Volcano Island! Part 6

The first bit of trouble on this piece came when my art director showed a mock up of the cover to the main client. She had come up with a really great logo for the box art cover that, to me, seemed very reminiscent of CBS's "Survivor" logo. It was detailed, painterly, and realistic.

The clients loved it so much they wanted the rest of the box art to look more like her logo. It didn't matter that changing the logo to reflect more of my style would be easier than changing my style to reflect the logo. They wanted what they wanted.

Initially I told them that if they wanted a more realistic painterly style that I probably wasn't the artist for them. But, because the deadline was closing in, I made an attempt to create something that would make everyone happy.

For an entire Saturday I built a background out of different photos in Photoshop. I cut and pasted together a ton of different elements to make an image like the client was looking for. In the end I pasted my characters over the new background and sent them the results.

They loved the new background but then turned their attention to some of the figures. They wanted changes on all the character's clothing and a few more tweaks here and there.

It was at that point I felt like this job was never going to end. So I did something I have never done before. I cut my losses and bowed out of the job. I think if the client knew what they wanted and wanted work in my style we could have come up with something really cool. But, as things went along it became apparent that they really didn't know what they wanted and were kind of making things up as they went, making changes on the fly, and hadn't even really settled on any specific style yet.

The art director I worked with on this project was really amazing and probably one of the best I've worked with. She asked questions and brought up concerns that I've never seen an art director tackle and was always doing her best to create the best piece of work she could.

But, in the end I think what was best for the project was for me not to do it. After all that work none of what I created would ever be seen except here on my blog. Oh well.

But, I did do a recent Google search and found this image for the game. It looks like they got exactly what they wanted and the box ended up looking great. I'm glad they found an artist who's work fit exactly what they were looking for because I don't think I could have pulled this look off in the time allotted if they had held a gun to my head.

And, it's not that I think the art is any better or worse than my style. Just different. And, sometimes that's exactly what a client wants. Something different. I'm just glad I'm slowly learning at what point they want that and the point where it's time for me to take a step back and let someone else step in.

But, who knows, there is always next time!

Have a great day!