Character Art - Abdiel (by Merystic)

     Every now and then, I meet (i.e. stalk online > introduce self to > cleverly force friendship upon) a skilled artist who is forced into interested in crafting something collaborative. This generally takes the form of a "two player" story of sorts, with each character involved being assigned to either myself or the collaborating artist and the two of us writing our respective characters. The result is rich and rewarding--it forces each of us to engage the other's characters as we might an actual person, with no certainty about how our own character's actions might strike them and no guarantee a given interaction will proceed as either of us have in mind. In a word, it's organic. In another, it's fun.

     Given how incredibly disgustingly picky I am about art, stories, and people, this doesn't happen terribly often, and only with people I trust and have forced developed a rich and open friendship with. I have to respect that person's creativity, intelligence, and integrity, and they have to be able to put up with me, which, generally speaking, is a fairly monumental task.

     Merystic is one such individual. Given how much I adore her art and my tendency to become a babbling, stuttering little fangirl in her e-presence, her tenacity in coping with my nonsense is both laudable and tremendously appreciated. (Her [beautiful] gallery can be found here: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/merystic/ )

     Having expressed that having a visual aid for characters helps her to envision their actions, develop their personalities, and grow to understand them as individuals, she decided to do some character art. What follows are a few pieces she crafted of my character in our collaborative work, Abdiel. I'm going to refrain from describing the setting or even the character, as chances are good I will post relevant writing at some point on this blog and I would rather not spoil anything. As is, enjoy the pretty pictures. I'm putting them behind a page break because they involve casual nudity. If you're easily offended by flaccid penises, I advice you not to advance.