MAY CONTEST: Fairy Tale Traveler situation

TaniaGomesArt

@Matthew-Oberdier In the work world, you will not always have very specific directions. I work for a tabletop game company for some years now, and sometimes the directions are something like this - we need X, and it has to be amazing. Try to beat that when it comes to non-specific. LOL I'm the one who has to come up with what is needed.

SheerArt

@TaniaGomesArt I like the concept of this. I'm to green to just be given complete creativity if I was given a job lol. Is it a sink or swim situations when they ask you to do a project? I would be stressed out, but you could really build up some chops.

Melissa_Bailey

@TaniaGomesArt same! While I don't work in the tabletop game industry, I've had the same experience with clients (mostly illustrating children's books for very small publishers or self-publishers). In fact, sometimes when they have a really specific brief, I've found it harder because they have a definite idea of what they want to see but may not be communicating it clearly.

The Critique Arena prompts are very similar to what I've experienced in real life as a freelance illustrator. This is good practice ... and we get feedback from professional illustrators with a ton of real-world experience!

Matthew Oberdier

@Melissa-Bailey-0 that's interesting. I would expect that illustrators get some creative license on scenes , but not be asked to write key plot points.

TaniaGomesArt

@SheerArt Is just the way our team works I guess. In the beginning I got a bit stressed out yeah, but you get used to the responsability, to actually need to solve the problem and come up with good solutions. It's a thing of actual work, you have to do it well no matter how many times you change it, and you learn a ton with it. Right now I really like this - full creative freedom (that's the dream right), and I don't remember the last time I needed to do big changes on a work for them.

@Melissa-Bailey-0 Yeah, very specific guide lines can definitely be very limiting. Sometimes is a pain to do something when the brief is so strict that limits our ideas a lot. And even a bigger one when the client is not communicating the idea well and it becomes a lot of back and forward until we are able to understand what they want.

@Matthew-Oberdier Well, I see it a bit like this. If they are hiring a professional of a specific field (being design or illustration), the objective is that the pro solves the "problems" of that field, not that the pro is just a technician that only does what they ask. My bosses are great and they have better aesthetic notion than a lot of other clients, but in the end, they are not designers, so they leave the design stuff to me, while they can dedicate to their part, which is creating the games. I'm assuming in the illustration field things may work more or less the same in general.

Melissa_Bailey

@Matthew-Oberdier just like in any other job, every client is different. In one 3PP podcast, the guys talked about how the bigger the publishing house, the more creative freedom they got. While I haven't worked with any big publishers yet (or even mid-level), it's been my experience that the very small publishers I've worked with have given way more creative license than some self-publishing clients I've had.

That's not to say that all self-publishers are control freaks. They're not. But one of the reasons many choose to self-publish is that they want more control over the process. That translates over to working with an illustrator. Some self-publishers have been specific in their illustration notes -- they basically wanted an illustrator to be their hands to paint the picture they envisioned in their head. It can be a frustrating situation for both parties.

But like I said, that's not everyone. I've had awesome experiences working with self-publishers, too. One of my current projects now is working with a self-publishing author for the second time. They've been great -- we keep communication clear and honest, talk about the scenes and characters, and then they basically say "go do your thing." So yeah, some self-publishers are very happy to give illustrators creative license.

Lisa

@ruth Love the perspective! Great job!

LisaF

BTW, the recording from last week's Critique Arena is now in the subscription!

Asyas_illos

@LisaF awesome!Thank you!

Oana

@ruth Congratulations to Lentl! I just got to watch the recording of the critique session and I was happy to see the cute pig was one of the winners

ruth

@lizardillo @Lisa @Oana Thanks so much! I'm over the moon And so is Lentl.