My third ever piece of character art: Liu Chenguang, fierce mode!
I’ve found that commissioning character art from artists is such an unexpectedly fun aspect of being an author. Eventually I’d love for fans to make their own art which is a personal deepseated author goal (fanfic too! Go to town!), but seeing how artists bring their own process and interpretations into a simple description of character is amazing. I am not very directive because I have simple needs (picture!) am not a very visual person and that means I get to learn from the artists.
In this case, I gave Katharina (who I found in Instagram @kathiliart, via her fantastic Gideon the Ninth fanart) a brief to choose from for Aili, Zhu Guiren, and Liu Chenguang, and she chose Liu Chenguang, intrigued by her as a complicated character. She struck on the issue of how Liu Chenguang would have managed the clothing switch from her lives-long experience in Daxian, which I will tell you is not a problem that ever occurred to me, and considered issues of costume. Given that Liu Chenguang doesn’t like being in constricting clothing, how would she choose clothes in a setting inspired by the 1940s United States, and how would that compare with clothing in a setting inspired by over a thousand years of Chinese costume?
She ended up deciding on a blouse in red (symbolizing her phoenix nature) and these great pants! And the shoes! I love the shoes and I bet Liu Chenguang does too. 🙂 (Shoes also came up in the artwork by @xelo_lina of Aili and Liu Chenguang together at the end of Shoreless River — you might notice Chenguang’s fabulous Doc Martens. There’s just no way this phoenix wears heels.) The insight from Katharina that Liu Chenguang would have had some conversion of her wardrobe to do before she was able to meet with Aili in Little Daxian gave me the kernel of the idea for the two prequel chapters I wrote as gifts for my newsletter subscribers: the last day before Liu Chenguang finds Aili, which is the first scene in The Phoenix and the Sword. (If you want to subscribe to the newsletter and get the prequel chapters, visit my website – the signup form is there!)
The other interesting piece is Liu Chenguang’s weapon, the deerhorn knives. I sent Katharina a picture of what they look like, and I love how my most feisty phoenix looks extremely fierce with a weapon that she can only use defensively. I imagine what Aili might have thought seeing her for the first time, this incredibly fierce, beautiful, determined, and stubborn person (Katharina captured all that!) and being completely overwhelmed like the sweet butch cinnamon roll she is.
Aside from just rejoicing in this beautiful art, I’m struck by how collaborative the creative process can be, and how we as writers can be building up artists and vice versa. I’d never use AI for any of this – not only because the art it’s built on is stolen, but because the experience of making art together is the whole point of doing any of this. Looking forward to the next time I’ll get to see someone else build up their own art from my characters!