Cover Art, part 1

Unfortunately, my artistic skill is so low I can't even draw an anatomically correct stick-figure ("Wait, is that three arms?"). So I was going to need some help. It seemed like supporting a few artists to get some cover art was a good deal, so I started a search.

This turned out to be a bit of a challenge. I found most of the artists worked in a style I didn't want. I was looking for artists who worked closer to the style used in the show. Many artists like to add their own flair or interpretation. There's nothing wrong with that, it just wasn't what I was looking for.

The process generally works the same for everyone I used. After discussion about what I wanted, they would work on sketches, updating them based on my feedback, until we had something close to what I wanted. Next came payment, which was always through PayPal. Then they'd move into coloring, backgrounds, shading, etc.

In most cases, this was a pretty interactive process done over Discord. Characters were usually developed first, then background, then everything was integrated together. The more revisions they would show me, the earlier I could give feedback while changes were still easy.

Timeframe on this varied depending on the complexity of the piece, our respective schedules, and the like. But eventually, we'd have the final artwork approved and we were done.

The character sheets I'd developed helped a lot. They had reference pictures which include mane and tail style/colors. In addition, I had hex codes for the exact colors I used. This really helped speed up the character artwork creation.

Next week: Cover Art, part 2