The first image of Princess Lizzie was drawn by an illustrator in North Carolina. I can’t quite recall how I discovered him, but I really liked his work. He enjoyed Princess Lizzie’s story and went to drafting her even though I couldn’t exactly afford him. 

I was thankful, but Princess Lizzie wasn’t really Lizzie. Sure he did a good job creating her, but looking at her didn’t make me feel all the right feels. I couldn’t afford him at the time anyway. So she stayed put away.

Five years later I met another artist in Missouri. I could afford him, but the image he created for her didn’t speak to me.

As the years went by, the real Lizzie grew up and became a young artist herself. She was a natural talent and I looked to get her paired up with someone who could help her further develop those artistic skills. This is where illustrator Karla Bivens comes in. I actually hired her to be my daughter’s private art teacher.  She actually did more than help her with her art and to that I am grateful. 

I thought I knew why I was so unsuccessful in getting Princess Lizzie published:

My daughter and I would be an author/illustrator team. 

It made sense that she would be the one to bring her to life since Lizzie’s character was modeled after her. Right?

Wrong. She was not about it. At all!

When Karla moved away, she began to do more with her art. And so I asked her, “Would you be my illustrator?”

And when I first saw Karla’s vision of Princess Lizzie, I knew it was her. Karla captured her essence, her spirit, her vivaciousness, and her individual spunk. See for yourself.

So, if you are working on something and you are feeling frustrated or even a bit disappointed because you can’t seem to get it all to work out right, don’t give up. You may have to go through admiring a lot of swans before finally finding your princess.