All five decided to participate, and sent in wonderful images for my consideration. If any of you are looking for illustrators, here's a terrific sampling of talent. I wish I could use them all -- maybe someday, for future projects!
The four finalists, in alphabetical order, were Maral Agnerian, Robin Kaplan, April Kasulis, and K. Sekelsky.
And my selection in the end, Jack Kotz. I'm really delighted to be working with Jack. I loved his initial submission work, especially this piece -- the play of light and shadow in this piece is lovely and haunting. Jack is a student at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and was pointed at my project by one of his professors; I'm very grateful.
I think what I like best about this piece, (which Jack would like me to emphasize is only an initial rough draft) is the dynamic character energy in it. You can tell, just from looking, that there's a story here, a tension between these two. It's very alive.
I'm really looking forward to working with Jack on the rest of the book! Onward!
Wow–these are all amazing!
I am going to be putting out an album soon, and am thinking about cover art. If you are not too busy, and don’t mind talking to me about it, I would appreciate it if you would be willint to e-mail me so I could ask nosy questions about going rates and how you put the word out to artists that you are hiring and such?
Cat, I mostly just put out a call on my blog, Facebook, etc. I paid a lot less than going rates for a pro artist, because it was all I could afford; I figured I’d attract semi-pro or student artists, and it seemed to work. My call is here:
http://www.mamohanraj.com/journal/show-entry.php?Entry_ID=6502