This was already posted on Patreon but I wanted to post it here too for audio drama Sunday after a few weeks. Long story short, I've been working with concept artist, Max Portugal, to come up with character designs for the ANA leads (and some of the more prominent side characters)!
Of course, this remains an audio show: imagine/draw the characters however you want, I left it up for interpretation on purpose, there are no wrong answers, etc, etc. But that being said, it's still fun to get art made! I basically gave him some light design notes and let him run wild!
Left to right that's Sig, Bea, Happy, Lady Isadora, Luxe, and Oliver. Design notes/commentary under the cut!
Top of the lineup, we have Sig. I'm Black so I almost always picture the main characters of the things that I write as Black. Specifically, I picture him as being mixed (Black and white) but I don't think real world racial distinctions mean that much in Solegard besides which colors work best for your skin tone and how much sunscreen you need to avoid a burn. For his build, we went with the idea that, at a glance, he looks like he could be a stereotypical hero type but, in reality, he just Looks Like That. Like, in Sleeping Beauty Aurora was blessed with beauty. Sig was blessed with looking dashing but that doesn't actually translate into being good at cardio. (He also prob has some of that Peeta Mellark natural baker buffness haha.) So it's just really clear that if he was interested in being a hero, he def could be. He just Really Doesn't Want To.
Next up is our girl Bea! Bea, I always picture with short brown hair like her actress because they are so similar in personality, haha. I like that it's a little all over the place just like her. The embroidered jeans and funky colors with the shirt and jacket were all Max and they match her loud personality super well. She is, as always, holding her laptop and you can see her Toad House medallion on her right lapel.
Happy! I thought Happy was going to be the biggest design challenge because, based on how people react to him in the show, he has to look passingly human at a first glance, but also obviously inhuman at a second glance. He also has the most canon physical description in the show with a grand total of 2 features: inky black eyes and his Business Babe hat. But Max killed it with a solution that was so simple that it almost made me mad I didn't think of it: just make his skin tone inhuman and point his ears. Easy. That, plus a powerful build and dark palate really brings the whole look together. And the pop of pink from the hat is the cherry on top.
Isadora is next and the star of the show here is the armor. Sig mentions in her first episode that she has impressive armor as captain of the Queensguard and Max ran with it. The cream and gold color palate with the marigold pauldrons and filigree down the cuirass? Love. With the color scheme, it made sense to also make her blonde so that it all matches and I love the ombre. As a side note, that length of hair is so impractical for her job but it's fiiiiiiine, she's a protagonist. In the same way that Ana has Princess Hair (tm) that always looks amazing no matter how disheveled she should be, Isadora's hair never gets in the way and just flares out dramatically while in combat. You can see a scar going through her right eyebrow (one of several I'm sure) and she has her blessed sword. I especially like how stoic and all business she is here. Sig is making pies so good he's able to get this person to willingly participate in sitcom shenanigans. Their friendship is so funny to me.
Shrouded under the assassin's hood we have Luxe! For this one, Max had the cover of Mazed and Confused to look at which features a bit of Luxe. I always imagine fae to be beautiful but in an angular and unnatural way and that's the note I gave both Sunny (our cover artist) and Max. Similarly to Happy, she has an unnatural skin tone and you can't see her ears under the hood, but they're pointed. Her outfit has leaf-like veins because, as a fae, I think she's connected to nature. You'll remember that in Mazed and Confused when she does the whole As The World Falls Down ballroom scene, she glamours outfits made of flowers onto the gang.
And finally, Oliver. I feel like this one speaks for itself. Look at his little glasses. Have you ever seen a cat that was more clearly fantasy-British? No notes.
Anyway, I'm not planning on doing anything specific with these designs this second buuuuut it's nice to have them in the back pocket for the future!
Start disappointing people and not backing out of it when they are upset, reject feeling ashamed of everything including of yourself, start saying No to things you do not want to do not just things you're scared of, do more of those things you're scared of but wish you could do, make your own plans and execute them, decide to do or not do something without basing it on who will Dislike it.
Free Will takes practice, and the chance of making someone somewhere Slightly or even Very Disappointed In You. But you're an adult and you can't be made to stand in a corner anymore.
The first time, she says "To me," and the mirror dutifully shows her her reflection. And she is pleased.
The second time, she says "To the King," and she is pleased to see herself once more.
The third time, she says "To the Royal Advisor," and is once more satisfied to see herself.
The fourth time, she says "To the scribe who takes the King's letters." She is shown the man's wife. And she seethes, but quiets herself, for it is only right that a man loves his wife.
The fifth time, she says "To the Court Wizard," and is shown the man's departed mother as he remembers her from his youth, radiant and smiling and warm and larger than life.
The tenth time, she says "To the Stable Master," and is shown the fastest horse in the stable, majestic and free as the wind even in captivity
"To the baker," she is shown the man's daughter, young and adorable and full of joy and laughter.
"To the artist who did my portrait," she is shown a painting of a woman done by the man's teacher, who he still looks up to now that he is well established himself.
"To the Royal Knight," she is surprised but not displeased to see the castle's entire guard force in the middle of doing drills.
The one hundredth time she asks the mirror, and it asks her "to whom?" she once again says, "To me." And she does the same the one hundred and second, and again and again and again.
It is a different person each time, and they are all beautiful.
don't infantilise yourself. you are not a child who needs an adult to make your decisions for you. you are a splendid and magnificent autocrat and you are consulting your trusted advisors. you are exercising great wisdom by inviting an expert to give their opinion before making your ruling. often the path of wisdom is to say "good morning, I'm trying to [perform task] and I have a question about [aspect], can you tell me who I should speak to for advice?" before you do it. sometimes the path of wisdom is to hire a plumber. there are times when you cannot do things for yourself but that doesn't mean you are not an adult. you don't need a grown-up. you need a specialist.
So while doing some pirate research for the play I’m writing I stumbled upon one of the most amazing things I’ve ever read. In the 5th century A.D. there was a Scandinavian princess called Alwilda who’s father tried to set her up to marry Alf, the Prince of Denmark. Alwilda wasn’t cool with this so she and some female companions dressed as men, stole a ship, and sailed away. Eventually they met a company of pirates who were in need of a new captain and they were so captivated by her that they elected her as their new leader. Her crew became so infamous that Prince Alf was sent out to stop them. When their ships met he took Alwilda prisoner and she was so impressed by Alf’s skill that she agreed to marry him after all and eventually became the Queen of Denmark.
Medievalist here for triumphant fact-checking: this story is, if not true, at least true according to the history of the Danes (Gesta Danorum) written in the 12th century by Saxo Grammaticus. You can read his account of Alwilda’s story in the original Latin here, or in English translation here. Highlights include:
She exchanged woman’s for man’s attire, and, no longer the most modest of maidens, began the life of a warlike rover. Enrolling in her service many maidens who were of the same mind, she happened to come to a spot where a band of rovers were lamenting the death of their captain, who had been lost in war; they made her their rover captain.
I love the implication that there were lots of Danish maidens just WAITING for the opportunity of a life of piracy…
Adventures broke into out meeting room and looted it this morning so, needless to say, there will be no jelly donuts, no black coffee, and no 550 gold pieces and a fine silver hair pin shaped like a squid today
And in these next 50 years you will eat so many delicious meals, laugh so many times with so many people you love, shout and scream and sing and cry and smile so hard your face hurts. And you will see such beautiful sunsets and feel fresh cold air on your face and feel warm and safe wrapped up in your favourite winter coat.
Ok, I NEED you to understand just how insane even ATTEMPTING this was for them.
1. Playing an instrument is difficult. Doing so in sync with others even more so. Don’t think I’m stepping on any toes saying that.
2. Dancing is difficult. Doing so in sync with others even more so. Still not controversial.
3. YOU AVOID, AT ALL COSTS, MOVING YOUR BODY WHILE PLAYING A WIND INSTRUMENT. To make the correct, pleasant sounds, you need to be in the correct form. And that form involves your ENTIRE body, even your legs when sitting down.
4. “oh, but I’ve seen marching bands before and-” MARCHING BANDS HAVE ENTIRE SCIENTIFIC FIELDS DEDICATED TO FIGURING OUT HOW TO MARCH WITH MINIMUM BREAKING OF PROPER FORM. A marching band tries to be as smooth as possible while moving, so as not to jar their instrument, mouth, neck, arms, torso, or anything else.These ladies and gentlemen are BOUNCING and still playing properly, what the FU-!
5. AND ANOTHER THING! Wind instruments and dancing BOTH make demands on your breathing, so the fact that they are dancing (making you breath faster for extra oxygen) AND playing wind instruments (making you effectively hold your breath) AT THE SAME TIME is HUGE. Their lungs must be MASSIVE.
All of that also; the song is Sing, sing, sing (with a swing). If you wanna listen to some of THE SPICIEST big band ever recorded. Its a big hard song and this band does it expertly.
Just cause I love sharing this trick for scones, biscuits and the like: when I’m too lazy to cut in the butter, or the butter is a bit too soft etc. you can pop the cream in the freezer until a bit chilled and fully melt the better. Pour the melted butter into the chilled cream while stirring with fork and you instantly get beautiful little pearls of chilled butter that can be poured directly in the dry ingredients. Never have to worry about over mixing again. Very excited to try your recipe btw, thanks for sharing!
wait this is actually inspired... you are an alchemist
Once when I was in undergrad, someone described something as “problematic” in class and our professor was like, “That’s cool, but ‘problematic’ doesn’t really mean anything. It means that the thing you’re describing has a problem, and in and of itself that’s not bad. Art, especially, should always have problems, or else it’s not interesting and not art, either. It sounds like you’re trying to say that this is bad, but you don’t want to say ‘bad.’ Is that right?”
So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”
Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.
Anyway. Whenever I see the word problematic, I can’t help but think of this professor being like, “Good starting point, now let’s get specific.” I think when we have to commit to saying “that’s ___” it requires a lot more careful thought about the truth and impact and complexities of whatever we’re claiming. Sometimes there really is some bullshit afoot, and also sometimes it’s art, and it should be full of problems, because that’s what art is.
The GM advice in AGON, a game of Greek heroes and their legends, really hit home for me when I read it, particularly that first point. KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid has been something I have said to myself many times.
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