Just for a bit of background, I usually find an actor’s picture that gives me the image I’m looking for when creating a character. Writing fanfiction has changed that a bit for me, allowing me to break that mould and play with my own ideas, using my fondness for portraiture to play with the images in my head. Unfortunately, sometimes those images get a little adjustment.
Drawing is a funny thing. It’s completely organic (for me, at least) and I will quite often end up with something surprising and different from what I started out with. Take my image of Saravis (below) for instance. He was supposed to be something between Bill Nighy and Rutger Hauer. (insert eye roll here, please) What came out was…well…interesting, but not what I’d originally intended. I kind of like it. (vote: would you rather see Saravis as I described above, or as I’ve drawn below?)
Saravis
What do you think of my character images? To be perfectly honest, they’re not emoting what I want for the story, but I like how they’re a bit quirky and you can see some of their personality eking out, and also how they’re NOT comic-book perfect.
I find I hate it when I pick up a book of a favorite author that I know has well-grounded characters but has the image of something otherwordly and “perfect” (ahem–airbrushed) on the cover or bookjacket. I know it sells, but I think people are starting to move beyond that, now. I think there are more, like me, who want honesty and reality in what they read, mixed in with the fantasy or HEA (happily ever after). We’re such a grounded and hardened society, with our heads filled with gruesome news every day, I don’t think we like to be so completely removed from it ALL the time. Some of the time, sure ;) I still pick up my Julia Quinn collection for a comfort read. (Romancing Mr Bridgerton, my favorite–and first–of hers).
Persephone
Seriously, though. Would you rather pick up a book with something perfect and airbrushed on the cover, or would you sooner pick up something that looked a bit more…human? Foregoing the art aspect of the cover, of course (if the human images could be more everyday, but in an artful cover as easily as the increasingly manga-style covers we see so often?)
S0, notes and asides, well, aside–I give you “Persephone” and “Saravis” from my Work in Progress named The Education of Miss Persephone Norris. I hope to have character outlines up in a few days…we’ll see if they match ;)
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Tags: adventure, aidas, blog, book, drama, fiction, julia quinn, life, living, LOL, love, norris, persephone, promise, psychological, publish, romance, romancing Mr. bridgerton, saravis, sex, sexy, suspense, the education of miss persephone norris, thriller, writing
Hmm. I think his face is fine, but he needs different hair. The Last of the Mohicans ‘do is killin me…