DAWN

This is an unpublished painting that is actually a predecessor to my Forces Of Nature series. I painted this to try and push the illustration market in a direction I wanted to go. I've tried this many times over the years and it almost never works! Well, not right away. Sometimes it take years for the publishers to decide it's a look they're after. This one never got me any work, and I don't know why.Maybe you all have some thoughts? It was intended to be a woman feeling the pleasure of awakening in this beautiful, somewhat fantastic setting. The comment it received most often was, " she looks lonely! ", not good for selling books, I guess. The publishers of romance interprted the image as if the girl awakened alone, maybe she spent the night alone, maybe nobody loves her!
For inspirationI took my cue from perfume and fashion ads where the woman is often shown alone, just looking beautiful. But I guess I broke one one of the unwritten rules of romance covers at that time.
I learned a lot doing this, just seeing how I could play with light and with the theme of a single girl. I think I was struggling with the realism of the scene, really wanting it to go into the magical realm, but it just teeters on the edge of fantasy. I guess I wasn't readu to push it over!