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invent-a-shell — Varjak Paw mock cover
Published: 2007-01-08 02:10:25 +0000 UTC; Views: 907; Favourites: 22; Downloads: 3
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Description
This is a mock-up of a book cover for "The Outlaw Varjak Paw"...Acrylics on paper (text obviously added on with aid of pooter).
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Comments: 46
I love the style and the colors! the cat reminds me of my cat x3
Whats the name of the font you used? I like it
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I haven't read the first book... it could well be good, but the second one I wasn't the biggest fan of, i'm afraid... I can see that if you really like cat's it would be a great book though. I'm allergic to them!
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poor u!! cats r one of my fav animals so...
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Heheheh.
I'm fine, don't feel sorry!
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Adoring the background colours .... so soft and dreamy!
Freaking awesome.
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Leek and potato soup: soft and creamy!
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Mmm .... soup. I want to marry soup. SOFT AND CREAMY.
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Delicious creamy and beige...
I'M OL'GREG!!!
p.s. I'm currently talkin to a guy named Greg on msn.
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I love how it has that Greek Fresco texture and colors to it
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woa
this makes me hungry for CATBURGER!
+150
Sincerely,
ALex harrison
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They make 'em from centipedes and woodworm over here in the UK actually... Us poms are a little screamish about eating pets... we are such fussy eaters.
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the composition and layout is great and the colours are really nice 
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Thankyou!
I'll admit in secret to you *ssshhhhhhhhh!* That I faded out the colours ever so slightly on Photoshop cos there was too much contrast before. 
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Awesome!!
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By the typography, do you mean my own font that I used for the title, or the run-of-the-mill computer font that I used for most of the rest?
If it's the computer font, I couldn't care less really... I wouldn't be the one expected to do it if I was really commissioned...
... but if it's my font, any suggestions on how to improve it? @__@
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Nah, your font's awesome. I meant the computer font. It's a little randomly considered and placed, and I'm not sure the type face or colour suits. If you want this to be a portfolio piece, I'd suggest tightening it up or simply presenting it without any added computer stuff entirely. No excuse for a lacklustre job on such a lovely illustration.
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But... i'm not a graphic designer!
If they have ANY sense, they'll see the illustration underneath for what it is... I mean, you appear to have...
... when I went to show my portfolio around the first time round when I was still at uni, they generally agreed that I wouldn't be the one doing it either...
... I agree it does marr the final effect slightly, but i'm counting on the intelligence of the peps i'm showing it too.
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which is why I suggested removing it entirely if you didn't want to re-do it. No-one has any imagination, beilieve me, I've experienced editorial lack of imagination a sickening amount. If you show them something, that's what they see. Woe betide you think they might see your skill and use their brain. (sorry, if you can't tell I'm being bitter XD)
Plus, you shouldn't be scoffy of graphic design skills. You evidently have them or your images wouldn't be so well composed.
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I WASN'T SCOFFING AT G.D. PEPS!!! O~o I respect them like treacle muffins!!!
It's just that the lettering job would not be down to me!
*Choosing words carefully here* From the editorial places which I went to... which wasn't many cos my work isn't really THAT editorial... as you say, they didn't really tend to "get" the deeper meaning of things... however... i've found that the majority of kids book publishers are a LOT better at seeing through a bad text job and that sorta thing...
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hum, well, I can see you're intent on having the half hearted job for some reason. It just seems a shame, and I can't comprehend why you're not willing to take the 10 mins it would take to tweak and re-print (assuming you've even printed it yet). It would be a very small matter to make it work, and it would take the overall effect from 'awesome illustration, shame about the text' to just 'awesome cover!'. Even if they can ingrone it, why should you possibly want them to ignore a part of an image you present them?
Soz to come off angry, and I know I'm making a mt. everest out of a pebble, but I'm naturally millitant against stubberness, and surely you can see what I'm trying to say?
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It's cos i'm lazy.
I will at least admit that.
I think my time could be spent better elsewhere.
but i'll see... I may come back to it...
... although I think I flattened the image come to think of it so maybe I won't after all! >U<
I'm really sorry Plau, I haven't got your will and focus to carry things through. I haven't exactly had the best or most rewarding time this past year... i've been hiding and trying to gain back confidence.
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Ag. I hate it when I find out I've flattened an image and forgot to save the layered one >< Even worse when I accidentally save the lo-res preview over the top of my hi-res original. It's so depressing, I've lost good work that way
Anyways, I understand about things seeming worthless when there's no visible payoff.
However, you evidently do have my will and focus, otherwise you wouldn't be producing all the great work you put up here. I think the only difference is that my chosen area has a much more available public face to interact with. It's a lot easier to have focus when there's something with high visibility to focus on.
I understand that you don't want to draw comics, but there are plenty of one off illustration jobs to be found within the industry. If you don't mind me saying, you seem to have a bit of a bee up your bonnet about comics that isn't doing you any favours.
Children's books as far as I know are a notoriously hard field to break into, so I'm sure it would boost your confidence to have something else to work on in the meantime
Your work's there 100%, you just need to show it to as many people as possible.
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I do enjoy comics and I respect comic artists. I know there are one off jobs, but surely these will mostly be aimed at drawing pre-existing characters, which isn't what I want to do. I would also have to choose a "nom de plume" in case anyone from the children's book world or any other publisher happened to come across the work: if they had a "bee in their bonnet" about comics, they would think less highly of me if they recognised my name.
There is nothing wrong with comics, though as Liz has also pointed out in one of her journals, they have a certain audience (...comic lovers 
I have no will, it's all automatic at the mo. Hopefully, with a decent money incentive though I should be able to work harder. I think i'll try and break into illustration through the editorial route though, not comics, which apparently is one of the easiest, though also one of the least well paid.
Thanks for being nice about the work; I still HATE it... but then everyone hates their work to a certain extent.
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wow, if you were hired by anybody who thought less of you for doing comic based illustrations then I wouldn't think them worth working for Oo
Bunch of Elitist Fucks Bollocks *mumble mumble* *buzzz*
Heh... anyways, quite apart from my bee about people looking down on comics, they are really breaking out of thier long incarceration in 'artistically valueless' central. If you honestly think you'd get scorn for having worked in comics, then I think you're thinking or the wrong comics. You're mostly right about drawing other people's characters if you're looking for one off illustrations though.
Ah well, if it's not your kettle of fish, it's not, but It sounds like you just don't want to become associated with the industry, which feels a little snobbish (maybe just by association) to me... but to each thier own.
Forget all this industry crap tho. Your work is good, it's unique, and it's appealing. The response you've got here on devart from other artists is more than enough proof, believe me
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Thanks Plau!
You're one of the few peps on here who crits my work as it really is, and I appreciate that muchly. Thanks for the encouraging words too... I'll just flounder on like a gasping haddock until I manage to flop onto a publisher who wants to eat me...
... maybe that doesn't sound quite how I intended... @_____@
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hehehehe... or maybe it does X3
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Are you suggesting... oh never mind...
>__<
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I think I was just thinking dirty in a non specific way X3 If I was next to you, I'd be saying 'eat' in a suggestive voice.
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The cover is somehow looks grecian to me, maybe it's the wall motifs... Dave McKean's style is more illusion than being down-to-earth, but I just like it your way... Perhaps it can be more imposing since this sounds like a cat-fight theme
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Tis indeed a cat fight. The wall carvings are Mesopotanian (the old name for the area around modern Iraq) but Grecian is close enough... you can tell they're from somewhere in that vague direction anyway!
^U^
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i love your art, i really do! you have something fresh and optimistic about you )))
i've never seen the original cover, but if i was the publisher, i would prefer this one.
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This is the original cover in softback, which is the one that I own:
[link] 
... although I have recently seen the hardback version, and it actually looks A LOT better. I wouldn't be surprised if McKean was quite upset when they cropped it so harshly for the paperback! O~o
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thanks! )
it was not very bad after all %) still i'm glad it was bad enough for you to make you draw this beautiful thing )
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Thats really nice! The design of the cat is great! nice one!
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Eep! Your icons changed!
^__^
I mean, ta for the comment!
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It has indeed! lol! I gots a lil bored and fancied a change
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I do likey! Tis very stylish!
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