Searching for an Illustrator

The Internet is a fantastic resource when looking for people to help you out with a project. There are numerous websites where freelance experts tout for business. However it takes a little effort to find the right person and there are out and out scam artists trying to con you out of your money.

Hunting for an illustrator seemed to be simple. Artists display an array of their work and you can choose one or two and ask them to price for an initial drawing to test them out. Easy peasy, you might think.

Katy was lucky and got an excellent, honest, and talented illustrator for the GBOSM.

However, when she started on her second book which had a mermaid theme, the search was rather more difficult. One so-called illustrator asked $60 for an initial drawing and returned this!

We are only showing a portion of the picture as we wouldn’t want to be accused of plagiarism or copyright infringement.

You may recognise the picture as a composite of a well known background and various images from that little known company Disney! A dispute followed and eventually the bill was cancelled, but the agency never sanctioned the rip-off merchant and, at least for a number of months afterwards, they were still plying their trade through the same website!

Overall, even among honest artists, there seemed to be a lack of imagination and rather a fixation on the stereo-type Disney mermaid.

However, Katy had in mind what she wanted – similar to the style of the Mabel Lucie Atwell pictures in the Water Babies. And here is what Katy eventually found – an original whimsical take on a mermaid and the sea-creatures.

Both books were now well under-way.