This is a reblog. Tremendous thanks to Elenacaravela
KATNISS
Do book cover illustrations influence the way you envision a character before you read a book? Does an actor cast as the character from your favorite book embody your idea of the character in a film?
My niece and I recently discussed these questions. We decided that we try not to allow an illustrator or casting director to change our vision of our favorite literary characters. So, as an illustrator, I’m turning the tables and presenting Katniss, the main character from The Hunger Games, the way I see her.
Dianne, my wonderful niece, who turns twelve years old today, may not share my vision, but I can’t wait to find out what she thinks. Dianne, this post is in honor of your birthday. You inspired it. Please think of it as a kind of a “post (Birthday) card”. Let me know if my illustration looks at all like your vision of Katniss. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Isabelle-grabs-life 
It always helps me to have a visual with a character. I read Hunger Games before I saw the movie and I envisioned Katniss at least with dark hair and possibly Mediterranean like your drawing depicts. Once I saw Jennifer Lawrence in the movies, it made sense. That is a beautiful drawing BTW!
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Yeah, Suzanne wasn’t specific about Katniss’ race. All we got was that she wasn’t tall and she had olive skin, straight, black hair, and gray eyes. While I did imagine the character looking more “olive” and “ethnically mixed” than Jennifer Lawrence, I’m happy with their choice. And even though the casting director may or may not have failed to fully explore the idea of casting someone who wasn’t Caucasian for the role, Jennifer is still an amazing actress.
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Reblogged this on Jin Okubo.
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Thanks for reblogging!
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Yes. Normally the character in the book looks different to me than the actor or actress who portrays them. I think of Katniss as Asian.
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Nice post. Thanks for sharing 🙂
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I’m not a visual person, and I find that I “picture” characters without ever actually picturing them. They live in my mind as a collection of character traits without physical features. This could be due to my face-blindness. If I pictured their faces I probably wouldn’t recognize them anyway!
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Thanks for sharing this! You said you picture characters by their traits. Does this include recognizing them by their “typical mannerisms”?
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Their mannerisms and their posture, and even their clothing, ro a degree. But I think most of all it’s the voice. I can hear all of their voices in my head.
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This is so interesting! It reminds me yet again how important it is to hone a character’s voice and stay consistent with their mannerisms/dressing styles.
Sometimes I keep a character’s facial description in mind, but there are times when their face and other physical descriptions fade away, and I just picture their biological motion. During these times, I still hear their unique voice and see their surroundings (setting details). For example, when Katniss is running for her life, I don’t always picture her face on a girl with a long side braid, wearing a wet suit. I might just picture the motion of running through a dense forest and the physical experience of losing one’s breath. Does that make sense?
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Absolutely… like the impression you might get if you really saw her run through the woods. The details would be lost, but you would have a sense of how she felt.
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