Visualising Characters

I really need pictures to get a fix on a character. At least for my main characters that is. So when I am researching/planning a novel I try to find images online, or elsewhere, which give me the essence of the character. The pictures aren't always perfect representations, but they give me a sense of the person which matches with the nuculeus of character traits, experiences and background already forming in my mind. And when I have a picture to work with I can read things into that picture, or highlight small details, which then help to bring the character to life.

So, two examples here of the pictures I found for the central characters from my new novel, The Perilous City. (Click on the names to go to the original web pages.)



JACK

RENNIE

 







Both pictures were found in a search for images of bare knuckle boxers. These are like the characters, but not precisely them.

 

For example Jack is a cripple, who has lost his legs. But what I liked in this picture was the face with almost pointed ears, nose and chin; a strange satyr's face. Jack has been made bitter by the accident which crippled him, and is often called Black Jack. He has a wicked tongue and can be harsh. But there is also laughter in his eyes sometimes. I saw all that in the picture.

 

Rennie is bigger and heavier than in the picture here, and I used another picture along with this, of Mickey O'Rourke in his boxing days. So Rennie is really a compound of the two. He is a bare-knuckle fighter, but a man sickened by his skill, and hiding from himself in drink. And he is tied to Jack in a way which we only gradually come to understand. Both Jack and Rennie are also ex-sailors, so in both pictures the eyes were important to me. They both seem to have the far-seeing look, a sense of distance in their eyes.

My site: http://www.greatproject.co.uk/