Once Upon a Crayon - Sign Ups Are OPEN!!

Thank you Lunna for the excellent suggestion and explanation!

Once Upon A Crayon
Every once in a while, we are lucky enough to read a story that captures our imagination and fills up our senses with artistic vision. Even after we put the book down, we still feel that odd sensation of being transported to another world. And sometimes characters stay with us, keeping us amused or horrified or mystified as we go through our ordinary days. Doubtless at some point we have all conjured mental images of these fictional beings, with the author helping us to really see them as they see them, to be just as invested as they are.

This next exchange, Once Upon A Crayon, will celebrate a love of stories and the characters who drive them.

How it Works:
Each person who signs up posts a descriptive paragraph from a book of a favorite literary character. And also give a little statement about why you like said character. Then we all get assigned someone as per the usual and we do a piece of fan art for each other.

Example:
Queen Andais from LK Hamilton’s Fairy series
Queen Andais sat on her throne, her white skin clean and pure where she’d scrubbed the blood away. Her dress was black and bared her shoulders and arms. Diamonds gleamed in her hair, hiding the metal of the tiara behind the dazzle of their light. A line of diamonds graced her neck and spilled across her chest as if the necklace were a rope or a serpent, caught in midmotion. The diamonds were the only color to her simple black dress and the long gloves that covered her arms and hands. Though perhaps color wasn’t the right word for the effect. It was more as if the jewels bent the light around her head and neck like a halo sliding down her body.

Additional info:
She is known as the Queen of Air and Darkness the ruler of the Unseelie Court.
Her skin appears to have captured the glow of the moon and her hair is a fall of the blackest night. Her eyes are rings of grey.

-- The triple grey of her eyes glowed, but it was subdued as if lit only by reflected light. Her eyes were light grey storm clouds lit by distant lightening, with no light of their own. The last thick ring of charcoal was like the sky before it fell upon the earth and poured its rage on us all.

Sign Ups and Turn ins
Sign ups begin October 8th and end October 22nd


The final turn in date will be DECEMBER 7th!



***Please*** understand that the success of this exchange is dependent upon EVERYONE turning in a piece on DECEMBER 7th. Do not sign up unless you can follow through. If something unforeseen that prevents you from completing your piece for your secret pal should occur, please let Roz and I know right away.

People with no DAMN GOOD EXCUSE (and it had better include pics of the bodies) for not turning in will be stabbed with Ike's sharpened head. Oh, and they'll be banned from participating in another exchange.

Recommended information:


Character Name:
Book Title and Author:
Genre:

Character Description (how you see the character):
Descriptive Passage (a quote from the book that describes the character):

Desktop size
Preferred Rating for the artwork you will receive (work safe, G rated, NC-17…)

patslash 17 years ago
OK! finally i am able to write my bio Please remember the original book is in italian, so i'm preparing a description not a translation.

The book is "Chronicles of the Emerged World" a fantasy book, and the character is Nihal of the Land of Wind.
She's the last of her race, the half-elves, who were slaughtered by the Tyrant, the man who tries to conquer all the known world. Nihal has got long blue hair and purple eyes, and big elf ears which the hair can't disguise. She's loves playing with the boys of her city, Salazar, the Tower of Wind, and she dreams to be a warrior. One day the Tyrant arrives at Salazar, the fammins (horrid beasts servants of the evil) kill most of the population, among them her father, and burn the city, but they recognize her as a half elf, and she has to flee for her life. She finds a refuge in the home of a witch, his father's sister, and there she finds the truth about herself, the one the man she thought was her father never revealed her. The witch found her in a slaughtered village of half elves, she took care of her and brought her to her brother, whom grew her up as his own child. Nihal now wants only to revenge her loved ones and her race. She strives and becomes a Dragon Knight, she has a dragon as a companion, she's ready for war. Her most cruel battles though, are the ones she carries inside of her: she has become a war machine, she lives to slaughter enemies, but she really doesnt know why. She knows no love and no friendship, even if she is loved and has friends. Her lacks the meaning of the war, why everyone is doing it, that is to protect their loved ones and their freedom; she just does it for hatred and revenge.
The book is in reality a trilogy, in which Nihal rises from this interior battle to finally become victorious over her enemy and to find her real love, the real meaning to her life.
Even if I love the entire trilogy, for me Nihal is always the girl who strives to understand who she really is. the warrior with long blue hair, with scars which testimony her bravery, but who in deep is always a girl, she only has to realize it. One thing i loved about the book is that among her friends there's a sprite race, creatures as little as a palm with the most colorful hair, who live in the forest.
I hope to have written enough info. please let me know if anyone needs clarifications...


Forgot to add:
Desktop size possibly 1440x900
Rating: doesnt matter
Laschae 17 years ago


Dustfinger -- Inkheart/Inkspell by Cornelia Funke>>
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Dustfinger rubbed his hands together and whispered fire-words to his fingers until sparks fell from them like rain. Where they landed on the stoney ground flowers sprang up, red flowers, each petal a tongue of flame. >>
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Additional Info:>>
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A fire-eater whom Mo accidently read out of the pages of Inkheart. He is also known as "the fire-dancer". Plucked from his story, Dustfinger has lived in our world for ten years and would risk anything to go home to the Inkworld. At the end of the first book he stole from Mo the last remaining copy of Inkheart. He owes the three scars on his face to Basta's knife and is never without Gwin, his tame marten, or his young apprentice, Farid.>>
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Copied from Wikipedia:>>
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Dustfinger, also known as the fire-eater, is a character in Cornelia Funke's Inkheart trilogy. Dustfinger will be played by Paul Bettany in the upcoming film adaptation of Inkheart.>>
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Dustfinger is a fire eater and was plucked from a different world through a story book read by Mortimer "Mo" Folchart along with Capricorn and Basta (inkheart, the book within inkheart). He is never seen without his horned marten, Gwin, and his apprentice, Farid, who was also plucked from his world of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights by Mo but is pleased to be freed from constant work and possible beatings. It is later said that he had a wife, Roxane, a minstrel woman, and two daughters, Brianna who works for Violante at the laughing prince's castle and Rosanna who died while Dustfinger was away.>>
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In the book, it was said that he had shoulder length hair that, like the stubble on his chin, is ginger-colored. On his face, Dustfinger has three scars "as pale as pencil lines" thanks to Basta's knife over Dustfinger's wife (Basta was upset that Roxane had chosen Dustfinger over him).>>
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Dustfinger hides his emotions such as fear, affection, sympathy, and pain (Farid admires him for this skill). He's afraid of death but not afraid of the dead. In Inkspell, following an old tale of a fire-eater who lost his son, Dustfinger gives his own life to the White Women in exchange for Farid's, whom he considers the son he never had. Funke says that Dustfinger will return in Inkdeath.



Desktop size 1280 x 800
Preferred Rating for the artwork you will receive (work safe, G rated, NC-17… any
Temprah 17 years ago
WIP!

Choice 1 :

Character Name: Scarlett O'Hara
Book Title and Author: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Genre: Historical fiction / romance ; American Classic

Character Description (how you see the character):
Scarlett grows immensely from a spoiled, willful and fairly innocent wealthy plantation owner's daughter into a strong and capable Southern woman thanks to the life changing events of the War of Northern Agression (aka Civil War). In my mind I still remember the values of family and friends, honor and yet her having the courage to flaunt societies strict conventions when they made her unhappy. She is a manipulative person, headstrong, self centered, spoiled yet capable of taking care of her own and honoring her word. I read this book for the first time when I was 11, in the 5th grade while I was away for a week at camp.

Descriptive Passage (a quote from the book that describes the character):

(trying to find where my copy is packed away at)

Desktop size : 1400 x 900
Preferred Rating for the artwork you will receive (work safe, G rated, NC-17… open
__________________



Choice 2 :

Character Name: Natalya Shonski
Book Title and Author: Dark Demon by Christine Feehan
Genre: Fantasy / Sci Fi, romance / erotica

Character Description (how you see the character):
Most of the women in the Dark series are either modern human women who find their Carpathian lifemate and have to adjust to the strange culture of their men but Natalya is a unique member of their race. She is part Mage and part Carpathian and part Jaguar, a decendent of one of the most famous vampire hunting Carpathian bloodline as well as one of the only Carpathian women who could weild magics. She was raised cut off from society by her deranged and evil grandfather with her twin brother and once she escapes has spent centuries learning her powers and hunting the undead that threaten society. She is independant, fiery, strong willed and as a female hunter in a race that mandates all men must protect every female of their kind be she known to them or a stranger (since the women of their race have become almost non existant) she is completely different from the usual Feehan female lead. I especially loved her sarcasm and stubborn indepentant streak even as the feline and Carpathian in her recognizes her destined mate. In fact that only makes her fight against him more for sheer principle. The passion between her and Vic is electric and watching her evolve and learn to trust him was fascinating.

Descriptive Passage (a quote from the book that describes the character):

(when I get home!)

Desktop size 1400 x 900
Preferred Rating for the artwork you will receive (work safe, G rated, NC-17… open
__________________




(details later when I am at home)
Kittystavern 17 years ago
Character Name: Anita Blake
Book Title and Author: Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K Hamilton (or any of the other 15 Anita Blake books, the earlier ones are better).
Genre: Paranormal Romance

Character Description:
I want to start off by saying that this is the originla Anita. Not the one of the current books because she's changed a lot since the series started.

Anita is a fiesty and deteremined necromancer (she works at a place called Animator's Inc and raises zombies for a living) and an official Vampie Executioner. Since she has ties with the preternatural community she often aids the police in investigations concerning the paranormal.

She's stubborn and sarcastic (two traits that I also possess and what draws me to her).
She also has very set views of the world and doesn't hesitate to let others know what they are. She is also very prideful and has trouble admiting when she might be wrong. But she's not stupid. She has incredible street smarts and knows how to keep herself alive when up against the various scary monsters she comes across.

Physcially she's short and pale with long dark curly hair and in pretty decent shape since she has to track down and fight vamps and other manner of preternatural beings for a living. She has scars all over her body from her various encounters with vampires. Most notable are the scars on her arms.

Recently there has been a comic book published based on the first novel (still my favorite) that has a concept of what she looks like. I'm not overly thrilled with the version in the comic becaues of the style but it gives you an idea of what she looks like. More information on the comic can be found here http://www.marvel.com/news/comicstories.659

Descriptive Passage:
Told from Anita's POV
I was wearing black jeans, knee high boots, and a crimson blouse. My hair was maid to order for the outfit, black curling just over the shoulders of my blouse. The solid, nearly black-brown of my eyes matches the hair. Only the skin stands out, too pale. Germanic against the Latin darkness. A very ex-boyfriend once described me as a little china doll. He meant it as a compliment. I didn't take it that way. There are reasons why I don't date much.
The blouse was long sleeved to hie the knife sheath on my right wrist and teh scars on my left arm. I had left my gun locked in the trunk of my car. I didn't think a bachelorette party would get out of hand.

Overview of Anita from the official Laurell Fan Site http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/Anita/AnitaOverview.htm
Anita Blake is an Animator and Vampire Slayer. Actually, she is a monster slayer. Though sometimes the monsters are human and even Anita is not sure she is not one of them.

Anita lives in a world very similar to our own. The difference: things that go bump in the night are real. Vampires, magic, zombies, werewolves, shapeshifters all exist and are active. Owning businesses, having love lives and living or unliving their day to day existence.

Anita works for Animators, Inc. She routinely raises zombies for a living. Have a questionable will and died? Anita can raise you for your heirs to find out what you intended. Need to tell someone how you really feel about them but they died first? Anita can bring them back long enough for you to have your say. Anita also works as a consultant for the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team (RPIT), a division of the St. Louis Police force that deals with supernatural crimes.

Of course Anita's boss at Animator's Inc, Bert Vaughn, will farm out his folks for all kinds of things; if the price is right. Though there are some things that even Bert is not willing to do for money. Unfortunately for Anita, some folks don't take NO for an answer.

Don't worry, Anita is a tough lady. She can handle a gun with the best of them. Of course some things even a weapon won't help her with. Like her love life. Too complicated for even her, she is being wooed by the Master of the City, and a Alpha werewolf. Have to be careful not to give away too much here!


Other Tidbits:
She's a necromancer, Vampire Executioner and Police Detective.
She likes to collect stuffed Penguins.
At the beginning of Guilty Pleasures, she was 24.
She has been bitten, stabbed, beaten and burned, it's not until the the Laughing Corpse that she is shot.
Her favorite gun is her Browning Hi-Power 9 mm, but she also likes her Firestar 9 mm and a Sawed Off Shotgun.

Finally a link to the Anita Blake Wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Blake

Desktop Size: 1280 X 1024
Rating: It doesn't matter. Anything goes with me.
Lunna 17 years ago
~ Asher ~


Asher is a fictional character in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels (from Wikipedia).


My excerts are from Burnt Offerings the seventh in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter sieres.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

The man leaned on the back of my Jeep in profile. He was in the middle of lighting a cigarette. You’d have thought he hadn’t seen us but I knew better. I was pointing a gun at him. He knew we were there. The match flared, showing one of the more perfect profiles I’d ever seen. His hair shone golden in the light, shoulder-length thick waves to frame his face. He tossed the match to the pavement with a practiced flick of his hand. He took the cigarette fro his mouth and raised his face skyward. The street light played along his face and golden hair. He blew three perfect smoke rings and laughed.

That laugh trailed down my spine as if he’d touched me. It made me shiver, and I wondered how the hell I’d thought he was human.

“Asher,” Jean-Claude said. That one word was spoken without emotion, empty of meaning.

Asher turned and gave us his right profile. The street light that had caressed the perfection of his left side seemed harsh now. The right side of his face looked like melted candle wax. Burn scars, acid scars, holy water. Vampires couldn’t heal damage done by holy objects. The priests had had a theory that they could burn the devil out of Asher, one drop of holy water at a time.
_____________________________________________________________________
I turned to look at Asher. He blinked and raised his eyes to me. I hit the dome light and saw his eyes true color for the first time. They were blue. But that didn’t do them justice. They were as pale a blue as Jean-Claude’s were a dark blue. Pale, cold blue, the startling color of a Huskey’s eyes. But it wasn’t just the eyes, it was the hair. It had looked golden, but the normal gold of a dark blond. In the truer light if the car, I realized it wasn’t just illusion and dim light, it was gold. His hair was the truest gold I’d ever seen outside of a bottle or a can of metallic paint. The combination of hair and eyes was amazing. Even without the scars he wouldn’t have looked real.
I glanced from one vampire to the other. Jean-Claude was the more beautiful, and it wasn’t the scars. Asher was just a trace more handsome than he was pretty. “The same vamp made you both, right?” I asked.
Jean-Claude nodded. Asher just stared at me.
“Where’d she go?” I asked. “Unnaturally-Beautiful-Studs-R-Us?”
Asher let out a harsh bark of laughter. He dragged his fingers down the scarred side of his face, making the skin stretch, drawing it away from his eye so you could see the pale inner flesh of the eye socket. He emphasized everything into a kind of hideous mask. “Do you think I am beautiful, Anita?” He released the skin, and it snapped back into place resilient, perfect in its own way.
______________________________________________________________________

Wiki entry on Asher
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asher_%28Anita_Blake:_Vampire_Hunter%29
Jetamio 17 years ago
Name: Alisa Perne aka Sita
Book and Author: The Last Vampire by Christopher Pike.
Genre: Young adult/horror

Character Description: Deceptively young and innocent looking, hiding her great power. She is the oldest creature on earth, created by the first ever vampire whose birth she witnessed. She has the wisdom of the ages and has stayed hidden throghout history for 5000 years. She has the strength of five men, the reflexes 'of the mother of all cats' to quote her. She is immune to all diseases, and almost all poisons, she can heal from a wound within minutes.
But despite all this she can be very vulnerable, she loves strongly and this can be used to take advantage of her. Her favourite saying is when she is killing someone and they say they dont want to die, she tells them 'Then you should never have been born'

Descriptive passage : (From the opening passage of the first book)

I am a vampire and that is the truth. But the modern meaning of the word vampire, the stories that have been told about creatures such as I, are not precisely true. I do not turn to ash in the sun, nor do I cringe when I see a crusifix. I wear a tiny gold cross around my neck now, but only because I like it. I cannot command a pack of wolves to attack, or fly through the air. Nor can I make another of my kind simply by having him drink my blood. Wolves do like me, as do most predators, and I can jump so high that one might imagine I can fly. As to blood - ah, blood, the whole subject fascinates me. I do like that was well, warm and dripping, when I am thirsty. And I am often thirsty.
My name, at present, is Alisa Perne - just two words, something to last a couple of decades. I am no more attached to them than to the sound of the wind. My hair is blond and silklike, my eyes like sapphires that have stared too long at volcanic fissures. My stature is slight by modern standards, five two in sandals, but my arms and legs are muscled although not unattractively so. Before I speak I appear to be about eighteen years of age, but something in my voice - the coolness of my expressions, the echo of endless experience - makes people think I am much older. But I seldom even think about when I was born, long before the pyramids were erected beneath the pale moon. I was there, in that desert in those days, even though I am not originally from that part of the world.
Do I need blood to survive? Am I immortal? After all this time, I still dont know. I drink blood because I crave it. But I can eat normal food aswell, and digest it. need food as much as any other man or woman. I am a living breathing creature. My heart beats - I can hear it now, like thunder in my ears. My hearing is very sensative, as is my sight. I can hear a dry leaf break of a branch a mile away and I can clearly see all the craters on the moon without a telescope. Both sense have grown more acute as I grow older.
My immune system is impregnable, my regenerative system miraculous, if you believe in miracles - which I dont. I can be stabbed in the arm with a knife and heal within minutes without scarring. But if I were to be stabbed in the heart, say with the currently fashionable wooden stake, then I maybe would die. It is difficult even for a vampires flesh to heal around an implanted blade. But it is not somehing I haveexperimented with.
But who would stab me? Who would get the chance? I have the strength of five men, the reflexes of the mother of all cats. There is not a system of physical attack and defence of which I am not a master. A dozen black belts could corner me in a dark alley and I could make a dress fit for a vampire out of the sashes that hold their fighting jackets closed. And I do love to fight, it is true, almost as much as I love to kill. Yet I kill less and less as the years go by because the need is not there, and the ramifications of murder in modern society are complex and a waste of my precious but endless time. Some loves have to be given up, others have to be forgotten. Strange as it may sound, if you think of me as a monster, but I can love most passionately. I do not think of myself as evil.

Desktop size - 1280 x 1040
Dont mind what rating
Eve 17 years ago
I chose Cherry, from the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. The descriptive bits I'm quoting are from the book Blue Moon. I re-read it (must be the 4th time now lol) and stuck lil post it stickies everywhere there was a good description of her. The only thing I didn't come across, was her eye color, so I leave that up to the artist. In case it's not obvious from these passages, Cherry is a lycanthrope, of the were-leopard variety

Cherry joined us. She was tall and slender, with straight, naturally blond hair cut very, very short and close to a strong, triangular face. The eye shadow was gray, the eyeliner so black it looked like crayon. The lipstick was black. The make up wasn't the colors I'd have chosen for her, but it did match her clothes. Black fishnet stockings, vinyl miniskirt, black go-go boots, and a black lace bra underneath a fishnet shirt. She'd added the bra for my benefit. Left to her own devices, when she wasn't working as a nurse, she went pretty much topless. She'd been a nurse until they found out she was a wereleopard; then she'd been the victim of budget cuts. Maybe it was illegal to discriminate against someone because they had a disease, but no one wants a were-anything treating the sick. People seem to think that lycanthropes can't control themselves around freshly spilled blood. Some of the newer shapeshifters would be in trouble, but Cherry wasn't new. She'd been a good nurse, and now she'd never be a nurse again. She was bitter about it, and had turned herself into the slut bride from Planet X, as if even in human form, she wanted people to know what she was now: different, other. Trouble was, she looked like a thousand other teens and early twenties who also wanted to be different and stand out.
~~~~~

Everyone was in my room getting a lesson in werewolf etiquette. I sat on the foot of the bed, with Cherry perched beside me. She'd washed off the black makeup, and her face was pale and young with a dusting of golden freckles across her cheeks. I knew she was my age, twenty-five, but without makeup she looked younger. Like her own younger, more innocent sister. The new clothes added to the illusion. She'd changed into a faded pair of jeans and an oversized T-shirt. Clothes you wouldn't mind shapechanging in. This close to the full moon, sometimes you got carried away and changed early. So I'm told. So I've seen.
~~~~~

Cherry came out of the bathroom. She tried to push me gently but firmly out of the way, but Nathaniel clutched at my hand. Cherry settled for making me kneel by the head of the bed. He could still hold my hand, but I was out of the way. She began to explore the wounds on his chest. She was very submissive, almost untrustworthily so, but let someone be injured and it was like a different Cherry rose to the occassion. She became Nurse Cherry, as if the leather-slut-from-hell was her secret identity.
~~~~~

Cherry came into the room. She'd slipped into a pair of jean shorts, and a white midriff tank top. Her small breasts were pressed against the thin material. I was a little too well-endowed to ever dream of going without a bra, but small or not, in that top she needed a bra. I was a prude.

Her short yellow hair was still damp. She stalked into the room on those long legs, managing to look both slutty casual and unnaturally graceful.
Maeya 17 years ago
Character Name: Aurian (No last name that I'm aware of)
Book Title and Author: Aurian by Maggie Furrey
Genre: Fantasy

Character Description (how you see the character): I've always envisioned Aurian as a tall, slender, pale complected fire Mage, with long, dark red hair, green eyes, and a strong nose. The Magefolk have an arrogance about them, and she is no exception. Though the book usually talks of her somber Mage's robes, I've always pictured her in robes of rich colors - emerald green, royal blue, etc. She is also often found in practical leather warrior's gear. She is skilled in the use of magic, with Fire and Earth (nature) magic being her strong areas. She also trained from a young age with one of the great swordsmen of their time, and was considered to be a master swords woman.

She carries 2 weapons of note; her sword, a gift from a beloved friend, and the Staff of Earth, described as a carved wooden staff of two intertwining snake heads grasping an emerald between their open mouths. It is one of the lost Artifacts and an object of great power.

She is also companioned by a great black cat, named Shia, whom I envision to be like a saber tooth tiger, only black.


Descriptive Passage (a quote from the book that describes the character):

"... But as Aurian grew, she came to resemble him - do you know, the poor child will even inherit that hawk profile of his when she's older? And her eyes change from green to gray when she's angry, just like his did."

"At twenty, she had blossomed into a tall, slender young woman. Her mane of glowing, dark red hair was the same, but her face had matured into the sculpted planes and angles that reminded him so strongly of her father. With that nose, she would never be called pretty, but her features had a stark, compelling beauty that was all her own. And her manner had changed radically from the cowed and nervous child he had first known. Now she was happy, confident, and glowing - her powers increasing by the day - and an absolute sink for knowledge."

"Aurian was backed into a corner, her clothes torn and her eyes blazing with anger. Her hair, untangled from its intricate braiding, swept almost to the floor in a tide of crimson. Her hand was drawn back like a claw, clutching a searing fireball, and a smoking scar on the carpet proved that it was not the first. As she saw Finbarr and her servant, the Mage extinguished the flame between her fingers and leaned back against the wall, white and shaking."

"Aurian had been doing a fair amount of celebrating herself, judging by her flushed face and the brilliance of her sparkling green eyes. She'd discarded the somber Mage's robes or practical warrior's garb she usually wore, and was instead dressed in holiday finery - a tawny gold gown of velvet with a deep neckline and long flowing sleeves. Her wealth of fiery hair was caught back in a loose web of gold, and she glowed like a living flame in the soft candlelight."




The sword:

"Forral's return more than made up for his absence. He had brought her a princely gift for her birthday - her own, full-sized sword. There was a lump in Aurian's throat as she unwrapped it, and drew the long, keen blade out of its black and silver scabbard with a steely hiss. She flung her arms around Forral. "Oh, thank you," she gasped. The sword shone brilliant blue-white in the pale winter sunlight that ran like glittering fire down it's razor-sharp edges. There was a single whit gem set into the hilt. It was more slender than Forral's great broadsword, strong, elegant - and deadly. Aurian had never seen anything so beautiful."


The staff:

"...Anvar had gone to the woods south of the river and found a twisted root of beech, Aurian's favorite tree. He had carved it carefully, using the skills his grandpa had taught him and using the natural twists of the wood to form the two Serpents of the High Magic - the Serpent of Might and the Serpent of Wisdom - that coiled, intertwining, up the length of the staff from bottom to top. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever made, with a force and life of its own, even before it was imbued with magic."

"...There, in the space that it had cleared so vigorously for itself, a glowing green gem, about the size of Aurian's circled finger and thumb, sat in solitary splendor. The Mage approached it cautiously, narrowing her eyes against the intense emerald radiance of the stone... ... Approaching the stone as closely as she dared, Aurian concentrated her powers, not on the gem itself, but upon her own staff. She passed her hands over the familiar surface, her fingers tingling and bathed in light as she strove, using the magic of the living Earth, to breathe life into the wood. Beneath her fingers, the serpents stirred, their carved eyes winking into sparkling awareness. Forked tongues flickering in and out, they raised their scaly heads from the Staff. Aurian bent her will upon them, instructing, commanding. Holding her staff by its iron-shod heel, she held it out to touch the crystal. The serpents reached forth and took the stone, grasping it tightly between them in their fanged jaws."


The cat:

"The Demon was a great cat, larger than Aurian could have imagined in her worst nightmares. Twice the length of a man from nose to tail, it stood as high as her waist. Its yellow eyes blazed like fire as they stood fixed on their prey. Slowly, deliberately, it began to stalk her, its claws like great steel scimitars gleaming against the bloody sand."


Desktop size: 1280 x 1024
Preferred Rating for the artwork you will receive (work safe, G rated, NC-17…: Up to R or so is fine. A little sexy is ok, but I want to be able to display it at home with an 8-year-old around
SnowDragon 17 years ago
Placeholder for me as well till I get home and pick out descriptions for her. I will be doing Phèdre from the Kushiel's Legacy Series by Jacqueline Carey.

Ok I am going to give several examples of what she looks like on the Longest Night. Actual quotes from the book

1. I luxuriated in the bath, while one of Melisandre's attendants rubbed fragrant oil into my skin and another tended to my hair, brushing it out at length, merely twining a few sprays of white ribbons in my dark curls. I am used to fine clothing and not easily impressed, but the overgarment took even me aback. It was a loose-fitting gown of transparent white gauze with trailing sleeves--and it was spangled all about with tiny diamonds, sewn with exquisite cae onto the sheer fabric. The maidservant fussed with a half-mask, a white-and-brown osprey with the eye-holes trimmed in black velvet piping. In the candlelight, I could see right through gauze. She held out one other item, a velvet slip-collar, with a diamond teardrop suspended from it, and a lead attached.

2. Finespun as a whispered prayer, the scarlet jersey slithered over my head and fell like water about me, fitted close to the hips and then falling in immaculate folds to sweep the floor. It had a high neckline, rising like a crimson flame to clasp around my throat, belying the daring nature of the low back; and low it was, skimming the very base of my marque. As it happens, Remy did a neat job of it, and when he had finished, the scarlet gown clung to my upper body like it was painted there. A hint of kohl to accentuate my eyes, which would be mostly hidden behind the veil, and carmine for my lips. When that was done, I set about styling my hair. It took some time, recreating the elaborate coif I'd seen in Favrielle's illustration of Mara, but I was well satisfied when I was done. The half-veil, I secured with hairpins topped with glittering black jet, and when it was in place, a stranger's face gazed back at me from the mirror. My veiled gaze was lustrous and mysterious, for once not betrayed by th scarlet mote in my left eye. The elaborate coif of my dark hair added an archaic elegance, and my fair skin glowed against the black gauze of the veil. And the gown--I rose, and it swirled around my hips in a crimson glissade. I had forgotten, that was the final touch to the costume of Mara; silk ribbons bound about the wrists, hanging gracefully and fluttering. I turned, ribbons trailing, surveying my reflection one last time. From the rear, the entire expanse of my back was bare, ivory skin framed in scarlet silk and bisected by the dramatic black lines and crimson accents of my marque.

3. She scintillated from every angle. Her gown was made of ivory satin, and it clung to her waist and torso as though it had grown there, leaving her shoulders and arms bare. It was adorned with ornate beadwork, refracting light. Below the waist, it flared and frothed, breaking like the crest of a wave upon the stairs. Her dark hair was loose, but a hundred small brillants were fastened in it, looking like a net of stars. An intricate necklace of silver links and pale gems circled her throat. Unlike the three of us, she wore a small mask; a simple white domino that lent mystery to her eyes and hid none of her beauty. (She is supposed to be dressed as the Skaldic Goddess Freya)

This how Phedre is described in the beginning. It is not, of course, that I lack beauty, even as a babe. I am a D'Angeline, after all, and ever since Blessed Elua set foot on the soil of our fair nation and called it home, the world has known what it means to be D'Angeline. My soft features echoed my mother's, carved in miniature perfection. My skin, too fair for the canon of Jasmine House, was nonetheless a perfectly acceptable shade of ivory. My hair, which grew to curl in charming profusion, was the color of sable-in-shadows, reckoned a coup in some of the Houses. My limbs were straight and supple, my bones a marvel of delicate strength. No, the problem was elsewhere. To be sure, it was my eyes; and not even the pair of them, but merely the one.
Such a small thing on which to hinge such a fate. Nothing more than a mote, a fleck, a mere speck of color. If it ha been any other hue, perhaps, it would have been a different story. My eyes, when they settled, were that color that poets call bistre, a deep and lustrous darkness, like a forest pool under the shade of ancient oaks. Outside Terre d'Ange, perhaps, one might call it brown, but the language spoke outside our nation's bound is a pitiful thing when it comes to describing beauty. Bistre, then, rich and liquid-dark; save for the left eye, where in the iris that ringed the black pupil, a fleck of color shone.
And it shone red, and indeed, red is a poor word for the color it shone. Scarlet, call it, or crimson; redder than a rooster's wattles or the glazed apple in a pig's mouth.

This mote has marked her an anguissette. He delineates Phèdre as Kushiel’s chosen and an anguisette, meaning that she will always find pleasure in pain (she is a masochist). (From wikipedia.)
Below is several links that should help you out.
http://www.jacquelinecarey.com/gallery_tats.htm This is fans tattoo's of Phedre's Marque.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushiel's_Dart
http://www.jacquelinecarey.com/ Official author's site.

Desktop size 1280 X 1024
Any rating....You can even have her as an anguissette with any of her patrons. She has had both female and male patrons. Even brother and sister and Melisandre is the only one that has truly had a love/hate relationship with her that she would do anything for her.
MistressWit 17 years ago
Hiii...... Eve threatened me if I didnt sign up for this one

Book Series - Merry Gentry Series from Laurell K Hamilton
Character - Sholto: Lord of That Which Passes Between, Lord of Shadows, King of the Sluagh, nickname Shadowspawn (& he doesn't appreciate it)

Descriptions:
Tri-colored gold eyes of metallic gold, amber and the yellow of autumn leaves. Pure white hair that falls to his knees, 200 years old. Has tentacles from his nipples down to his hips but is one of the more beautiful fey in all other regards. Dad was a nightflyer and mom Unseelie. One of the Queen’s Guards. Andais calls him her perverse creature or just creature. Can regain any lost body part - so far.

"The figure was dressed in a grey leather trench coat with his white hair trailing down the back of it. Even from yards away in the electric-kissed darkness I could see that his eyes were three different shades of gold: metallic gold around the pupil, then amber, and last a circle the color of yellow autumn leaves. He was handsome, not the heartbreaking beauty of some of the sidhe, but striking. Sholto had the hair, the eyes, the skin, the face, the shoulders, everything-except that from just below his nipples to vanish into his pants was a nest of tentacles, things with mouths. His mother had been sidhe, his father had not."

His skin is pale....even the tentacles. He CAN use personal magic to hide the tentacles under his clothes....But what fun is that? I've loved this character since his first appearance, maybe because he was all set to go against what he thought were the queens orders and marry Merry to save her. (or maybe just get a piece of Sidhe tail)



<3
Wit
Lessa 17 years ago
Character Name: Jill
Book Title and Author: Deverry series ( first book, Daggerspell) by Katherine Kerr
Genre: Celtic Sword and sorcery
Desktop size: 1280x1024
Preferred Rating for the artwork you will receive (work safe, G rated, NC-17… any

Daggerspell

"True enough. Huh, if the caravan hadn't sent a messenger to me, I suppose Loddlaen would have sent one of his men, claiming to be a guard or suchlike. You just spared him the trouble by sending your lad."
"My lad?" Cullyn gave him a grin. " Here my lord, Jill 's my daughter."
"Oh, ye gods! Here I rode with her all day and I never once thought she was a lass."
Sometime later Jill came to sit with her father. She'd apparently washed her face and hair in the stream, because the dirt was gone, revealing a face that was not only obviously female, but beautiful. Or, at least, it would have been if it weren't for the black and blue bruise on her face.
"Where did you get that bruise?" Cullyn said to her.
"You gave it to me this morning."
"Well so I did. Forgive me my sweet. I was half to pieces, thinking you'd be slain."
Jill turned to Cullyn and gave him a smile that turned her beauty as delicate and glowing as that of any court lady. Rhodry's heart sank. It was more than unfair of the gods to give a lass like this to a father who happened to be the best swordsman in all of Deverry.



Her thumbs hooked into her sword belt, Jill frowned at them as if she were thinking they'd both gone daft. Her stance, her gesture, so much those of a fighting man that suddenly Rhodry saw Amyr's meaning. He threw back his head and howled with laughter until Jill could stand it no longer.
"By every god and his wife as well! Have I ridden into a camp filled with madmen?"
"My apologies. I'll take you to your father straightaway, but Jill, oh Jill, I could fall to the ground and kiss your feet."
"Has my lord cadvridoc been hit on the head? What is all this?"
"I'll explain after you've seen Cullyn. Silver dagger, I've got a hire for you."



At that moment, Jill went berzerk. A blood red haze flared up to tint the world: a war cry welled out of her mouth; she could no longer think. She swung Sunrise free of her startled squad and kicked him straight for Rhodry while she slashed and swung and went on shreiking. When a man on a chestnut wheeled to face her, Jill charged in, a battle of nerves that she won when he pulled aside out of her way. When Sunrise turned perfectly to follow, Jill got a good strike on the rider's exposed side that drove him round in the saddle. Before he could parry, she slashed him across the face backhand. Screaming he fell foreward under the hooves of his own horse.
As the chestnut stumbled and went down, Sunrise dodged without a word or touch from Jill, and she was through, falling into place at Rhodry's left. Just ahead in the mob was Corbyn's silver-trimmed shield. As she parried a blow from the side, Jill got a glimpse of Corbyn's face, sweat streaked and snarling as he slashed at Sligyn. Sligyn dropped his sword and clung wounded to the saddle, an easy mark for Corbyn's next strike. Jill howled and slapped Sligyn's horse to make it dance back-out of the way barely in time. One of Sligyn's men grabbed its reigns and fled with his lord.
"Corbyn!" Jill screamed. "Your Wyrd is riding for you!"


Darkspell

Nearby Jill sat in the light from the one tiny window. She was dressed in a pair of dirty blue brigga and a lad's plain linen overshirt, and her golden hair was cropped short like a lad's, too, but she was so beautiful, her wide blue eyes, delicate features, and soft mouth, that he loved simply looking at her. Frowning in concentration, she was mending a rip in his only shirt.
"Ah, by the black hairy ass of the Lord of Hell!" she snarled. "This'll just have to do. I hate sewing.
With another snarl she threw the shirt in his face.


Jill is the daughter of a disgraced swordsman, her mother died when she was very young so she had grown traveling the country with her father as he searches for work as a hired sword. For a birthday gift all she wanted was a silver dagger like her father's, with a hawk etched into the pommel, the dagger being the very symbol of a man's disgrace.

She is skilled with a sword, and gifted with dweomer power ( magic)

She is one of the few humans who is able to see the wild folk, elemental creatures such as sylphs, pixies, gnomes and sprites.
One, a skinny grey gnome, follows her everywhere through this life and all of her other's.


When she called out to them the wildfolk came - her favorite gray gnome, a pair of warty blue fellows with long pointed teeth, and a sprite, who could have seemed a beautiful woman in miniature if it wasn't for her eyes, wide, slit like a cats and utterly mindless. Jill sat up and let the gray gnome climb into her lap.
"I wish you could talk. If some evil thing should happen to Macyn could I come live in the woods with your folk?"
The gnome idly scratched his armpit while he considered.
"I mean, you could show me how to find things to eat, and how to keep warm when it snows."
The gnome nodded in a way that seemed to mean yes, but it was always hard to tell what the wildfolk meant.
Shaelynn 17 years ago

Character Name: Claire Fraser
Book Title and Author: Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon
Genre: (from Wikipedea)

" [The Outlander Series] is difficult to classify by genre. On one level it is a romance novel, since it focuses on the romantic relationship between the two main characters. However, it breaks certain conventions of the romance genre (for example, the heroine is slightly older than the hero). It could be described as a work of historical fiction, since it depicts a historically accurate, detailed, and well-researched account of 18th century Scottish clan life. It could also be described as science fiction, since the plot is propelled by time travel as the character Claire travels from the 1940s to the 18th century at the beginning of the book.">>



Character Description (how you see the character)

(from Wikipedia) [Claire is] The story's protagonist, a nurse in WWII who finds herself in the Scottish Highlands circa the mid-1700s. In the twentieth century, she was married to Frank Randall, but in the eighteenth century, she marries Jamie Fraser.

At the start of Outlander, Claire is 28 years old. She has curly, rather wild, light brown hair - shoulder length. Her eyes are described as golden amber, also like the color of whiskey. Her most striking feature is her clear glowing skin. She is referred to as an "English Rose."

Claire is made memorable not by her beauty but by her forceful personality. She is ruthlessly practical, loyal and honest. There is also a natural sensuality about her.

(From Paperback Reader) "Claire is a masterpiece of writing, both technically and story-wise. I read an interview some years back where Ms. Gabaldon stated that Claire sprung off the page (all right, computer screen) fully formed, a modern woman in a 18th century world. Now, I disagree about “modern;” Claire is not—and was not even when Outlander was first published in 1991. She is my grandmother’s generation, “born” in the same year 1917. Claire came of age in pre-WWII Europe, and she reflects that. But she also had a baptism of fire in the field hospitals of WWII, and she reflects that too. Add to it her strength and intelligence, and Ms. Gabaldon created a character who, when she walks into a room, you know she’s there. However, though her voice is clear, direct and powerful, she doesn’t overwhelm the story. One of the drawbacks of writing in first person is that the narrator can sometimes drown out the other characters as the reader is always in the narrator’s head. Claire is such a keen observer that the world and people around her are also clear, vibrant and three-dimensional with their own voices, mannerisms, foibles and scruples.

Story-wise, Claire is also a marvel of writing and character development. As I said, she is strong. But the minute she steps through the standing stones, she has to dig deeper to find—and, boy, does she find—reservoirs of hidden strength to deal with first being stranded out of place and time, and later with her marriage to Jamie, his outlawry, and Jack Randall’s very unhealthy interest in her Scots husband. I think one of the most viscerally chilling moments is when Claire’s forced to leave Jamie in Black Jack’s hands in prison, and she retaliates by telling Jack the day and year of his death. And what is even more chilling is the way she did it. Without fanfare, without fuss, softly, her rage striking out like rapier, slicing Jack in half almost before he knew he’d been cut. And that’s how she manages all the difficulties and insults that are flung at her, with a ruthless practicality that’s sometimes driven by anger so hot that it’s cold.

Descriptive Passage (a quote from the book that describes the character):
[excerpt from Outlander]
I set to work, muttering to myself, while Dougal, with a soft word, dispatched one of the other shadows to stand guard with the horses by the road. The other men relaxed for the moment, drinking from flasks and chatting in low voices. The ferret-faced Murtagh helped me, tearing strips of linen, fetching more water, and lifting the patient up to have the dressing tied on, Jamie being strictly forbidden to move himself, despite his grumbling that he was perfectly all right.

“You are not all right, and it’s no wonder,” I snapped, venting my fear and irritation. “What sort of idiot gets himself knifed and doesn’t even stop to take care of it? Couldn’t you tell how badly you were bleeding? You’re lucky you’re not dead, tearing around the countryside all night, brawling and fighting and throwing yourself off horses…hold still, you bloody fool.” The rayon and linen strips I was working with were irritatingly elusive in the dark. They slipped away, eluding my grasp, like fish darting away into the depths with a mocking flash of white bellies. Despite the chill, sweat sprang out on my neck. I finally finished tying one end and reached for another, which persisted in slithering away behind the patient’s back. “Come back here, you…oh, you goddamned bloody bastard!” Jamie had moved and the original end had come untied.

There was a moment of shocked silence. “Christ,” said the fat man named Rupert. “I’ve ne’er heard a woman use such language in me life.”

“Then ye’ve ne’er met my auntie Grisel,” said another voice, to laughter.

“Your husband should tan ye, woman,” said an austere voice from the blackness under a tree. “St. Paul says ‘Let a woman be silent, and— ’ ”

“You can mind your own bloody business,” I snarled, sweat dripping behind my ears, “and so can St. Paul.” I wiped my forehead with my sleeve. “Turn him to the left. And if you,” addressing my patient, “move so much as one single muscle while I’m tying this bandage, I’ll throttle you.”

“Och, aye,” he answered meekly."



I pulled too hard on the last bandage, and the entire dressing scooted off.

"Goddamn it all to hell!” I bellowed, striking my hand on the ground in frustration. There was a moment of shocked silence, then, as I fumbled in the dark for the loose ends of the bandages, further comment on my unwomanly language.

[Diana Gabaldon, Outlander]

Link to another excerpt -

http://diabolicalart.250free.com/Temp/outlander/index.html



Desktop size - 1280 x 1024

Preferred Rating for the artwork you will receive (work safe, G rated, NC-17…) anything is fine
Darsa 17 years ago
Okay, I'm actually going to have two completely different selections, so that whoever ends up with my name can choose whichever they'd prefer. Here's one of 'em, the other one I'm still researching:

Book: Ill Met By Moonlight - Mercedes Lackey & Roberta Gellis
Who: Queen Oberon of the Sidhe
Description: Exerpt taken from the book:

"But I have no such constraints," Titania said, her green cat-pupilled eyes glowing with challenge.
Her voice was sweet and rich as warm honey and her presence was the bright contrast to her husband's dark power. Titania was a wonder even to those she ruled. The Queen's lineage was pure High Court, Seleigh elven, except that she was even taller than most male Sidhe. Her body was, of course, perfectly perfect. Her hair was a rich gold, elaborately dressed in a high confection of tiny braids and curls, which showed off her ears; they were delicately shell pink, almost transparent-but the pointed tip of one ear was bent, which tiny imperfection made her somehow more perfect."
"The Queen's eyes glowed a bright, pure emerald, brilliant pools deep enough to fall into and drown. Her lips were pale rose, and through the ethereal light violet and white silk robes she wore, she looked... translucent, as if she were lit from within."

My thoughts: The green eyes caught me first, of course, though that's where the resemblance to myself IRL ends LOL She represents power to me, not only in how she looks but throughout the book she shows herself to be an independent thinker and do-er, and not dependent upon her husband (High King Oberon, by the way) to make all of the decisions, and her just sit and nod and smile.
Desktop Size: 1024X768 works just fine
Rating: Would prefer something less than rated R, so that I don't scandalize my 12YO daughter
MoonLily 17 years ago
Desktop size: 1280x720
Rating: Artist’s choice... it’ll be on my laptop which I can keep out of sight of lil’ eyes.
Genre: Fiction/Romance/some action
Series: the Dark Hunter Series by Sherrilyn Kenyon, book: undecided as I’m looking for my book crate from the move still.
Character Name: Acheron Parthenopaeus aka "Ash"
Excerpt: Ancient immortal Atlantean, leader of the Dark-hunters. Born in 9548 B.C. on the Greek isle of Didymos to King Acarion and Queen Aara. His promises and curses are binding and can have unintended consequences. Tall and naturally blond, he dyes his hair different colors and dresses like a Goth most of the time. He looks to be about 21 and makes his home in Katoteros.
No one knows anything about him and he likes it that way. In reality he is a god-killer and an Atlantean god with powers that no one knows the extent of. He refuses to answer any kind of personal questions and he must keep his word no matter what.

My added info....Okay: Ash is tall, enough muscles to be yummy without being overly amped up in the beef department. His eyes are eerily swirling silver, and he dyes his hair to keep it anything but it’s natural blonde. He’s absolutely delicious, women tend to want to throw themselves at him however he does not go for it. Yeah, he could be quite the playboy if his circumstances had only been different. Goth think leather mesh and all the stuffs to make the hottopic fangirls drool, also has a dragon tattoo that moves along his form since that dragon is actually a living, breathing demon named Simi who lovesQVC shopping and anything with barbeque sauce.
Laire 17 years ago
This one is hard since I haven't replaced a lot of my books yet so I can't exactly grab one of my favorites off the shelf. But I would have to say my favorite character is Pandora from Anne Rice's Vampire Novels.

Book Name: Pandora
Book Title and Author: Pandora by Anne Rice

Wikipedia link : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora_%28novel%29

I personally like Pandora because of the way Anne makes you want to just protect her. She was from a senatorial roman family and her love was forbidden her (which I find amusing as she later rejects him herself for what occurs between them.) She is strong willed, independent and intellectual and that is perhaps her strongest draw for me.

I have no restrictions on what piece is done for me. Artist free reign Just hope they have fun with my choice.
FyreGarnett 17 years ago
Character Name: Surreal SaDiablo
Book Title and Author: The Black Jewels Trilogy ~ Anne Bishop
Genre: Dark Fantasy

Character Description (how you see the character):

Surreal plays a key supporting role throughout the entire series. Her views on men are warped by her hatred of her “father”, who raped her mother (Surreal was the result). Her number one goal in life is to see him dead, by her own hand, in the most vicious manner she can contrive. As well as being considered the most skilled Red Moon whore in the Realm, she is also a top-rate assassin – which is the profession she prefers. Her preferred weapon is a hunting knife, though she uses her magic in order to be more subtle – and not get caught.

Her Birthright Jewel rank is Green, and she typically wears one set into a gold necklace while playing the bed. Her Jewel of Rank is the Gray, also set in gold, though, as it is one of the highest Ranked Jewels, she hides that she has that much power so as to be under-estimated by her prey.

She is practical, loyal and stubborn. Well educated, both mentally and physically. Her Craft skills (magic) are geared toward seduction and killing, by her choice as well as by temperament.

Descriptive Passage (a quote from the book that describes the character):

“She took a quick shower, dressed her long black hair so it could be easily unpinned, made up her face, and slipped into a sheer gold-green dress that hid as much as it revealed. Finally, clenching her teeth against the inevitable, she walked over to the freestanding mirror and looked at the face, the body, she had hated all her life.

It was a finally sculpted face with high cheekbones, a thin nose and slightly oversized gold-green eyes that saw everything and revealed nothing. Her slender, well-shaped body looked deceptively delicate but had strong muscles that she had hardened over the years to ensure she was always in peak condition for her chosen profession. But it was the sun-kissed, light brown skin that made her snarl. Hayllian skin. Her father’s skin. She could easily pass for Hayllian if she wore her hair down and wore tinted glasses to hide the color of her eyes. The eyes would mark her as a half-breed. The ears with the tips curving to a delicate point… those were Titian’s ears.

Titian, who came from no race Surreal had met in all her travels through Terrielle. Titian, who had been broken on Kartane SaDiablo’s spear. Titian, who had escaped and whored for her keep so Kartane couldn’t find her and destroy the child she carried. Titian, who was found one with her throat slit and was buried in an unmarked grave.

All the assassinations, all those men going to their planned deaths, were dress rehearsals for patricide. Someday she would find Kartane in the right place at the right time and she would pay him back for Titian.”

Desktop size: 1440x900
Preferred Rating for the artwork you will receive (work safe, G rated, NC-17…: well, since she’s a whore (and the best in the Realm, no less) not to mention an assassin… NC-17 is fine!!
Wystro 17 years ago
Ammu
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Fiction

This is one of my all-time favorite books. Gorgeous story and writing, and so heartbreaking.

Ammu is an Indian woman thirty-one years of age, mother to Esthan and Rahel. What she does in one pivotal event changes the live paths of her children and her greater family. These two paragraphs evoke her spirit and how she looks:

Occasionally, when Ammu listened to songs that she loved on the radio, something stirred inside her. A liquid ache spread under her skin, and she walked out of the world like a witch, to a better, happier place. On days like this there was something restless and untamed about her. As though she had temporarily set aside the morality of motherhood and divorecee'-hood. Even her walked changed from a safe mother-walk to another wilder sort of walk. She wore flowers in her hair and carried magic secrets in her eyes. She spoke to no one. She spent hours on the riverbank with her little plastic transistor shaped like a tangerine. She smoked cigarettes and had midnight swims.

.......

She had a delicate, chiseled face, black eyebrows angled like a soaring seagull's wings, a small straight nose and luminous, nut-brown skin. On that skyblue December day, her wild, curly hair had escaped in wisps in the car wind. Her shoulders in her sleeveless sari blouse shone as if they had been polished with a high-wax shoulder polish. Sometimes she was the most beautiful woman that Esthan and Rahel had ever seen, And sometimes she wasn't.
DawnStar 17 years ago
The character I've chosen is Jaenelle from Anne Bishop's Black Jewels fantasy series. The description is from 'Daughter of the Blood':

"She was medium height, slender, and fair-skinned. Her gold mane--not quite hair and not quite fur--was brushed up and back from her exotic face and didn't hide the delicately pointed ears. In the center of her forehead was a tiny, spiral horn. A narrow strip of gold fur traced her spine, ending in a small gold and white fawn tail that flicked over her bare buttocks. The legs were human and shapely but changed below the calf. Instead of feet, she had daintly horse's hooves. Her human hands had sheathed claws like a cat's. As she shifted position to slip another shard into place, he saw the small, round breasts, the feminine curve of waist and hips, the dark-gold triangle of hair between her legs.

"Who...?

"But he knew. Even before she walked over and looked at him, even before he saw the feral intelligence in those ancient, haunted sapphire eyse, he knew.

"Terrifying and beautiful. Human and Other. Gentle and violent. Innocent and wise.

"*I am Witch,* she said, a small, defiant quiver in her voice."

Desktop size: 1280 x 800
Preferred Rating for the artwork you will receive: Based on the description above I would have to say NC-17
Sangre 17 years ago
Character Name: Elizabeth "Betsy' Taylor
Book Title and Author: Betsy The Vampire Queen Collection (Includes 'Undead and Unwed', 'Undead and Unemployed', 'Undead and Unappreciated' and 'Undead and Unreturnable') by MaryJancie Davidson Genre: Adult Fantasy/Horror

Character Description (how you see the character): Betsy is a hilarious and extremely reluctant hero. She is a former model and (recently) fired secretary who is also fashion obsessed. Her rise as The Vampire Queen was foretold by the Vampire bible, The Book Of The Dead, but she'd rather shop for shoes all day than lead an army of Undead. She is beautiful and vain, like her hero Scarlett O'Hara, but lacks the cruelty (and intelligence) to be a full on bitch. The true beauty of Betsy is - even though she is dead - she just wants to live a normal life.

Descriptive Passage (a quote from the book that describes the character): "Well, she was tall, real tall - 'bout my height and I am just shy of six feet. She had light blond hair with them streaky - what d'you call 'ems? Highlights! she had kinda reddish highlights, and the biggest, prettiest green eyes you'd ever seen. Her eyes were the color of them old fashioned glass bottles, those real dark green ones. And she was real pale, like she worked in an office all the time..."

"So the gal, she starts to run. Which was funny to see, because she was wearing these teetery high heels..."

"I ran a brush through my hair. It was staying exactly shoulder-length, and my highlights were staying exactly as high-lit as they'd been on the day I died. One less thing to worry about."

Desktop size: 1680 x 1050

Preferred Rating for the artwork you will receive: Work safe/ G-rated
Sartori 17 years ago
Hmmm... something tells me this could end up being really challenging. Oh well, I'll give it my best shot!

Ok, here's my character:

Name: Ilana
Book: "The Source" by James A. Michener
Genre: Historical fiction

Descriptive passage:


She was a girl of seventeen, broad-shouldered, sun-tanned, with her heavy hair cut short and her khaki dress even shorter. She was the tough, muscular girl of the impending state of Israel, a true sabra -- "flower of the cactus," as those born in Palestine were called, "prickly on the outside, sweet on the inside" -- but there was about her lovely face something that was unmistakably Russian. Her upper lip was thin but her cheeks were full. Her cheekbones were high and her stubborn chin was squared off, so that she did not look Jewish, and when she smiled her teeth were unusually big and white. She was like no other Jewish girl he had ever seen, strong and confident as she asked, "You will come back to help us?"

"To do what?"

She became solemn, most unlike a girl of seventeen who is flirting with strange soldiers, and said, "There's to be war. There's to be much fighting and we shall need your help."


In a book filled with many vivid and memorable characters, this one really stuck with me. This passage describes her in 1945, near the end of World War II, but most of her story takes place in 1948, during the birth of Israel. She is a member of the Palmach, the fighting force of the Jewish community during the British Mandate of Palestine.

She's not pretty in the "sweet and petite" sense, but she's a real woman with a real woman's beauty. She wears short skirts and carries a rifle. She is not afraid to do her part on the front line of battle. She loves the Torah and has a deep personal relationship with God, but she is not afraid to confront and contradict a well-respected rabbi. She is strong, courageous and much-beloved by her husband.

Preferred rating: PG