Drawing My Writing

I’ve mentioned before that another area of creativity I enjoy is drawing. During the summers my sister and I spent in Baton Rouge with my grandparents, I used to sit for hours watching my grandfather draw and paint. I loved the smell of oil paints and the way that the images would take form under his hand—like seeing a story happening before my very eyes. He taught me quite a lot about appreciating shapes and images. And while I do use a little help in the form of existing images and carbon paper, the time I spend with pencil and paper sketching characters is very relaxing—and a great outlet for thinking about my stories even when I have writer’s block.

So I thought I would share a few of those drawings here. Some of them are the original pencil drawings, while others are some that I colorized on the computer.

Ashley and Robert. These are my two main characters from the “story” I wrote for about ten years. Even though I haven’t returned to this unfinished, massive manuscript (more than 200,000 words!), I do still think about these characters quite often.

The Five Girls. As Ashley and Robert’s story was waning, I was already starting to develop these five characters—five friends who grew up together and were moving into their late 20s/early 30s. A couple of them married early, but two of them, Bekka (far right) and Hannah (second from the left) became the main characters of my first two completed manuscripts.

Bekka & Andrew. Bekka (of the Five Girls above) and Andrew are the main characters of my first completed novel, What Matters Most.

Hannah & Stefan. I have drawn more images of these two characters than any others I’ve ever written about. I’m not sure if it’s because Hannah is the character who is most like me or if it’s because even though the manuscript (The Best Laid Plans) is complete, I never felt like I finished their story.

Kevin & Zarah. These are the main characters of my third complete manuscript, Love Remains, which was inspired by a “what if” situation that arose in learning a guy I worked with had been in the Army and stationed at White Sands (where my dad worked) my senior year of high school. Here’s another sketch of them.

Eomer & Lothiriel. I’ve mentioned before that the only true fan-fic I’ve ever written is the romance of my favorite LOTR character, Eomer. So here’s my idea of what Lothiriel, mentioned only in the Appendix, looks like.

Julia, William, Charlotte, Collin & Susan, Mdsm. Charles Lott. I have so many sketches of these characters, mostly for costume study—not only does it give me a good chance to study the different pieces/construction of their garments, but it gives me a record of the clothing I’ve given them, such as these two dresses for Julia.