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TODAY'S FEATURED POST

To Green Angel Tower – cover art

Donato Giancola

Periodically I make the choice to lean in heavily on a commission, dramatically increasing the amount of labor, focus, and intent I wish to bring to a painting.  This bar is raised by myself, never by my client, as the desire is to create a portfolio piece I can leverage for broader use, benefiting my client, and hopefully my career. This is one such instance. When Shawn Speakman of Grim Oak Press asked if I…

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EVERYDAY ORIGINAL

The Magpie Spirit

YESTERDAY’S POST

Image

TrendWatching Part 1: Philosophy

Lauren Panepinto

January 23, 2025 - It's a big part of my job as a Creative Director to be on top of bookcover trends. Actually, no, that's not accurate. It's a big part of my job to be ahead of trends before they hit bookcovers. Which means paying attention to aspects of culture you wouldn't necessarily consider linked to book publishing. It's one level to say we look at industries that tend to adjust faster to trends than books — like film and gaming — that have a pretty straight line to an overlapping target audience. Recently the concept of trend watching and how it applies to an artist's portfolio has been coming up frequently in my portfolio reviews, and I realize it's not something art school teaches, so I wanted to start a series here. It'll definitely be spread out…

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  • Courtney on favorite subjectsThese portraits are capturing very different personalities--it must be fun to represent that in the painting! Wonderful faces; looking…
  • Courtney on “Presearch” — Part 1 of 3Super-helpful ideas for getting into the world you need for the piece and tightening up your time spent searching! Thank you so much! I…
  • Donato Giancola on To Green Angel Tower – cover artVery kind comments João, thank you for sharing your thoughts and journey. Best of Luck in all your artistic pursuits!

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