Distinctiveness in physical features
Nov. 29th, 2025 04:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gs_silvaA creative process post. I used to do this type of post on my indyblog, and I meant to carry on the tradition here. So here we go.
A friend asked me about my hair, and I said I keep it the way it is because it's very distinctive. In spite of social pressure to change it, I refuse. I've found it very useful in life to have distinctive hair, especially in China.
(Anyway, social pressure, haha, what is that?!? I can't hear you.)
I chose some distinctive features for my Alien Romance characters with some storytelling behind them. Characters in visual media benefit from being distinctive from each other, mm hmm, yada yada. I actually didn't try to hard to do that! The character concepts did it for me. Ren and Maurice having a 15-inch height difference was all in good fun, to start with. Cathy had to be shorter than Maurice, because his stated goal at one point was to be the tall one in the relationship, and I'm shorter than Maurice, so Cathy can be, too!
Christine has ambiguous gender features because because, I don't know, she quite clearly resembles a boy and looks good in a suit. And Ren is attracted to people in the middle of the gender presentation spectrum. (Most likely to date transgender with great enthusiasm!) Christine doesn't identify as nonbinary, but she likes the aesthetics. So she's easy.
Ella is 'the pretty one' and has a big nose and curvy hips, and was modeled after sitcom characters Blair (from The Facts of Life) Major Hoolihan (from M*A*S*H) and Jennifer (from WKRP). She has a long braid at a time when long braids weren't very fashionable. Now they are, so the effect of her going fashion-rogue isn't as striking.
Jon's in a wheelchair, and sometimes crutches, so that's distinct. He also has thick blond hair, and he grew it out for a year. He cut off his ponytail just before I started posting the daily comic strip on DW. But he had it for long enough that someone marveled, "I forgot what Jon looked like with short hair! It's been so long!"
Maurice is the only one of the 6 MCs who isn't White, and his appearance is somewhat racially ambiguous, which, even while it's not affecting the plot much, is visually meaningful.
There's a lot more. I think I'll write a part 2 later.
A friend asked me about my hair, and I said I keep it the way it is because it's very distinctive. In spite of social pressure to change it, I refuse. I've found it very useful in life to have distinctive hair, especially in China.
(Anyway, social pressure, haha, what is that?!? I can't hear you.)
I chose some distinctive features for my Alien Romance characters with some storytelling behind them. Characters in visual media benefit from being distinctive from each other, mm hmm, yada yada. I actually didn't try to hard to do that! The character concepts did it for me. Ren and Maurice having a 15-inch height difference was all in good fun, to start with. Cathy had to be shorter than Maurice, because his stated goal at one point was to be the tall one in the relationship, and I'm shorter than Maurice, so Cathy can be, too!
Christine has ambiguous gender features because because, I don't know, she quite clearly resembles a boy and looks good in a suit. And Ren is attracted to people in the middle of the gender presentation spectrum. (Most likely to date transgender with great enthusiasm!) Christine doesn't identify as nonbinary, but she likes the aesthetics. So she's easy.
Ella is 'the pretty one' and has a big nose and curvy hips, and was modeled after sitcom characters Blair (from The Facts of Life) Major Hoolihan (from M*A*S*H) and Jennifer (from WKRP). She has a long braid at a time when long braids weren't very fashionable. Now they are, so the effect of her going fashion-rogue isn't as striking.
Jon's in a wheelchair, and sometimes crutches, so that's distinct. He also has thick blond hair, and he grew it out for a year. He cut off his ponytail just before I started posting the daily comic strip on DW. But he had it for long enough that someone marveled, "I forgot what Jon looked like with short hair! It's been so long!"
Maurice is the only one of the 6 MCs who isn't White, and his appearance is somewhat racially ambiguous, which, even while it's not affecting the plot much, is visually meaningful.
There's a lot more. I think I'll write a part 2 later.
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Date: 2025-11-29 09:58 pm (UTC)