Behind the Cover: Diane Sivavec

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Diane Sivavec was born in western Pennsylvania and received her formal education at Syracuse University's School of Visual and Performing Arts.

As a student, her awards included class valedictorian, the Scholar-Athlete of the year award, and Society of Illustrators honors.

She fell in love with the work of the American Impressionists and the realists of the 1900's and began what turned out to be a lifelong dedication to the fine art of painting.



























Today one can see in her work the skill she has mastered... that evasive and ever magical look of the effortless hand.

Her ability to skillfully paint the human figure and to capture likenesses have earned her many commissions, from private collectors to the advertising and publishing worlds.

These include Random House, Doubleday, The Hearst Corporation, Scholastic Books, Anheuser-Busch and many others.

Diane's use of harmonious color schemes, dynamic brushwork, and her poetic sensibility continue to inspire those around her.

She currently resides in central New Jersey with her husband and son.

http://www.dianesivavec.blogspot.com/

Comments

[lisa-thecat.livejournal.com]

While I do admire her skill, I can't look at things like that and consider them art. OK, a potato with a fork in it can be considered art too, in certain contexts, but... I've always been horrified by illustrations such as these. There's another trend to take real life photos and use photoshop to turn them into "art" and make goth princesses and fairies and stuff like that. Again, great skills, but I'm horrified by all the kitsch. Maybe it's a matter of taste too, maybe it's just me that doesn't get it. Because I'm surely surprised at how popular and loved these creations are.

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

The skill in these covers is not that much in the human figure, that you are right, are mostly from pictures, but on the details. If you see the picture they use and then the final work, you will notice that the artist adds all sort of details, that in a real photoshopped cover are not possible.

[lisa-thecat.livejournal.com]

I have a facebook friend that does this kind of thing. She does it really good too. I understand she lives from photoshop art. Once she posted the original pic for one of her creations and I was very impressed with all the details and touches she added to turn it around. Not to mention the background that was completely different and set a very special mood for the whole creation. Still the end result seems tacky to me.

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

A lot of this artists live from romance cover art since with their work as painters are not able too. Some of them reach popularity, like Robert McGinnis or Victor Gadino, other not...

[b-sheridan.livejournal.com]

I think the first cover is absolutely stunning.

To me it's as much art as portrait painting only the pose is one staged and embellished to fit the product.

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

I actually prefer the more "dressed" cover, like the first, than the naked torso covers, but yes, in any case I prefer a paited cover than anything else.

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

Indeed they are a summa of everything you find inside, and so also the sex. I really love some of them and more I'm able to recognize the hand of the artist, more I like them.

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

I think they are part of the reason for the success of these novels; Johanna Lindsey without Robert McGinnis would be not the same ;-)