At this point I think I would be remiss if I didn’t take an extra minute to give an extra hearty thanks to Mike Lunsford, who has been contributing mightily to the Finders Keepers Web site. All you have to do is check out his illustrations, and you’ll see what I mean. I gave you the background already on Mike during the intro of the Character Illustrations page, but I want to take just another minute or two.
During the writing process I had idea in my head–images–that reflected my vision At this point I think I would be remiss if I didn’t take an extra minute to give an extra hearty thanks to Mike Lunsford, who has been contributing mightily to the Finders Keepers Web site. All you have to do is check out his illustrations, and you’ll see what I mean. I gave you the background already on Mike during the intro of the Character Illustrations page, but I want to take just another minute or two.
During the writing process I had idea in my head–images–that reflected my vision of Finders Keepers, like a movie. To me, the characters I wrote about were as real as you and me. I lived in their heads and their hearts. While I was writing those characters, I [i]was[/i] those characters. When they were nervous, I was nervous. When they were excited, so was I. That’s how I write. I can’t just do it from my head. I have to feel what they feel.
There’s a school of thought that says that the best thing about writing–about books–is that the reader gets to envision their own versions of the characters they way they see them. Sure, the writer paints the picture, but each reader interprets the words differently. Fair enough. As a reader, I feel the same way.
As a writer, I try to describe the characters the best I can, and let the readers come away with whatever they do. And if they see the characters differently than I do, well, so be it. It’s not my place to tell anyone how they should interpret what I write. That’s up to them. That’s a part of what makes reading so special, so … personal.
So in this sense, I agree with the classic stance.
But I’m also a comic book guy. I love comic books because they meld the literary aspect of the creative process with the visual arts–and it’s still on paper.
When it came time to creating this Web site, I wanted to bring that visual sense to Finders Keepers, which makes a great deal of sense, given that I intentionally wrote Finders Keepers, in many ways, as it was a comic book. Interlocking story lines. Flashbacks. Cliffhanger chapter endings. I got most of this from reading comic books.
And this is where the illustrations come in, and, getting back to my original point, Mike Lunsford. As I noted on my character illustration intro page, I sorted through more than 100 illustrators before I found someone whose style matched what was in my head. Mike has done a great job of bringing my characters to life in a new way. He interpreted my design instructions through his palette.
There’s now only two more illustrations to go before Mike is through. His contributions are significant. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
