Commissioning character art is kind of like getting a new tattoo: You do it once and you’re addicted.

I could go broke bringing my characters to life like this. I have zero drawing skills so commissioning art is the only way I’ll ever get my characters out of my head and into some kind of visual medium.

(unless someone out there wants to turn this into a movie)

Anyway…

Just LOOK at these two! They are fucking gorgeous.

If you already finished Roots in Ink, I’m curious if this is how you pictured Liam and Emma.

This is an illustration of a scene in Chapter 5 when they take a break from filming a promotional video to visit Liam’s dog Belle.

Yes, she is absolutely modeled after my dog Bailey. We’ve been over this. If there’s a dog in any of my books, they look like Bailey.

The scene takes place in front of the maintenance garage that houses Liam’s office and apartment, but we modified it a bit to show the museum where they work instead. The Belhaven Art and History Museum is not just the setting of the story, it’s very much a character in and of itself. 

Artist David Da Silva is an absolute delight to work with. He took all of my word vomit and poorly explained Pinterest photos and turned it into something beautiful. I absolutely intend on working with him again for more art from this series.

A few tidbits:

• The museum is inspired by the Vanderbilt Museum in Centerport, NY with a dash of Reid Castle on Manhattanville College’s campus.
• Emma’s tattoos aren’t what’s described in the book, but they are a nod to the book’s cover.
• Emma’s a brunette but I accidentally deleted any mention of her hair color from the text during final edits and didn’t notice until after publication.
• Belle is physically modeled after Bailey, but their personalities are a bit different. Belle is magically bound to Liam whereas Bailey would leave me for anyone with better treats.

If you haven’t read it and now you just have to, Roots in Ink is on sale for Earth Month. Find it here along with a collection of other nature-focused books.

Which scene from Roots in Ink do you want to see illustrated next?