My husband always asks me where the images like the one above come from. And most the time I tell him I don't know. And that's the truth. I visualize so strongly, that suddenly it's there in front of me and I just sit down and start to draw it. Purely from my mind. Other times I'm inspired by photos or articles or words that I hear. Looking at this face now that it's done, I know where my muse came from. I have a brilliant writer friend on FB that has the most wonderful face and her daughter is equally beautiful. I am taken with their hair and skin color and their fabulous eyes. Once I see a face I love, I'm able to retain it in my mind for a very long time. It's not just the features but the essence of the person that I feel in order to be able to draw a similarity. And then my sister has the most adorable cats, so when I draw cats now, they are usually touching which emulates the bond that her two cats have with each other. This illustration is done in black marker and colored markers on really crappy sketch paper by industry standards. But sometimes the crappy paper is ok. I dedicate this illustration to writer Lia Keyes and her daughter.