Art Collection: Latest Commission

This post pertains to two of my hobbies that I don't talk about very much. One is that I collect fantasy art - absolutely love it. I mostly get originals, and I commission at least a few works every year - usually of the same character, though this commission isn't that character (that's a post for some other time, but I'd have to get a bunch of permissions first...). The second hobby that relates to this post is writing. Specifically, I'm an aspiring novelist - I've finished three first drafts, one of which I've edited about half of, and I'm currently almost a third of the way through my fourth novel, which I started on 1/1/11. How do these two things combine?

Well, the novel that I've edited about half of is under the working title of just "Golden Age," and is based off of a table-top roleplaying game that a bunch of my friends and I played. It's ridiculously over-length, which is the main reason I haven't finished it yet, but the two main characters in it are very dear to me, both because of the game, the memories I have related to them, the friendships they reflect, etc. Right after I finished the manuscript initially, in August, 2009, I spoke to my friend Avery, who is an artist, about getting three commissions. The first two were sketches of the two main characters; she finished this for me last fall. The remaining was for a full digital piece of a scene in the book.

So, a little background. "Golden Age" is a book about super heroes active during World War 2. The two main characters are a woman named Marie who goes by the superhero nickname of "Enigma," and a man named John who goes by the nickname "Scout." Because it's WW2, there's a lot of patriotic type stuff going on in the background, and at one point Marie gets asked to be the model for the centerfold in "Yank," which is a monthly magazine sent to servicemen. She's always wanted to be an actress, and so she has no issues with posing a little risque. It ends up being a minor plot point at a later point in the story. Here's the original description I wrote for the image in the centerfold:

"A stiff breeze blew a skimpy dress tight over her body and tousled the carefully-done ringlets that had been put in her hair. Her whole body was extended, one leg up, as she reached for her umbrella, moments before snatched from her hands by the same breeze. The shot was of her back, but she glanced back over her shoulder, a moue of lovely frustration on her face."

This was also the description I sent to Avery when I requested my commission (along with an overview description of what Marie looks like) - which she sent me the finished version of yesterday!! But before that, here are two 'in progress' pics...

First, she sent me a sketch to get my approval on the general layout.


Then, she sent me a follow-up with the colors filled in.


And finally, yesterday, I got the image in my e-mail that made me absolutely squee with delight:

(you can look at a bigger version here.)

I'm so, so happy with how this turned out. (and also very excited that Avery gave me permission to share it with ya'll ;) ). If you like what you see, she's always open to commissions (though there does tend to be some delay on their getting done) and you can check out her other work on her deviant art account.

At some point I'll do some posts on other artists I like; I've gotten permission from a couple already about posting some of their work - I was going to do a pre-Christmas post about all of them but didn't end up getting the time, but maybe I'll do a monthly feature instead. :)

And in case it wasn't clear? OMG SQUEE I <3 MY COMMISSION! :)