Make with the clickie to see a print-res version of our "art teaser" (or right-click, "save link as"). This is our now-traditional montage of every piece of art in the issue. Normally we've got the subscription information over it (on the website's order page as well as in the back of the magazine itself), but I wanted to share it with you in its full glory.

I spend several hours playing with the full-res art provided to us by the artists, scaling it, rotating it, giving it borders for a sort of postcard or Polaroid effect. I do my best to make sure each piece of art is properly represented so you can pick them out later from the full pieces.

This one was the hardest to put together yet; each of the pieces wanted to be foremost--with my first attempt The Catoblepas (can you guess which one that is?) wound up taking nearly half the page.

Then once I had them all balanced a bit more around the page (keep in mind the center has to be not-too-important as that's where the subscription form goes), I printed it out and saw I didn't have the lights and darks balanced well. We've got a great variety of art this issue, all different styles, all with their own stories.

And then it was noticed I'd missed a piece (because the file wasn't where it was supposed to be) and I had to go back to juggling them all.  But I hope you appreciate this teaser--and just wait until you see the cover! It's in the montage, but much more striking in color.

PDFs have gone out to our writers/poets for final approval--very soon we'll be sending it to the printer!  And when that happens, there will be more teasers and even another contest. :)

12 comments; 5 subscribers

Thursday, March 26, 2009 / 04:57:12

skankityspence

I'm going to take a wild guess and say the one of the face is the new cover? haha I don't know.

Glad to hear news about this - and a contest! w00t!

 

Friday, April 3, 2009 / 07:46:03

kaolin

were you able to piece out which one it was from the "GUD goes 'pay per view'" blogpost? :)

 

Friday, April 3, 2009 / 14:17:33

skankityspence

Oh yes! haha I was wronnggg.

 

Monday, May 11, 2009 / 11:36:02

archipenko8

Does anyone think as I do that using the individual artist work for a collage "teaser" is inappropriate and in some way compromises the individual works?

 

Monday, May 11, 2009 / 13:07:40

sue

At GUD, we don't feel that way.

 

Monday, May 11, 2009 / 13:15:37

kaolin

We haven't gotten any such feedback from our artists (we've been doing these collages for a while). They're there to catch you eye--want to see more? You should want to see more. That's what's inside. :)

This is a teaser, not intended as art or a statement about art in and of itself, and certainly no statement on the individual pieces--but it does try to put them somewhat in the context of each other to give a better mood-feel for the issue.

Art galleries do it, to an extent, as well, I think.

We do appreciate your opinion, though, and are happy to discuss further--but we're pretty firm in our POV on this.

Are you familiar with any of the art or artists outside of through GUD?

 

Monday, May 11, 2009 / 14:15:51

Debbie

No, I don't feel that way at all, but I'd be curious to know why you do.

 

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 / 14:46:55

archipenko8

Hi Debbie,

Thanks for the response to my question by all.

After much time in the design of a work of mine, much thought and of course the joy and good feeling about the process, and at times a successful conclusion, the public aspect of the process begins. The handling of the image of the work is entrusted to a venue such as yours, a fine venue I may say, to be treated with the respect that the work has in its conception and meaning to the artist. I personally would ask that you would not cut out parts of my work for an ad because the work is not represented as originally intended... just one mans oppinion.

best to you all

 

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 / 15:32:29

Debbie

But it's not "an ad"--it's a promotion of the artists' work. Given that art is often grayscaled, cropped, written on, and definitely doesn't show at its best in ebook formats, any artist that concerned for its integrity is probably not going to submit here in the first place :).

 

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 / 19:46:17

archipenko8

Hi Debbie,

All "Artists" are concerned about the integrity of their work, that's all they have. They are especially aware of this in the way that the work is promoted, since it is out of their hands. An "Art Venue" can attract the widest array of talent by repecting the work and build its rep on being the one that does this...

over and out

 

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 / 19:56:27

kaolin

I'd say check out a copy of GUD and judge for yourself how we respect art as compared to other fiction journals. :)

I'd also say a picture's worth a thousand words (though that's not quite what we can afford to pay at the moment); how else would you suggest promoting the art we publish?

We do the same thing with fiction, poetry, and reports--they're all "teased" via snippets that we feel represent a core element (generally starting from the beginning, because written works are linear like that...).

We do appreciate this dialogue. :)

 

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 / 01:39:51

Debbie

If all artists respect the integrity of their work, then the fact that none of our artists has ever expressed concern about the teaser, indicates to me that they don't feel that integrity has been violated.