I’ve been meaning to begin a crowdfunding campaign for my next book, which will be a collection of the Dwarves of Kadaz stories that featured Cresca, Gordi, and all the others. It was my first post-Snout story that was a longer narrative and I’m quite proud of how it all came together. I have all the pages done and all the extras ready to be assembled, so it stands to reason that I should have begun this campaign by now.
Except there was one problem. I could not for the life of me come up with a compelling cover for this book.
I didn’t want to do an ensemble image of all the major players because not only do I not enjoy drawing them, but I’m bad at them. I’d much rather put the spotlight on one or two characters integral to the story. But even narrowing it down to Cresca and Gordi, I still couldn’t come up with a cover I was happy with.
So I enlisted the one person whose eye for design I trust above all others, and whom I could trust to be brutally honest with my questionable eye for layout. Garth. And by “enlisted” I mean “pestered him into giving my works-in-progress his honest opinion.”
It was sobering but necessary work.
The reason my partnership with Garth lasted as long as it did on Star Power was because we were free to be honest with our opinions of the other’s work. That honesty was protected by the trust we had for one another, and so I placed my trust in him once more. I was right to do it, because ideas I thought were working weren’t actually working at all, and my attempts to be “fancy” ended up looking amateurish. It threatened to become a blow to my confidence but I remembered that I trust this man with my whole artistic self, so went back to the grindstone and tried again.
And again.
And again.
After several tweaks and restarts I felt I finally had something, but was afraid it wouldn’t work like so many other attempts. When he looked it over his reply was finally “there it is, that’s what I was waiting to see.” It wasn’t a specific design choice he was pushing me towards, but he knew he had to push me away from ideas that weren’t working until I hit something that was more definitely “me.” I’m glad he did, and I’m glad I placed my trust in him as I’ve always done.
I’m lucky to have someone like Garth as a friend and an artistic colleague. Our styles may be vastly different, but we both know how to advise the other when we’re stuck on something. When he disagrees with a choice I’ve made it’s because he feels, and knows, I can make a better choice. Everyone deserves someone like that in their lives, and I’m grateful to him for his counsel.
I’m hoping to have Dwarves of Kadaz: REVOLUTION ready to crowdfund by the beginning of November!