Heidel Book Cover

 

Here she is - Princess Heidel! I got the finished artwork today and I always get so excited. So pretty, isn't she? Wish I had red hair like that. Just gorgeous.

Heidel isn't meant to be the standard pretty princess, though. As you can see, she's a bit freckled, her hair isn't elaborate, and though it's hard to tell from this image, she's a bit on the chubby side.

And she's got a temper too. Don't mess with her. :)

I sometimes see the covers of other e-books and wonder where the author got their cover art from, whether they hired an artist or did it themselves. In case you are wondering about my covers, I happy to share.

 

I don't create my own covers. I do work as an artist and I'm currently illustrating a novel I wrote for boys some years ago. But when it came to The Nine Princesses, I wanted a certain type of art that I'm not skilled with, namely 3-D rendering. So I went to website called 99designs.

 

99designs is a site that works by creating a contest for your project. You describe the image you have in mind, and multiple artists compete by offering their design suggestions. You pick the one you like best and that artist gets paid. That's how I chose the cover for Maelyn and I've returned to the same artist ever since.

 

And just to give him a plug, my artist is Rob Sullivan and he is based in the UK. Here is his website: robsullivan.zenfolio.com

I wish I was that good! But my style is very cartoonish, sort of like Disney-style. Here's a drawing I did of Heidel several years ago: 

This is from the picture book, not the Heidel novella I'm working on now. Heidel is wondering (and worrying) why Coralina is ruling the kingdom that day and not Maelyn.

Working hard to have Heidel out soon. :)