If you are anything like me, then you:

1. A) Dream to see your book characters illustrated,

and

1. B) Cannot draw a believable humanoid if your life depended on it.

Luckily, this is where my personal superhero, TheSwanMaindeN, comes in.

When you get an artist to illustrate your characters, you can take different routes. You could describe in detail what exactly you want to see, you could give them complete freedom, or you could go anywhere in between.

When I asked TheSwanMaideN to illustrate my book cover, I gave her a detailed description of what exactly needed to be there. However, when it came to Armida’s portrait, I decided to try something different and to give her only a vague idea about the character. “You are great at drawing hair,” I said, “and even better at drawing dresses. Go for it.”

This was one of my better decisions because – surprise, surprise! – it turns out her imagination is way better than mine. What I got was this:

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