For my book The Acorn Thief I found a terrific artist on Fiverr. The book has three characters: a somewhat overcaffeinated squirrel, a slacker deer, and a requisite wise owl. I told this artist the story, and described the characters, and he rendered sketches that I liked of the deer and the squirrel.

The first owl he came up with didn’t match what I had been envisioning, though:

This owl . . . I don’t know, just didn’t seem expressive enough. I asked for a slightly more anthropomorphic owl. So he sent this one, which I used:

Pictured here with Deer, of course. I liked this one; maybe not really a huge difference vs. the first, but she just seems warmer.

The owl has a large eye, doesn’t she? My wife asked: what’s up with the eye?? Well, that’s the vision of the artist, Nick Talbert. He calls his drawings “whimsical,” and they are, and I like that eye.

Amazon listing for the book, which is in both kindle and paperback: The Acorn Thief