So, selfishly, what do you want from your Big Bang artist other than Van Gogh's talents? What makes for a good interaction? What's your side of the task list look like?

I have one more author. Just want her sent off in a good manner.

My first BB artist's esthetics were almost diametrically opposed to my own. I was gratified that she "had a vision" when she read the draft. But it didn't seem related, except tangentially, to what I wrote. When I tactfully suggested a softer approach, she informed me she wasn't "illustrating the story," she was creating art inspired by the story. So I shut up and put up with what she did. Some people liked it. It's memorable enough that some reccers have even ID'd the fic by the art. The following year was a sequel, and she chose my story again. Due to scheduling and illness, she finished cover art and one other art piece, but no icons or chapter headers, etc. The art was more in line with what I'd asked for the year before, but our tastes just don't mesh.

The second artist I worked with got a shitty draft and a few key scenes to work from, and in less than a week she sent a mix list, with links to the music, and a cd cover that when I opened it, made me gasp, lose my breath, and burst into tears. She got it so clearly. Everything she did for that story was dead on. I merely mentioned a handwritten letter, and all the chapter headers had pen and paper.

My most recent artist listened very carefully to a preference of mine. If it's digitally drawn, unless you're Petite Madame or Euclase, I dislike face forward. She did profile, three-quarter and one-quarter work that was great, with subtle shading and highlights. She did give me a scare when the post date was a week out and I hadn't heard from her in a month, but she came through fine.

I've gotten gift art for a timestamp that was simple photomanip--well, I say simple, it's far more than I can manage, but it was almost stark, and devastatingly effective.

I think the main thing I want from an artist is to listen. I always hope the fic will evoke feelings, hopefully inspiration. And really, I count myself lucky if that happens, even if it's not to my taste or my esthetic. But it is nice if an artist listens if I point out that the uniforms in the story are dull and colorless, rather than brilliant peacock colors.

OMG, getting Euclase as your artist! I don't think there's a bigger intersection of detailed art talent and zero inspiration.

I'd ask her (in the sense that I would never, but would cross fingers) for portraits of the main players. Something her OCD can feast on. Because the pictures I've seen where she's moved anything more complex than changing their clothes to armour start to look weird. Heaven forfend she put multiple people in the pictures.

Petite Madame, OTOH, would get free rein.

I do think the "no full on digital faces" would be a doozy to receive as a requirement--my full on traditional media faces look like my digital ones, except usually less good. I guess full on would be full out! But a request like that dictates so much (I'm trying to imagine reformatting the remaining BB to take out full on, and it's pretty much just all awkward.)

Someone should tell me to stop doing facing profiles, but that someone needs to be me, and the story may very well be the arbiter of that.

I've wanted to draw ABO because I've been reading so much of it, and I was worried one picture was a bit...off...and I realised it was ABO! When two true mates meet for the first time, not only is it going to be cheesy, but the omega will present their neck, and subconsciously, that's what I'd drawn.

(I like ABO for the cheesiness of the true mate tropes on the one hand and the horror of a well done omega exploitation story. But I swear, ABO PWP is the most repetitive thing ever. End of good dirty talk...

Well, the no full-on faces was in the preliminary discussion, before she'd read the draft. She was fine with it.

Oddly, if the faces are hand drawn rather than digital, I don't have the same aversion.

Yes, the first five or six ABO fics were interesting, but they get sort of by the checklist after that. It's fascinating that you'd drawn the picture of the omega offering his neck without your really being aware of it. Artists constantly amaze me, because I can't do what you do.

It's fascinating that you'd drawn the picture of the omega offering his neck without your really being aware of it

THe author saw it--she wanted a picture where they looked like they were off in their own little world, and even though I hadn't consciously taken that from the words, it's what she got--subconscious, plus after effects of the artists I've been drooling over.

She's an artist (ID=artsiel), so I felt more pressure than normal. And I couldn't make head nor tail of a certain layout key to the illustration, and I knew it was because she'd detailed it down to the finest minutiae, and then written at the level of detail that best served the story. So I didn't want to go wrong against the pictures in the head.

She sent me the pics she'd been using for imagery, and it really helped.

As ABO goes, artistically, I guess I'm not attracted to most of the visual signifiers, so I'd not really though them out. I *despise* overt feminising them in art (I've unfollowed at least one tumblr because Cas had hips in every picture.

If there are x% ABO stories I like, I don't think they have much common visual information.

I'm stunned that ABO has come along and made MPREG into an annoying distraction instead of instructions to nuke the story from fire. In general I don't like the reproductive biology, but I do like a writer who can take the status quo of "no one agrees" and make interesting worldbuilding out of it.

I'm also pathetically into soul bonds right now, so ABO is attractive like that. I IZ SAP.

Next time, don't ask for a late post date.

I have now decided she gets one picture per chapter (8), a title card, a section separator, and an icon.

Readers, do you prefer your bang pictures inline, or in a separate masterpost? Does your opinion change as an artist or an author?

I prefer them within the story, if only because I might not be bothered to click on the art masterpost. I suppose the ultimate ideal would be three posts, art, fic, and blended, so that those who just want to see the art don't have to scroll, and those who don't want someone else's possibly crappy vision of a scene to interfere with what be an otherwise good read. But pictures that I don't like are easily ignorable if they happen to be embedded within the fic. For me, at least.

I'm greedy, I like both. I like the pictures incorporated into the story itself, but I also love to be able to go to the art post and glee all over the artist. Plus, seeing art *out* of context often brings out points I want to ask about-- inspiration or technique, or some other thing I'm curious about.

Do you remember the movie The Commitments? A very simpatico supervisor and I together interviewed candidates for an opening in the office. She confessed her first impulse always was to ask, "So who were your influences?" And that's a question I always want to ask creative people, especially visual artists.

As a reader, the story works better for me with inline art. But as an artist it's the worst choice if you care about kudos, and on your home territory to boot.

Cuts down drastically on the amount of feedback for the artist.

I would think that if you are a person likely to give feedback on a story, you'd take the time to backtrack and give good feedback to the artist if you liked them. I you are a person likely to click both the art and fic masterposts, it doesn't follow that you are 1) a person likely to give feedback, and 2) if you are, that you like the art enough to give feedback. If the second case, if you like the art in the embedded version, I'd think you'd backtrack to the artist to give said feedback.

In short, I feel that if you are a type of person to give feedback, feel that something is worthy of praise, you'll take the few extra clicks to make it happen, because it was just that fucking good that you couldn't get it out of your head and just HAD to share. If those few extra clicks means that you won't, it probably means that you wouldn't have with only a few clicks, and it wouldn't have been anything amazing to read about your work.

This post is also a load of bullshit because I know nothing about what most people decide to post and not post.