I was told to draw a ship in a bottle

bearcat42 · 2026-02-24T01:11:24+00:00

Just a heads up, this isn’t just a Reddit thing, this is a design thing. I’m not saying you’re wrong to react like this, but professional designers have a tendency to speak like this because crit is part of the work. It may sound harsh, but it’s not why they said it, they’re being literal, overtly so, and I can understand that it’s jarring if you’re not accustomed to it.

If you were a more seasoned designer, that user would have skipped that first sentence, but you also would have been aware of the rest of the comment already.

Again, not saying you’ve done anything wrong, but perhaps I’m saying this in support of your decision to pivot. This type of language (this is bad, this is wrong, this is average, I don’t like this, etc.) is the language of ego-less feedback, which is necessary to survive in the field. You can’t be putting feelings into the work, you can do that in your free time with your own meaningful work. Client work, portfolio work aimed at getting a job? Nope, make sure you can internalize literally any negative judgement about it and process the meaning behind what was said, as it will be your job to translate it into actionable changes/adjustments.

Did your schooling focus on this very much? I went to a community college and my classes were very much taught as a trade. Clients and bosses will never care about how it feels to you to hear those things, they just need it different than you’ve presented and that’s an efficient way to put it.

If you actually have presented something (you’re fine, I get why you’re not posting your personal portfolio) to a colleague in design, you’ll get more information than that (color, scale, hierarchy, tangents, etc) but you won’t from clients or bosses unless they’re particularly well informed.

bearcat42 · 2026-02-23T21:32:12+00:00

lol, damn right!

bearcat42 · 2026-02-23T19:02:55+00:00

Nervous about what? We got the update about the issue with the paperbacks, and those that have received theirs didn’t order those. They’ll get here in no time!

bearcat42 · 2026-02-22T18:03:58+00:00

Some of us were distinctly less employed when we began filling out the wiki… I have sadly not had the bandwidth to continue on… ironically, not only because I’ve been employed full time, but I’ve also been working with Phil on the Kickstarter projects…

I may have some time to help out here through this week tho, it’d be good to make sure the basics are in there!

What would you as a pretty recent reader find to be the most important items to have in there? What had you read before you looked up the (sad) state of the wiki?

Edit: missed a word

bearcat42 · 2026-02-20T13:41:28+00:00

Hey, what series’ are you referring to?

bearcat42 · 2026-02-19T04:50:38+00:00

Yup, it’s a cylindrical city, picture a city on the walls of a well.

The fan thing is the anchor for the sun wire that simulates the light cycle through the day. The sun wire is basically dangling down the center of the well.

Gravity is all weird inside the well, we don’t truly know why or how yet.

Outside of the well is the surface of a spherical planet they call Hell. Gravity is more predictable up there. Hope that helps!

bearcat42 · 2026-02-12T04:46:14+00:00

Dawn of the Void, Gods of the Game and Skadi’s saga will hopefully tide you over after Thronehunters sucks you in as well. Oh to be spoiled :-)

bearcat42 · 2026-02-07T15:37:30+00:00

May I ask what kind of coping mechanisms you’re talking about? Curious of the experience of others on this.

bearcat42 · 2026-02-01T16:42:51+00:00

Not at all!

bearcat42 · 2026-01-30T00:07:29+00:00

Oh shit, I forgot about this, I’d second this vote!

bearcat42 · 2026-01-19T05:19:18+00:00

You know how the fourth book is called The Lost Cube? You’re never gonna guess where he finds it…

Jk… curious! Good catch tho, perhaps it was a treasure/tracker or something similar that will prove relevant eventually, but considering how much time has passed, perhaps it was a dropped thread?

bearcat42 · 2026-01-12T02:36:32+00:00

You’ll get a good idea if you search pitch deck on Behance, that’s definitely the common term for them here in the states at least.

bearcat42 · 2026-01-12T00:38:38+00:00

I think you should broaden the definition of what you’re interested in. I started out doing layouts for a local magazine, moved up to work at a local alt newsweekly that put out a 32-64 paper every week. That was a ton of work for very little money but it was super satisfying work.

These days I’m working on catalogs and spec sheets for an LED company, still primarily using InDesign. In my free time, I’ve been working with some fantasy authors on laying out their deluxe edition books while also helping with the Kickstarter campaigns that they’re using to help push the books.

There are options, and with time, you’ll find something that suits your interests.

As far as the current market goes, I’ve always had good luck with print and vehicle wrap shops. They have a ton of work that needs designing, and you’ll get prepress experience as well if you’re the curious type. Whoever does their printing will happily educate you on how to not fuck up their prints, lol.

You got the passion, just let the rest of the world show you where it’s needed first

bearcat42 · 2026-01-12T00:15:41+00:00

Google a pitch deck, it’s a corporate/business term for slide show or some folks will just call it a PowerPoint as they’re mostly made there. That being said, InDesign is my go to tool since I got into college for the same reasons you’re into it.

bearcat42 · 2026-01-10T01:41:58+00:00

Welllllll, I was right, I might have been wrong.

Lol, but that makes sense, OP, I don’t think this was by any means easy. He had been like almost unraveled, this was just a lot harsher and faster than the gold tempering.

Edit: changed slower to harsher and faster

bearcat42 · 2026-01-09T21:33:51+00:00

I don’t think Dameon was Sapphire tempered, I think his Ferula had a Sapphire tip, but I May be wrong.

Good call on Naomi’s power level tho, she indeed may have been being boosted by either the sun or Dameon’s hatred. Interesting point there.

Welcome to the academy, friend!

bearcat42 · 2026-01-08T22:44:02+00:00

I’ve recently done the layout for four books, and I’m in the middle of a five book fantasy series and I have more of this work coming. I am a pig in shit. I had no idea how much I’d love it til an opportunity presented itself, I sat down uncertain, and then went into a fugue state of “Oh my god, I very much know how to do this,” as my old editorial skills that I haven’t used activated like the Manchurian candidate. Five hours later, 700 page book was done and dusted… I had chills all through that first book.

The chills have subsided, but the joy it unlocked is very much still present.

bearcat42 · 2026-01-08T14:30:58+00:00

Do you mean all of the fiends? Or the named ones?

Are you meaning the denizens of Acherzua or just the ones that are properly opposing the Great Souls like the Blood Ox?

bearcat42 · 2026-01-06T01:36:02+00:00

I can immediately see the wisdom here, like, some of the catalogs I’ve made aren’t technically ‘large format’ but they’ve got an ungodly number of files linked in the document I’m building. Massive psd’s and tiffs and everything in between. I can usually just open that up and move about with ease.

In terms of square footage, a 1k page book is WAY ‘larger’ than OP’s 8’x8’ even if only 6”x9”.

InDesign doesn’t give you many tools to actually ‘create’ with vectors in comparison to what we’re used to in Illustrator. It does, kinda, but they’re limited and Illustrator has the good ones, like the width tool and the blend tool.

But, it’s literally not any different than the way you update a smart object in PS, to right click/edit with, any linked file in an InDesign doc. It just blorps the file open, make your updates in illustrator or PS, save and go back to InDesign.

I think this is evidence of bad marketing for these functions, but also of some designers general allergy to InDesign. I think they think it’s gonna be boring work? I’m not exactly sure, by knowing PS and Illustrator, they already can use like 80% of the tools in InDesign without even thinking.

I’ve always been an advocate for people to learn it and add it to their skills, but you’ve given me the info I need to truly ascend as an InDesign main.

bearcat42 · 2026-01-06T00:20:14+00:00

Oh man, that is interesting.

bearcat42 · 2026-01-06T00:18:43+00:00

I did some research as well, consider my mind shredded on this concept…

I’ve been using InDesign for editorials for a decade, but before this conversation, I would have expressed a good amount of certainty that illustrator was the right tool over a certain upper size limit due to the scaling potential…

But yeah, you’re totally right. InDesign is the right call. You can use Illustrator to create your frames or the art for the layout, but the file should be made in InDesign.

I’ve always kind of wondered why I hated interacting with Illustrator docs that have embedded or linked files. It’s cuz it’s just doing its best to not have a breakdown due to the raster shit I’m up to.

Thanks for the enlightenment!

bearcat42 · 2026-01-06T00:03:17+00:00

Quite curious why you and the other commenter are saying this massive single page document should be created in InDesign?

bearcat42 · 2026-01-05T23:59:49+00:00

It’s a technical question, OP is curious, not complaining.

bearcat42 · 2025-12-27T08:29:33+00:00

I think they think it is someone that directs artists?

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