I'm trying to draw a cover featuring my main characters, and wanted to come up with something cool. I want to include a symbol of their co-dependency, but feel handcuffs would be too obvious. The characters are introduced as an unrequited love couple but are eventually explained as a damaging codependent pair. What I'd like to know is other symbols of codependency I could use that might look romantic or cute. Thanks!
Two marionettes controlling the strings of each other. (might be hard to draw) Two people with arms that morph together. Two people in a mirror that repeats, like in a funhouse: Or like this but with two people, every other one:
I like the marionette idea... How does this sound? One hand holding a mask in front of each other's faces, the other holding a marionette thingie attached to each other's mask hand? EDIT: Wait, no that's not romantic at all... EDIT: Y'know, scratch the romantic thing: just something lighthearted... EDIT: Hmm... Torsos coming out of each other while holding marionette controls connected by red strings? Haha, that sounds like a Body Horror... -_-'
Most of the images being discussed suggest that A does for B the same thing that B does for A--that it's a sort of mirror-image thing. But that's not my understanding of codependency. It has two very different roles.
Not as a suggestion but a description of how I see it, imagine a brief film, maybe a cartoon: Joe is walking along the sidewalk. He's eating wrapped candies and tossing the wrappers on the ground. Joe is followed by Ben. Ben follows a step or two behind, his attention always on Joe, watching Joe with an expression of intent concern. Joe and Ben pass a big NO LITTERING sign, with a glaring policeman standing beside it. Seeing a candy wrapper fall, the policeman starts toward Joe. Joe shows no concern about the policeman. Ben, on the other hand, looks horrified and frightened, and scurries to pick up the wrapper. The little parade continues down the street: Joe throwing wrappers on the ground, Ben crouching to pick up each one, the policeman following, waiting for Ben to miss one. Ben is the codependent--he makes himself responsible for saving Joe from the consequences of Joe's choices.
Yeah- they're both dependent on each other, but one of them has put their life on hold to cater to her whims, even if she doesn't notice. So maybe I could draw her with/causing havoc around her and him repairing it...? How does that sound?
It's not that they do the same thing, each as a different role. But their dependency is still two way. The codependent alcoholic family member enables the alcoholic but also has their own serious emotional problems. http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/co-dependency The reason for the mirrors or the marionettes is just to show they are dependent on each other. The mirror images are not the same, the reflections differ. One could have them in black and white clothing to show they have a different role in the dependency. I like that idea.
K- I'll draw them in a broken/cracked classroom covered in tape with swords embedded in them (she's the warrior of the duo); she's holding a breaking flower while it's petals are flying to his hand, where there's a taped up blossom.
