How to describe an outfit? (Lesson with Ace_Arriande)

Alverost

Alverost

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1591290749045.png
 
Nyan_sempai

Nyan_sempai

,✨ ILLUSTRATOR ✨
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Alverost said:
View attachment 2820
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Ace_Arriande said:
:blobtaco:
(even if i was just shitposting, it does work)
Click to expand...
Alverost said:
Part 2.

View attachment 2821

For more lessons, purchase the season pass + dlc coming today!
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Ace_Arriande said:
:blob_salute:
(for real tho even if it's shitposting i think it's best to give artists as much creative freedom as possible because they're the artists who know how to make good designs, not me)
Click to expand...

:blobthumbsup::blobrofl::blob_aww::blob_paint: pictures say a lot ....
 
JayDirex

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As an author who REGULARLY HIRES ARTISTS, allow me to share with you all the email of my last book cover commission. There's a certain level of Creative Freedom, but ultimately YOU HAVE TO ACCEPT THE WORK, so you need to control every aspect of the commission from the hair to shoes.

ON MARCH 14, 2019 I emailed these exact instructions to my artist:

Ok, let's go over the instructions for the book cover i need.

The cover will be two characters: 1. MC- Rica Reyes and #2 Her Drop Dead GORGEOUS bodyguard/boyfriend, a Korean boy named Ko Lee.
1. For Rica, you already have a prior template in her school uniform below. but the difference is she is about 3 years older in this book (she is 17, not 13-14) so when you illustrate her face and height, make her look accordingly older than a baby-teen.
1591298786553.png













HAIR: Rica has Black Hair, no ponytails, and her hair is a bit longer this time around. I am going to say use a volumE-less hairstyle like this girl below: Except don't draw it so DEAD. make her hair have volume, have life. And she will be wearing her school uniform above.
1591298864011.png

The new character you will illustrate is all on you :). He is a Korean, aged 17, and he so pretty that she refers to him as K-pop. Black hair, slim and at least 3 inches taller than her (he is 177.8 cms tall, and Rica (in heels) is about 173. cm tall, so yeah). Use the boy's below hairstyle.

1591298973762.png


THE COMPOSITION OF THE PIECE
Below is an examples of the type of cover I want, but make it nicer than my laughingly poor sketch. what I want to see is: Have Ko on the (viewer's) left side of the image and have him pointing his gun in EXTREME PERSPECTIVE at the viewer. But YOU MAY be able to get away with a half shot of them, meaning not showing all of their legs so you can zoom in a bit (you know what i mean)

1591299040430.png


use this 9mm below here for detail

1591299086395.png

Ko's clothes: This black suit below will suffice. in the book he is sort of posing as her driver/bodyguard, so he wears suits like this.

1591299146818.png

___________________________________


HERE IS THE COMPLETED WORK: The story is Rica Wants Him Dead
Book Cover1_72.jpg



 

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Ace_Arriande

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JayDirex said:
As an author who REGULARLY HIRES ARTISTS, allow me to share with you all the email of my last book cover commission. There's a certain level of Creative Freedom, but ultimately YOU HAVE TO ACCEPT THE WORK, so you need to control every aspect of the commission from the hair to shoes.
Click to expand...

As a fellow author who regularly hires artists, the details I gave for my last commission: "Yeah I have no idea, I just need an underwater-y princess-y type of girl, feel free to go wild and do whatever you think will look best." That was all. Literally.

Result, which I'm 100000% happy with and eagerly threw money with a tip at:

EZVDOaVWkAQguSI.jpg


Of course, to be more serious now, it all depends on the client and the artist. Some clients like to have a lot more control over what they're commissioning. Some artists like to receive detailed instructions rather than vague requests. I remember the very first time I commissioned somebody, I think I wrote about 2.7k words or so worth of descriptions and examples with dozens of references and all that since I thought it was what I was supposed to do. Then I went down to about half that with the next artist I commissioned. Now, I'm just like, "yeah just do whatever you'll have the most fun with and I'll be happy lol." Then again, I've also been called crazy before for being willing to change my story to fit an artist's illustration of a character rather than forcing the artist to stay faithful to the story. That aside, I also like to take the mental health of anybody I commission into mind. I always figure that if I give them the amount of freedom they wish they had, then they'll not only be more interested in the project which results in a better final project, but they'll be happier and less stressed out, too. Of course, like I said before, this doesn't apply to every artist. Some really do prefer a lot of specific details. Some will also charge a significantly larger fee if you expect them to come up with a design from scratch with minimal input from you. But personally, I'm always more than happy to give as much freedom as possible, I'm willing to change how a character of mine is described in a story to match what the illustrator comes up with (it's not canon until it's published, as far as I'm concerned), and I know better than to be upset if I don't like the result after giving somebody that much freedom = P.

To give some actual, serious advice, though: it all depends on the artist you're working with and how much control you're willing to give up. And if you ever do give an artist total control, don't complain if you don't like the result. If it's your first time commissioning an artist, I recommend being much more professional and detailed than I am. The instructions that Jay gave are a good example of that. That's what I do as well. I only get laidback and (extremely) lazy with my requests after I've worked with an artist a few times before, and I usually become friends with the artists I work with which helps as well. You shouldn't be vague unless you're extremely trusting and willing to be disappointed while still paying money, or if you have a good relationship with who you're commissioning and you know that you can trust them to not disappoint you.
 
Assurbanipal_II

Assurbanipal_II

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JayDirex said:
As an author who REGULARLY HIRES ARTISTS, allow me to share with you all the email of my last book cover commission. There's a certain level of Creative Freedom, but ultimately YOU HAVE TO ACCEPT THE WORK, so you need to control every aspect of the commission from the hair to shoes.

ON MARCH 14, 2019 I emailed these exact instructions to my artist:

Ok, let's go over the instructions for the book cover i need.

The cover will be two characters: 1. MC- Rica Reyes and #2 Her Drop Dead GORGEOUS bodyguard/boyfriend, a Korean boy named Ko Lee.
1. For Rica, you already have a prior template in her school uniform below. but the difference is she is about 3 years older in this book (she is 17, not 13-14) so when you illustrate her face and height, make her look accordingly older than a baby-teen. View attachment 2822












HAIR: Rica has Black Hair, no ponytails, and her hair is a bit longer this time around. I am going to say use a volumE-less hairstyle like this girl below: Except don't draw it so DEAD. make her hair have volume, have life. And she will be wearing her school uniform above.
View attachment 2824
The new character you will illustrate is all on you :). He is a Korean, aged 17, and he so pretty that she refers to him as K-pop. Black hair, slim and at least 3 inches taller than her (he is 177.8 cms tall, and Rica (in heels) is about 173. cm tall, so yeah). Use the boy's below hairstyle.

View attachment 2825

THE COMPOSITION OF THE PIECE
Below is an examples of the type of cover I want, but make it nicer than my laughingly poor sketch. what I want to see is: Have Ko on the (viewer's) left side of the image and have him pointing his gun in EXTREME PERSPECTIVE at the viewer. But YOU MAY be able to get away with a half shot of them, meaning not showing all of their legs so you can zoom in a bit (you know what i mean)

View attachment 2826

use this 9mm below here for detail

View attachment 2827
Ko's clothes: This black suit below will suffice. in the book he is sort of posing as her driver/bodyguard, so he wears suits like this.

View attachment 2828
___________________________________


HERE IS THE COMPLETED WORK: The story is Rica Wants Him Dead
View attachment 2829
Click to expand...

:blob_no: Ah, goddammit, I was nearly sure it was an USP. But this is a different story, right?
 
AliceShiki

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Honestly? That's the only way for me to ever memorize a character's appearance.

Like, unless a given trait of a character's appearance is mentioned every other chapter or something, I'll forget pretty much everything about them and just imagine them as whatever... I reaaaaaally don't remember character appearances at all.

OTOH, if there is a cover showing what they look like, it's a lot easier for me to remember, so... It seems like good advice to do it this way~
 
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