About

This blog is a celebration of novel, novel characters!

I love reading novels, and as an artist I know a great exercise to stretch one's illustration skills is to portray characters from a description in a book. This blog is a challenge to myself to do just that so I'll be posting illustrations from whatever book I'm currently reading. Feel free to add comments and send me your fan art for these great titles too!

Monday, March 18, 2013

Molly from Love in the Blance by Regina Jennings

I’ve had the idea for this blog in my mind for a while now, but didn’t take the time to get it started until now. I just finished reading “Love in the Balance” by Regina Jennings and have been itching to draw Regina’s characters since I read her first book, “Sixty Acres and a Bride,” so I figure now is the perfect time to get started. There’s an endless supply of material when you start looking to novel characters for illustration inspiration, so I hope that these sketches are the first of many more to come!

Love in the Balance...

“Love in the Balance” has a lot of great scenes that would be fun to illustrate, but when I think of the main character Molly, I think of her as a friend who I just want to shop and play dress up with all day long.  I picture her having great fashion sense despite her humble settings, and really knowing how to do up her hair!  I love the book cover above, but I always pictured her hair up in curls instead.

Whenever I want to draw a character in period dress, half the fun is researching style references.  One of my favorite sites to frequent is: http://www.fashion-era.com The link will take you the their page on hair fashions from 1870-1900!

I did this sketch of Molly getting her hair done, but sort of lost it with her hand maid.  That's what I get for drawing only her hands first!  She came out looking kind of scary.. maybe a little too much like O'Brian from Downton Abbey...
Towards the end of the story, Molly does some serious book work & uses her hair ribbons to mark the pages.
How I picture Ms. Molly Lovelace, pretty & perfect!


Aside from sketching, I do also enjoy writing reviews, but thought that drawings would make a much more interesting blog than just another review site.  Still, if you haven’t read the book, check out what I, and others have to say about it: http://www.amazon.com/review/

 The Author, Regina Jenning's Website:
http://www.reginajennings.com/
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19 comments:

  1. Regina JenningsMarch 25, 2013 at 4:43 PM

    Monica,

    I absolutely love these depictions of Molly! You are AMAZING! Thank you for honoring her with these fun, sweet pictures and I can't wait to see what heroes and heroines you do next.

    Love and appreciation,
    Regina

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  2. Stephanie LandsemMarch 25, 2013 at 6:23 PM

    These are fantastic, Monica. And what a great idea for a blog! I'll be checking back to see what else you put up.

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  3. MonicaMarch 25, 2013 at 6:55 PM

    Thanks Regina and Stephanie! I'm excited to start this blog. I also have a sketch done of Rosa that I'll be adding color to soon. Hmm.. who to draw after that?

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  4. UnknownMarch 25, 2013 at 7:22 PM

    What a delightful and fun sketch of Molly, Monica! I'm so curious to see who'll you do next after Rosa, there's so many I'd love to see you do!! :)

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    Replies
    1. MonicaMarch 26, 2013 at 10:08 PM

      And so many I'd like to do, I look forward to posting more!

      Delete
  5. IlovebannerboysMarch 25, 2013 at 8:17 PM

    Thank you for sharing! I love Molly too :)

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  6. AnonymousMarch 26, 2013 at 11:30 AM

    Monica these are amazing! Great job! I absolutely love it!!

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  7. DeAnna Julie DodsonMarch 26, 2013 at 3:19 PM

    What a fabulous idea for a blog!

    I'd love to see more of your work. I hope Bethany House will send you a review copy of my 1930s cozy mystery when it comes out this summer. It would be wonderful to see what you do with my characters, too.

    You're SO talented. :D

    DeAnna Dodson (Julianna Deering)

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    Replies
    1. MonicaMarch 26, 2013 at 10:12 PM

      Thanks DeAnna, I would love to read your book! I can always go for a good mystery. I saw on the Bethany House reviewers site that they want to know what my monthly visitor count is so I'm wondering if I should wait until my blog is a month old before applying so I can give an accurate number..

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    2. DeAnna Julie DodsonMarch 30, 2013 at 2:30 PM

      Yeah, that would probably be a good idea. Though your blog is so cute and SO original, I would think they'd be pretty impressed already. :D

      Delete
  8. Melissa JagearsMarch 26, 2013 at 4:01 PM

    Oooh, this is awesome. I know when I saw my characters on the front of my novel for the first time, I was SO excited that they were almost exactly what I pictured, but there are those books that I just don't care what's on the front, I'll just keep imagining them my own way thank you very much. :)

    I hear you might get on the Bethany Reviewer program, so I'll be looking forward to more of these. How fun.

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  9. Anne MateerMarch 26, 2013 at 6:28 PM

    Wow! So unique and so fabulous!

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  10. Morgan Tarpley SmithMarch 26, 2013 at 7:26 PM

    I love this idea to go with book reviews! You are so talented! :)

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  11. MonicaMarch 26, 2013 at 10:13 PM

    Thank you so much for all the wonderful comments everyone, I'm so encouraged! I'll be posting more illustrations very soon!

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  12. Elizabeth LudwigMarch 27, 2013 at 6:19 AM

    Oh my goodness...you are so talented! Have you done any other characters??

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    Replies
    1. MonicaMarch 28, 2013 at 10:18 PM

      Just posted Rosa, from Sixty Acres and a bride. More to come from different stories and authors soon!

      Delete
  13. UnknownMarch 27, 2013 at 6:45 AM

    Oh this is so incredibly cool! I love Regina's books and to see Molly come alive in your illustrations...so fun!! I hope you do this with more books, Monica, because you're a fabulous illustrator!

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  14. Pam HillmanMarch 27, 2013 at 7:03 AM

    Monica, what a darling idea to combine your skills as an illustrator and your love of books to create a unique blog.

    Love it!

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  15. MonicaMarch 28, 2013 at 10:18 PM

    Thanks everyone!

    ReplyDelete

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