Anonymous Pirate · 1y
Bouncing off of that last question, I would also like to know how the overall selection process was done for merch artists and page artists. Everyone chosen I know will do a fantastic job, but I’m seeing lots of people who did not get accepted who have loads of experience and amazing content. I’m just curious on what exactly you were looking for as I can feel lots of disappointment all around. Hoping this can help give clarification and maybe some ideas for the next time people apply to a zine 🙂
Hello, thank you for your message !
We understand the disappointment and frustration that come from a rejection, and are very sorry to cause these feelings.
Please keep in mind that a rejection from a fanzine does not define your value in any way. We are certainly aware of all the amazingly talented applicants we had to reject, and trust us, we are sharing the frustration of not responding favourably to them.
Although we certainly wish we could accept everyone, please keep in mind that zines projects are limited by the production costs, as well as the load of work that the mod team can tolerate to voluntarily work on alongside their irl jobs.
And with a total of 219 applications, large majority of them being artists, we unfortunately had to reject a lots of creators that we're absolutely certain would have done a wonderful job and be a great addition to the project, which is why the team even had to take a few more days to take the final decisions between some of them... it was not easy for sure !
In general, just like the writers, all criteria points that were used in reviewing are available in our guidelines ;
Anatomy, composition and backgrounds were the decisive ones in most cases, and additionally for the merch, the lack of examples diversity, the lack of "dynamism" (as in the poses or composition of the merch being a little too simple, or just not what we were looking for), and creativity in general.
In the other hand, some have been rejected because, although their artstyle was super unique and interesting, it wouldn't translate well with the mood and vibes we were looking for for this project in particular, for example the dark/gore-focused ones (we do highly encourage them to apply to others projects that we know might be looking for this exact style).
Finally, some applicants portfolio/samples links were not working, and even though the team always took the time to make the extra step of consulting their social medias instead, it automatically put them in the bottom of our choices.
The same goes for the applicants that did not follow our guidelines (especially the background part).
As you were asking for ideas, if it can be of any help, here is what we could suggest for an artist zine portfolio:
- Being very mindful of following the guidelines, as it can result in an automatic rejection in some projects
- At least one piece with a fully detailed background.
- At least one piece showing characters interactions.
- At least one piece featuring a full-body character.
- At least one piece showing perspective & composition skills.
Many or all of these can very well be featured in the same piece.
Additionally :
- The more pieces with a background, even less detailed, the better
- Any piece that you think might fit the thematic of a zine is worth adding (for example, if you're applying for a ship zine and have ship pieces of any kind, not necessarily the one featured, you should add it. For an horror project, add your dark/angst works, etc.)
- Refrain from adding pieces that are too old and/or that were drawn in an artstyle that is not relevant anymore to your current style
- For merch artist, final merch product pictures are appreciated. If you're comfortable creating prints, add some of your illustrations works.
Please note that we are not professionals, and what a project team is looking for can differ from one to another, but we believe this should be a good start for lots of fanzines.
We hope we could help !
