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CAB21: mod announcement and draft dump

Hi! So, a few changes.

With the way the mod team is doing, we have to change a few things, by which I mostly mean scaling down. So no more monthly challenges, and no more tweets or discord announcements (past one for this of course).
Below is a draft dump of what we had planned so far. The exchange thing and the custom banner thing obviously don’t apply anymore. Feel free to count the rest as official or not, however you want.

Next year is a bit of a question mark, tbh. I know I (Anna) am stepping dow, and either someone jumps in as main mod and takes over, or we leave it be. If you’d be interested please let us know! We still have all the planning notes and everything, if that can help. Otherwise, this has been a lot of fun. Thanks for playing with us!

Love,
Anna

( May challenge )
( June challenge )
( July challenge )
( August challenge )
( September challenge )
( October challenge and feedback )
( Prize claims )

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CAB21: April challenges

Challenge banner with the info from the post.

Ask the cover artist: dream collab
Describe the hypothetical collaborative cover art(/art/design/…) project of your dreams. Could be an idea you need someone with a specific skillset to implement, could be a fun experiment that relies on having two people, could be a chill and easy project to make for a chill and easy experience!

Personally, I’ve been trying to learn how to use scribus (open source software to format documents for publishing), except I’m missing an actual project to figure it out on, so a collab where I’d create something (zine, magazine cover, leaflet, …) based on the content of my collaborator would be awesome.

Art history: food art
Is food art? Well, art or design, it’s for sure pretty: latte art, cute bento, cake decoration (and one more), food photography, seasonal things like pumpkin carving and gingerbread houses, … and from NBC’s Hannibal to parenting blogs, from eat art to Arcimboldo, people seem to agree!

(Photo credit: 1)

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challenge: cover art bingo 2021

Queen movie poster

Luc CBJ headshot taken from Google, as is the headshot of... someone in a Habs jersey, no idea who.
Background is from Texture Pack 2 by auliachan on Deviantart
Title font is Vendetta
Credit font is Violetta Sans
Original Queen movie poster for the square

I struggled a lot with this cover, originally with trying to find source images that would work well photoshopped together, but then trying to make a composition that had sort of a reflective element AND THEN making all the colors work together. I would have preferred to make something with a little bit of a more dream-like quality because that's where the universe meshing takes place, but I think the graphic elements of the background add some whimsy that remind me of doodles made in teen notebooks. The cover itself really doesn't look like the poster from the square except for a) obvious title similarities and b) a sort of symmetrical reflection in each.

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CAB21: March challenges

March! Northern hemisphere friends, we’re getting really close to the end of that seasonal depression, hang tight.

Ask the cover artist: tools of the trade
Tell us about a software, online tool or resource that you use! What’s so great about it? Show us some examples?

I’ll start: Inkscape. It’s a vectorial image editor, so it’s very easy to play around with shapes, colors, fonts and composition. It’s not the best for complexe texture, and it’s hard to get used to unless you’re already used to similar tools (open source software like like Glimpse/G*MP, or vectorial ones like Adobe Illustrator or even Photoshop now), but since most of the time I’m thinking more in terms of design than in terms of art, it’s perfect. All of these covers except the first, the second and the fifth were done with inkscape.

Art history: glass work
Glass work is a fascinating process with many practical and artistic uses: stained glass, vitreous enamel, grandma’s decorative paperweight, …
Maybe don’t try to do this at home, but if you do, definitely show us the results!

(Photo credits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

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challenge: cover art bingo 2021

Monochrome, Color Theory, Reverse

Description: A black background with white anatomy and scientific formulas written at different angles and sizes, like notes being taken.
Square: Monochromatic

( Sources and Ramblings )

Description: A primarily green and blue gradient which has a flowing purple and red stripe on the right hand side. The whole image has a fairly yellow and scratchy texture overlay.
Square: Color Theory

( Sources and slightly less Ramblings )

Description: A dark square in the middle of the frame has two different men coming out of two sides. The man on the left is wearing a baseball cap and a red scarf, while the man on the right is wearing a suit and a gold crown.
Square: Reverse

( More Sources, More Ramblings )

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challenge: cover art bingo 2021

Squares: series of covers, template, different versions

Square with row of vintage microphones on a wooden surface at bottom, and a faded teal background with the words Crown of Thorns Bonus Audio

A faded teal square with a zipper opening in it, revealing a dusk beach scene with two people walking. Text: Crown of Thorns, All the audio zip files

Distressed dark teal background with an illustration of two people on a beach. Text: Crown of Thorns: The Pod'rama

Description:
A series of covers, all with the Crown of Thorns wordmark and a general scheme of teal blue and ocean themes. L-R: Bonus Audio, with vintage microphones; Audio Zip Files, with a zipper revealing a beach scene; and The Pod'rama, with an illustration of two people walking on a beach and a darker, more distressed blue background.

Squares:
series of covers, template, different versions

( a lot more Design Thoughts than you wanted, probably )

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CAB21: February challenges

Welcome to the first monthly challenge of this Cover Artist Bingo 2021!
Btw, a few useful links: signups, rules/FAQ, help wanted.

How this works:
There will be two optional challenges each month: ask the artist and art history.
- For ask the artist, you’ll have to talk about your experience, share some resources, and generally discuss cover art. You can answer directly on this post, or answer somewhere else and link to it here.
- For art history, you’ll have to fill a specific prompt, similar to the monthly themes of Podfic Bingo. You can incorporate it with other squares, or create a work just for it. Do post it in this comm, we'd love to see it!
Doing one will give you a cheat (so two if you do both). Cheats don’t expire until the end of the bingo. A cheat can be used to swap two squares on your card, replace a square by a prompt from the prompt list or fill a square (or actually, anything, if you decide to make your own rules.) For more information, see the rules/FAQ post linked above.

Challenge banner with some of the info from the post.

Ask the cover artist: goals goals goals
What are your goals for this challenge? Are you customizing your rules playbook or going by ours? Is there anything in particular you’d like to learn or accomplish?

I (Anna) am mostly trying to take it easy this round, but I’m looking forward to playing around with the graphics for the challenge, and that includes the prize banners at the end of the bingo! Here are a few potential achievements that would for sure win you a personalized banner*:
- blackout with one (1) work
- blackout with cheats only (might need some adjustments to the standard rules)
- all the challenges, not even one square
*(Everyone will get a personalized banner anyway, but like, extra sparkles on yours maybe? Idk.)

Art history: geometric art
Geometric art is created using geometric elements, shapes… Geometric art is inspired from geometry.
However, it’s also a phase of Greek art that flourished circa 900–700 BCE, and in general, geometric abstraction can be found in many a continent and art period. Here are some more practical resources: 10 geometric art explorations for teachers, a wikihow article, a video lesson for art students, and a design lesson.

Once again, feel free to interpret this prompt very broadly: make something that could qualify as geometric art, integrate or reinterpret an existing piece of geometric art into a work, or just take inspiration from your research somehow!

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CAB21: help post

This is your general “I’d like some help” post! Mostly for asking the other participants: if you’d like the mods to clarify some rule or explain their reasoning for a prompt, you might want to go to the replies to the prompt list or the rules/faq instead.
But if you have a prompt you’d like ideas for, if you’d like a co-artist or a beta or a cheerleader, if you’re looking for resources on something, if you have podfics that need covers or covers that could use podfics, or if you just have a question about cover art, you’ve come to the right place!

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CAB21: prompt list, signup post and icon accessories

~~We won’t start issuing cards until the 1st of February, but here’s the prompt list!!~~ Sign-ups are open! Here are the rules/FAQ, the prompt list is below, if you have any questions either drop them in a comment or see the "I have a question, a suggestion, a problem or a concern, how do I get in touch?" section of the FAQ.

( Prompt list )

Sign-ups
To sign up, reply to this post with either a request for a standard bingo card or your own custom-made card. Sign-ups will open on Feb 01, when we’ll start issuing cards, and stay open for the duration of this bingo. You can absolutely re-sign-up if you’d like one more card, or edit your sign-up later on.

If you’d prefer to make your own card, here’s the bingo card generator we use, and here’s the full list of prompts that you can copy paste into the generator. If you choose to go that route, feel free to add any homemade squares you want, or make a smaller card, or otherwise customize it.

<a href="https://bit.ly/3gNOByN" _fcksavedurl="https://bit.ly/3gNOByN">Koi carp color palette</a>,<a href=https://bit.ly/3bl9pfN"" _fcksavedurl=https://bit.ly/3bl9pfN"">Road pic collection</a>,<a href="https://bit.ly/3gNPg3f" _fcksavedurl="https://bit.ly/3gNPg3f">Fragmented mirrors pic</a>,<a href="https://bit.ly/3lGWOZ5" _fcksavedurl="https://bit.ly/3lGWOZ5">Cardboard pic</a>,Stickers,Comic sans,(n)sfw,;Censored,Icecream,Pantone’s color of the year,<a href="https://bit.ly/2YPbQlV" _fcksavedurl="https://bit.ly/2YPbQlV">Queen movie poster</a>,<a href="https://bit.ly/3lCjKJ9" _fcksavedurl="https://bit.ly/3lCjKJ9">Chvrches album cover</a>,<a href="https://bit.ly/2YZDAnP" _fcksavedurl="https://bit.ly/2YZDAnP">Podfic cover flickr group</a>,Rule of thirds,<a href="https://bit.ly/2QG1IY6" _fcksavedurl="https://bit.ly/2QG1IY6">Color theory</a>,Abstraction,Symmetry/asymmetry,Pattern/texture,Perspective,Movement,Negative space,Incorporate famous artwork,Brightness/contrast/intensity,Volume,<a href="https://bit.ly/3jze40x" _fcksavedurl="https://bit.ly/3jze40x">Book cover ideas</a>,Micro/macro,Photography,From scratch,Hand drawn,New software (to you),Filters and masks,Arts and crafts,Multimedia,New technique (for you),Minimalist,Details,Grid,Self-portrait,<a href="https://bit.ly/32KjKOC" _fcksavedurl="https://bit.ly/32KjKOC">Typography examples</a>,No text,Imitate someone else’s style,Anti-you cover,Social media,New genre (for you),Reverse,Words only,Vintage,Abstract,Deliberate fail,Xkcd,Monochrome,Chuck Tingle,Remix,Meta,Collaborate w/ 1 or more podder,Collaborate w/ 1 or more artist,Cover cold (no knowledge of the pod),No podfic,Someone else’s podfic,Cover Art Welcome,Done in 15 minutes,New take on an old cover,Beta/artistic director,Reuse/recycle,Cover first,Series of covers,Different versions,Template,Diagram,Resources,Tutorial,Statistics,Behind the scene,Wild card,Try something new

Icon Accessories:
Inspired by team Red Out Loud’s little red hats, here are some accessories you can add to your profile pics! This is in no way mandatory, and if you’d like help with it, please don’t hesitate to ask in a reply to this post.
All the files, including the raw svg, can be found here.

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CAB21: rules/FAQ

In the whole, not much has changed from last year. We’ve tweaked the prompt list and the challenges, added even more words to the rules, backtracked and added even MORE words with a summarized version or two, ... So here’s the schedule once again, that first summary that’ll give you the gist, then a summary of the changes from last year for returning participants, then the full version.
~~The rules are subject to change, based on feedback, up until signups open. If they do, we’ll mention it in the signup post. The prompt list will go up closer to signups~~. Here's the prompt list (/signups post)!

Schedule:
Schedule: 01 Feb - 01 Nov,
Signups/posting: all throughout the round,
Monthly challenges: a post at the start of each month, open until the end of the month.

( TL;DR )

( Changes from last year )

Rules/FAQ:
( What’s a bingo? )

( How do I fill a square and is there a posting template? )

( How many squares can I fill with one work? )

( Does that mean I have to record and post one podfic per cover? )

( Something ‘cover-related’? And btw, why cover artIST bingo? )

( ’Somehow’ fits the prompt? How creative can I get? )

( But I have no idea what to do with that? Is that a url?? )

( I have an old cover that fits one of my squares, can I use it? )

( How do I sign-up? Can I opt out of such and such prompt? )

( I've finished my card, can I have/make another one? )

( Are there prizes? )

( Are there cheats and challenges like for the podfic bingo? )

( What do cheats do? )

( I have a question, a suggestion, a problem or a concern, how do I get in touch? )

( What if it’s about someone’s behaviour? And btw, what are the values of this challenge? )

( What are you doing to address your own ingrained prejudices? What can I do? )

Entry tags:

challenge: cover art bingo 2021

CAB21: round 2 promo

Promo banner with the info from the post.

Hi :D We’re happy to be back with you for a second edition of this bingo!
In the whole, not much has changed from last year. We’ve tweaked the prompt list and the challenges. The schedule is longer. We’re going to (try to) communicate better.
In that spirit, here’s some info about this upcoming 2021 round!

Cover Artist Bingo 2021:
Schedule: 01/02 - 01/11

Changes from last year:
- longer schedule,
- monthly challenges: art history and ask the artist,
- new prompts.

Same as last year:
- low stakes, challenge yourself,
- freedom of interpretation,
- podfics not required,
- actually, cover art not required.

Where to find us:
- main challenge (http://poddersundercover.dreamwidth.org/tag/challenge:+cover+art+bingo+2021),
- announcements and contact points (Cover Artist Bingo @COverArtBingo on twitter, the Podfichat discord).

And the rules?
The rules/FAQ post will be posted in the new few days or weeks. It’ll be subject to change based on feedback up until signups open, but if it does, we’ll mention it in the signup post. The prompt list will go up closer to signups.

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Cover artist bingo 2020: the End

We're now in September, and that means this year's cover artist bingo is over. Congrats to everyone! It was amazing to see all the works of art you created, and it definitely inspired me for future covers.
This bingo will hopefully be back next year, though the timeframe and details aren't set yet. On that note, we'd be grateful for any feedback or suggestions you might have. You can either leave them at this post or reach out to one of the mods (Growlery and I) on whichever platform of your choice. A few areas that need second opinions: the challenges, the prompts list, the schedule.
This dreamwidth community is year-round, so feel free to keep posting your covers and resources here! That includes covers you did or were planning to do for this bingo before you ran out of time. You could even, if you wanted to, organize another challenge or two...

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challenge: cover art bingo 2020

Squares: Symmetry, Joyful, Pattern

Description: two curtains of multicolored string lights separated by a vertical stripe of darkness, with "This Time I'm Coming Down" scrawled in white in a handwritten font in the middle of the picture, and "written by telm_393" and "read by BabelGhoti" in the bottom left and right corners.

Squares: Joyful, Symmetry, Pattern.

Podfic: [podfic] This Time I'm Coming Down

Original pic: Jonas Denil on Unsplash
Fonts: Rock Salt, Permanent Marker (BeFunky)

Notes:
A joyful pic for a not-so-joyful fic. This is what I imagine the inside of Jason Mendoza's brain looks like. The lights also remind me slightly of multicolored pills, which works great with the theme.

And that's a blackout right under the wire!

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challenge: cover art bingo 2020

Square: Triadic colors

Description: an abstract painting made with acrylic paints in red, white, yellow and blue tones, with the title and "written by ktula" and "read by BabelGhoti" printed in white letters on black bands above and below the picture.

Squares: Triadic colors.

Podfic: [podfic] world enough and time

Original pic: Migration by Michael Smith
Fonts: Arizonia, Cormorant Unicase (BeFunky)

Notes:
This series of paintings was inspired by the Franklin Expedition, which is exactly what the TV show The Terror is about. This particular fic is centered around the act of stabbing, so the striking splashes of red in the painting were perfect.

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challenge: cover art bingo 2020

Texture

Description: Photo of a crowd turned black and white with text and shapes over the top.
Podfic: Seared with Scars by KeeperofSeeds
Prompts: texture
Notes: Screenshot of the movie with a Photoshop watercolor texture filter.

My Card

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challenge: cover art bingo 2020

BLACKOUT! \o/

Description: A small white cottage on the cliff of an island, overlaid with a fine diagonal stripe with the title cut out.

Square: Lonely
Link: [Podfic] to render it transparent
Fandom: The Witcher

I manipped the background image SO MUCH for this - the story is set on a small isolated island in a pseudo medieval fantasy land, so I removed the land on the horizon and added the white cottage. The story is this beautiful, emotional thing with a slightly bittersweet tinge, so I tweaked the colours and overlaid the stripes with the title cut out. I like this one!

Description: Three iridescent feathers on an dark blue oil paint background.

Square: Reuse/recycle, No Podfic
Link: N/A
Fandom: The Witcher

This is for the 3rd installment in a series I'm doing, so I reused the template - same fonts, background, effects.

Description: a statue of Pope Urbain II in funky pop colours, with green and purple text.

Square: Reverse, Perspective, (No Podfic :p)
Link: N/A
Fandom: The Old Guard

This is one I'm planning on doing asap, in which one of the characters benefits from a Papal Indulgence from Urbain II. It's a sort of funny story but also not fully funny, so I tried to strike a balance. I literally used the "reverse" effects on the statue's colour to get the greens and purple, and obviously used the text for the "perspective" aspect; I wanted it to look almost like the Pope is saying the title/broadcasting it to the world.

Description: A mess of different colours, textures and fonts around a picture of a boy with a shaved head.

Square: Dadaism (No Podfic)
Link: N/A
Fandom: The Raven Cycle

I interpreted "dadaism" by using bright colours and "collage" techniques, and making the cover way busier than I normally like to do.

Description: A stylized high-heel sandal and a hockey skate in pink and green medallions, on a textured blue background.

Square: Shoe
Link: [podfic] Find Out What It Means to Me by annapods
Fandom: Hockey RPF

Anna was nice enough to volunteer this podfic and an idea for a shoe-themed cover. This is a story about a genderswapped hockey player experiencing sexist microagressions & generally life as a woman, so I contrasted a "girly" shoe with a hockey skate. I picked a really chunky sandal so it would hold its own against the skate.

Description: A pixelated picture of a kiss in close-up against a deep red background.

Square: Censored (No Podfic)
Link: N/A
Fandom: The Old Guard

Did you know that if you Google "tongue licking neck," "hand grabbing flesh," or "close-up of kissing," you find ACTUAL PORN??? Like, hanging out right there in the Google results?? Cause I definitely forgot about that part of the internet o.O Anyway, this one seems pretty self-explanatory, I pixellated the picture to give it that X-rated flavour and voilà!

( My table )

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challenge: cover art bingo 2020

[Triadic Colors] + [Asymmetry] + [Series of Covers]

Description: Older woman looks wistfully off into the distance, younger woman looks at her.
Square: Triadic Colors
Link: The god of my idolatry
Credit: Font: Vendetta

Notes: This was the rough triad I was working with; the orange/yellow comes from Andy's skin, the green from Nile's jacket, with a whole bunch of purple overlay on top.

Description: Man in a cowboy hat stands in front of a Airstream trailer in a junkyard.
Square: Asymmetry (replacing nsfw)
Link: Not posted yet! I don't know when our Pod_Together is posting though, and wanted to make sure I got this cover in here before the deadline.
Credit: Screencap: thetvshows.us (I ran through so many episodes trying to find good shots of Michael's trailer that ihni which one this specifically is from, sorry!)
Font: Neo Retro Fill

Notes: Did I have to rewatch both seasons of Roswell, NM to figure out when Michael's trailer makes the best appearance? Nope. Was I going to anyways? For sure.

Description: The outside of a motel room with an external a/c unit, window, and bright blue door.
Square: Series of Covers
Link: Full folder of covers. Podfics are unpublished. (Still so much editing to do!)
Credit: Photo: by Mario Schmidt via Stockio
Title and Credit font: Lemon Tuesday
Part #/Written By/Read By font: Moon Flower Bold

Notes: This fic series has 15 parts and I'm in the middle of editing them all for posting. It's an always-a-cisgirl!Sam Wincest series, that spans from their fucked up upbringing to their fucked up adulthood. Since most of that time for them is spent in various motels around the country, I decided to lean into that for each cover, but still keep is consistent by using the same base image and the same fonts. I love the bright blue door though! It makes the whole thing pop imo.

And that's bingo! I'm not going to make it to my goal of a blackout, but it feels good to get these up in time anyways.

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challenge: cover art bingo 2020

Squares: Yearning, Meta, Triadic Colours, Hand Drawn

Description: Over a granulated pink background, a brown hand and a white hand, in black & white/sketch effect, fingers barely touching.

Square: Yearning
Link: [Podfic] I die of love for you, but keep this secret
Fandom: The Old Guard

I had no idea what to do for this square for a long time, & then I found the perfect story! TOG is one of those rare fandoms where the main pairing has a person of colour in it, so it was very important to not to use two white hands obviously -- it was so hard to find a picture for this that was not 1) a handshake or 2) obviously a man holding a woman's hand. In the end I manipped the hands from a colour photograph of a black man & a white man and used the sketch effect & b&w effect to get the right result.

Description: An all-text cover, with white text spelling out the title in 50 different languages and scripts as a background. The credits are announced in foreign languages, with the title overlaid on top.

Square: Meta
Link: as an ancient city
Fandom: The Old Guard

This story is all about being multilingual and using various languages without even realizing. I used -- I think -- 53 different translations of the title in the background, and tried to make the credits blend in *enough* but also not *too much.* I'm really quite pleased with the result!

Description: Swoopy white text over a kaleidoscope of bright colours.

Square: Triadic Colours
Link: Illustrious Pagans
Fandom: The Old Guard

This is a story about getting high AF, so it was the perfect time to use slightly brighter/more psychedelic colours! I started with a triadic palette and applied the "crystallize" effect in Paint.net, which gave me this pattern in the end. It's not *only* triadic but hey, they're in there!!

Description: A hand-drawn sketch of a faucet leaking, over a blue-green watercolour background.

Square: Hand Drawn
Link: An eagle's old age, a sparrow's youth
Fandom: The Old Guard

I dislike drawing because I'm bad at it, so I was dreading this square a lot, but in the end I managed to copy from a reference picture using my shitty tablet, and it wasn't as terrible an experience as I thought it would be! :p The story's main identifying feature is that there's a faucet dripping in the background of the PWP, so I went with a water theme and water-colour background.

Now can I fill 8 more squares by the end of the week?? Good thing there's "no podfic" on there because I'm about to make a bunch of covers with nothing attached! :p

( My table )

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Cover artist bingo 2020 August challenge: Cards, bingo in review and feedback

Since July's challenge was late, here’s something a little different for the last week of this bingo:
Tell us how it went! Did you achieve your goals? What did you learn? What was fun, what wasn’t? How’s your card looking? And most importantly, what would you suggest for next year’s round?

For the feedback part, you can also pm/email/discuss on twitter or discord/whatever else, whatever is more comfortable for you.
If you have no idea what to say, here are a few points that might need changing before next year:
- schedule (timing, length)
- challenges (why they flopped, whether to keep or to do away with, if the first what to change)
- prompts (any specific fun or unfun ones, balance between the categories, new ideas)

Once you’ve done that, you’ll have earned a special cheat that you can use to fill one (any) of your squares.

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challenge: cover art bingo 2020

Squares: Details

Description: a close-up of a hand pouring tea into a line of white ceramic cups on black saucers, with the title and "written by Rymenhild" and "read by BabelGhoti" in slim white letters superimposed over the picture.

Squares: Details.

Podfic: [podfic] The Person With Weapons

Original pic: https://unsplash.com/photos/gy_DN08336U
Fonts: Josefin, Print Clearly (Pixlr X)

Notes:
Tea is... very important in the Imperial Radch series. I wanted to capture the ceremonial and almost meditative aspect of the pouring.