Writer's Notes! - Illustrations

Chapter 2 will begin on February 5th! 

In the mean time, allow me to embarrass myself with my atrocious artwork!

I actually did, at one point, consider trying to illustrate the book. That point in time was... well, brief. This was a sketch I did a very long time ago for the first chapter of Rise of Azraea. The picture doesn't quite line up with the descriptions in the book, because over the course of finishing the book, revising it, writing the sequel, etc., the character's have become more concretely pictured in my mind. It's also helped that I've found better words to describe things I see in my head.

You can't tell it from this picture, but Ochsner's skin tone is supposed to lean more towards tawny than towards the fair skin we generally associate with dwarves in fantasy - if anything, she probably looks a bit like Mindy Kaling.

It's likely a detail you missed reading the first chapter, because I mentioned it only in passing, and never really returned to it. Unlike Azraea's skin tone, Ochsner's skin tone doesn't really come up much in the book because the other characters don't think much of it, certainly not in the context of her dwarven size and build. Azraea's physical appearance marks her as an Arbarii descendant, and Ochsner's physical appearance marks her as a dwarven Caelian. Though both are technically people of color, the way they're treated by other Caelians is very different.

Caelia's dwarves make up a very large percentage of the kingdom's population, easily outnumbering elves and orcs combined, but they tend to be relatively insular, staying in their subterranean metropolises. In the end, most surface-dwelling Caelians feel about their dwarven neighbors the way U.S. Americans feel about Canadians. We have some stereotypes about them, and some prejudices I'm sure, but except for Nickelback, we generally don't have strong opinions about Canadians. Likewise, Caelians don't really have strong opinions about dwarves, and if they feel any mistrust, it's probably because they see them as sketchy 'city-folk'.

Likewise, Kaira's skin tone isn't clear from the picture above, because scanning pictures from my sketchbook makes them darker. She should be - literally - white as a sheet of copy paper. I don't mean Caucasian, I mean white. And I don't mean she's pale - her unfreckled, unblemished skin is actually pigmented white, obscuring the veins and other subcutaneous features that are visible through the skin of white humans. Because the picture was small, I didn't draw-in the elaborate tattoos she's covered that canvas in, though for reference, I tried doing a really basic version later:

Of course, not only is it over-simplified the asymmetrical
tattoos made one eye look smaller than the other. 

Needs work.

Obviously, Azraea's skin tone doesn't come-off well in a gray-scale image either, but I think most people can understand my dilemma, and for those who can't I'll be blunt; a picture of a black person drawn by an amateur artist has a very real chance of coming out look like a racist ad from 1912.

The other thing that's off here is her hair. I originally chose to draw it in tight braids for two reasons. The first reason is that, over the decades, Azraea has been pressured into downplaying her racial attributes, so her style tends to be low key in a don't-scare-the-white-people sort of way (completely the opposite of Kaira's approach to fashion).

The second reason is that, even if that pressure weren't present, Azraea wouldn't be inclined towards loose or 'big' hair-styles. Azraea is a necromancer, and there's a good reason why someone who cuts open bodies wouldn't necessarily wear her hair loose or have a large bushy beard. Azraea could crop it very short, of course, and not really have to deal with it at all, but she's willing to spend extra time on her appearance. Azraea's not vain, but she feels (more than most of us) the need to be in control of her life, and one thing she can exert control over every day is her own appearance. Every day she dresses nicely, applies make up precisely, and styles her hair, not to grab the attention of others, but as part of a silent mantra that says, 'I control my life.'

I'd originally imagined her having her hair in many small, tight braids, and that's what she has in all of my early artwork for these books. However, one day I encountered a woman whose hair style immediately leaped out as 'that's Azraea!' Her hair was bound tight to the scalp, in several thick french braids. The result was immediately evocative of a European fairy tale princess, while at the same time depending on a volume and texture that few people of European descent could match. It was distinctive and eye-catching, but (hypothetically) it would also be easily protected from flying viscera.

Of course, I tried drawing it.

Obviously I haven't much practice with braids. 

Granted, if we're nitpicking style and fashion, then it should also be pointed out that Azraea's dress shows more cleavage in this picture than it realistically would. That's because I suck at drawing squishy things (I'm much more comfortable with robots).

Of course, come to that, Ochsner is probably showing less cleavage than she should be. Given it's a tightly packed bar at the start of summer, and Ochsner was born and raised in a regular 55 degrees Fahrenheit environment, she'd be sweltering in that layered outfit.

As it seems in poor taste to post a picture of Ochsner's cleavage, I'll leave it at that.