Paperlegends

[einahpets]

So if any of you don't know, paperlegends had their announcement post today!  Yay! 
I've met the best people through this event, seriously. 

Anyway I was looking through the schedule and I noticed artists now have to submit drafts.
This is actually pretty cool, cause it makes artists more involved. 
But I think there's probably more that would make it a little more involved/better for the artists.

Question for my writer friends and artists too!! --
As it's done now, drafts aren't due until after artist/author matchups happen. 
Before matchups, the 15K word counts are taken in faith.  I can't tell you how many of my artist friends got burned because the author didn't have the suggested amount, and ended up dropping out or the artists were not able to make art to the fullest of their abilities since time is shorter for artists.
I was wondering if submitting a minimum 15K rough draft before match-ups is something you think would benefit your Big Bang experience?
As an artist, I see it as more of a guarantee that you're serious about finishing and I have more confidence going into the anon matchups.  ALSO!  I have so much more material to work with and create beautiful art from.  And please tell me of a writer who doesn't want to see beautiful art?

Question for my artist friends --
How would you feel to have betas required for artists too? 
There are so many talented artists in fandom who would be more than happy to take a look at your in-progress work.
In the past year I started sharing my IP work with fellow Merlin artists and it makes a world of difference. 
Be it for anatomy, composition, perspective issues, coloring, the atmosphere in the piece, how to do a certain technique, etc. 
Having an online critique makes such a difference, and it created such a supportive community. 
It's like an art class, but for free, and on your time!!
Would you guys be interested/supportive of this?

I've already talked to a few friends, but I wanted to see if there were similar/different thoughts from my flist/the Merlin community.

Feel free to pass this along!

Comments

[venivincere]

One thing that I found helpful and really motivating was finding my artist ahead of time, actually. During the story planning process we bounced ideas off each other and I really think it worked so well for the synergy of the art and story. When I first starting thinking of my story, one of my first thoughts was "OMG I have to ask Itz if she'd be willing to illustrate this," because as I was thinking of the story in my head, I was seeing pictures of it in her style. I didn't know her from Adam, hadn't ever talked to her, but I got up the guts and PMed her out of the blue and just asked. It's not how it's done, but I just couldn't see anyone's style but hers. She accepted, and was not only instrumental in getting my ideas to gel but was also an AMAZING resource for the celtic pagan holidays and the significance of the Oak King, both of which are central themes to Light of Arthur.

In short, if I had an option, I'd ask that artists and writers be matched at the very beginning so they can work through ideas together and have that synergy, too.

[cruentum.livejournal.com]

I'd actually agree (even though I know it's not practical given the drop-out rate) but what's made me a bit sad is always the difference in results between artists and writers who you knew went into this together and those who dashed something out last minute and couldn't care less. I freely admit a bit of jealousy on my part towards people who go in pre-matched and essentially circumvent the idea, somewhat, of the challenge and the set-up of the challenge. They produce great results but I'm all for an improvement in rules/guidelines committing artists and authors more towards one another.

[venivincere]

Really, when I went into this thing, I had not only my artist but also my beta and cheerleader. So it really was an entire team synergy, which I don't know why I didn't mention that above, but it was. I had all of them together during the planning and outlining stages to bounce ideas off each other. I made a distribution list and asked that when we emailed that we emailed all of us and that we always hit Reply All so all of us could see the whole discussion. It worked out very well that way. It helped from not only a creative perspective but also an organisational one; keeping in touch throughout the process helped us know when to expect things from one another, and helped keep us on a reasonable production schedule. LoA ended up being around 65K words, and I am a slooooooowwww writer, so that was very helpful for me.

[cruentum.livejournal.com]

I would say that it does depend on the author's style though in terms of how much they WANT to make it a team effort. I can see authors reacting quite negatively to be saddled with a team of people they'd have to talk to throughout thewhole process when they just want to write that thing.

That said I do think it'd be grand if at least artist and author had a bit of a stronger bond than a here's the story - here's the art - end of communication but that's, again, probably personality-dependent and I'd say there are probably people who want only that out of of this.

[gwyntastic.livejournal.com]

I used to be extremely against pre-match up in BigBang Challenges. The whole fun was pairing up with someone you don't know and make something amazing with them. I have to admit that started pairing up before hand because I didn't like the feeling Merlin BigBang left me with, while I was making my art it felt like my writer may drop out at any second.

I wasn't used to not having a whole story from the get go. In the other bigbangs I worked on if a writer hands in a rough draft at that point they are pretty much locked in unless something came up in RL to cause them to drop out. I know that pairing up before hand doesn't alleviate that fear. But at least I know I'm getting into. I'm making that choice for myself not taking the luck of the draw when matching starts up.

Gotta, admit I love it. I get a writer who I KNOW loves my style and that's not exactly easy to find in this fandom. I already know she hearts me and I heart her and it's going to be freaking amazing.

[reni-m.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that is a huge advantage to pair up beforehand for BBs!
Though hopefully making some changes for the random match-up will make the outcome more successful for all participants.