This is the art I received for my main character.
In a space-age afterlife where your body (and some relevant aspects of your mind) is determined by what your psyche wants, Chris Foster becomes a very young child again so they can deal with trauma. Here they choose the name “Solemn” and embark on their personal journey of self-discovery, mental health tools, and what it means to have real, loving family for the first time.
But when political activists kill off the seraphs (the afterlife’s demigod social workers and keepers of the peace) it is up to Solemn— who for non-convoluted reasons has become a seraph themself— and their newfound family and others who will fight to restore the compassion and dignity of this afterlife.
My novel is in its third draft and it’s super rich and I love to talk about it any chance I get. Ask questions or offer to look at the public draft, please! 💙
Looks very nice, and story sounds interesting!
Not that it matters, but it looks like some if the typical generative AI cues are present (looking at eyes, button, fingers, especially).
Out of curiosity, could you share how much did you pay the artist (ballpark)? And were you expecting something “handmade”, or did you know you were getting AI generated (if that is the case, of course).
Also, if you want more details on the world or on why I am writing this, I posted a giant wall of text in the replies here. (Plus a list of character diversity, but that’s not the one I mean.)
Four people suggested this was AI-made, and I’m gonna be honest that it’s frustrating (not that I’m mad at you). I like to keep all stages of commissions; and so I have all dozen or so stages, plus the redline-work I did and sent back to them to help them understand what I was going for.
The art style in this pic isn’t how I see Solemn in my head; but it gets the broad strokes down, and I find that it looks more like Solemn to me the more I look at it. I do wish it were more accurate to real body and feature shapes and proportions, but there’s only so many edits I can request before it starts being rude/frustrating.
I paid this person $60 for their work, on Fiverr. They have a nice (and consistent) portfolio, and I told them they could put this pic up on it too!
Sorry, it wasn’t meant in any negative way, and could have been worded much better. I can see how that would be annoying, and I’ll try to do better in the future 😊
I’d love to see the sketch work, curious how your vision of Solemn differs from the end result 🙂
All the characters in my novel are supposed to have very accurate body and face curves, and accurate feature proportions and shapes. It’s almost like anti-stylization in that area. In my head I don’t see a lot of fine detail; but the accurate curves and shapes help give the idea that the work is more adult and sophisticated; while the flatter semi-watercolored colors I see in my head really help with the science fantasy look and with the moodiness the work often has. Eventually I’ll get the professional artist who will capture this!