I wasn’t sure if I wanted to post this sketch of Merona, as it doesn’t seem to capture her personality the way I feel the first concept sketch did. But I still like it enough to share, and outfit-wise, it is a lot closer to my final design for the character. Plus it’s the first sketch of Merona with her dog that I did. He’s a lot bigger here than I plan on having him, and his face isn’t really at all how I picture him now. But that’s why it’s called a concept sketch. Right?

One thing I noticed recently about my character and her design, was that before I had even written the first scene of my story, I had my initial sketch completed, and from that first image my lead was wearing her hat and hefty scarf, and was carrying rope, a rifle, and machete. I didn’t know how the story would go, or what she would need, but these few pieces of equipment and clothing just seemed a part of her character. And they looked useful enough to me, a survival non-expert.

As I wrote, I found my lead making her way around obstacles by utilizing these basic items in ways I hadn’t planned ahead for. Her hat, to me, looked cool, and seemed like nothing more than a guard against the elements, but in one instance it’s used as a makeshift bucket. Her stylish scarf was actually useful to filter bad air, or wrap up an injury. The rifle? Obviously for all those shootouts I never anticipated. The rope, which I had always seen as a lasso, became one of the most versatile items in her arsenal. And her machete? Well let’s just say, I thought she would use it to clear away pesky vines… not the other things she does with it.

In the end it was as if Merona herself had selected her attire and equipment, not me, because she knew exactly what kinds of things she typically ran into in her day to day job. It might have been easier for me, as the almighty writer, to just add to her arsenal to fit future situations, but I liked the way, with just a few items, she seemed to have things more or less covered. Naturally, I added a few things I pictured her carrying in her pockets that weren’t in my initial sketches; a lighter, dynamite, a rag to clean her gun. But I’m sure she would have figured things out even without my little additions.

She was one of those characters that seemed to know exactly who she was before I ever did. And to be honest, those are the characters I find myself most eager to write. The ones that seem to be alive before I’ve breathed life into them. The ones I feel like I’m uncovering, rather than creating.