Episode 24: It's Art, I Tell You!
Welcome to our art appreciation society 🎨
Welcome to the Pub Dates newsletter! We’re so glad you’re here.
This newsletter is released as a companion to each podcast episode, and we use it to share the visual elements of our discussion — from mood boards to design sketches, from photos to secret giveaways just for subscribers.
Usually this newsletter comes to you a day or two after an episode is released, but this time we’re doing things a little bit differently. In episode twenty-four, we’ll be talking about commissioning character art, and we interview our two amazing character artists, Nicole Deal and Paulina Tłoczek.
As we talk with the artists, we thought it would be helpful for you to have the art in hand, so we’re sending the newsletter out early. Keep scrolling, and you’ll have a reference for each piece as we talk our way through them. The episode will be in your feed soon!
Before we dive in, we want to remind you of two things. The first is that with Nightbirds out in the world now—and so many of you getting in touch to tell us you’re loving it (yay!)—it’s the perfect time to drop a review on your favourite retail website. Reviews make such a big difference to discoverability—fellow readers rely on them, and algorithms use them to decide which books to recommend to others.
The other thing we wanted to remind you about is that Amie’s preorder offer is open now! You can claim the very art prints we’re about to discuss, plus a signed bookplate, and a digital pack that includes an online, spoilery Q&A with Amie. Click here to register your receipt.
Now, on to the art! First up, here’s Nicole’s incredible portraits of the team from The Isles of the Gods…
And here are Paulina’s gorgeous rendering of the Nightbirds themselves…
And finally, here’s a link to the art restoration fail that we mentioned during the episode — the fate of ElÃas GarcÃa MartÃnez’s Ecce Homo, which a parishioner decided attempt a little DIY repair on. Read about the full catastrophe here.
That’s it for this week — we’ll be back next week! In the meantime, don’t forget you can leave a review for Nightbirds anywhere you like to buy books, and you can register for the Isles of the Gods preorder to claim your swag.
Oh this was such a fun episode! My favourite thing was just the clear love everyone had for each others work. I hadn't realised most character artists started out as simply lovers of stories who simply had to capture the images in their heads. So cool!