To all my artists out there:

Are you tired of drawing the same tv show and video game characters over, over, and over again?

Do you want a change of pace—a new way to exercise your wonderfully creative brain? 

Great! Here’s what you need to do: draw the characters you can’t see. 

“What the heck does that even mean?” you shout, shaking me by the shoulders. 

Fair enough. It’s simple, really: draw book characters. 

Now, I don’t mean the character smack-dab on the cover in all her glory (although that’s fun too). I mean that you should try your hand at drawing characters from only a description. 

Let me let you into my process for drawing book characters from their description–it’s fun way to stretch your creative muscles!

To demonstrate, I’ll be drawing Miss Witherstine from Copper Lies by Allison Prince! 

If you stick around to the end, you’ll get to see my illustrated interpretation of the character (and a surprise!)

1) Pay attention to the words 

I know what you’re thinking: “Um, duh!”

But here’s the thing — a good book will tell you what a character looks like. A GREAT book will also tell you what they seem like. The adjectives that people use to describe their characters have meaning — they echo the character’s personality. 

In Copper Lies by Allison Prince, Miss Witherstine is described thusly: 

“Her blonde hair was pulled back into a perfect bun. Pearls lined her neck and wrists. Her dress seemed to be the latest fashion, or really, I assumed so since it was Miss Witherstine. It was a blush pink, with white lace along the bodice.” 

Perfect. That word comes up a lot in regards to Miss Witherstine. It not only tells us that she’s neat and well put-together —  it also has a connotation that she’s cold and a bit obsessive. Let’s work that into the design!

2) Everyone pictures things differently 

If your character of choice is from a super large fandom, chances are they’ve been drawn before. But listen: this is your interpretation. Don’t worry about how other people draw them. People will always find an excuse to be mad, and if they have a problem with your interpretation (drawn directly from the source material) then they’re straight up just a silly billy.

And hey — can’t find a specific eye color? Always imagined the hair being curlier than described? Go for it — switch it up! Everyone pictures something slightly different when they read a character description, so don’t shy away from adding your own imaginations.

I always imagined Miss Witherstine with long gloves and a high collar, even though that’s not specifically mentioned in the book, so I’ll add that to my piece.

3) Delete your art

I know that sounds dramatic, but I mean it. This is a slogan by the artists on the Drawfee YouTUbe channel, and it’s oh so very true. It means don’t be precious with your art. You’re not liking how it’s coming along? Delete it and start again. But listen— the “start again” is the most important part. Take a few different approaches to it —  keep at it, and you’ll get somewhere awesome. 

Thanks for sticking around — that makes you officially super cool. Like, the coolest.

Here’s my drawing of Miss Witherstine: 

(Check out my original sketch over on Instagram.)

How’d I do? 

What’s that? You haven’t read the book???

WHAT! What are you doing! 

Win a free copy of Copper Lies!

There’s a giveaway going on over at The Pearl magazine! Enter for free to win a whole gosh-darn book. It’s going on for TWELVE WHOLE WEEKS, with a new book announced each Monday. 

Lucky for you, the first book up is Copper Lies by Allison Prince!

And did I mention that it’s free to enter?

Go sign up over at https://pearlmag.co/giveaway/