Characters @ MindSay 
comics
Thea's dark burgundy-purple bangs cut into her eyes. Her bangs are like a veil to hide behind. Alex thinks the color of her hair is that of a wine stain. This is reflected on her lips.
Alexandre himself is quite pale (he has terrible allergies to sunlight) and looks a bit too old for his age (he has white hair). He is always well dressed, prefers to wear long trench coats that make him look even thinner and taller. His pale gray eyes often look lavender (when there's red in them) or appear very blue (depending on what he is wearing, like his eyes reflect color where there is none).
I like red, black, and white as a theme. Like the following character sketch of Thea, occasionally Alexandre prefers the same color scheme. His lips often appear red (without a touch of lipstick or gloss) due to his pale skin. In the background is the shadow of Alex's mother, a disgraced nun.
I've showed this drawing of Thea before, but repost it here for comparison with the color rough of her on top. I still see her in those lovely red shoes.
Another example of how Alex is developing. Can you feel him?
Thea is starting to "breathe" out from the pages of my sketchbook.
I repost the following from my 1998 sketchbook. This was the closest I got to Thea and Alex ten years ago. You can see the personalities emerge. It seems I imagined them first as being much younger. Thea's hair is always going to be this lovely silky black occasionally tinted with red or burgundy color. Alex will always have stark white hair and those pale eyes.
Another comparison posted here just for my reference (and possibly your enjoyment).
This was the very first conception of Alex and Thea:
I think I imagined them much older first as part of a flashback. Alex and Thea have matching hair for some reason. These were sketches done with ink and arcylic paint on tye dye fabric infused with silver.
When I met Bob Kane (creator of Batman) many years ago, he gave me this advice: "If you want to tell a successful story, one that everyone will love, you first have to fall in love with a character you create. And like any kind of love relationship, you have to nurture them and believe in them, especially when no one else does. The more you love your character, the chances are other people will grow to love them, too." Sitting next to him was Will Eisner (creator of influential comic The Spirit) who also imparted this advice to me, "Don't give up on yourself." I was honored to meet them at the very first comic convention I ever attended. I had shown them a small comic strip I was working on for my college newspaper and I admited to them that I wasn't yet satisfied with the characters I was working with. I think they sensed that I wasn't in love with what I was doing or that I was doing as part of some kind of university assignment, that I yearned to tell stories about characters I was more emotionally invested in but wasn't sure anyone else would like.
Anytime I had what I thought was an "original" idea for a story, my writer friends would often scoff at it for its off beated weirdness and my comic art heroes would tell me that it would be impossible to tell my stories in the format of a graphic novel. No one seemed to care about what I was doing. I was the only one into it. I believe that's the same for everyone who dares to imagine something so strong, they can't help but just make their dreams into a book.
Mr. Kane and Mr. Eisner were gentlemen in every sense of the word, and that impressed me. I'm not saying I am like them, but I'm also not saying I want to be like them. Yet I think about what they told me every time I committ a pen or brush to paper.
My obsession with Melusine never ends. She's just such a rich character with so much history... I can picture her as her medieval self in an illuminated manuscript or as she appears below in magenta and purples stepping out of a late 1970's fashion magazine or as a New Wave priestess spilling out on a lipstick and wine stained napkin...
The following is not from my sketchbook, it's a vision of Melusine I had back in 1997. The image was drawn in ink and pencil, photocopied, then the color rendering done with Prisma color markers. I had to dig this one out of my old portfolio to show you how much I think the "antique" wrinkling of the paper gives the image character. How many years have I been drawing Melusine? Well, I think it goes all the way back to 1987 when I first read her fairy tale in an old book of French legends. She caught hold of my imagination and never let go.
Fall always gets me in the mood for haunted houses. I'm still working on a story about one. I see these door knockers and locks and doors themselves opening each with elaborate Gothic Revival designs and so on...
With the haunted house stuff, I'm still imagining Alexandre here. He keeps changing shape in my mind.
The next pages out of my sketchbook deal with a character I dreamt about called "the Horned Princess" and I think she lives in the 'verse of Firefly. Either I watched that series too much or the character herself is a projection of my defiance against rejection, perhaps both. She's this girl I imagine worked on a farm on a distant moon but a career in agriculture didn't suit her. She's brought up in the war that took place between the Alliance and the Independents, but instead of joining the fight for Independence, she wages her own media war via her music. In choosing an artistic career during hard times, she is rejected by her family. Her going off to more "ritzy" planets to be the playgirl pin-up kind of musician is viewed as a slap in the face of her family struggling to survive. She's called the Horned Princess because of a weird headdress she wears made out of cow horns, a mock crown in rebellion against the father who abandoned her mother after he became a rich baron. Her music is sorta like classic rock. She's very much Stevie Nicks -- wrapped up in velvets and silk with a rough country music voice harmonizing with screaming guitars and synths. She seemed very real. I watched her in my dream like it was a episode of Firefly. It felt like she was related somehow to Captain Mal. Like a cousin. Or just another one of his "adopted family" from the farm his mother had. I imagine he liked her but disapproves of her decision to become a intergalatic rock star when everyone else was fighting and dying. Thing is, she was fighting her own fight in her own way with the best weapon available to her at the time -- music.
And, yeah, this is the first time I've done anything that I would consider a "fan fiction" sort of thing. Sometimes it is fun to imagine and create characters beyond what you saw on the television. And, yes, this is the kind of drawing I'd do on a diner place mat if I lived nearby one. That reminds me.... all the memories I have of hanging out at restaurants late at night! I want to do that again... someday.
No fair peeking at the questions behind the cut until you’ve jotted down all 12 characters.
1. Ukaihimi
2. Rahu
3. Aoxi
4. Aomi
5. Drop
6.Anuke
7. Hasmed
8. Shoran
9. Deimos
10. Anaki
11. Tora Lei Lei
12. Fargate
1.) Who would make a better college professor, 6 or 11?
Anuke... would..Tora Lei Lei is a convict-rebel-'freedom-fighter'
2.) Do you think #2 is hot? How hot?
YES, GODDAMN... INFERNO!!
3). 12 sends 8 on a mission. What is it, and does it succeed?
Yes, they grew up together.. they know each others' thoughts... its kind scary...
The mission would probably be a robbery or something.
4.) What is or would be 9's favorite book?
Some kind of necromancy book... not sure specifically, something with sorcery. yes yes
5.) Would it make more sense for 2 to swear fealty to 6, or the other way around?
HE ALREADY DID. wtf...and vice versa THEY ARE LOVERS!! they have KIDS!!!
6.) For whatever reason, 5 is looking for a roommate. Should 5 share a studio apartment with 9 or with 10?
it would make sense, given that Drop already lives with Anaki and can get along with Anuke.
7.) 2, 7, and 12 have dinner together. Where do they go, and what do they discuss?
War? War? and.... WAR? Vengence? Oh I don't know.. given that ....lots of pain was caused by Fargate & Hasmed
they possibly couldn't have dinner ANYWHERE the last time Fargate was at a table with Rahu was at a small lunchin at his own home
because FARGATE IS SHORAN'S FRIEND AND SHORAN IS RAHU'S SON! D: !!!!
8.) 3 challenges 10 to a duel. What happens?
Anaki would dive into her morph ball and bounce off, she cannot attack Aoxi in anyway by default.
9.) If 1 stole 8's most precious possession, how would 8 get it back?
Probably maim the crap out of Aomi to get Ukaihimi to give whatever it is back.
10.) Suggest a title for a story in which 7 and 12 both attain what they most desire.
"When Shit Hit The Fan and everyone died or got pregnant."
11.) What kind of plot device would you use if you wanted 4 and 1 to work together?
THEY ALREADY WORK TOGETHER, UKAIHIMI IS AOMI'S TEACHER!
12.) If 7 visited you for the weekend, how would you get along?
He'd try to kill me. So....i'd be running.
13.) If you could command 3 to perform any one task or service for you, what would it be?
To model.. to make me money.
14.) Does anyone on your friends list write or draw anything regarding 11?
actually yes, my friend Dark-Sheikah, drew Tora Lei Lei lol.
15.) If 2 had to choose sides between 4 and 5, which would it be?
Given.. that Rahu is Aomi's father and Aoxi's lover/husband....not sure.
16.) What might 10 shout while charging into battle?
She doesn't say much in general, she'd probably just scream or cause her magical charges to rattle and cause loud.. gratting sounds.
17.) If you chose a song to represent 8, which song would you choose?
"You're not there"
18.) 1, 6, and 12 are having dim sum at a Chinese restaurant. There is only one scallion pancake left, and they all reach for it at the same time. Who gets to eat it?
Anuke doesn't eat in the first place and Fargate only eats/drinks BLOOD so that just leaves Ukaihimi to eat it.
19.) What might be a good pick-up line for 2 to use on 10?
"Close your eyes."
20.) What would 5 most likely be arrested for?
Eating an entire private garden. Oh you know.. destruction of property.
21.) What is 6's secret?
She allowed her partner to rape Aoxi and didn't tell Rahu about any of it. OOOOOOOHHH.
22.) If 11 and 9 were racing to a destination, who would get there first?
Deimos.. he can bloody teleport...
23.) If you had to walk home through a bad neighborhood late at night, would you feel safer in the company of 7 or 8?
NEITHER.. they're both savage hooligans.
24.) 1 and 9 reluctantly team up to save the world from the threat posed by 4's sinister secret organization. 11 volunteers to help them, but it is later discovered that he is actually a spy for 4. Meanwhile, 4 has kidnapped 12 in an attempt to force their surrender. Following the wise advice of 5, they seek out 3, who gives them what they need to complete their quest. What title would you give this fic?
"This won't work at all even if we pretended."
You don't know who Melusine is? Look above this blog entry. Her image is right here as a header. She's accompanied by her friend, Grimalkin the Cat.
I think I've finally figured out how Dorathea will look. I like that her hair is like an elongated bob. Her hair jet black, but shiney, the bangs hanging over her eyes almost like a mask or veil. And the red shoes... Hopefully I won't be accused of being like Frank Miller, but if I ever did a graphic novel with these characters, I think I would just have it in black, white, and red. Like an old scary movie with bits and drops of red blood.
More Dorathea sketches.
Alexandre remains elusive in these sketches. He's very gothic yaoi.
A silly idea about Medusa's sister that wouldn't leave me alone until I sketched it!
I've got more images from my sketchbooks to share, but I don't want to overwhelm you all with too much. This is only the tip of the iceberg. I've been busy!
The only books I read for leisure are the books in which I cannot help but become emotionally invested in characters. I laugh with them. I'm happy when they are victorious. I cry with their loss.
It's therapeutic for me. Sitting in my chair curled up in a blanket with a book in my hands and the outside world disappears. I'm transported into the world I'm reading about. Characters are not just characters, they're like long lost friends that you stumble upon in a random encounter. I don't just read. I experience. Something is released inside of me and my imagination becomes an entity with its own will.
This lust, no, love affair with words, pages, chapters, series that I have is not a fleeting one. And it is much less expensive than a shrink...well, sometimes.
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