Why no illustrations?

I have had a few questions about whether I have an illustrator and the answer is No. I do not yet have one. My oldest daughter is an amazing artist and has been working on some sketches but her talent may be too raw for this type of challenge yet in life. Give this girl 10 years though..and watch out! Also, Publishers often do not want illustrated manuscripts unless it is a famous artist. They generally have illustrators that they want to use. If you submit a manuscript with illustrations your story can be judged more by the art than by the story line. I may, in the end, end up self publishing so I would actually like to see what artists might see in my story. I purposely did not "humanize" the animals but I do not see them as entirely cartoony either...it is hard to explain...anyway..if you are an artist and see illustrations please let me know...I would love to see what others see and as I said before I may self publish in the end and in that case I will absolutely need an illustrator.