Photos for characters?

Discussion in 'Character Development' started by jacklondonsghost, Jan 26, 2010.

  1. Kirvee

    Kirvee New Member

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    I tend to draw out my characters for both writing and artistic reasons. The only problems I ever come across is when it comes to clothes on the human-like characters. I can draw any manner of clothing, but I could never tell you the word for it I'd need to know for writing.
     
  2. Midnight_Adventurer

    Midnight_Adventurer Active Member

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    I'm also a visual person and I usually try to imagine what they'd look like but sometimes if I'm struggling, and this may sound pretty lame, I use The Sims to create a general appearence. It's really helpful because it lets you tweek nearly every detail :)
     
  3. Scoody

    Scoody New Member

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    I usually have a "type" in mind and I sometimes use actresses or characters from movies or TV to shape them. My main character is a woman in the mode of Kate Austen from Lost and Rene Walker from 24. I make several changes of my own. From those two women characters I take the fact that they are tall (my character is a little taller) and athletic (my character is a former soldier and olympic caliber fencer). Her hair is long with a slight curl and dark like those two actresses. She has freckles which make her look somewhat girlish. As far as her psyche, I do not use them for that. My own character is developed by her own life experiences. There are also things mentioned in passing that not only add to her character but to her mystique because I never reveal that side of her completely.

    For example:

    Jogabeth looked at mound of dirt covering the shallow grave and felt satisfied that in a few days time only she would know where to find it. Given a few months she would forget where it was. Just like she forgot where the other shallow graves were.


    or:


    It was easy. She faked a stumble. The marshal came forward to catch her. She now had his gun. The smirking, mocking demeanor that had irritated her so for most of the trip had disappeared from his face. He is mouth was set hard, his nostrils flared a bit. Jogabeth was sure the marshal was weighing his options, she could see that much. The Oakley sunglasses before his eyes kept her from getting a good read on what he was going to do, if he was afraid or pissed. She took a couple of steps back just in case. She hoped she wouldn't have to shoot him. She still hadn't gotten over the last time she shot a cop.
     
  4. black-radish

    black-radish New Member

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    I never do this, I simply create my character with traits.
    But this summer when I was on vacation I walked into this tiny shop that sold figurines, I looked around a little and gasped when I suddenly saw my character.. I never really thought about her appearance other than her hair, really.. But there she was, the expression on her face, the way she stood.. it was everything like her! I bought it, but when I write I don't let myself get too distracted by the figurine, because it kind of resembles the way she is at the end of the novel when she's brave and self-confident instead of the shy grey-mouse type at the beginning of the story.
     
  5. MJ Preston

    MJ Preston Banned

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    I deleted
     
  6. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    I tend to do this backwards - my first flash of a character is often a mental image, in full detail, sometimes with surroundings, sometimes not. The image just comes out of nowhere, as far as I can tell at the time, though often months or years later I realize where it came from.

    I look at the image in my mind and the image tells me about the character. I don't decide, for example, that the character has a bad haircut - I see the bad haircut in the mental image, and I figure out why.

    ChickenFreak
     
  7. photoann

    photoann Member

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    I go even further....since I'm a photographer too I will cut and paste items together from different photos.
    Yes, it does look rather bizarre sometimes, but the mental picture I can get from this is seamless.
    I'll even do this with locations. Either something I've photographed myself (a room, landscape etc) or something I find on the Internet.
    I know it's sounding like I don't have any imagination of my own, but I'm so visual that I get wrapped up in the details and forget about plot if I don't do it this way.
     
  8. krystalpendragon

    krystalpendragon New Member

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    That's interesting. My initial reply was I like to find an image that represents the character but I have only done this after knowing the character for a long time. When I make a character I start working out a personality. Then I imagine scenes of what the character does, but I never think about what they look like. For that matter I don't think of a setting right away (which I need to), rather I focus on what's happening/how the character is reacting.

    But if and when I do a character bio, I have to have a visual, so I search deviant art (since I write fantasy).

    When I read I like knowing what the characters look like and I try to visualize them and their setting.
     
  9. Jemnisimi

    Jemnisimi New Member

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    To me personally, I probably place too much emphasis on how my characters look. Their looks are actually my inspiration, but I write fantasy so I guess that's not entirely a bad thing.

    I don't usually draw characters before fleshing them out, but I do draw important characters sometimes and if I think the image is fitting, it can be very inspiring later. I keep drawings of my novel trilogy's two main characters on-hand all the time and look at them the second I get a block. For some reason, that loosens me right up a lot.

    Funny you should mention searching for pics that fit your characters. I did that once, recently. And it was a lot of fun, even though it was difficult. Hehe.
     
  10. Ink Lord

    Ink Lord New Member

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    Oh my hair bursh, I just know someone's going to chide me for this, but...:

    I do decide upon my character's physical appearance quite early on in their development, but never before the general basics (age, values, religion, goals, ect.) Before I came up with my method, I really didn't do much on their physical appearance, but with my new method... it's necessary.

    I have a binder for each story I'm working on or taking seriously. Behind the purple divider is character sheets. I find a piece of copy paper, give it a quick visit to Mr. Hole Punch, and then doodle out random drawings of my character. Sometimes I draw them just facing the "camera" like you would in a usual photo, but sometimes I feel more... less lazy... and sketch them out in different scenes and stuff.

    Behind the copy paper, I have usually two to three pieces of notebook paper with the rest of their information on their, minus physical features because I already have that sketched out on the copy paper.


    Some more info on my binder method:

    Behind the green divider, I have story summary, a couple blurbs, chapter outlines, and other plot-related things.

    Behind the orange divider is random quotes, lines, or drafts I have written while away from the computer.

    And last but not least, behind the yellow divider is random other things. Usually sketches because I can be a visual person when it comes to certain things. To get me in the emotion of a scene, I either draw the scene or look at the drawn sketch. And sometimes it's just random doodles of my characters. The Grim Reaper is one of my characters and I dressed him up like Erik from "Phantom of the Opera", so...


    I am a chatterbox and... semi-proud of it!
     
  11. Manav

    Manav New Member

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    I have never really searched for photos matching my characters, but that idea sounds good. Because I have actually created characters and written stories about them inspired by random photos I came across on the internet.
     
  12. solarstarrkatt

    solarstarrkatt New Member

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    I used to use Meez for this, because it was quick and simple, but Meez has a lot of flaws, if you've never been on there. So, now I will try to use Sims 2, because while it might me a little more complicated, but I can do a heck of a lot more.
     
  13. Aeschylus

    Aeschylus Member

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    The way a character looks is not usually relevant to the story; you can make a character believable no matter what he/she looks like, as long as you have an understanding of why you yourself made that character look that way. For me, I think consciously only about the character's psychological characteristics; the appearance then forms in my mind without conscious effort on my part. Furthermore, I create the characters to fit the story, not the other way around.
     
  14. erik martin

    erik martin Active Member

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    I used this technique in the book I just completed. I like the characters and settings that I am writing about to be as real as possible even, as was this case, when the story is fantasy. That way I don't feel like I'm just making stuff up, I'm telling a story about something that happened to real people in real places. Obviously, characters can change and evolve from one draft to the next, but I like to have some definite characteristics defined from the get go. I did go and find pictures on the internet that resembled the pictures that I had in my mind of some of my main characters. I found it helped to make them more concrete as I wrote.
     
  15. squire848

    squire848 New Member

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    I have used this technique before, and I must say I found it quite useful. Not silly at all!

    Often I get my inspiration for characters from simply walking the streets. Someone will catch my attention, not necessarily for any reason, and I will begin to form a personality, etc around them. In the end my character can often look completely different from the person I originally started with, but this works nicely for me.
     
  16. madhoca

    madhoca Contributor Contributor

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    I usually have quite a clear mental image of my hero and heroine when I'm writing a romance. However, just recently I felt that my descriptions of their expressions when they were thoughtful/angry/amorous etc were getting too repetitive.

    The closest I could get to my hero was Alain Delon, and after compiling a little folder of photos and watching a few old clips, it was much easier to describe how his features changed (and why his eyes and mouth were so mesmerising). And after all that, I had no trouble showing the heroine's reactions, either!

    *sigh*
     
  17. Cardboard Tube Knight

    Cardboard Tube Knight New Member

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    I have clear images of my characters in my head, usually from the second I start to write them. Some of the details may change (such as hair style, which can realistically change) but many of them stay the same. I think the last real impromptu descion I made that will effect one of my characters long term is her tattoo. It was an odd choice because she's presented as nerdy and very uptight most of the time. And she lets on that its always been the case. But the tattoo I think lends something to that image that its not all that's there.

    I don't think there's harm in having a clear picture of your character though, even if you don't describe them down to every hair. Your reader is going to have a picture of them as they read, why shouldn't you too?
     

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