Character concepts
At the start of this blog, I said that the contents
here would be everything that does not relate to my book.
I lied.
These book sketch posts therefore (yes there will
be several) offer a more in-depth look at some of my early character concepts,
primarily because, well, that’s what I was doing most of artistically speaking
during 2007, 2008 and 2009. Thus, most, if not all of these images can also be
found in the ‘Concepts Pre-2013’ tab on
the sister blog Black Wednesday Isle.
Obviously, I am still busy creating it all now many
years later in 2013 but that’s another story…
These posts might feel a little mismatched in
places but to clarify I intend to make a visual comparison between the early
sketches and the current ‘final’ portraits and then waffle on about the way
some of my ideas came together as I seem to be most proficient at doing that!
*
Now in my final year at university I had thrown
some ideas together, bounced around some characters including a girl called
Petra and of course our current ‘hero’ of tale, Hvidsten.
Followers of this blog likely already know that
‘Hvidsten’ was the surname of a friend of mine at university, the man who
gifted me the initial character concept for our ‘warrior-type grumpy hero.’
Those readers are probably also aware that this character has a forename that
begins with ‘L’, which isn't an interesting name by
any means, but I am still not going to tell you!
Hvidsten and Petra haven’t altered a great deal in
visual design over the years, it is more refined no doubt but with very few
major corrections. Petra’s hair got longer and I perhaps made her look a bit
older than in those early sketches.
I’ll be honest that I didn't realise then
that Petra was a city in Saudi Arabia (Google’s to check – ok apparently
Jordan isn't part of Saudi Arabia now?) because I suck at geography.
Nor did I realise that it was already an established moniker, the name just
came to me out of no-where and seemed to fit.
It should also be noted that I hadn't met
my now husband Jethro yet either, so obviously nor had I met his mother the
very similarly named Petrina.
The character of Petra actually evolved after I
read Mark Haddon’s book ‘A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.’
This wasn't my usual sort of read but its simplistic way of portraying the
very complex subject of autism deeply impressed me. I became fascinated with
the idea of writing from the point of view of someone who thinks in an entirely
different way.
Petra perhaps began then as an autistic child, and
was originally written about in a similar style to the one in Mark Haddon’s
book. She is often mistaken as being an autistic savant in our novel, or is
viewed by other characters as being far more fragile than she is. I developed
her character to possess an eidetic memory instead of being actually savant, so
that as stated she simply has a different way of processing thoughts to all
other characters. This is always a challenge to write but it is a challenge I
enjoy.
(Fun fact: Later I was further charmed to discover
that this writer Mark Haddon actually comes from my hometown of Northampton –
hey – hooray for coincidences!)
Seeing as I studied psychology for a year at college, I already knew I
had an interest in thought patterns and mind disorders, but until I added Petra
it hadn't occurred to me that characters might relate to or express
mental illnesses or disorders. I carried this idea
around for a long time before implementing it. Particularly perhaps because I
had decided then to tie in Cyan and Kale from my previous story but knew that I
would need to rewrite and develop them in a different way for the tale I had
swimming around in my head and that logically Cyan would be the depressive
character. I guess because I have always created her to look like me I found
this a bit of an unnerving prospect, true she had been a miserable sort in previous
renditions but this would push her a step further.
Cyan I like because she has gone through the most
evolutions character-wise. Visually her appearance has changed as frequently as
my own, so not a great deal really. Interestingly she is also the character who
annoys me the most to write about but that is perhaps because at the beginning
of tale she is in a very low and dark place, a melancholy whiner as I am
inclined to be at times and a very timid person as I was in my past. I want to
give her a slap and tell her to wake up! I guess that’s one purpose of bolshie characters
such as Amber. Cyan’s name comes literally from my interpretation of the colour
cyan as an insipid shade of blue.
So where did Kale come from and why is he named
after a vegetable?
I have often wondered that myself, I don’t recall
specifically when he emerged but I knew him well right from the start, a face
and persona I feel I have always known but cannot place. The name ‘Kale,’
equally was another that just seemed to instantly fit perhaps because it sounds
meek and limp and is therefore opposite to his persona.
Close to my heart then is this purported ‘sociopath’ and I really couldn't say
why. He was always Cyan’s
sire (maker) and seems to have become more insane over the years. You could
parry a ‘father-figure’ onto him if you discount the fact that
he isn't one bit like my father and that I have never ever known a
violent aggressor of a man.
As an extroverted character who has many
expressions and a cheeky one who likes to play act Kale often pops up in my
artwork. Here are the two most recent renditions:
Left = an ACEO made for Halloween 2013 titled ‘Hand
on Heart.’
Right = A 5x7 card created for charity on the theme
of Island Dreams, titled ‘Wish You Weren’t Here.’
Yes, he has a dislike of clothing beyond loose
denims and would happily strut about naked.
You might also notice he has a quirk about his
feet, more specifically he hates ‘things’ touching them; that part comes
directly from me, because I hate having crumbs and bits stuck to my bare feet.
Our Main Antagonist and
Protagonist
One evening I sat down and wrote a back-story involving
two brothers and that was that.
Luke and Evan were born that day and the groundwork
for the world I wanted to create was set.
It should be noted that the back-story isn't, in my opinion, the greatest bit of writing, possibly crafted through a student-type
alcohol haze when I felt most inspired to just shove it all down on paper and
be done with it. It is mostly a very long form of notes and although I've let
a few folks read it, its purpose was never truly to be a standalone short
story. Perhaps one day I will revisit the piece and give it a good scrubbing
overhaul but for now, it’s my notes about the beginnings of our fictional
world.
The middle image here was the first one, they are
16 and 18 years old in the back-story, so the first concept was them as
teenagers. The later sketches are meant to be them in their mid-twenties; this
is the 'freeze' point for the way they should look no matter what age they
currently are.
This back-story stayed as just another one-off for
quite some time whilst I played around with character design and ideas for the
actual book I wanted to write. Then I wrote chapters and chapters (whilst at
work *ahem*) about this place in my head and the scant few characters I had at
the time.
Further images and insights I shall however save for the next posting.
