While I am still enjoying the passionate throws of writing my possibly darkest short story yet and not pulling punches I decided to show you what my Ukrainian version of Dorothy came to be with some images I have found on the web. At first I wanted to write something with a sexy Dorothy in the style of J. Scott Campbell [did not feature this because it is group illustration], who has done some very sexually charged images for Zenescope comics. I work very well with striking visuals and Dorothy as a Vixen came to me as striking. Something like this:
BUT then I realized that apart from being a sexual object, that Dorothy had no story to tell and I did want something dark [like my own Red Riding Hood with a chainsaw] so somehow that morphed into a hard-core Dorothy much like this:
There is a story behind that image, no? I have to say that I thought of making her a bit like Storm from X-Men, but that seemed obvious. EVENTUALLY I wanted Dorothy to be strong, but not physically. Physical strength and force does not make a character strong. I have advocated that over and over [the standard Urban Fantasy heroine has me rabies-ridden], so it did not make sense to make my Dorothy a bred warrior. My Dorothy is a captive. She is in the position of a victim, of which she gradually becomes aware and does her best to liberate herself. She is an innocent, forced into doing some horrible things simply because of her situation. Pretty much like this:
This picture carries a very American McGee's Alice in Wonderland vibe. It is dark. Dorothy is shown as the victor of a battle, yet she is vulnerable. You wonder what made this girl kill and you sense that the story will be uncomfortable and saddening.
4 comments:
Actually, the first image says "Alice in Wonderland" way more to me than the last one, and even more than it screams Wizard of Oz. Good stuff.
The combination of vulnerability and strength is always an attractive quality to me in female characters. I hope that doesn't sound sexist.
Out of the three I prefer the last image. That one indeed has a story to tell. Looking forward to you finally finishing that story so I can read it! :)
TD: The blue dress does confuse and the blond hair of the first does scream Alice, while the basket screams Red Hood and the shoes Dorothy.
Charles: No, I like that as well. I love that strength. It so gentle, yet so resilient and so harder to break and really tough to write.
TS: It has been completed. :)
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