Contributor applications aren’t open yet, but in case you want to prepare anything, this guide should help you to put together a portfolio, no matter what role you’re looking for.
(Please note: you may apply for any number of these roles.)
General guidance
Although this is a Rise from the Ashes fanbook, there is no requirement to have the RftA characters — or even Ace Attorney characters — in your application portfolio. However, because these characters are quite distinct, having works that are a good indicator of how you draw a variety of faces and body types is key.
Art style isn’t important, as long as it’s expressive and you can make it work for the role you want to apply for.
While this isn’t a shipping-centred project, ship art/fic is fine to apply with, as long as it’s well-characterised.
The genre that I’m looking for is flexible — there’s room for both silly and more serious works.
You don’t have to have perfect English, just good ideas. Our mod team can copyedit if need be.
So… What are we looking for?
Navigation panel:
page art | comics (writing | art | 4koma) | merch design | print design
Page Art
In between comics, there will be full pages featuring illustrations from our page artists.
For applications, I’m looking for no more than 10 pieces that show off:
- An eye for interesting composition
- Good attention to detail
- Confidence
- Colour choice
- An interesting art style
- Good face drawing
- Good posing
Backgrounds are not a strict requirement, but definitely will make you look good.
Comics
The main body of this fanbook will be made up of black and white comics from our comic artists. This is a role that can be taken on in three ways:
- Writer and artist
- Writer
- Artist
You will only have to apply to the comics form once, even if you want to do both the writing and art for your comic.
Writing + Art
If you’re a confident writer and artist, and you want to show off both of these skillsets in your contribution, you definitely can. Same skillsets apply as the below two categories.
Writing
If you’re confident in your writing ability, but not in your art, there will be the opportunity to work with an artist to make a comic together.
To apply, you should provide no more than 5 examples of writing that you think best shows your:
- Characterisation
- Pacing
- Creative thinking
- Dialogue
For writing, it’s slightly more important that you have the RftA characters represented in your portfolio, but don’t worry if you don’t. If you have any scripts or screenplays, include them!
Art
If you’re confident in your art, but not your writing ability, there will be the opportunity to work with a writer to make a comic together.
For your portfolio, I want to see examples of:
- Your paneling
- Some solid emotive facial expressions
- Your linework
- Some grounding/background elements
- If you want to work in a different style, some supplementary illustrations in that style
Obviously technical skill is important, but visual storytelling is more important. If you have anything that’s not finished up, or is just panel layouts, but you’re still proud of, include it anyway!
Note: have a look at the casebooks — you’ll see that the actual quality of the artwork sometimes isn’t brilliant, but the comic is still successful. Please bear this in mind when applying and don’t be insecure about your draftsmanship!
4koma
If you want to contribute 4koma, I need to see your funny stuff too. Doesn’t matter what it looks like.
Merch Design
Besides the fanbook, I also want some merch to be available — and according to the interest check, so do you!
For this role, I’m less interested in character art, so it doesn’t matter if you’re not good at drawing people — what I’m looking for is clean, graphic art that would work well as badges or stickers. If you’ve designed either of these in the past, or any logos, please include them!
There won’t be any acrylic character keychains or stands.
There’s been demand for other merch in the interest check so far, so if you have any previous designs for any other kinds of merch, feel free to include that as well.
If you want to make designs, but don’t have ideas, please apply anyway — I have a lot of reserve ideas to assign to people.
Print Design
While prints are technically merch, the qualities that I’m looking for from print designers are different from other merch artists.
Print designers should have the same qualities as page artists, but most importantly, strong composition and keen attention to detail. If you have any previous prints or posters, please include them!
Again, the actual style doesn’t matter too much, so long as it looks good.
Similarly to the merch artists, if you want to be a print artist, but you don’t have any ideas, I have a few reserve ones.
Hopefully, this page can help you figure out what I’m looking for. Best of luck!
Fuzz
