Skunk auction closes today!
http://www.furbid.ws/cgi-bin/auction.pl?furry&1067121045
Other than that, not much of interest to report…painting. Painting, painting, painting. Lots of painting. The cover that we had finally, painstakingly, wrangled down to a battleship in the fog, which I had begun painting, is now momentarily on hold because the author decided to get rid of that whole military thing and make it a 1930’s merchant ship.
He means well, has supplied plenty of photos, and was appalled to learn I’d already begun painting, so I can’t blame him–these things happen, and it’s not really anybody’s fault– but I beg of you, O writers and prospective writers who may read this–if you’re gonna make sweeping changes to the theme of a piece that will reflect upon the cover, please do so before the designs have been approved, and preferably more than a week before the final is due. Your cover artist will be very grateful, particularly that she does not need to spend her meagre earnings treating an ulcer. I have had this happen a few times, and it always seems to be the writer who does it, or who decides, two days before the deadline, after having approved everything up to that point, that, well…they just don’t really like it…could we do something like this other cover, here? With a completely different figure, maybe?
Now, some of my dearest friends are writers, and as fantastic human beings as anybody, who would never dream of doing this, so I am quite sure this does not stem from malice or failure of intelligence, or any trait unique to the writing breed. Therefore I’m just gonna assume that perhaps some writers are unaware of the agony that last minute sweeping alteration inflicts upon their artists. So–if you don’t like how it’s going, tell them in the initial stages when there’s still some hope of fixing it, and if you have set up a complicated period piece that requires researching obscure historical images, for the love of god, do NOT change the period a week before deadline. A good cover artist will forego sleep for you, but there is simply a physical limit on how much paint one person can slap down in a set period of time, and if your artist holds a deadline to be a sacred trust (as well they should!) the odds of them, say, gouging out their spleen with a palette knife rise astronomically.
End of public service announcement. Thank you.
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