Art for original stories?

[serria]

Does anyone draw art for their original stories? Anything from character designs to scenes. I'm a visual person, so often when I'm setting up a new character, I'll do a quick sketch to help me think about what kind of clothes he or she would wear, the hair, the height, the expression. Not that I'm a very good artist, but they are for my personal benefit only! I like seeing scenes, too, though that's a little beyond my artistic ability. I was really honored when, back when I wrote a lot of fanfiction, a reader drew me "fanart" of my story - that was so cool, to see what I had written in visual form.

How about you? Especially for characters, I sometimes find it difficult to work with them if I don't have a clear picture of them in my head - even though I don't tend to use a lot of descriptions of people in my actual writing. I tend to like to keep it vague, unless the appearance is particularly important, but I need it in my head clearly at least.

Comments

[sarillia]

I've done this a couple times. I usually care more about getting the personality to show through rather than the looks. I was really happy with the body language in one drawing I made of this adorable couple I wrote about. One of them was trying to put her hair up with one hand because of the wind and the other was holding her other arm in both of hers and pulling her ahead. It's hard to explain but I loved it even though it wasn't very good.

When I'm trying to get some kind of visualization for what they look like, I tend to use online doll makers. This Lord of the Rings one is my favorite. It's got more choices for skin tones than most of the ones I've seen, which is good because I like to play around with those. Plus I can kind of fake different body shapes with the different races. I just wish I could find one of these that I like that lets you make fatter women. At least this one lets you make old ones.

[splinteredstar]

I'm miserable at drawing anything that involves living creatures, so, I don't really bother trying. My mental image is clear, it just doesn't stay /still/ long enough to draw it.

My best friend is an artist, and she's brilliant. Did some character pieces when we were younger. Might pester her into doing updates, sometime....

[ayumidah]

I make little character bios for each original character, and I'll draw a little of what I want their face and hair to look like.

Otherwise, I have drawn parts of certain scenes from the fanfiction I write, but I'm a terrible artist so there's no real point in going too far with it, haha.

[siofrabunnies]

I am so, so very bad at art, but I sometimes make Sims of characters, or build the impression of a setting. Bonus points in that sometimes the game's AI leads to plot! Building a set, as it were, can help me keep track of positions, say, at a crime scene, or remembering how a room is laid out, which helps a lot with continuity and consistency.

Usually, I just do thorough descriptions in an outline. If I tried drawing anything, it would just make me more confused.

It is so helpful for a character to have a defined set of physical traits! If they have a real-looking face in my head, I can start thinking about how different expressions would look to the other characters, or about how this one guy's forehead wrinkles when he's frustrated. I end up having a lot more character in my characters when I can picture them clearly.

[inkdust]

I could NEVER draw anything from my head, and I badly wished I could, until a few weeks ago I felt the urge to sit down, relax, and just see what I might be able to do for a character portrait, and it turned out to be incredible. I thought that was just a fluke, but last night I tried again with another character with great results. I would still only consider myself decent with a pencil, but the faces actually look like the images in my head, and seeing their faces outside my head is such a rush.

However, faces for my characters generally come in bits and pieces for me. Usually only a few physical features stand out to me for a long time, whether that's hair or posture or body type. So I don't feel like I really could attempt to draw most of my characters, only the few whose faces are clearest. But the experience of actually being able to do it is amazing.

[caecilia]

Yes but just crappy doodles. I used to draw fantasy maps constantly when I was a kid. I should get back into that :|a

I also save images online for inspiration. Stuff, places, and people. Sometimes I use stock photo sites to "fancast" my characters.

Whether or not I describe appearance depends on what kind of thing I'm writing.