"I Miss You More Than You Know" - Cover Art by DamayantiArts · 2:31pm June 24th
I Miss You More Than You Know
Alternative title: "The Weight of a Golden Soul"
Cover art illustration made by DamayantiArts; for the story I Will Be Your Villainess
I've once again had the absolute pleasure to work closely alongside Dama to create another illustration for one of my stories. Tiara's story, despite being the more popular one amongst my long stories, saw the least amount of love from me for a while. The cover art especially was due for an upgrade, and so Dama and I ended up tossing a lot of ideas around for how it should be made and what should be included in it. Thankfully those ideas had enough time to tumble in the proverbial dryer, as it were, since it gave us enough time to zero-in on the perfect balance for this whole thing.
And in a way that I've been wanting to do again for a while, I got to see the step-by-step process of how this art piece was made, which not only gave me a great appreciation for Dama's skills as an artist, but I got to learn a thing or two about her digital art techniques for the benefit of my own budding art skills. Not only that, I had a wonderful time just conversing with her and talking about things and stuff, as well as having a conversational partner for all my story related ideas. I like to believe I'm a people person, since I quite enjoyed hearing all about what she had to say over her home nation and the stories she had to share. Human connections, ya know. Valuable stuff.
But boy, where to start with this work of art! I can begin by revealing that we tried to do something a bit different this time than many of our other works. Dama used a unique style that she doesn't often use, as this was done with little to no line art. This ended up making for some fantastic additions like the billowing cape and the flowing hair, which benefited greatly from the softer outer edges which blend into the background more more freely (and with itself, which is especially noticeable on the hair!). Ultimately, this small but impactful change in the process ended up aiding to the tone of the art piece a lot better, as this helped to make it feel like a gentle and soft moment, which is a great contrast to what one would consider to be Tiara's usual character. A sense of whiplash like that is perfect for Cover Art, as it gets people to take an interest in the story since surprise is such a powerful head-turning, eye-catching tool.
And this is Dama we're talking about. OF COURSE I love her art style. It's hard to turn Tiara's story over to any other artist, since her style is deeply ingrained in my mind as the way that the adult Tiara in my stories is meant to look. Maybe it's just sunk cost fallacy talking, but it can hardly be define as fallacy if my stubbornness has helped to create some of my absolute favorite pieces of art from anyone. My faith in Dama hasn't disappointed me, not even once.
Lastly, I wanted to talk about the effects that can be seen in this one. See, the reference and the request I made of Dama to emulate/translate to our drawing was quite something. It doesn't get any harder than what I was asking of her, and the moment I told her of my plans, I felt like I was putting a lot of pressure on Dama. Let's run it down. Giving a static art piece a sense of direction, in this case, right to left due to an invisible wind? Hard. Giving the piece a sense of motion via the careful use of focal blurring and by taking advantage of that sense of direction with the character's hair, cape, and particulate effects? Getting harder. Using certain particulate effects to cut into the image on the foreground in the same color as the background, yet making it look natural and aesthetically pleasing and not like Swiss cheese? Harder still. Taking ALL of this into consideration and making something not only visually stunning but also maintaining a simplistic beauty despite the liberal use of particulate effects like the glowing lights and the flowing flower petals/leaves, PLUS being aided by the unique lineart-less style to blend even better with itself? Absolutely incredible.
Give me a decade, and I wouldn't have been able to recreate it. It goes without saying, I am in awe of Dama's work. Truly wonderful.
Talking about the art has made me realize something. I don't know if I've spoken about it before, but Dama and I have a strong belief in that simplicity has a beauty unto itself. The more complex and "busy" an art piece is, strangely, the less there is to enjoy about it. Often times (although not always), it detracts the focus away from what the art is trying to say. And in the best analogy I can attribute this feeling of mine to for my fellow writers who might not be as particularly art-minded as I am, imagine that an artist's complexity = a writer's purple prose.
Our brainstorming process for this piece ended up being a little strange to our usual. We started out with so many great ideas and started knocking them off left and right, creating something simpler in the end. But I'm super, super happy with how it turned out thanks to the principle of what I was talking about before. The beauty in simplicity. And in words you might never get to see from me again: I do think there is such a thing as "too much symbolism". I'm one to talk! But no seriously, let me explain a bit:
As this is cover art, striking a perfect balance was incredibly hard here when brainstorming the final design. There are many things you need to keep in mind when trying to come up with a good cover art image. Imagine yourself at a bookstore and you only have a few minutes to browse all the books in a big bookshelf to choose only one from. The obvious anecdote from this scenario is that you will always choose the book with the most striking cover art, as it's the only thing your mind can register on the fly.
But say you did have more time to sit down and appreciate the art, or maybe read the description of the story. The second layer. The first big hurdle is out of the way, now comes the second. What does the cover art tell you, truly? Above looking nice, that is. What does the art tell you that the description to the story doesn't? And vice-versa, what does the cover art have to say in regards to that description? What information can you gleam from it, and does that information interest you? Does it call your name? Does it make you want to open those pages?
Now here comes the third part, and this is a mistake that many mediums make. Not just books, or art, but in an infamous example: movies, shows, and games. Imaging watching a trailer for any of them, and then they show a completely spoiler-rich scene just to drum up interest. Many movies and shows take it way too far, and end up losing the mystique and intrigue of those moments for a lot of people. The same thing happens with Cover Art for books, and it's a mistake that you see repeated over and over in many things, even professionally written stories.
But hold on, this cover art does something similar no? After all, a major component of the story is Tiara battling against the Alicorn Amulet, isn't it? Just by virtue of her holding it, it means she's won... right?
Well, we can only wait and see. That's the beauty in Cover Art that tells you nothing, and everything all at once. Is this the ultimate goal, or is not? Is revenge all there is to life, or is there more? What is Tiara's true wish?
Having read Tiara's story up until now, I've got an idea of what pivotal moment this cover art depicts.
This is a beautiful cover, man!
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Thanks GJ, you always have something nice to say. I'm sure my artists appreciate it.
Still following my mantra for this story like I have with all my others, even if I know I'll get criticism for it like I have before. My stories are predictable and I do not pretend otherwise. It's the journey in getting there that matters more to me.
But I do feel a little vindicated showing this moment in particular ahead of time, since it's only a precursor of a grander thing yet to come. Like an inevitable moment that will divine the true end.
On another note, we didn't get to show off much of the armor's design due to the composition of the shot for the cover art, but take a look GJ. This was our initial design of it:
i.postimg.cc/3rmxB2mZ/Tiara-Armor-2.png
Unless I commission for another shot where the armor is in full view, it'll be hard to do it justice like in this one. When we first created grown-up Evergold Tiara, we made a couple of revisions of the same pose with and without armor, and because the aged-up design without the armor needs to stay on Chapter 4 so people can get a good view of her and her new cutiemark, I can't really use this armored one for later when she finally obtains it. Unfortunate, but it gives me a good excuse to support Dama more. Silver lining.