How Peter's drawings came to be part of my book trailer (continued)...
At around this time, I attended the wedding of one of my best friends from high school; at the reception I found Kate and myself sitting next to a very upbeat, clean-cut guy. I figured he was in finance or professional sports newscasting, but no: he was an illustrator. I told Peter what I was working on, and he got very excited. I took his card, thinking, he's just being polite, and odds are we won't make a good fit.
A few days later, I took a look at Peter's site (http://www.peterwonsowski.com); I was blown away: his watercolor and acrylic work was tonally broad: there was lighthearted, cute content, but also darker stuff (think Dark Knight Returns graphic novel). Drip is tonally on the darker side, and I could see that it wouldn't put Peter off. I got in touch with him, and was amazed to find that his enthusiasm was genuine and consistent. We spent several months working long distance, with me giving Peter the background on the characters, Peter sending me sketches, me giving input, and Peter honing in. It was a great time!
The resulting illustrations were made into poster-boards for pitch meetings, and I started putting out inquiries. No one bit--which even now is painful to write when I think about all the work that went into the story and the presentation. Such is the nature of taking an artistic risk.