[Socar MYLES]

This poor, worthless picture was commissioned by Random House for a book cover, but then their Sales & Marketing department decided they wanted to go in a different direction.
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Dignity isn't important. It's everything.

www.gorblimey.com - art

[Diruo]

Yes indeed. What a poor and worthless picture.

It's wonderful you fool! I just love your stuff Socar. I like artists that have a distinct style, yours is like that. You can tell instantly that it's Socar Myles art.

Keep it up!

[Socar MYLES]

Haha, I was just kidding about the "worthless" bit--you know, a bit of dry humour, there.

Glad you like it, though!
_________________
Dignity isn't important. It's everything.

www.gorblimey.com - art

[Capt. Fred]

I like this, very nice man!

I envy people that can paint clouds.
You can definitely paint them. I am completely unable!

[buntaro]

But,...aaahhh,...where's the rat?? Socar sans rat, it's like a morning without coffee. Lovely work, though.

Buntaro

[Awetopsy]

cool. Socar is back.

[Duracel]

I'm really interested in what for a genius new way the S&M-Department will spend their money after their decision against this phenomenal sucking artshit.

Like the whole Back-Cover ... the sky on the front is a bit to purple to me - and the down-left dog looks like he get caught by oldman willow. Nontheless, its a shame this will never get onto the book.
_________________
Lars G�tze

www.duracel.de Gallery

Detailling a speedpainting is nothing but speedpainting in detail.

[Socar MYLES]

Well, I wrote to the art director to ask if she could give me a more detailed explanation of what I did wrong. She said it was a marketing decision, but, to be honest, I don't believe her. You don't spend thousands of dollars and waste days of the artists's time on revisions if you LIKE the picture--there's no way I didn't screw up somehow. I wish this company could just be honest so I would know what not to do in future.

I have to admit it's a huge disappointment...this was the first decently-paid high-profile assignment I ever got, and after all that work and revision after revision, they just changed their mind...not good. I've had some nibbles of interest recently from a couple of other large publishers but so far it hasn't gone anywhere. I want to know where I am screwing up so I can either fix the problem or get a different job. I love drawing and painting, but if I'm just not good enough, of if my style does not fit the market I am going for, I want to know so I can stop wasting my time. I don't even care that they still paid for it. I wanted the exposure more than the money, so I could get more work.

Worst of all, my mother was really proud of me for getting this job...I just don't know how to tell her I screwed up.

Duracel, I have absolutely no idea what they will be having in the place of this picture...they didn't say who they hired in my place, or tell me why they made that decision, which is highly annoying.

Awetopsy - Yeah...I'll be posting some other damn art in the near future as well. Even if nobody wants to publish it, I'm still going to do it, so ha ha on publishers.

buntaro - Well, chihuahuas look like rats...haha.

CaptFred - Thanks...glad you like it.
_________________
Dignity isn't important. It's everything.

www.gorblimey.com - art

[Rinaldo]

Socar- while I have no idea about the brief and all that. I'll have a punt and give you my two cents.

I imagine covers have to have a lot of impact. whereas your work in general is more decorative. not inherently a bad thing. but looking at this image it doesn't have a huge graphic impact.
I'm not sure if haviing your shaddows warm is helping either. even tho it's pretty arbitary rule about cool receeding and warm coming foward. I do think it is making me pay a lot of attention to the larger areas of red/orange in the shaddows. this is going against impact/focus as well I'd imagine.
there is a lot of detailed stuff at the bottom. and it kinda ends up being very noisey. the light grass at the bottom is also one of the highest areas contrast in the image. which is drawing attetion away from where I assume you want the focus, around the figure.
the light sources seem a bit all over the place. light coming from both sides of the figure onto the animals. but the moon is behind. and the dog lower down seems to be lit from underneath?
I don't pay much attention to lights in my own stuff so I'm not very good at working out whats wrong with it all. and i hate people tallking about lighting when it's my pic hehe. but i think here you have a very complex picture, with alot of details. and there needs to be something tying it all together in terms of lighting.
imho if you're gonna fudge the lighting (or just ignore it for the sake of style), make sure it reinforces the focus of the image. makes it simpler and easier to read etc.

apologies if that sounds like arbitary art director wank talk. I'm never comfortable giving crits really.

if I go into book shops and look for fantasy novels and such, I find I do pick up the ones with brighter colors and the warm/cool contrast. even if the book is shit. next time I go in there I just see the same pretty colors and pick it up again. heh "ohh, not that one again, why do I keep picking it up"
it's a strange thing.

I really have no qualification for all this tho, never done a cover myself. just my thoughts.
sorry if thats all too negative. it's a nice image. I think the issues actuialy do come back to marketing and stuff like that. not talking about quality of the image all up. but relative to it's use/requirments.
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Dailyscribble

[Socar MYLES]

Rinaldo - Well, I would have thought that could be the problem, but before they changed their minds, they did ask for a few revisions, all of which were very minor. Nobody mentioned anything about the colours, the detail, or the general style. In fact, I mentioned changing the colours myself in order to create more "pop", but that idea was not well-received.

Also, they knew fine what my style is like before they hired me. In the art brief, I was even asked to use some of the reds and purples I'd used in previous images. So it really seemed like they were looking for more of the same. To add to the confusion, I read the book, so I couldn't possibly have screwed up the scenery or the characters that badly (and if I had, they'd have told me at the sketching stage). Re: the details at the bottom, that IS true, but they are just filler--this image has really large "bleeds" for printing on each side, so most of that stuff would have been cut off.

The reason it's so confusing is...you know, if the problem was technical, they could have told me that during the revision process. There were several people looking at it, and they all seemed very pleased. Then, out of nowhere, they just did a complete about-face and said they wanted to go in a "different direction".

It seems strange that they'd spend thousands of dollars and a month's work on a picture, then decide to scrap it instead of requesting more revisions, if there was something wrong with it. I am completely bamboozled, in other words. Presumably, they now have to pay somebody else and start all over again. Seems an awful lot of bother...why would anyone do that if the picture wasn't horribly, disastrously bad, and completely different from what they were expecting?
_________________
Dignity isn't important. It's everything.

www.gorblimey.com - art

[spooge demon]

I don't know if it is any consolation to you, but I have had exactly your experience many times. It's too bad that it happened with your first big gig, doesn't do much for one's confidence.

But rest assured that they do not hold you at fault. If they did, they would not be paying you. They would probably pay you a kill fee (half) and use the rest for their desperate pirouette with the next illustrator. And there would be no mistake as to their displeasure.

But usually strange behavior like this can be the result of internal differences of opinion and power struggles that are not visible to the outsider.

[tayete]

I agree with Spooge. This is just an Occam's Knife: the simplest answer is the correct one. Just a marketing decission as they said.
I work in a huge enterprise and I can tell you this things happen: the money invested doesn't mind, it is just that someone changed his mind and said: "Forget about that and let's do this" without further explanations. So I guess your contact didn't lie when she said it had nothing to do with your style. Probably she doesn't even know why it has been changed. Someone with enough power ordered it to be changed. That's it.

I must say too that I think this is not your best pic for me (sorry, sorry, Socar). Probably, as you mentioned, the book's theme has to do with it. And probably too I have been loving too much lately your great great drawings!!!

Do not worry too much Socar. You are a talented woman, and sooner or later justice will be made.
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http://tayete.blogspot.com

[Malachi Maloney]

[buntaro]

Socar, I think your work is absolutely lovely, I work in graphic design, and have also at one point or another made some fairly decent money selling my paintings, and you have nothing to feel unworthy about. Your work is just fine. First of all, who knows what goes on at the corporate level, I work for one and even the people in charge don't know what the hell each other are doing half of the time, so don't read too much into this setback, (even though it is most likely a huge disappointment for you). I think you have an uncommonly nice touch and style, as a matter of fact your work was one of the reasons I kept checking back to this place after I stumbled on to it. I thought when I saw this piece that it looked a little different than your usual stuff, I wonder if the pressure of this first big job made you tighten up just a little? One of the nicest qualities of your work, in my opinion, is the flowing grace in the composition and brushwork, that may have been "squeezed" a little by the situation. Keep up the nice work, sorry you got kicked in the shins on this one, but with the talent you have you will get rewarded soon, hang in there, "Our Lady of the Rats".

Buntaro

[Socar MYLES]

Wow, you guys are great--these posts have really helped dispel some of my confusion, here. My mother, who is a writer, was also nicer than I expected--she told me that these things can happen a lot in the publishing business, and there's usually nothing to do but forget 'em and move on.

buntaro - That's high praise indeed, that you like my work so much--glad you like it! You have a good point about this picture, as well. When I saw how much Random House pays for cover art, I completely panicked and went nuts with the detail and composition. I tried several colour schemes, and was not nearly as confident as I usually am. I probably had it all pulled together about two hours before I stopped painting, and took the detail a little too far in some areas.

Malachi - Hey, no offense to Chihuahuas--remember, I love rats. It's just those big flappy ears and little pointy noses...you can't deny the resemblance, there!

I hope you're right about this being a temporary setback in my career. My contract did, if I recall correctly, have a kill fee clause. I can't remember if that was for if I just didn't do the work, or if I messed it up, or if they just didn't use it, or what. They are paying the full amount, however, which is very lucky for me, since I need it to pay part of my Visa bill. It's very disappointing about not getting the exposure, but in real terms, the money was also very important!

tayete - Ha, ha, no worries--not every picture I do has to be everyone's new favourite! This one's probably a bit cutesy for a lot of people, especially without benefit of dirty vermin to bring it back to the realm of the creepy. Also, like a lot of book covers, the composition is really weird because of having to take into account bleeds, the spine, and getting all the important stuff onto the front cover.

spooge demon - Thanks for telling me that--it IS quite a consolation to know that this happens to a lot of people, and I'm not just a spectacular failure in the field of illustration. I guess it just never happened to me before because this is the first time I worked for anyone with so much money to burn that they could scrap an expensive illustration just like that. I will just chalk it up to experience and move on to...well, not greater things at THIS precise moment, but OTHER things, anyway.
_________________
Dignity isn't important. It's everything.

www.gorblimey.com - art

[Duracel]

Well, i have to say thanks to you too. Its very interesting to hear this story about you in-depth with all your emotions and thoughts. :)

I think here are a lot of people around could get their first or second paid job too - and its nice to here some informations about this "very first time". ;)
Maybe tomorrow someone ring me up and do the same with me, so well im happy to have this thread and your shared experiences in mind. :)


(This is again a moment im really happy to have my little place in this familiar community - between you, all the others and Daddy Spooge ;)
_________________
Lars G�tze

www.duracel.de Gallery

Detailling a speedpainting is nothing but speedpainting in detail.

[wasssup]

i dont work in the field,but i guess thats so common in the real world that happens in every corner.youll get through it you know we all love you,as dura says.

[Rinaldo]

Socar- yes you are right. was trying to play devil's advocate is all. sorry, it's a bad habit :)