My friend, Leah, said "I don't know…this girl's eyes are scary." To which I responded, "Hell, yeah!"
That was the validation I needed.
Now that my contemporary novel, ONE HIT WONDER, has hit the e-shelves. I felt it was time to concentrate on the urban-fantasy story I'm writing and as a visual artist, I needed visual motivation.
I've contacted the artist Svenja Liv to create the portrait of Jade. I found Svenja's site by accident when looking for a word-meter to display my work-in-progress. (the nifty word-meter on the left sidebar was designed by her.)
I visited her gallery on devianart and voilá, she was open to take commissions!
It was a leap of faith, but it certainly paid off. After only a few emails, I've sensed Svenja was a serious artist and when the time came to close the deal I've sent full advance payment for the drawing.
Svenja then send me several work-in-progress sketches and was incredibly open to all my requests. AND she designed the banner above--for free!
I now have a great illustration to go with my work (perhaps even a book cover) and I got to know better this amazing artist that lives halfway across the world who guess what? Is also a writer.
Here's a little about Svenja in her own words:
I started drawing when my mother put a crayon in my hand, when I was a year old. I haven't really stopped since, but I did exchange the crayon for some slightly better tools! Now I'm a freelance artist and designer. I do game art, character portraits, and a lot of book covers and illustrations. I'm originally from Germany, but I've lived in Ireland for more than half my life and call it home. And yes, I am a writer, although not a published one, unless you count academic stuff. I'm still working on finishing my first novel so I can send it out into the world.
You can see Svenja's work at: http://svenjaliv.deviantart.com and http://facebook.com/svenjaliv
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