Blog Tour : Interview with Michelle Monique

The first time I saw Michelle Monique's artwork was when I  found The Mayfair Moon (view my review) by author J.A. Redmerski. The characters look passionate and protective of each other.  Recently, the opportunity to be part of Michelle Monique's blog tour presented itself and now I'm going to show some of her work she kindly shared with us.

Michelle has been a self-taught artist since 2005.  She has in her portfolio covers for Random House and Penguin Group.  Her artwork has a distinct ethereal quality to it that I love,  yet the images are powerful.  Today we are interviewing Michelle, so you can know a little bit about the talented artist behind the cover of The Mayfair Moon.

Michele, welcome to Jessy's Bookends!

What inspires you when designing a book cover?  The author's words. When an author is excited about seeing their character live it rubs off on me. Knowing that what I put on their cover will be what every reader envisions is an honor, really.

How do you define yourself as an artist?  I live vicariously through my art. Almost every piece I make portrays  women in a position of power and strength. Being somewhat neurotic and overly sensitive, it is difficult for me to "stay strong". Most might view my art as just girls kicking ass, but I find a sense of solace in it.

What would you say is the theme which predominates in your work?  My work mostly consists of fantasy themes. I enjoy the costumes, backgrounds, and overall feeling of this genre. I've always been drawn to medieval themes so it was a natural course for me to take. Combine fantasy and feminism and voila, you get my work.

Where do you go to get ideas and muse? I find that video games have the most creative out of this world costuming designs and when I do an original character, I strive to create something intricate yet captures the character's personality accurately. The environments, themes, music, costuming, and stories just make me want to jump into it's world and experience it in real life. When I do a photoshoot, it's like the character comes to life.

What inspired you when designing The Mayfair Moon cover?  I wanted to make the style somewhat like modern/romance/fantasy movie posters in terms of color and lighting. However the pose and setting were Jessica's idea, so credit to her :)

For whom you haven't done a project but would like to have the opportunity to work with? This is going to make me sound like a total dork but I've always wanted to do a live action series for World of Warcraft similar to what they did for Mortal Kombat. I would also do anything to be able to design a movie poster for Christopher Nolan or Zack Snyder.

If you weren't a photo designer, what do you consider you would have dedicated your life to? Definitely criminal psychology. I did almost pursue this, but realized I'm too much of a softie to actually talk to criminals. When I'm not editing, I'm researching this topic. It is the most fascinating thing in the world to me. I want to find a way to combine both, but it would result in too drastic a change in my style. Perhaps a personal side project?

What can we expect to see from you in the future? Any upcoming projects you want to share with us?  

As of now I'm working on about 10 covers for authors so not much going on with personal projects. However once that's done it's really up in the air. I might do a Medusa picture or a WoW series or something else might come up along the way. I've been wanting to do a female representation of Call of Duty for a while now so maybe I'll start that.

Thanks Michelle for visiting us.
  

Have you read a book with her artwork?   To know more about Michelle Monique's artwork : 

Website / Deviantart / YouTube / Artworkfolio / Facebook

*All images used on this post are owned by Michelle Monique.  We ask for her permission to include them on this post.  If you have interest on any of them please visit Deviantart and/or any of her sites to contact and support this artist by acquiring them.