(More) Commissioned Art for my Adult Fantasy

Maybe some of you remember my blog post from December when I finally mustered enough courage to commission art for my adult fantasy, The Deathsea Dyer (working title).

Here, friends, is MORE ART!

I don’t do things by halves, so when I do them, I do them (after way too much research, but that’s my Type A showing, so don’t mind that). Like I said in my other commissioned art post, I compiled a list on twitter of artists whose style I loved. More particularly, I wanted to find an artist with a style that matched the mood and aesthetic of my WIP. In this case, that aesthetic was color and whimsy. A fairytale for adults. Think Brothers Grimm meets Studio Ghibli. Even before I compiled that list, though, I reached out to an artist whose style I absolutely loved: @popcorncheek. Their service was incredibly safe and thorough, and when they weren’t satisfied with the first sketch they made, well, then they made a brand new one entirely from scratch. Without me requesting it. That, to me, is the sign of an artist who cares about their art. I initially picked them for their incredible skill in depicting lighting, and I’m so inexplicably overjoyed with how the commission turned out. Look at that lighting! Look at that color! Look at those lines!

And now go commission some art from @popcorncheek yourself!

(do not repost!)

Commissioned Art for my Adult Fantasy

For the longest time I considered commissioning art for my current WIP, The Deathsea Dyer (working title), but I always felt a little too… afraid of it, really. There was something truly daunting about seeing my characters be brought to life by other people on a visual level. Likewise there was something truly daunting about the process itself. The choosing of an artist, the working relationship and the payment process etc. Oh, and let’s not forget that I’m absolutely horrible at faceclaims for my characters. I had so much trouble finding reference pictures for the artists to work with, but in the end I’m happy I settled on the ones that I did.

I’m happy to say that I’ve finally conquered all of those fears – I HAVE ART!

I compiled a list on twitter of artists whose style I loved. More particularly, I wanted to find an artist with a style that matched the mood and aesthetic of my WIP. In this case, that aesthetic was color and whimsy. A fairytale for adults. Think Brothers Grimm meets Diana Wynne Jones. From my compiled twitter list, the first artist I reached out to was @lacunaorphic1 (ko-fi.com). The two headshots below are the final product of the commission – and I couldn’t be happier, from the very bottom of my heart!

What’s even better is that I have another commission in the works – and I’ll share it with you in due time…

Idah is a con-woman with a double identity and lifelong ambition to empty the king’s pockets.

Prince Eske is a stutterer-turned-polyglot, overlooked by his father until he teams up with Idah to steal a magical artifact.

Fairy-tale (flashfiction): “On Top of a Hill”

ontopofahill

Once upon a time, there was village on top of a hill. It was small village, a friendly village, and it was surrounded by trees as thick and tall as palace towers. Every other month, food and water would be brought to the village from faraway lands and the village would fill with lively chatter and children’s laughter. And yet, no matter how happy the villagers were, they did not leave the top of the hill, because at the very bottom of that selfsame hill lay the forest – and the forest grew thick and strong like weed underneath the sun. The forest was safe only to the merchants who traveled with the lights of their lanterns to guide their way. At night, if the moon sat high on the sky like a perfectly round pearl, you could see the moving shadows of the forest as it circled the hill. Some villagers said that the forest was haunted by evil spirits who would grab you by your ankles and drag you into the heart of the earth unless you screamed loud enough; others said that the brushwood was so thick that you fell straight through, no evil spirits needed!

The village sat on a hill, surrounded by forest as far as the eye could see, and nobody walked off the hill.

As for those who did?

Those we do not speak of…

(illustration done by me)