Six or Seven years ago, my favorite author gave me words of encouragement.
This happened back on the year I first started drawing, which coincidentally is the year I began reading. This was thanks to Maggie’s “Books of Fae” duology, to which at the time I grew obssesed with. I was very convinced I was great for some reason at the time, and thus I decided that my art deserved to be put on shirts. This is the art I made and sent to Maggie Stiefvater on 2011:
Little Hime, yes I know.
While writing my Ballad book review yesterday, I decided to look for these just for the sake of nostalgia… It just happened not to end there, and I had a huge urge to make a redo sketch of Ballad’s shirt (the one that’s not on me) for my review like I had previously done for her Raven Cycle Books— Except it didn’t quite stay as a sketch this time.
So thus, I present you the final product, six years later. Thanks to the lovely encouragement of my favorite author. It meant the world to me Maggie ❤
“The Horned King’s March”
I recorded a Speedpaint with my 5 hours of process ! Be sure to check it out if you’d like to see how and I did and feel like supporting me !
While certainly no longer her best works, Ballad is most certainly one of Maggie’s most underrated works ! Be sure to go grab it and give it a read, because it’s certainly still one of my all time favorites.
Now I know it isn’t exactly a carbon copy, but in the original Nuala was supposed to be placed behind James… I just didn’t know how to do that when I was 11. I thought the image held more power if she wasn’t directly visible, as Nuala’s entire character consists on being the muse that guides talent’s to their demise. Simply felt like it held more power the way it is. I also didn’t understand symbolism very much when I was a child, and my mind guiltily focused more on: OTP ! Than the actual book’s beautiful symbolism… My own take on it with James & the Horned King in this piece.
An actual review of Ballad should be out tomorrow, but in the meantime, here are a few more screencaps of my work ! Thank you very much, and enjoy !
Sweet and Unholy 
It looks amazing!
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Thank you so much ! Means a lot ❤
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this is so gorgeous! didn’t know about ballad, I’m ashamed to say, but it’s definitely on my tbr list now.
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Ahh! Thank you so much, it means a lot ❤ Good ! It's definitely a great book
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I found it fascinating to watch your process through the ‘speedpaint’ recording. What a clever idea to share it and what a beautiful final product!
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AH ! Thank you so very much for your kind words, it really does mean a lot ! I’ve been meaning to draw some more symbolic type fanart paintings for other books, I’ll be sure to record it as well. Thank you so much again ! ❤
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You’re so talented! I myself can not draw to save my life so seeing something like this really wows me.
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Thank you so much ! The kind words really mean a lot to me ;; it’s all about practice though ! You see how I drew just five years ago vs that piece now. Thank you again !
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wow! LOVED IT! Do you do commission work?
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Yes I do ! There’s a widget atop of my page named “Commission me!” or you can simply follow this link to see my prices ! ❤
Everything and prices can be discussed depending on what it is ❤
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yes, I noticed after I posted the comment (: I’m actually looking for someone to draw a log for me that I can use for my new candle shop opening in November.
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I can perfectly do logo work as well ❤ If you'd like to talk through twitter, my handle is @sweetandunholy You can tell me what you need and w/not and I could show you a rough idea and price? Otherwise, I also have a few contacts on graphic design who also specialize in logo work ❤
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great ok, I’ll contact you on twitter Thank you!
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