Aidana WillowRaven, mother of three, was trained in Fine Art, Studio Design and 2D Animation at Norfolk State University and Old Dominion University. In her freshman year, her art placed second in a nation-wide college competition hosted by the Stockley Gardens Fall Arts Festival. First place went to a sixth year grad student.
She started designing book covers and illustrating professionally in 2007, and her first published work was a children’s book, The Adventures of Katie-Bear: Fun Days at School, which won The Author’s Lounge’s Reader’s Choice Best Children’s Cover Illustration for May 2008.
Her portfolio of covers and illustrations for books has grown since to include more children’s books and book cover designs for novels. It now contains over thirty finished published works.
Living Our Bliss: An Introduction to Sun Food was the most recent cover to win an award from Divine Revolution Magazine's Cover Design Contest in June 2008.
Her company, WillowRaven Illustration & Design Plus, has grown to include not only children’s book covers and illustrations, but also novel dust jackets (such as the one she created for Midnight Hours, a newly released mystery/suspense by Vivian Gilbert Zabel and 4RV Publishing), literary agent services, and pre-submission manuscript editing services.
Thus far, she has either designed covers, illustrated books, or negotiated contacts with several publishers, magazines and many individual authors. She has also had several articles published about art, illustration and design.