When I saw you'd changed your av to the Leighton painting, I felt as though an inevitability had just been realized. I can't think of a better representation of your blog.
Lol! I’m very pleased to hear this.
That was actually my previous icon before the Shiro one, which I promised was going to be temporary.
So, I saw your Farmer Refuted on YouTube, and figured you were going for a fairly true-to-life aesthetic for the models - anyway Burr looks like the real Burr and Seabury looks like the real Seabury. But, seeing the rest of the cast, I'm not sure of the principle. Are you casting them according to how they sound? And if so, why is George Washington so tiny? I apologize if this sounds like a Tumblr ambush in the making; at bottom it's just a WHATINSPIRESYOURART gush. Your models are great.
First off, thank you! I’m really flattered.
Secondly, I didn’t realize how long this post was going to be, but I hope you enjoy the content!
As for the Hamilton models, it’s been quite a journey with them. Because at first, I was trying to base them off of history, but as I was researching, I only looked at Burr, Hamilton, Eliza, John Laurens, and possibly Maria Reynolds? I’m still not sure if I truly found an image of her or not tbh. But then I thought “where’s the fun in that?” Especially after discovering how the cast was poc (without getting to see the cast), I was just really inspired to go and try to figure out each of their personalities.
Between Hamilton and Burr, I wanted them to contrast each other. Burr to be thinner, but stand taller, always with a sense of purpose (even when he doesn’t state his intent). When I pictured Hamilton, I pictured a man who would always talk with his hands, gestures around a lot, and goes off tangent because he has so much he needs to say. And it probably doesn’t help that when I heard that Hamilton was an immigrant, I thought of latinos, mainly because, well, my father is a latino. Whereas with Burr, I wanted to keep him more ambiguous with his ethnicity (especially when he ends up shooting Hamilton, I wanted to prevent having a huge discourse about Burr being a certain poc because of racism).
Now, with Angelica, Eliza, and Peggy, my first thought was just hearing their voices, which actually confused me a lot. But I was drawn into Angelica’s voice. So with her character, I thought a squarish face would definitely help. I definitely didn’t want people to think that Angelica could be someone you could walk all over, so she needed a stronger stance than Eliza. Now with Eliza, I thought a petite frame would go well with what I was hearing. She’s very gentle, very… is introverted a good word for it? But she and Angelica complement each other. And as for Peggy, well she’s the youngest, and definitely the most hesitant out of the three.
So with the Hamilsquad, they were the hardest ones to come up with. But I guess I’ll start with the tallest, Lafayette (which at the time, I didn’t know that Lafayette and Jefferson were played by the same person. Actually, I didn’t know that a lot of these characters were being played by the same person and I gushed about it for a long time). Being from France and seeing how he was a huge part of the revolution (Guns and Ships), he definitely needed a strong stance, proud of what he was doing. To be honest, with the Hamilsquad, I had to draw silhouettes constantly to try to get a feel for the characters, to see if it was right. But with Laf, he was one that I had to constantly work at.
Then comes John Laurens. The whole thing about the chicken legs? Oh, that was based on the real John Laurens. Then Hercules Mulligan was someone I pictured as a big, tough guy. Especially when he acted as a spy, but it’s also nice because he was a tailor’s apprentice. So someone squarish, definitely stable, especially when he has to stay under cover so well.
Now, I feel like Washington is the one that you’re most interested to hear about, and Washington was one of the more fun characters that I designed. Now Washington was a well respected man. He loved his men, he was responsible, he stuck to his beliefs. But, especially when hearing Right Hand Man, he must’ve been intimating at first. And because of these qualities, I thought of Olivia Armstrong. “But why so short?” you may ask. Well, females have a tendency to be shorter than males. But their height doesn’t deter from their personality. Later on, after drawing Washington so short, I heard King George say the lines “… there’s nobody else in their ‘country’ who looms quite as large” which made me laugh because literally Washington was the shortest out of the whole cast.
Charles Lee, long legs, the better to retreat run with. Samuel Seabury, not based on the real Samuel Seabury, believe it or not. It was by complete accident! Who would’ve known? But I feel like that Seabury would’ve benefited in some way with King George still ruling America, so I made him slightly plump. Now King George was based on the real King George slightly. Mainly for the robes. His capes had capes! But for the look, well, I feel like he wouldn’t have seen the light of day.
JEFFERSON. Proud, cocky, slightly arrogant, definitely a show-off, I wanted his body type to have the contrast between torso and hip, light v dark from his long socks to his under suit to really show-off his personality. And for some reason, I kept picturing him with dreads. Probably because if they were longer, when he turns his head, they would probably smack Hamilton in the face.
Madison is very reserved, and I feel that the illustration skews a lot of character’s skin tone tbh. Madison is reserved and silent, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t hear what goes on in the room. Don’t underestimate this man. Sure he might be out-shined by multiple people (i.e. Jefferson [Cabinet Battles] and Hamilton [Madison wrote 29, Hamilton wrote the other 51]), but he doesn’t want to be in the spot light.
Now Maria Reynolds. I have to say, it’s easy to fall into the trope of a seductive mistress. But Maria is so much more than that. She came to Hamilton for help. She was being abused by her husband. If she looked as helpless as Hamilton wrote, why would she go and reveal so much skin during this time frame? No, what I see is someone who has similar characteristics to Eliza. Petite hands, similar head shape, someone that Hamilton could imagine is Eliza while Eliza isn’t there. But at the same time, make her different, long hair, wider hips.
FINALLY WE HAVE MY SON, PHILIP. Oh gosh, Philip is one of the most upbeat characters. Very determined to make his parents proud, very charming to say the least, but I can picture him as a big dweeb (in a good way of course). He usually can bounce back on his feet (except when he dueled George Eacker, but that’s for another time).
That should cover all of them. Hopefully this answers your question and helps decipher my thought process on all the characters.
TL;DR The characters were based on their personalities, not so much on their historical accuracy or the original cast.
