Intro:

Wild Is the Wind: The Art of Ancilla was written by SeraDrake. It won first place in the "Best Presentation" category in my Padauk Awards. Sera is an incredible designer and writer, known best for their work Ancilla, which has won a plentiful amount of awards. While I haven't posted a review of Ancilla yet, I will in the near future, and this review is for the art of Ancilla, as you can tell based on the title.

The "Best Presentation" category judges the title, blurb, cover, and any additional aesthetics, and this review will be reviewing that as well! I hope you guys are excited, let's get right into it!

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Detailed Feedback

For starters, we gotta look at that beautiful title. I don't think I need to tell anyone that that's a cool title, but I will anyway: that's a cool title. It rolls off the tongue super well and has incredible flow that makes people wonder what it means, leading to thought-provoking questions before they even click to see what the blurb is. The repetition of the "W" sound is what stood out to me most, and that contributed to how easy it is to read. I overall think the title is fantastic and works perfectly for an art portfolio.

Moving into the blurb, the blurb has a lot of personality in the way it's written in the sense that it's very personal and you share the journey with us. Many times I'll read blurbs for oneshot compilations and graphic portfolios and they won't draw me in at all since they're very vague and don't offer much information, but that isn't the case here. You're specific, you share some vital info about the portfolio, and you do it in style. As of the time of my reviewing this, I didn't notice a single SPAG error, so that just makes for an even better reading experience. Everything about the blurb is awesome, and I overall really like it.

The cover is absolutely gorgeous, and the background image is one of my favorite parts of the entire book's presentation. That background image so perfectly captures the atmosphere you're going for, and it's also super visually appealing. I love how we can see every little line on the cover, and the two birds being all white and spirit-like suck me right in and make me wonder what they could mean. Even if there is no specific meaning, it's still cool to think about, and I think this cover is really good.

As for the content inside the book, there's a diverse list of graphics and illustrations to go through, making it feel well-rounded and like every new chapter is bringing us something substantial. I've seen many graphic portfolios, but many of them get a little repetitive to me sometimes. This one didn't. It felt fresh every time I pressed "continue." I gained a new experience, and my eyes were subjected to a feast of interesting colors, cool images, and image compositions that were gorgeous.

Lastly, the illustrations are absolutely gorgeous. I loved all of the Ancilla illustrations in particular, like the Malkuth one and the Hod ones. Malkuth is my favorite one in the entire portfolio, but all of them had their uniqueness and charm that made them stand out from one another. Like I mentioned above, each piece is different, yet also well-organized, making it easy to navigate. All the titles of each part are also eye-catching, making readers want to scroll through the entire thing since it's hard to choose just one to look at.

All in all, Wild Is the Wind: The Art of Ancilla is a satisfying portfolio featuring graphics and art that give the reader a clear picture of what Ancilla is and the overall atmosphere of the book. Beyond that, though, the individual art pieces are stunning and definitely worth your time. They're all visually satisfying and will keep your attention, making you want to continue through the portfolio until you've seen every piece.

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Summary:

- Awesome, attractive title

- Solid blurb that has a lot of personality

- Beautiful cover

- Lots of diverse graphics to choose from

- Incredible illustrations

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Overall:

Wild Is the Wind: The Art of Ancilla is an organized, well-thought-out portfolio featuring the artwork of Sera's award-winning book, Ancilla. There are countless illustrations and graphics to choose from, and all of them have their own unique style to give them memorability and strong intrigue that makes the reader want to keep scrolling and see more of the beautiful art. If you're someone who appreciates good artwork and wants to see more, then this is the perfect portfolio for you!

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Thank you for submitting to my Padauk Awards, and also to my other awards. I'm super stoked to continue judging your work as I've liked what I've judged thus far. I'm also stoked to interview you once I'm finished formulating the questions, and I hope you're excited too! I hope you continue to see success with Ancilla, and I personally can't wait to post my own review of it in the near future.

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I'm going to start leaving this new note at the end of all reviews since Wattpad removed pms.

If you would like to keep in contact with me and ask me for more feedback on your work, I have a Discord server for all readers, writers, and friends. I'll leave a link in the inline comment here for anyone who would like to join.