Getting the Characters Right... as well as the Collaborators.

Dennis - Artist's name is BANE at banedarkart.com - is a pleasure to work with. And he's been very patient with me in getting the character sketches right because I've made him go over a lot. That's one thing I like about self-publishing is choosing who I want to work with. I still haven't decided on how to handle the website/graphic designer. I still haven't communicated with her my concerns - or made a decision one way or the other to work with her or look for yet another website designer. Which kind of sucks. On the other hand, why work with somebody who may only increase my stress? Especially when I have a choice?

But now for the fun stuff. The subtle changes to transform my characters as I want them: Starting with his original sketches:

I loved the 3/4 profile of Ella Bandita. The Wanderer was all wrong - this dude looks ready to slay dragons!

Here, I asked Dennis to widen her mouth, make her hair more golden and less washed out, as well as make her look less weary and defeated. The changes are subtle, but I like it.

And now for the Wanderer. He needs to be softened up a bit, so I sent Dennis photos of a kid I was in massage school with who died tragically because Jude had the "right eyes."

But he looks way too soft and innocent here. Given that an explicit sex scene will happen between the two characters, the Wanderer needs to look sexy enough that Ella Bandita would want to sleep with him.

But it's a fun process, yeah? I'm enjoying this!