I am doing a set of story cards for my next collection of stories. These will appear in the book itself (‘One Beautiful People’), and also be used to advertise and hopefully get a few people excited. I think the characters that Michelle draws are mind-blowing, and it is such fun to see my word-creations come to life like this. Drawing the characters is just beyond my talents!
Anyway, I thought it might be interesting for others to see a tiny bit of the process that thappens for each story card, so here is an example. The character is Rainbow, from the short story “Ground Zero”.
To begin with, Michelle needs to know what I expect her to create. In this case I provided some text from the story which included a character descriptìon and a little bit of the ‘mood’ of the story. Here is a key bit:
Dressed up seemed like a distant aspiration. The woman was wearing a black crop-top and shorts combo with torn and battle-damaged fishnet stockings. Her trainers were white, but flecked with dirt, with the heels platformed quite some amount at the back, so that she gained a couple of inches despite the flat soles.
Her preliminary sketch on the left is the first time I get to see how the character will be presented.
Michelle then goes away and produces a more polished version of the character which we then discuss for any final touches and changes.
In this case I just wanted some coloured highlights added to Rainbow’s hair. While she sorts that out, I will start thinking about what the character card (or book cover) is going to look like.
Doing the story card itself is where I get to have my artistic fun!
Sometimes my idea completely changes in the final version, based on what Michelle has created for the character.
In this case I wanted lots of colour, but it had to blend in with Rainbow as she had been drawn. I magnified her magical rainbow disc and added the elcectrical storm which is a big part of the story.
I am a control freak and I do need to do the finishing touches!! But the central and key part is always the character that Michelle draws.
