

Your Typographic placement is also better. Don't they have a designer who does this? thats appalling.

Hey at least when you have books written about you, there can be stuff like this in it. Frazetta had these sorta problems. but I thought It was just some uptight thing of the past.

Publishers for all thier vaunted talk of sales, don't seem to have the slightest clue about what is appealing. but the most important thing is that it is actuialy harder to read the bastardised version.
Who the hell is putting together this mag. The designer has to be aware of eyeflow and associated concepts.

Make sure you put your signature spomewhere they can't crop next time (if such a place exists)


Grrrr.....

[hennifer]

rinaldo - yeah. the signature should be right on her face.

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hennifer

[Thorn]

Bastards! Everything flows together real nice in your version.

Actually, no, they're TOTAL bastards.
They did all that flipping and hacking just to get rid of your signature. Can't see any compositional reason for it (unless they were drunk). Your version is strong.



[This message has been edited by Thorn (edited July 16, 2000).]

[kurisu]

Oh my.

What did the publishers have to say? You did mention something to them, right?

Difference of night & day
is all I can say...

*hugs*

-kurisu

[vebjorn]

i`ve done over 50 covers for them, and they have my full name on the inside of the cover. The layout dude just seems to like focus on the characters in the images, so now you know why I don`t spend too much time on my backgrounds. Even when I make good and interresting backgrounds..that even plasy a part in my composition they cut away. the bigger conan or babe covering the page the better...damn it.

But at the moment the real editor of the magazine is on maturnety leave, so the one incharge now has just gotten conan slapped on top of his already hectic schedule with "Ernie". So he has little time for perfection and probably just lets the layout guys loose. Before they always asked if they could flip etc.

Too bad the ruined one of my better naked babes with big sword...

Btw..they fucked up my "huntress" a bit too...removing yet again most of her feet/calves and sky so they could have the tits in bigger rez(hmm..that almost made sense...)

-Veb

[synj]

destroy them, veb.

its like you're asking them to humiliate you time and time again. sue their asses ehehe

-synj www.synj.net

[Sc00p]

I DO agree that the lower version is better, but I think they flipped it so the barcode would not rest on top of the head of the beast at the girl's feet. And the way your layout is veb, I see a lot of tension points with the type and the imagery (there are a lot in the upper version too...the tension point of the girl's hair hitting the side of the magazine is very amateurish on their part)...also I don't agree they should have flipped your work, even if it did have to be done perhaps because of the barcode placement (even though I often see barcodes on the right side as well..they should've just moved it)Also, on THEIR version, there is too much empty space creating a bad balance, your type placement was better, the larger section of type should cover the larger open space in my opinion. Boo to those designers, but some people just feel they need to change something just so they feel better about themselves, and what not :)

Anyway Veb, I like yours a lot better, if it means anything :)

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Rene Antunes
www.nytro.org
[email protected]

[Fred Flick Stone]

Not playing the devils advocate, but I understand part of what the designer was doing. On a magazine cover, you never want anything interesting to be near the spine, or pointing to the spine. It is a psychological thing, but it is about good design. All things should point to the pages, where the publisher wants the readers to go.

The art director was really shitty though in terms of cropping the image up the way he did.

Personally I like your layout much better. Why he put the yellow type over the shoulder of the lizard is beyond me. Whatta kook he was. Next time, design all the type into the pencil comps so you both can better decide early on where the type will go, so no cropping or cutting up of the image will occur.

My question, why is there an obscure female character on a cover of a CONAN book? Shouldn't Conan be on the cover?

ANd you really did a great job on the painting

[vebjorn]

Off the covers I`ve done, this was the worst screwup. They apologized today, and told me it would not happen again..EVER.

As for the babe..well variation, and sometimes there are Red Sonja Stories inside, or a story related to som barbarian babes or similar.

This time there where ancient giant lizards/dragons

-VEb

[This message has been edited by vebjorn (edited July 17, 2000).]

[lanzo]

Oh sorry but i was just curios and used my italian malicious brain so:

I've loaded in ps and put 2 centered guides:

your pic:



and their:



so i think the main reason is to have those beautyfoul tits centered and bigger hehe and the barcode also not covering the beast

again sorry if it seems nosense or crazy but can be a buisness choice, sex sells more than pure art lol

btw i love your work, it's very romantic

[Thorn]

I think you have a point there Lanzo, lol.

[lanzo]

heeh i said that i'm malicious uh :)

[Danny]

Arrrgh.. Stuff like that makes you wanna pull out your shotgun and shoot the DTP idiot who pulls stunts like that with his/her nonederstanding of what it's all about.
The least thing, *THE LEAST* thing they could have done is to have contacted you and ask your opinion on the matter...

Sigh..

Danny

ps... The image is cool Veb!

[Francis]

Hm. Hope I don't get burned at the stake for this, but I can see some benefit compositionally in the flipped version. In that version, the curve of the bottom of the "C" kind of leads into the sword and sword arm, and the eye naturally follows the lines of the figure down the page. There's a balance of "forces" or direction between the arc of the letter C and the lines of the figure. In your original image, where the figure's sword is pointing to the right, you have a lot of elements directing your eye off the page to the right, with not enough force balancing or directing the other way.

I do kind of have a problem with your signature being cropped out - hate it when artists don't get the credit - but in terms of the image, I bet you'd agree that the figure is more important than the creature at the bottom.

Anyway, just another opinion. It's nice work.



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Francis Tsai
TeamGT Studios