The importance of visualization

You have heard the adage "Don't judge a book by its cover" but how often have you found that to be true?

When I look for a new book to read, especially if it is fiction, my eye turns first to the intriguing, unique, and beautiful covers. With fantasy novels I think this is especially important. Without good art the reader will have  a poor understanding of the type of story that is hidden between the covers.

Introducing the latest artist to do a book cover for me, Petra Rudolph. I discovered Petra on Elfwood and proceeded to explore his website. He is highly talented. You can learn more about him and his work at Dracoliche.com

The sketch you see here marks the beginning of the upcoming cover for Neverqueen book 1. I hope it intrigues you! This book will released Fall 2013 along with book 2 in this new series. Neverqueen is an expansion of The Sword of the Dragon series.

Artists: Does a lack of organization come naturally to us?

I am a naturally disorganized person. It can be frustrating because, when I was growing up, I admired people who could keep everything they needed to do in its proper order.

As an artist, I tend to let things pile up instead of dealing with them in an orderly fashion. "Why?" is the question I've always asked myself. But I think I know the answer, at least part of the answer.

Whether you're a writer or an illustrator, you're an artist, and your art is very important to you. You nurture your art, mature it, then present it to the world. I am a homebody. I like to be left alone, for the most part, left to my writing. I bury myself in the story worlds I'm crafting.

In order to create, I bring together a lot of elements. Those elements are sometimes rough and unrefined. I sketch characters and creatures, and jot down character and plot ideas. Some ideas I toss aside for future reference or use, while others I expand upon. It takes a lot of material to create even one finished novel.

But the process to that finished product is . . . well . . . messy!

My mind is almost always working on story ideas. This post ties in, somewhat, to my previous post, because one of my solutions has ended up being the iPad. It serves as my alarm clock, sends me notifications of appointments, and allows me to add events to my calendars instantly. I highly recommend for those artists out there who struggle to keep organized, think creatively on how to take advantage of today's technology to better organize your writing life.

It has helped me.