Fates Worse Than Death Art Considerations

Fates Worse Than Death artwork should make both the people and the city seem:

Neither the people nor the backgrounds tend to match conventional standards of beauty. However, the city should be grand, and the people should have a sort of 'punk' intensity, both of which can be beautiful in an eccentric sort of way.

If you've been invited to do work for Fates Worse Than Death, it is because I have confidence that you can do the things listed above. I have to warn you in advance, though, there are some things that other art directors might not bat an eye at, but that we will get on your case about if you do them. Those things are:

  1. Idealized Characters. If the characters pictured in the book look like supermodels or pro-wrestlers, it will send the message that this is not a book about real people, it is a book about sci-fi superheros. That would be sending the wrong message about FWTD.
  2. Pandering. Characters can be attractive and sexy, but they shouldn't look like they were put there solely to titilate the reader. I don't want to offend and alienate any portion of the customer base. One of the biggest problems I've had is with artists trying to draw bizarre and revealing outfits on women - the women are supposed to be fighters (or at least be able to handle themselves in a fight) yet they are wearing something that looks like it would restrict their movement.
  3. Posing. Pictures should look like an invisible observer watching someone interacting with his or her environment, not like someone posing for a camera. People should look like they belong to their environments.
  4. Bizarre Tech. This is, for the most part, a hard-science game, which means that we set concrete limits to science and technology. High-tech is rare in the city, and when shown it is meant to illustrate the tech described in the book. I've had a few problems with people trying to put in "futuristic" stuff that does not illustrate the setting described in the text.

For more information on the Fates Worse Than Death setting, see: Fates Worse Than Death main page.