Character Development Process

I was thinking about how I choose how a character looks and I realized that I don't really have a set way of doing it. I felt like exploring that today, though.

I don't really plan out how my characters are going to look. When I start with a character idea, I usually come up with their personality first and as I go with that, their physical appearance just comes to me. Sometimes it has to do with one aspect of their personality that reminds me of a specific look or it just sneaks up on me and means completely nothing. With Julian, he came to me pretty quickly. I knew I wanted darker features and strong bone structure while still appearing young. I needed him to look like the hero, but still look pretty green when it came to the world around him. I didn't want him to stick out in society, but he needed to look like he definitely wasn't from around there (or where ever he ended up).

His family came fairly easy once I had him figured out. I knew that he was going to look similar to his father, having gotten most of his looks from him, minus the fact that he has some softer feature and expressions from his mother. His sister I wanted to look fairer than the rest of them and that probably just comes from the want for a bit of the fair maiden stereotype. She's by no means that character, but I don't mind using cliches. Those characters came easy. The rest of them? Well, not so easy.

Milo is giving me trouble, but not as much a another character that I can't introduce you to, because they are a secret. Milo originally was this shady character, who was this short, ratty looking character with a nose too big for his face, beady eyes and thin, stringy hair. However, I started having second thoughts when I realized that, he's a con-artist and being ugly and a con-artist would make him an amazing con-artist, but being attractive (relatively) and a con-artist would make it more likely for him to be one. I figured then, that he needed to stop looking like he was so gross and start looking like it was plausible that he did his trade, dare I call it that.

Now, this is a whole different kind of character development. Instead of just having their face come to me, I have to work with what characters he will be around, the needs that his physical appearance with serve, and the way other characters will see him. So, that's where I'm at. Taking  a look at what his purpose is, I should be able to figure out what he's supposed to look like--in theory. What I figure is that I'd like to have a contrast between Milo and Julian, so Milo is going to be pretty fair. I'm thinking light to medium blonde hair that is cut neatly, medium to light green eyes, still short with not as rigid facial features as Julian. He'll have to be an inviting face, one that people want to trust. He isn't a strong looking fellow, but he isn't soft. Most of his attributes look fairly average, which allows him to blend in.

Make sense? I know I just did a total brainstorm at you for no discernible reason, but you all love me so you'll ready anything I write. Right? Riiiight? Good.

LL&P