Monday, September 12, 2011

The Marriage of Image to Word

I am in the final stages of preparing to release an ebook version of my YA Fae novel, "The Between."  This is a story that I have worked hard to craft and revise over the course of the past several years.  It's a story I believe in and one that I want to see find its way into the hearts of readers.

To do that, it needs more than what this wordsmith can offer.  It also needs the right images to bring the book to life.

That's not my strength.  Hell, I think it's safe to say that even my stick figures suck.  I can draw a smiley face reliably well, but that's where it ends.

But lucky for me, there are amazing and talented artists out in the world.  Jade is one such artist.  (:waves to Jade!:)

I first 'met' her (met in quotes, as Jade lives in Australia and our group was online.  Someday, I hope to meet her in person!) as part of a writing crit group hosted at Forward Motion for Writers.  In those days, she focused on her writing and I always enjoyed her highly visual work.  That group disbanded, as many crit groups do, mostly due to time and other commitments.  I still chat/email/exchange work with some of the members now, even years after we stopped doing formal crit together.  I re-discovered Jade on Facebook and found that she'd essentially stopped writing to devote herself full-time to her visual art.  And that she was looking for subjects to paint. 

W00t!

I quickly emailed her, asking her if she'd be interested in doing the cover art for "The Between."

Double W00t because she was.

And here are her first character sketches from her conception of my characters Lydia and Aileen from "The Between."

Lydia HawthorneAileen of the Shadow Court


I love the fact that Jade works in oils.  It brings a sense of capturing a portrait of a real person.  I love that, despite these not being exactly what I might imagine the characters looking like, they feel right in a deeper way.  I love that she is getting to know the characters through her brush the way I would through writing exercises.  I love that seeing these images bring my characters to an even fuller life; as if they were waiting for Jade to put brush to canvas.

I can't wait to see what she puts together for the cover image.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks, guys! I think they're pretty amazing too. Jade is a very talented artist.

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