No doubt you have heard of the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians- a favorite of mine, honestly- well, have you heard of the spin-off series, Heroes of Olympus? Oh, it’s a wonderful series! Building off the characters you know and love, and adding new deep meaningful characters you’ll come to love. I mean how could you not love him?:
(Actually, no one really likes him. His name is Octavian, and he slaughters stuffed animals. He DESTROYED Percy’s panda bear!) But anyways, this might come off as surprising- since I just made it sound like I know the series inside and out- but I have not read Heroes of Olympus. There is some content within it, that neither myself, nor my parents wanted me reading. However, another person I know reads it, so I have SEVERAL insiders (not to mention I look stuff up about it all the time, I know, probably not good, but just look at the amazing artwork). Below, is Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Oracle of Delphi.
Now, I have been staring at this beautiful artwork, just dying to get to know these characters. After all, you just can’t be satisfied with just hearing their stories, you have to know them. But, I was going to not read the series, and I was determined not to- honestly, after awhile, I feel like it became a game to see how long I could “hold out.” I eventually beat it, and no longer had a desire to read the series- well, you know, as little of a desire as I could possibly have. So, I turned my mind to a project. I decided I needed to study some certain books and tv shows, to learn how they mastered specific elements of storytelling.
For example, one of them was Once Upon a Time, I studied several episodes to discover the pattern they used to revealing/creating twists to their stories. I found books or tv shows that would help me to learn how to master and apply each element, but then I came upon characters. And no characters have struck me as more alive than when I scanned through my findings of Heroes of Olympus. I suddenly came to a terrible conclusion, I had to read from the book with the best characters to master the element, but the series, was Heroes of Olympus. I was in distress for two days I think, just thinking over, and over again, ‘No, there has to be away around it.’ But, nope, there was no way. But then finally, I decided I needed to find out why I thought it was the only option. So, I sat down, and opened the amazing artwork of Heroes of Olympus.
Meet Leo Valdez! Repair boy, bad boy supreme, and Captain of Argo II (that’s what he calls himself).
And his girlfriend, Calypso, daughter of the Titan, Atlas- and imprisoned on the island of Ogygia.
The first step I did, was ask myself, ‘Why do I think these characters are the only ones I can learn from?’ I thought about it for a split moment, and quickly answered that it was because they were the only characters who I saw truly come alive even though I hadn’t even read it.
Then I asked myself, ‘Why do they come alive? I haven’t even read it, and they’re more alive in my mind than any other character I’ve ever read about.’ After scrolling through a bit longer, I came to the stunning
realization that it was because there was all this beautiful artwork which I could look at, and that is what made them come so alive, along with the things my friend had told me (to the right, is Nico di Angelo, son of Hades).
So, with the realization, I came to the conclusion, that if I wanted my characters to become “alive” in this way, it would have to be up to artist’s. (Below, is Hazel Levesque, and her boyfriend, Frank Zhang.)
But I didn’t want to just leave it up to artist’s to decide if they wanted to draw up one of my character’s or not. I decided I desired to figure out what made them want to draw these magnificent characters.
So, I went to my sister, Riah, who’s an artist, and asked her, “If you could draw one character from any book, what character would it be?”
She thought for a moment, and answered that she would like to draw a character she had recently read about named, Sage. Here is the conversation that followed:
“Why do you want to draw Sage?” I asked, prodding her for answers.
“Um, because in the book he’s described as having raggy clothes, and messed up hair, and I just think it’d be interesting and different to draw.” she answered, shaking her hand through her hair as she describes Sage’s.
An idea, and realization began to sweep over me, as I asked my next question, “Is Sage like homeless or something?”
“He’s a peasant.”
“Does he get into a lot of trouble, and real mischievous, and good on the streets?” I asked, smiling as I drew closer to my conclusion.
My little sister nodded. “So, you would say, his personality fits his description?”
She nodded once again, sealing my victory!
You see, I had cracked the formula. The reason why an artist would draw a character is because their personality fits their description, and their description is clearly set apart from everyone else’s. Thankfully, that afternoon, we were going to the library, so I could test my theory.
I rushed over to the books of Percy Jackson, and snatched the first book of Heroes of Olympus off the shelf. I flipped open to the first page, to see if there was a description. There was, it was Piper Mclean’s description. As I read it, I realized that Rick Riordan- the author- described the standard necessities, such as eyes, and hair, but then expanded.
(Piper Mclean, Jason’s girlfriend)
(Percy, and Annabeth)
He described the clothes she wore, and the the way that her hair was chopped unevenly, and her kaleidoscope eyes. Then he went on to explain the first impression someone would get from seeing her: That she didn’t want to be noticed. Thus, through the description, a belief of Piper had was revealed (of course, then the narrator went on to say that her effort didn’t work, because she was gorgeous). So, with this new found knowledge, I created rules for myself when describing a character:- Go further in depth of description with hair and eyes
- Create a first impression
- Set them apart from the other characters
- Describe the clothing they wear
- Match their description to their personality
- Implant a belief about the character from the description
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