CONTEST: Here Comes the Bride

Here Comes the Bride...

UPDATE ON THIS POST!!!

We are ready to select a winner for this contest, as Skriker and Rose's nuptuals are going to be written into the storyline VERY SHORTLY! A few things to think about if you are hoping to design the dress (without too many spoilers):

1.) The wedding takes place in winter

2.) The climate the couple is in when they marry is northern-exposure cold

The winner will be privy to some information regarding the details of this wedding and the story itself, and will be asked to keep said information secret until after publication. Don't want to spoil the surprise! ;-)

If you have not yet thrown your name into the pot, this is your LAST CHANCE to be able to design Rose's dress as it will appear in any character art and promos associated with the story! I will be selecting a winner at the end of this week on 08/26! So get yo' butt in gear! :-D

Good luck!

***

Original post:

As many of my readers know (spoiler here), Rose, Alexius and Psyche's 1/2 angel daughter, will marry her 1/2 demon companion, Skriker, at the end of book two in the Psyche's Gate Saga, "Nephil's Curse". This union of two of my most beloved characters will mark a major turning point in the lives of all that dwell within the world that I have created.

As a special treat for my readers, I am holding a contest with a very special prize: the winner will get to officially design Rose's wedding dress and bouquet. Said dress design will be fully described in the novel (estimated to be released in Fall 2011 if all goes well), and will be used in all character artwork and illustrations, including any future graphic novel work.

If you would like to be entered, please leave a comment here with your email included.

Good luck!

Character Design: An Artist's Perspective

Art or Writing?







For me, the question calls to mind the infamous “chicken or the egg” question. Truth be told, I don’t separate the two easily.






Because of this inability for me to “part the artistic continents” and separate the visual from the literary, physically fleshing characters out on paper, canvas or computer screen is one of my fondest activities as a creative type. Having just acquired the newest, jazziest version of Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator Suite for FREE, I have been enjoying the process of bringing characters, both published and from upcoming books, to life in two-dimensional form. Not that getting back into Photoshop was something I really planned on. I have always been very bricks-n-mortar when it comes to art, and for many years I swore that I’d never go down the evil digital road, deeming creating art on a computer to be “cheating.”






*Danielle now inserts foot in mouth.*






Friends, I eat my words, with a dash of salt and a squeeze of lemon for flavor. When I began working on my tattoo flash for my apprenticeship, I became frustrated with how the tattoo style looked using traditional methods. So when my good friend Dusty offered me this spankin’ new design package for FREE, slurp, slurp, down those “no, never, never” words went like spaghetti-o’s! The flash art has benefitted enormously, and so have my character design projects.






Case in point: attached above is an image I had a ton of fun working on. Skriker, the half-demon hero of my upcoming (soon-to-be-submitted) novella Black Dogs and Rebel Roses is depicted as a different kind of gargoyle, scrawled with his myriad tattoos (he should actually have more) and clutching his ubiquitous cigarette. The illustration is being fetaured in an upcoming hot rod/tattoo-themed art exhibition on June 5th, proof that character art and illustration are crossing over into a more fine-art arena.






The wonderful thing about being able to create these character portraits and personal illustrations is that I can put an actual face out there for my readers to enjoy and make a fresh connection with. I enjoy having control over how my characters are visually portrayed (a big reason why I do my own cover paintings if I possibly can). In future weeks I will begin to feature a gallery of these artworks (both traditional and digital) on my author site, and I hope that my reader base will enjoy this look through the window to my visual imagination as much as I enjoy creating the images.






Hell, might even snag a few new tattoo clients in the bargain! ;)
 
 
(Originally posted on Liquid Silver Book's Silver Expressions Blog on 06.01.2010)