Recently on a post by one of my favorite illustrators John Hendrix on instagram I was reminded what it’s like on the other side of a commission. It is easy to forget the amount of time, effort and money goes into a project before it gets to the artists that get it ready for release. As illustrators was are tasked with bringing someone’s vision to life; many times the finished product we produce represents a sizable amount of time, money and effort invested by the person or business who commissions the artwork.

“Whenever I’m asked to do a novel jacket- I always think about how anxious the writer must be: 2-3 years spent crafting a story and they hand it off to some dumb illustrator who gets 2 weeks to create the thing everyone will see when it comes up on the web for the rest of its life. I always work hard but do a bit extra for jackets to make sure I honor their story.” – John Hendrix

In late 2016 I had the opportunity to work with LaJuana Jackson of Power of One LLC to do the artwork for her first book “The Peace of Your Children” (seen above) , a new logo for the company and a new website as well. During our meetings we would discuss things about the project, but she also shared with me the amount of effort she put into everything she was doing. It is very inspiring to see the hard work people put into the projects I am a part of. I keeps me motivated to continue doing my best for my clients and for myself on my own personal projects.