ITC 9. Memorable experiences
Plus spot illustrations, Romantasy and more
Welcome back to a ‘regular’ edition, a little bit more wordy than usual. I hope that’s OK! More visual stuff coming soon. Thank you for reading.
→ Reflections
We all remember a book, a game or a film that had a special impact on us, becoming unforgettable experiences. The most notable experience I have had with cinema was watching John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) for the first time. And not exactly in a movie theatre.
It was on a television, a few years after its premiere. I was around ten years old. Too young to watch a film full of horrible and gruesome images, (although undoubtedly very original and impressively crafted for the time).
Beyond the fact that the film is a science fiction masterpiece, what was important in this case was the context in which I experienced it.
It was at my grandparents' house in a sparsely inhabited rural town, at midnight, and there wasn't a soul standing except for my cousin and me. We were alone in a small kitchen with a wood-burning oven, completely dark except for the light emitted by a tiny tube screen. So small, that we had it glued just two spans from our eyes so as not to lose any detail.
The silence, the darkness and the tree branches swaying in the wind outside were the perfect setting for it, apart from a component of danger, since we were not supposed to be there at that moment, watching a movie clearly inappropriate for us. Danger, isolation, darkness… all very fitting for The Thing.
The film was forever etched in my memory. My favourite science fiction film is fundamentally linked to an experience that elevated it. I actually refused to watch the film again for many years, trying to avoid tarnishing that memory.
All of this makes me wonder how important physicality and context are to memorable experiences. My son's favourite experiences revolve around mixes of fiction and real-life settings and situations. This led us to take him to drama classes, which has turned out to be an incredibly positive decision.
That's why I've always found it surprising how badly role-playing games (live-action or not) have historically received such bad press, clearly the result of ignorance and prejudice.
→ Quote of the month
The underlying purpose of generative AI is to allow wealth to access skill while removing from the skilled the ability to access wealth.
Via Church of Jeff on Mastodon
Reedsy’s marketplace services
We’ve been working on a number of illustrations for Reedsy’s new service pages, following an independent metaphor for each ‘field’ present in the marketplace. To avoid extremely generic depictions of… well, just normal people doing editing, marketing, design work in front of a computer, we associated every role to a specific concept (wizards, secret agents, scientists!…).
I love working on spot illustrations like these. They need to be clear and compact, but also eye-catching. The absence of backgrounds forces us to focus on the main motifs, which is one of my favourite things, after all.
Here are some of them, linked to various services:
Note for illustration nerds: This time, I’ve tried to work with a lower file size and a thicker brush, to embrace (a little bit more of) rawness and focus more on shapes and volume, and less on lines, even if it’s all very flat, which is an increasing something for me. The result is slightly rougher and chunky, and I will be exploring this more from now on.
We will soon be able to show the entire collection of images in context, as part of the beautiful websites designed by the team. Or perhaps you’ll find them yourself out there!
From the past
Speaking of spot illustrations, I still like this one from an old article by
. The article talks about the Sea as nature's greatest storyteller. Sailors, pirates and mermaids appear as metaphors of different ways to conceive it. Even if stylistically it’s a bit far from what I do now in some ways, I like the limited palette and the characters:
The untitled book project (II)
Some additional sketches and tests for Maria Latorre’s forthcoming project (more info here). All very rough for now.
The project consists on establishing a general art direction, character design and, logically, solving all the illustrations contained in the book (perhaps around 15 + cover?). We’ll see! Something to cook sloooowly.
Have fun!
Dedicated to my dear Julian (I know you enjoy this). Try to find 6 differences between these images we made at Reedsy for a post on Romantasy. As usual, extra hard on mobile. Put your glasses on!
Thank you for reading In the Cave. Currently, I’m using social media just to promote this newsletter, share other people’s work or send memes to friends. Nothing else. So if you like this newsletter, please share it and recommend it. You can also find me on my website or Dribbble.
See you in the next one: the spooky Halloween recommendations-only special! 🦇
Read a previous story:
Un bon tema això de les experiències memorables i com persisteixen en els nostrs records.
Les noves il·lustracions són top!
Ese proyecto tenemos que retomarlo, como muy tarde, a principios del año que viene. En cuanto acabe lo que tengo pendiente, nos sumergimos en ello. Después de ver estos bocetos tengo más ganas todavía :-D