Character Woodcut Portraits

Lately I've kind of been working through a portfolio overhaul. I've had to sit down and say, what do I like to draw? How do I like to work? What do I need to work on? What are my strengths?

As I've worked through answering those questions, I've created several "Portraits" of some of my favorite characters from my favorite books. I've learned a lot doing this project, and plan to keep adding to this set. So far, I have six portraits. Here they are, in no particular order:

Ani, from The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

This book has been a favorite for a long time. When I first read it, I loved the fact that I looked a lot like the main character, Ani, with long blonde hair and green eyes.

I realized that all of the fanart I've seen for the book shows Ani's long blonde hair. It is an important part of her character and important to the plot of the book. But she spends much (even most) of the book hiding her hair and dying her eyebrows dark to disguise her identity. So I thought, why not do a portrait of her as she would appear for most of the book--not a long-haired princess, but as a goose girl with a scarf covering her hair.

Attolia, from the Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner

So many pictures of Attolia show her proud, her head held high as she looks down her nose at you. I've drawn some of those. But for this one, I wanted to show her feeling a little less secure--still beautiful and queenly, but like someone who would ask, "Who am I, that you should love me?"

Iselle, from the Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold

Most of the portraits here are of the main (or at least title) characters in each book, but not this one. I was intimidated by trying to draw a beard on Cazaril and trying to get it to look right. Iselle is such a great character in this book, though, I wanted to try a portrait of her and try to capture her personality--smart and capable. 

Lord Peter Wimsey, from the Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries
by Dorothy Sayers

"I know I've got a silly face, but I can't help that."

Mia, from The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

For a book that I read because of it's comparison to The King of Attolia, the main character is very different from the sneaky Eugenides. Mia is more like Costis, which may be why I like him so much--just trying to do his best in the crazy situation he's found himself in, trying to save his country and himself as best he knows how.
This is the first book Richard and I read out loud together. We started before we got engaged, and read a chapter at a time over the crazy months as we got engaged, planned the wedding, got married, and went on our honeymoon. It isn't a very romantic book, but I think it will always be sentimental to me (in a vaguely romantic way;-) for that reason.

Sabriel, from Sabriel by Garth Nix

Speaking of books we read aloud together, this is the one we most recently finished. I read it years ago, probably sometime in high school or maybe even junior high. Maybe predictably, all I really remembered from it were a few images--a bandolier of bells on a dark haired girl, death as a misty and watery place, a wall dividing two lands with different seasons and weather, a sarcastic white cat, and a man frozen into a wooden ships masthead. All details of the plot were completely forgotten.

Somehow, I felt it was time to come back and read the series again. I was right. We're halfway through Lirael now, and not really interested in watching shows or cleaning up or any of the other things we used to do in the evenings.




This has been a fun project so far, and I'd like to do a few more of these. If and when I do, this is where you can find them.