#Melissa Spandri

[smallgodseries]

It takes Lee and his amazing Italian colleague - artist and karate instructor Melissa Spandri - a full year to make a 4-issue comic. Issue 1 is here in its entirety (including a little portfolio of mermaid art):

[thysia]

Celestine the Living Saint - Melissa Spandri

[jennamoran]

The Art of Glitch (Part 18)

Glitch is available here!

… including, now, print on demand!

          Hi! We’re talking about Glitch art direction.

So previously,

we talked about the art in the pre-release;

and then a bit about the general set up for the 1st edition art!

and then covered some ways that example characters can die.

and then a bit about gender/ethnic balancing, plus details on a few pieces in particular!

and then about the first assignment to Elizabeth Sherry.

and then about the first assignment to Beatrice Pelagatti!

and then about the first assignment to Kirsten Moody!

and then the first assignment to Mel Uran!

and then about void flowers and Alexander Benekos!

and then about the first assignment to Robin Scott!

and then about the first assignment to Maria Guarneri!

and then about the first assignment to Lee Moyer!

and then about the first assignment to ?? and, uh, ??!

and then about the first assignment to Sadia Bies!

and then about the first assignment to Silvia Cucchi!

and then about the first assignment to Elena Albanese!

(aside)

Let’s move on!

        Melissa Spandri

https://www.artstation.com/reddraws

So the last artist that came on board on Beatrice’s recommendation was Melissa Spandri!

Now, again, looking at the gallery above, most of this stuff is color; so, again, it was kind of hard to be sure what I was getting into. That said, all in all, her stuff looked pretty solidly on point for Glitch (I mean, there’s a botanical illustration, a bone monster, and a mime, what else does Nobilis-style art need?), so I risked offering her a piece that came relatively early in the book:

Page 14.

(I mean, I would have moved it if it had come out good enough to go in the book but not good enough for page 14?

But, like, I didn’t want to do that sort of thing!  ^_^)

           Page 14

“Castiel Breucos, who dies of the Sea”

Piece Style: a “Strategist” dying of the thing ...

                       Strategist: American (likely Caucasian), they/them, archaic dress style

Bane: Your choice, or “the sea.”

            Examples:

they are posed for a photo in the park and a shark is swimming up through the air behind them (or is posing with them);

surf is flooding in along the ground as they shop in a convenience store;

we see a silhouette in bed or a figure looking glumly out of the only lit window, in a building floating out to sea;

or we see them in bed, and a vast wave out their bedroom window;

or the glass of their bedroom window is broken, with octopus tentacles creeping in and reaching for them, and maybe a little bit of surf is spreading along the floor, and there are a few starfish or sand dollars on the floor partway to their bed;

they are drowning amidst the waves and reaching up a hand dramatically for rescue … in the middle of a busy conference center. Everyone is ignoring them. The waves stop being waves and fade into being tile floor a few feet away.

         [Sensitivity Note]

         Commentary

Originally “dying of the sea” was going to be later in the book and a ... guy? I think?

Changing all the pronoun references to they/them was easy, but feeling confident that I’d done so correctly was hard. ^_^

Anyway, sketches!

Melissa’s sketches are a particular treat; they have a lot of the life that her final pieces will have in them already. ^_^

Anyway, I don’t know that I can actually say which of these ideas was “better,” but (2) looked better in the book.

Another case where I’m so happy I had everything laid out in place first!!

      Also

To be honest, the character doesn’t really look very enby, which bugs me a little. But, like, a lot of enby people don’t look very enby, so, like, it’s hard to go back to the artist for changes over that.

I think I’ve nattered about this before, and stressed over whether I should have held a harder line on such things before. It’s tough!

... but well, now you know.

Castiel Breucos’ pronouns: they/them!

In this second, updated sketch, you may observe the fine archaic clothing, or, uh, what there is of it. ^_^

...

Can I tell you a secret?

The piece had been accepted for quite some time before I noticed---strictly speaking, before someone in discord, I think Rand, pointed out to me---that Castiel was bare-chested.

...

Also, I was today years old when I noticed that Castiel is wearing some sort of running shoe or something.

...

I mean ...

I’m not sure what I thought was going on with the outfit?

I guess ... I guess, my eye just kind of, you know, brushed across it? and went, “Yes, that looks like legitimate high fashion/Excrucian-type clothes.”

And I nodded to myself, and mentally stamped it, LEGIT.

...

God, are people going shirtless around me all the time and I just don’t notice?

That would just be so embarrassing for ... well, practically everybody concerned!

              Page 373

Description: This is an illustration for “stories of people who make deals with forbidden, tabu forces.”

A Strategist is in a wintry tundra. Gender and ethnicity are up to you. They are reasonably dressed for the weather.

They’re approaching a titan-like humanoid that is standing amidst the snow. The titan is visibly bound or sealed, e.g., with its wrists shackled and chained to anchor points in the ground. The titan is wearing a mask with four or six eyes. It is sleek—both the mask and the titan. It may have an inhuman lower body, e.g., insectile or spirit/ghost-like. The humanoid parts of its body are dressed in something reasonably covering.

It is an ancient bound … spirit kind of thing. It is glowering in the Strategist’s direction.

This piece is set in the Lands Beyond the world, where reality itself is only asserted in the loosest of senses, and everything is dream-like and indistinct. Formally, you do not need to show this. But be aware of it. There’s no need to make a precisely realistic location. If you wanted to have a painterly or impressionistic approach, or use water-type or watercolor-type effects, or fade the edges of the piece, you have a great excuse.

If the titan is facing the viewer, then the Strategist probably won’t be. It is possible that the Strategist’s eyes will not be visible in this piece. Thus, it will be difficult to tell that they are a Strategist and not a human. In this piece, that is fine. There is no need to contort the image to show their eyes or dress them up in an extreme example of the Strategist clothing.

              Commentary

The design of this piece on my end took practically forever, even though the final piece request was still sort of vague.

It was really hard to figure out what I actually wanted!

Once I had that, though, and had sent it out, the actual piece design went pretty quick.

Melissa’s first take on the piece was something like this:

And I definitely liked the back spikes a lot, but (1) was a clear overall winner here.

She asked whether I wanted her to go more, like, ghostly, or organic? when finishing the titan up; I voted for ghostly, giving us revised images of:

Putting them in the book, it was clear that (1) was better, so there we were!

... well, better in terms of figure design and angle, anyway; I did tell her that I really liked the strong lighting and drama of (2), and she offered to incorporate it when finishing up (1).

And she did, in the piece in the book!

[fyblackwomenart]

Melissa Spandri  -- Merfolk

[kenatthecon]

Lucca Comics and Games 2019, Day 2 - Art (7 of 13)

More pieces on exhibit at the live performance area inside the Games pavilion, this time by artist Melissa Spandri.

[thewanderingcotabus]

Cobold Press random characters by Melissa Spandri

There’s more on Art Station

[boss-wyrdedizioni-blog]

If you’re going to visit Lucca next week, you must know we have the wonderfull Lucca Comics & Games! We will be there with our booth so come and say hi!

We will have artists and game designer friends with us, so you can meet them at the booth.

[sekigan]

CDC Character Design Challenge_BUgheisa _ REDDRAWS on Behance Melissa Spandri

[sosuchan]

Vegeta

Art by Melissa Spandri || FB

[smallgodseries]

Lee doesn’t have a social media presence beyond Small Gods, so please bear with him as he interrupts the flow here.

Howdy, 

I’m proud of the story and the artwork I made in collaboration with Melissa Spandri. Still, I’m a little mortified to ask if you if you’ll please consider going to LOCAL COMIC BOOK STORE ANYWHERE IN THE USA and ask them to PREORDER Trident #1 before December 22?

PS: Or preorder at a discount price here:

MIDTOWN COMICS: https://www.midtowncomics.com/product/2170241  

TFAW: https://www.tfaw.com/dec221177-trident-of-aurelia-1.html

Golden Apple Comics: https://goldenapplecomics.com/products/68318

DCBS: https://www.dcbservice.com/product/dec221177/trident-of-aurelia-1 Thank you most kindly! Lee

[jennamoran]

The Art of Glitch (Part 19)

Glitch is available here!

… including, now, print on demand!

               Hi! We’re talking about Glitch art direction.

So previously,

we talked about the art in the pre-release;

and then a bit about the general set up for the 1st edition art!

and then covered some ways that example characters can die.

and then a bit about gender/ethnic balancing, plus details on a few pieces in particular!

and then about the first assignment to Elizabeth Sherry.

and then about the first assignment to Beatrice Pelagatti!

and then about the first assignment to Kirsten Moody!

and then the first assignment to Mel Uran!

and then about void flowers and Alexander Benekos!

and then about the first assignment to Robin Scott!

and then about the first assignment to Maria Guarneri!

and then about the first assignment to Lee Moyer!

and then about the first assignment to ?? and, uh, ??!

and then about the first assignment to Sadia Bies!

and then about the first assignment to Silvia Cucchi!

and then about the first assignment to Elena Albanese!

(aside)

and then about the first assignment to Melissa Spandri!

Let’s move on!

         Karma

https://kaaramel.tumblr.com/tagged/karma-draws-things

      So Karma’s been doing fan art for my RPGs for quite some while, and all of it has been awesome.

I was nervous here for much the same reason I was nervous about Kirsten---

That Karma’s work would be great I didn’t doubt, but would it be a stylistic match?

This was Glitch, after all.

Glitch, explicitly conceived as a successor to James Wallis’ coffee-table-book vision for Nobilis.

Glitch, designed to be all ... all high-arty and stuff, and recapture any members of the stick-out-their-pinky-when-drinking-tea-and-reading-message-boards demographic that I’d been losing with Chuubo’s and Nob3.

Glitch, you know. A deep and solemn tome.

(Why did I do a deep and solemn tome? I’m not a deep and solemn person!!) :P

... but anyway, I was reminded, I think by Rand, that I loved Karma’s work, and everyone loved Karma’s work, so how could it possibly be a bad idea?

And in fact this was correct!

          Page 74

“Erchen’in Branza, who dies by the Sandwich”

Piece Style: a “Strategist” dying of the thing ...

                     Strategist: Middle Eastern, she/her

Bane: Your choice, or “sandwiches”

Examples:

she is at a food court or school cafeteria staring at a taco with anguished uncertainty

she is on a sidewalk with mulberry trees surrounded by a ring of sinister-looking sandwiches held together by pins

she is being run off the road by a sandwich truck

two giant hands carrying pieces of bread are closing in on her

she’s clawing at her eye, trying to pull out the sandwich that’s stuck in it. Chunks of sandwich are scattered on the floor around her.

she’s staring dolefully at the “keyboard” of her computer, which has been replaced by a sandwich. As has one of the pictures on the desk, and two lights in the chandelier, and a windowpane.

she’s at a funeral, and another attendee has wrapped bread around her leg and is about to take a bite.

she has just opened her sandwich at a restaurant to reveal the wriggling nest of poisoned spined monstrous things that are within.

            Note: Please avoid unfortunate stereotypes. Heck, please avoid stereotypes at all. Unless you’re a Middle Eastern woman or clear it with a Middle Eastern sensitivity consultant first:

She is not a terrorist.

She is not a belly dancer.

She is not wearing full-on desert survival clothing unless actually in the desert.

Don’t put her in full burka or niqab.

Don’t assume she’s Muslim, although if you want to make her Muslim and use hijab or maybe chador that is OK.

           As a general rule, it is fine to set the scene in America, although that may make it harder to clearly indicate that she is Middle Eastern in a greyscale picture. That said, it’s actually fine if most readers can’t clearly identify her ethnicity as long as a hypothetical Middle Eastern woman reading the book can go, “Oh, like me!”

          Karma: I’m giving you this one because I think that your work will be good for the lighter-hearted banes. I’d still like it if you pretend that you’re in the Renaissance trying to satisfy a noble patron with how art-y your result is, to get more of that Nobilis spirit, but this one will let you keep your usual liveliness, spark, and humor in play.

                          Commentary

Three sketches!

In sketch 1, Karma pretends to be in the Renaissance and attempts to please a noble patron with how art-y these sandwiches are.

Mm, those are some arty sandwiches, indeed.

         In sketch 2, Karma plays more to their strengths:

(This is not me guessing their motives, they explained this in email ^_^):

and finally (though while also expressing certain doubts on the matter), they attempted to synthesize them:

Well, while they were uncertain about whether that synthesis was a good idea, the art slot wasn’t---and the test of putting each sketch into the art slot and seeing which one works best never lies!

...

... actually, I have no evidence of that, really, do I?

...

The test of putting each sketch into the art slot and seeing which one works best is intuitively compelling, and produced an awfully good book!!

That, I do have evidence of. ^_^

So, anyway, I went with sketch #3. ^_^

It would later develop into

        and then from there into the piece in the book!

               Page 275

“Dresdinian Granda, who is dying of Family”

Piece Style: a “Strategist” dying of the thing ...

              Strategist: Caucasian, they/them

Bane: Your choice, or “family.”

       Examples:

they are sitting at a dinner table with a mundane family looking miserable;

or with a mostly mundane family, and an exaggerated monster;

a mother and father with wings, which Dresdinian definitely doesn’t have, are pushing them out the high window of an apartment building, or off the branch of a tree (with a distortedly large nest);

they are sitting on a bench staring at a ringing phone looking sick;

they are in a prison-cell-like room with a high, barred window;

they are being dragged through an airport crowd by shackles on their wrist, pulled by an ordinary-looking but efficient person;

they are sitting with their head in their hands as their father uses their Abhorrent Weapon to pound in nails on the roof and their sister rides their out-of-control pale horse around the yard;

they are opening a door to a pair of faceless/masked monsters in tuxes and gloves doing a “ta-da we’re here!” pose with luggage behind them;

they are being squeezed hard by a python coiled around them while staring in horror at a goat snacking on what looks like mail. On the wall is a family genealogy chart including something like

[wiggling snake]             +            [goat]                                         |           ???!                           [falling stars]

                [Sensitivity Note]

               Karma: this one is a little more serious, possibly, or possibly not! I wanted to see where you went with it.

       Commentary

There was some discussion over whether a serious take on a nonbinary Strategist dying of family might hit too close to home for some readers, but Karma went in a loosely serious direction anyway because of the piece’s location in the book (amidst solemn topics) and I felt like I’d assigned enough nonbinary characters (... 8ish?) that it wouldn’t feel like it was a bigger statement than “yeah, stuff happens.”

So I expressed my support!

After plugging the piece into the page, I did suggest that the character probably needed to be facing the other direction, though, it being a right-hand page.

... I’m always wanting to flip characters or pieces horizontally and I’m honestly not sure why, is that a brain thing? Am I right about it? Is it some kind of minimalistic version of “editors/developers like to futz with things without actually changing them?”

But, well.

The character really did need to face the other way!

I’m almost certain of it!

Here’s where that piece, anyway, landed (sketch-wise):

and bam, there’s another sketch good enough that I could have slipped up and left the sketch in the book. ^_^

... well, I mean, hopefully I would have noticed the blank nameplate. ^_^

... hopefully.

      Anyway, the final was more detailed, and cleaner, but that sketch above is the heart of the piece!

[cucks-sketch]

Noname Takehiko art by Cucks http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cucks/197919966910639?fref=ts Nevè art by Reddraws http://www.facebook.com/Reddraws?fref=ts

[sekigan]

NYCTESSA the Necromancer_ REDDRAWS on Behance Melissa Spandri

[jennamoran]

The Art of Glitch (Part 20)

The limited edition of Glitch is now available here!

You can also get the print-on-demand version here.

(The PDF is available in both locations. ^_^)

     Anyway, hi! We’re talking about Glitch art direction.

So previously,

we talked about the art in the pre-release;

and then a bit about the general set up for the 1st edition art!

and then covered some ways that example characters can die.

and then a bit about gender/ethnic balancing, plus details on a few pieces in particular!

and then about the first assignment to Elizabeth Sherry.

and then about the first assignment to Beatrice Pelagatti!

and then about the first assignment to Kirsten Moody!

and then the first assignment to Mel Uran!

and then about void flowers and Alexander Benekos!

and then about the first assignment to Robin Scott!

and then about the first assignment to Maria Guarneri!

and then about the first assignment to Lee Moyer!

and then about the first assignment to ?? and, uh, ??!

and then about the first assignment to Sadia Bies!

and then about the first assignment to Silvia Cucchi!

and then about the first assignment to Elena Albanese!

(aside)

and then about the first assignment to Melissa Spandri!

and then about the first assignment to Karma!

Let’s move on to what I think is our last artist here: Jenn Manley Lee!

                      Jenn Manley Lee

https://www.dicebox.net/

        So I stumbled on Jenn’s webcomic Dicebox a long, long time ago, and then again later; not only is it smart, and increasingly smart as it goes on, but it’s just gorgeous. Plus, it’s kind of stylistically on the mark for Glitch stuff? Which is why I was really happy to meet Jenn at a large local Thanksgiving and find out that she sometimes does commissions!

(... well, OK, it was a large Thanksgiving, so I was mostly busy being paralyzed by people and sounds; but, to the extent that I was mentally present, I was happy!)

A year or two later, after Glitch was approaching ready to go, I reached out to Jenn and got her involved in the project. There was a communication mix-up, though, and I’d failed to reach her in March when assignments were initially going out; when I did manage to get ahold of her in early May, I was so relieved that I, uh, just gave her a six-piece assignment.

Starting with ...

              Page 50

“Hradegais Loden, who is dying of Sunrise”

                     ... which you’ve seen before, since it was originally assigned to ??, who dropped the project.

I wound up giving it to Jenn because it was far away from all her other pieces in the book!

Then there was

                           Page 189

“Raniba Theos, Amputation their bane”

 Piece Style: a “Strategist” dying of the thing ...

Strategist: Egyptian (modern), they/them, probably actually in Egypt.

Bane: Your choice, or “amputation”

Examples:

sticking their forearm in a little guillotine that has replaced the normal card slot at an automated train station;

sitting glumly in a room scattered with severed limbs (resembling their own?);

trying to awkwardly laugh off the fact that their arm has just come off during a handshake;

trying to pay for something with half of a $5 bill (or 100-Egyptian-pound note);

living in an apartment where everything has pieces just kind of missing, from the bookcase to the sink.

             Note: please avoid unfortunate stereotypes. Unless you’re Egyptian or clear it with an Egyptian sensitivity consultant first:

They are not dressed like King Tut.

Or Nefertiti.

Or anyone like that.

They are dressed as a modern Egyptian if in Egypt, or as an American if in America.

… probably as a modern Egyptian in Egypt.

They do not ride a camel to work.

They do not live in the desert.

They are not a Bedouin.

They do not make their living as a merchant.

They do not own a magic lamp-shaped lamp, flying carpet, or monkey.

They are not lazy or comedically foolish.

No weirdness about the lips.

              It is fine if the readers do not immediately identify them as Egyptian, particularly given that this is B&W art; all I need is for that to be what you are drawing.

Further, ... [nonbinary sensitivity stuff.]

        Commentary  

It’s always weird talking about Jenn, TBH, because I get afraid people will think it’s a typo. “Oh, that Jenna,” they’ll say. “Not only has she confused herself for one of her artists, she can’t even spell her own name!”

Anyway, Jenn is actually a different person, honest, I can’t do art like this, and for this one I got this amazing rough:

which like yeah.

Later, the finished version came in as (a higher-resolution version of):

Which is also great and, formally speaking, I accepted it as it was, but I did wind up admitting that I missed the cartooniness of the original back foot.

So she wound up updating and fixing that.

Towards the very, very end of things I also wound up asking her to brighten the piece just a hair---

But that wasn’t so much to make the piece better, as to make it a better fit for its specific place in the book?

And with that, Raniba Theos was done!

(Jenn was working on layout by then, so the nameplate went into the book as a separate deal.)

                              Page 253

Piece Style: magic realism

Strategist: Italian, they/them

Bane: inobvious

                  Description: they are being horrified by a serious kitchen fail that they have just experienced, e.g. #3, #12, #14, #15, #18, #25, #33, #34, #68, #88, #94, #97, #98, #110, #127, or #148 from here. 

Staring in horror from a nearby doorway, sitting nearby (floor or chair) with head in hands, standing struck dumb having just failed to rescue whatever, face sinking as they remove whatever from the oven … that kind of thing.

 Note: please avoid unfortunate stereotypes. Unless you’re Italian or clear it with an Italian sensitivity consultant,

They are not in the mob.

They are not oversexed.

They are not wearing enough crosses to vaporize Dracula on contact.

Don’t assume they are fashionable or eating Italian food or part of a large family, although if for some reason one of those things winds up fitting it is OK.

Separately, [nonbinary sensitivity note.]

                      Commentary

OK, so the first rough I got on this one was:

This one needed help, and it was my fault. What I wound up sending her about it was:

[this] is amazing, but I worry that it's a bit too comic and not quite enough "life, of all the things I had to live, why did it have to be life;" I think mostly I mean, when doing the details of the character's expression/pose, please try to err towards defeat/despair/whyyy or blank rather than shock/startlement.

That there's a concern here is, of course, my fault---I wasn't expecting such an active scene. (For clarity, the active scene is great.) Therefore, I thought "horrified" would be enough to convey the right mood. I should have realized a broader range of possibilities exist and been more explicit as to the mood. My apologies.

I’d probably have been fine with a relatively small update that just changed the expression/pose---I get really nervous about asking for changes when it’s my fault, or when they’re not strictly necessary, even though most artists don’t mind, and the ones who mind will generally mind even if it’s not my fault and they are strictly necessary.

... but regardless, she wound up updating the piece concept.

which you’ll recognize as the basis for the piece in the book!

The final piece was great, and needed no changes at all! Which ironically means that I won’t showpiece it here. ^_^

I did wind up enlarging it in the book by a few percent and tilting it a degree or two ... I think counterclockwise? ... to look better opposite page 286, but that wasn’t about the piece qua the piece.

      Additional Commentary

I don’t really like that this page got moved opposite the Drunkard’s Gift; it was the only piece I could find to shift to there after I had to move what I thought was going to go on page 287, but ...

Like ...

I don’t think drawing a connection between the Drunkard’s Gift and the picture would be a very strong reading of the scene. The character really doesn’t look drunk, and I’m not familiar with a relevant Italian stereotype, and that kitchen is not, to the best of my knowledge, what a drunk person’s kitchen looks like.

... but I don’t like that you might look at the heading, and then the wine glass, and then be confused because the character isn’t drunk and also isn’t doing the specific things that that Gift lets you do.

...

The thing is ...

The picture looks good, there, like, visually, paired up with the blocks of the text on the opposite page? And I spent hours and hours shuffling pieces around trying to find a better way to fix the pg 287 problem without screwing other stuff up worse and in the end, this was the best I could do.

So, there you are!

It’s a great piece, anyway, all that aside. ^_^

            Page 296

“Hatharid Gerlos, whom Tourism kills”

Piece Style: a “Strategist” dying of the thing ...

Strategist: Caucasian, she/her, middle-aged

Bane: Your choice, or “tourism.”

Examples:

a tour guide is showing her off to a gasping crowd;

she’s being attacked by the spike of the Eiffel Tower or the noseless Sphinx;

she’s in a restaurant where all the food is absurdly alien and the water is fizzling and steaming like acid;

she’s wearing a Hawaiian shirt and sandals and camera while a bunch of concerned guards point their weapons in the middle of a government base;

she’s picnicking in a war zone.

                   Commentary

I think this character wasn’t originally Caucasian, but by the time I actually assigned the piece I got too worried about the range of possible unpleasant implications to have her be any other ethnicity I could think of.

Here’s the rough!

I love the birds so much!!!

But, to my eternal embarrassment---

Also, I really needed new glasses at the time, and I was looking at a much smaller version---

I didn’t realize this was on a bridge.

... :/

I tried very hard to figure out what was going on in the sketch. So hard. But the best I could do was interpret her as being on a turn in a stairway.

So I correctly guessed that she was being shot at by a gondola or gondolier, but, like, why was that happening while she was on a stairway?!? Like, that felt too indirect as a thing to happen just because you were in Venice, on a stairway halfway up a building somewhere.

Really, really embarrassing!

Jenn actually had to do a second sketch here, showing Hatharid falling through a pitfall trap to hungry, waiting sharks instead:

... at which point I could actually see the bridge and realize that the first sketch was much better. *^_^*;;

I was very happy that Raniba Theos, dying of amputation, was the next sketch she sent in so I could just accept with praise immediately and not give the impression that I did this kind of thing every time. *^_^*;;

          Page 319

Piece Style: magical realism

Strategist: Native American, he/him

Bane: inobvious

              Description: a roboticist/artisan puts the last few touches on a fairly lifelike mechanical rabbit. Ideally, a few others do pet rabbit things (in an open cage? Basket? Bed? Which is itself on a shelf?) in the background. If there are others in the background, the foreground one can/should be a bit less complete.

                Note: [Native American sensitivity note, which you’ve seen before.]

Secondary Note: this image is mostly just “Strategist doing a complicated project;” other than “advanced robotics are possible in the right metaphysical environment,” there are no specifics defined in the setting and thus nothing in particular you need to adhere to in drawing the rabbits.

         Commentary

Jenn came back to me with this:

which I thought was just lovely! (And kind of Penguindrum, but I suppose there was a bit of that in the original assignment.) 

... except, of course, that he had human eyes.

Could she keep that design and make it look good with starfield eyes?

...

...

It turned out that she didn’t think she could, or at least didn’t want to. I guess the direction of his gaze was too important or something?

(Eyes are a big deal!! Probably if I’d realized I’d be illustrating whole books of these guys eventually I’d have had Excrucians have nostril starfields or kneecap starfields instead.)

So ultimately, instead of correcting the eyes, she decided to change the whole piece:

I loved the rabbit peeking over his shoulder, but I was really afraid that he’d lose the ... kindness? That the first sketch had? But Jenn reassured me that he wouldn’t.

And in fact he did not!

             Page 378

“Nikmoda Ranlin, who dies of Delight”

         You’ve seen this one before as well!

         Layout

So what was not expected when I originally contracted Jenn was that she would also wind up revising the layout!

I hadn’t actually been expecting to revise it at all. I mean, it was a complicated layout!

And already poured into the book!

... but Jenn has done professional layout stuff in the past, and, y’know. Offered to touch it up a little. Fiddle with it to taste. Give it a little polish. Maybe ... like, take the chapter headings from

to

... ?

(Just the chapter headings; ignore the mess this made of the text. ^_^)

And of course, I thought that would be great!    

          Anyway, though, once she’d done that, though, she did a little more polish ...

And a little more ...

And, like, adjusting the marginalia format is, in a book like Glitch, a big deal ...

And a bit of work with the flowers ...

And then a little more polish ...

And ...

Well, anyway, ultimately, she wound up giving me a discount on a fairly comprehensive rework of the book’s general “look.”

That’s the 1st edition that’s in print, now, today!