Art style

<aside> 👨‍🎨 General Tips on working with Artists

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• Be open to ideas and interpretations for visual things, but draw the line at something you consider important. For example, if portraying people of colour is important to you, make sure to be clear that skin tone should not be changed.
• On the other hand, if your artist instead wants to make small changes in character or background design, then I would say it's better to give them approval to change things up than argue over the fussy details.
• Some artists prefer to be told exactly what to do and then work towards it, others may want to draw concepts, experiment, present new ideas and be a little bit more free in what they can provide. You will have to figure out their personality and provide what they need accordingly.
• Be encouraging and show enthusiasm towards their work. You should always treat your team members and listen to their opinions respectfully, but people want their work to be validated. You want people to stay motivated working on the project, so this is important.

<aside> 🫒 What kind of feedback to give

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Praise

Give praise. If this is a game jam, the artist is working for free. Value their time and energy!

Opinions

Go back to your outline and give the context for your suggestion so the artist understands why the changes are needed.

Deal

This doesn't always come up but it's good to have. Say what can be kept or what doesn't need changing. If you think you can use this asset elsewhere, say this so that the artist knows and can save a copy.

Suggestions

Give concrete, grounded feedback on what actually needs fixing.

Examples

"[Praise] This looks so awesome, I love the energy! [Opinions] Her expression should look less melodramatic here, [Deal] but I will use definitely use this in another upcoming scene. [Suggestions] Could you change her mouth to closed, and make her look more sad or hurt?"

"[Praise] What a great design, I love what you came up with! [Opinions] It's important that the monster looks scary as well. [Deal] His body shape and horns are perfect, so we can keep that! [Suggestions] Can you make his pupils smaller and his teeth longer?"

If you think there are anatomy or posing problems, I would isolate which part and suggest the artist ask for help with a redline to correct issues, either from a friend, an art server or channel. If they do not have those resources they will have to adjust it themselves, which can be time-consuming depending on how complex the problem is.