Faces Or The Lack Thereof

I've seen your face, on stained glass, in colored lights, in pictures of you looking to the sky. You've been portrayed a thousand different ways, but my heart can see you better than my eyes, 'cause it's love that paints a portrait of your life.

- The Face Of Love, Sanctus Real

Hannah, at your service.

How hard is it to find the perfect picture that is your character?
Really. Blasted. Hard.
Trinity and I agree on this point. It's almost like Characters Gone Rogue. But in your head. You have this vague feeling that tells you how they're supposed to look. You probably have a factual-worded-out description for your book. But you can't really see them in your head precisely, if you're like me. I read some sort of psychological thing that said your subconscious can't conjure up a face. When you dream up someone you've never met, you had to have seen the person's face at least once, even for just a second. Is it the same with a writer's imagination? But if it is, shouldn't there be someone in the world who looks like your character, precisely and to a T?

Apparently not.

Really, I've looked all over.

I don't know when I decided I wanted to find pictures for my characters. Trinity got on Pinterest a few years back and started a board of Aouthentica characters. I wasn't allowed a Facebook or Pinterest account at that point, so instead I did the second best thing and began sketching fictional faces. It became something of an obsession. My sketchbooks used to be full of random meandering scribbles. Now there's hardly a page that isn't related in some way to the world of Eyra. But I'm not as skilled as I would sometimes like to think, and so I haven't quite gotten it right.

Then Pinterest. (Oh, the weight of those two words - Pinterest, the inescapable pit of pictures.)
So far I have managed to keep my Story boards (heh, Story boards, storyboards) at a minimum of around seven. Some are related to NaNoWriMo and Orphna's Tale instead of Darby's Dragon and Eyra Chronicles, and at least two are "possibility" boards. Then there's general writing stuff, and A Quill In Her Quiver, and last of all a secret board to put all the down-low story stuff on. Like.... and also.... then there's.... yeah, that sort of stuff.

But with all of the millions of pictures and links and photos and screenshots on Pinterest, between photoshoots and art, you'd think there would be one acceptable correct picture for each character. BUT NO.

So far I've gotten about two YESTHATSTHEM-OHMYCHEESEPUFFS pictures. Then there's a few "Well, I guess that could be them. It kind of fits." And there's some "That kind of reminds me of him/her."

I mentioned earlier in this post, if I find a good picture of Armen, I will explode several times and then post it. Maybe that's why I've become desperate enough to put out a warrant for a picture of him. So far I have decided that he looks like a strange mix of Mykel Hawke, Ben Barnes, Gaspard Ulliel, Richard Armitage, Grant Imahara, and basically any Asian guy. Plus he wears "impeccable clothings", which, in medieval Elven times, means his wardrobe contains a mix of The Man In Black, Aragorn, Elrond, and a three-piece suit. And he seems to like olive green. Is there any confusion as to why I can't find a proper picture for him?

Have you any related problems? I sometimes wonder if everyone besides Trinity and myself can just brain-tweak their characters to fit a picture. That's only happened to me, subconsciously, once. Accidentally. It was the only available picture I had of the girl, and so my idea of her face kind of molded itself to the picture. Which is okay now, I guess.

I shall attempt to get more in order on my future posts. Yeah. That will happen. Ahem. Anyway.

To God be the glory,
Hannah