My Characters—What They Look Like

My first sketch of the twins.

When I first created my characters over 50 years ago, I pretty much knew what I wanted them to look like. I had a picture in my “mind’s eye,” but I still wanted to be able to see them with my actual eyes.

My first step to accomplish that was to sketch them myself. I am not by any means an artist, but I have enough talent to create something that is not altogether ugly, so I did my best to start by coming up with a sketch of Pat and Patty. I liked the thumbnail sketches that Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys used for their book spines: the little logo with Nancy holding the magnifying glass, and the cameo-style silhouettes of the two brothers side by side. So, I created Pat and Patty in the same way. I have attached that image. Next, I decided to create a forward-facing image, and came up with the second image attached.

I used those images for years as my inspiration for what my characters looked like. I added a sketch of Bob and Cathy and even Ted from Book 2. I also attempted Mary Elizabeth and Sam, but wasn’t happy with either of those results.

When I recently decided to revive my writing and actually publish the books, I decided I better have some more realistic images of my characters. So, I hired the graphic artist from the company where I worked at the time to put together composite photographs of some of my characters. I found pictures online of someone’s face, someone else’s nose, another person’s lips, another one’s hair, etc., and sent them to the graphic artist and she photoshopped them all into one image for each of the characters. I was never fully satisfied with the images I created of Pat and Patty, but they were close. I was very happy with Bob and Cathy. One of those images was what I sent out in the last newsletter. (Yes, that was a photograph, not a drawing.)

Finally, I was ready to hire an artist to do my cover art. I have learned in the process that most cover art is not original art anymore. Most graphic designers will take images found on the internet and piece them together to create the “art” that graces most books’ covers. I did not want to go that route. I wanted original art, hand-done by an artist, to depict my characters and their stories.

It took several months—and some false starts—before I found the artist I am currently working with. His name is Jeffrey McKeever and his website, where you can see some of his artwork, is www.screamingceltstudio.com. All his artwork is original; nothing cut and pasted from the internet.

He took my samples of original artwork and the composite photos my graphic artist had created, and from there, he developed the look of the twins and their friends.

So far, he has created the cover art for the first three books, plus three pictures each for the interior pages. I hope to have a long working relationship with him to produce many more.

Front view of the twins as I originally created them.

Jeff's version of my twins.