Asking for your eyes.
Dark side of fairy tales, righto. I'm still spazzing out about this*, but I'm trying to get myself together and gather some samples.
Spicy Horse announcement, excerpt: "We prefer subtle, disturbing imagery to blood soaked gore. You must be excellent at designing using simple, stylized shapes, and have an excellent sense of color and texture. [...] Relevant inspirations include American McGee's Alice, Tim Burton, Tim Biskup, Dave McKean, the work of Studio aka, Where The Wild Things Are, the music videos of Tool."
So here's the stuff I'm thinking of submitting. Probably won't send all, but not sure. Also uncertain about the Grimm works... gah, they're from 2005, but I do want to show that I've done a lot of investigation into this idea already. Though yeah, I know my illustrations are much more traditional than they probably want, so... hrm.
Grimm Stories series:
Sneewittchen
Dornroschen
Die sieben raven Bruder
Rotkappchen
Der singende Knochen
Finished:
Look Ma... (I drew this today! Woo!)
Sulfur
MM pinup thing
Anxiety
Raven Dreams
Sketches:
Imp
Hob studies
Snow Wolf
What do you think? Is it a good variety? Do the pieces seem appropriate? If you think there's anything that seems really unsuitable/too old/generally bad, please tell me. Also tell me if you think I should pick something I've left out . (You can find my crap on dA and/or on my site.) Thanks very much!
*If you don't want to hear me moan, please ignore this bit.
Man, my portfolio is so weak. I can see it now: "Hmm... I'm sorry, miss, but you're just not dark enough for us. Please turn in all your pseudo-gothy soundtracks and start wearing pink. Try drawing some fluffy bunnies, or something."
In all seriousness, this is something that's been bothering me for quite a long while. Why IS all my work so mild-mannered and innocuous? Dark doesn't necessarily mean spooky/violent/HORROR OH NOES, I know that. But I want to make stuff that's a little sinister or macabre. I find that interesting and beautiful and unsettling. I can imagine all these wonderful, dreadful things. And yet, most everything I have is entirely PG and not nearly disturbing enough. Maybe part of the problem is that this subgenre is littered with cliches and it's so easy to fall into tired formulas and cheap tricks (glowing pupil-less eyes, red/black combos, exaggerated shadows, etc. - all things I'm totally guilty of). Or maybe it's because I'm too well-adjusted, or something. (Hah, I can angst about not having enough angst, oh boy.)
But that aside, I realize I basically have no chance at this job, as there are countless other people vastly more talented and better suited. *This is not me being self-deprecating or fishing for compliments - this is simply A FACT.* Still, I have to try, because this is the most amazing thing ever aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh.
Spicy Horse announcement, excerpt: "We prefer subtle, disturbing imagery to blood soaked gore. You must be excellent at designing using simple, stylized shapes, and have an excellent sense of color and texture. [...] Relevant inspirations include American McGee's Alice, Tim Burton, Tim Biskup, Dave McKean, the work of Studio aka, Where The Wild Things Are, the music videos of Tool."
So here's the stuff I'm thinking of submitting. Probably won't send all, but not sure. Also uncertain about the Grimm works... gah, they're from 2005, but I do want to show that I've done a lot of investigation into this idea already. Though yeah, I know my illustrations are much more traditional than they probably want, so... hrm.
Grimm Stories series:
Sneewittchen
Dornroschen
Die sieben raven Bruder
Rotkappchen
Der singende Knochen
Finished:
Look Ma... (I drew this today! Woo!)
Sulfur
MM pinup thing
Anxiety
Raven Dreams
Sketches:
Imp
Hob studies
Snow Wolf
What do you think? Is it a good variety? Do the pieces seem appropriate? If you think there's anything that seems really unsuitable/too old/generally bad, please tell me. Also tell me if you think I should pick something I've left out . (You can find my crap on dA and/or on my site.) Thanks very much!
*If you don't want to hear me moan, please ignore this bit.
Man, my portfolio is so weak. I can see it now: "Hmm... I'm sorry, miss, but you're just not dark enough for us. Please turn in all your pseudo-gothy soundtracks and start wearing pink. Try drawing some fluffy bunnies, or something."
In all seriousness, this is something that's been bothering me for quite a long while. Why IS all my work so mild-mannered and innocuous? Dark doesn't necessarily mean spooky/violent/HORROR OH NOES, I know that. But I want to make stuff that's a little sinister or macabre. I find that interesting and beautiful and unsettling. I can imagine all these wonderful, dreadful things. And yet, most everything I have is entirely PG and not nearly disturbing enough. Maybe part of the problem is that this subgenre is littered with cliches and it's so easy to fall into tired formulas and cheap tricks (glowing pupil-less eyes, red/black combos, exaggerated shadows, etc. - all things I'm totally guilty of). Or maybe it's because I'm too well-adjusted, or something. (Hah, I can angst about not having enough angst, oh boy.)
But that aside, I realize I basically have no chance at this job, as there are countless other people vastly more talented and better suited. *This is not me being self-deprecating or fishing for compliments - this is simply A FACT.* Still, I have to try, because this is the most amazing thing ever aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh.