#Velaris Advent Calendar

[gabrielleragusi]

Hello everyone! This is really important.

The Velaris Advent Calendar from Gadget4entertainment has been cloned and is being sold everywhere, from Temu to Amazon, without my consent or a license with Sarah J. Maas.

"Vendors" based outside of Europe and the US stole my illustrations (using crappy screenshots) and created this fake calendar, claiming it's still the official one from Gadget4entertainment. It's not! in fact, it can't be, because Gadget4entertainment won't restock the calendar ever again, so whatever is being sold now is fake. What's sad is that some people know it's fake and are still buying it. I've seen some comments saying they just wanted something pretty to put under the XMas tree.

Now, I understand it’s Christmas time, and these fake calendars are the only available alternative, but it’s still disappointing. People are consciously buying a product from companies who are using my illustrations without permission.

Please, help me spread the word. I've shared a video on TikTok and Threads, and in my IG stories, but because I've been a ghost up until now (I don't post as often as before), I'm still invisible to the algorithm. If you can share, I'll be immensely grateful!

Thank you,

Gabrielle

Instagram - Website - Inprnt - Etsy - Threads

[gabrielleragusi]

2024 Velaris Advent Calendar

I had the pleasure of collaborating with Gadget4entertainment on their 2024 Velaris Advent Calendar, officially licensed by author Sarah J. Maas! I illustrated the entire packaging, inside and out.

The main illustration features Velaris, the City of Starlight.

I'd just visited Positano before the shop contacted me for the project, so the memories of some corners of the town were still fresh in my mind. The house on the left was inspired by a hotel built on a curving uphill road, for example, and the houses on the right were vaguely inspired by all those hotels and restaurants you can see from above (at level, you might not notice them, but when you're directly above and you peer down through the trees, you'll go, "Oh, there's a nice, expensive hotel down there!").

The town divided by the river was inspired by the fjords of Kotor, Montenegro, which I visited last year (Kotor is absolutely beautiful, and the food was great to my Italian palate).

It felt wonderful to pour all of my emotions and memories into this piece. I think this might be my 'ultimate' version of Velaris. I don't see myself painting it differently in the future.

Then, we have the cases (house-shaped boxes) containing the single items.

When I first started working on the project, I only thought of drawing something inspired by a combination of gothic and Persian architecture. But then, fortunately, I had this idea to base each house on the Archeron sisters, and that gave me the chance to really get creative and explore different elements, styles of architecture and colours.

Sadly I only recently realised that the back of the house and the left side don't fit together seamlessly because I drew the house from left to right without keeping the wraparound box in mind - so that's totally my fault, and I hope it's not too noticeable!

I also hope these mockups don't look too bad. I used the free transform tool in PS instead of 3D, so the perspective might be a little off.

I truly enjoyed working on this calendar. I rarely get to design packaging or even work with an Italian company, so this project was a breath of fresh air!

Instagram  - ArtStation - Website - Inprnt - Etsy - Threads

[gabrielleragusi]

I had the pleasure of collaborating with Gadget4entertainment on their 2024 Velaris Advent Calendar, officially licensed by Sarah J. Maas ✨

The box has sold out, but the single items will be available in their shop.

Instagram  - ArtStation - Website - Inprnt - Etsy - Threads