Designing the Cover for ARCADIA 1 (Patreon)

Hey all, Jason here! Our first opportunity to work with Gustavo Pelissari was during our Kingdoms & Warfare Kickstarter campaign. There, we featured two Organization pieces done by Gustavo. Those two images are full of vibrant color and stylized characters, drawn directly from Gustavo's imagination and skill. Gustavo's work showed enthusiastic, artistic energy throughout the conceptual phases of these two pieces. There was an observable enjoyment by him in what he was laying down in the image.

When you look at Gustavo's portfolio, there's a wonderful range of character there; of distinctive qualities and attributes in each individual illustration. Gustavo is capable of a range of style and method and artistic presentation that isn't all that common with illustrators these days. He's not simply mimicking these styles or reflecting a common school of thought. The stylistic choices feel uniquely owned by him. He has made each piece of art his own, no matter the commission. Looking through Gustavo's portfolio, one can see the enjoyment he had in completing those artworks. It can be seen in the arrangement of space and line as well as the sense of life he's given the characters and elements featured within.

When searching out cover artists for ARCADIA I knew I wanted artists capable of producing artwork that reminded me of the fantastic illustrations I recalled seeing upon the covers of 1980s Dragon, and Epic magazine. Those covers often featured greatly varying styles, mediums, and themes. The common elements being wonder and adventure. That cover artwork often featured creatures in fantastic landscapes, combat and peril, or some vaguely semiotic kitsch album cover. They all had the same intent, to beckon you on and take a look inside. Today, that 1980s art invokes positive sentimentality in me. Finding an artist that can invoke the reactions I had back then was important to me for ARCADIA. In Gustavo's work I get those same emotional reactions, and I knew immediately that a piece of art from him would fit perfectly for an ARCADIA cover.

ARCADIA is a beautiful and natural world, but also one of great danger and even death. For this first cover, I knew I wanted elements of both untouched, fae-like beauty, mixed with elements of death. Initially I had an idea featuring a human skull and fairies playing cheerfully about it. Gustavo even did an early sketch of this art brief during the conceptual stage for this cover.

However, I had also asked Gustavo to pitch cover ideas inspired by both the theme of ARCADIA, and, more importantly, his own personal inspirations and what the description of ARCADIA brought to mind for him. Gustavo produced seven sketches! One sketch was a loose version of what ended up being the final cover. In that one sketch, Gustavo had incorporated the ARCADIA logo above an elegant and alien looking Harpy. The combination of the flowing logo, the arch of the Harpy's wings beneath, and the elements of this beautiful fae creature casually holding the corpse of some unfortunate soul...Well it was all there!

Based on this initial sketch, I continued to work with Gustavo through the creative process. Feedback and suggestions led to some additional sketches of that early design.

From these were selected the strongest elements; the components of each sketch, I or the team, or Gustavo were most drawn to.

As the art director, communicating your expectations and reaction to the art throughout each stage of the artistic process is important. It’s not enough to say ‘I like it!’ at this rough sketch phase, because there’s still so much open to interpretation. The artist has something in mind for the final illustration, but so do you now, as the viewer. These two interpretations may not align yet. It’s here where you need to communicate why you like it. Those reactions may often lead to a specific art direction and design you hadn't yet known existed. This happens as you hone in on that final look and true expectations are established. It’s a process to find out what the final art will actually look like. Throughout this process of feedback, Gustavo was a pleasure to work with. He is a professional artist, and he understands and takes feedback well and is able to iterate on that feedback quickly. From this process we end up with a tighter drawing ready for the next stage:

Upon approval of this final rough, Gustavo began the painting process by providing some color roughs: Small color thumbnails of the image to give a sense of the final value and palette.

From these, the entire MCDM team had a strong reaction to the first thumbnail and, with some minor suggestions, Gustavo continued to paint the final image you see on the cover of ARCADIA issue #1.

This first cover was designed by Gustavo, he did all the heavy lifting. Gustavo made my job as art director both easy, and satisfying, because I knew we had found a match! We'd have a cover for Issue #1 created the same way those 1980s covers were: Inspired by the freedom of wondrous places, adventure and the imagination of a talented artist.

— Jason

For those who are interested in bringing a piece of ARCADIA home, you can find the final cover artwork on Gustavo's print shop..