The character

The whole idea is to capture their essence.

On this Erica Slaughter piece, I just kept wanting her hair to be light and flowy. I wanted her mask and pony tail blowing in the wind.

You know, for dramatic effect.

Because females should be airy, and whimsical, and beautiful, right?

But Erika isn’t here to be beautiful. She’s here to battle demons, and it’s a hard job. It’s exhausting.

She doesn’t have time to do her hair. She probably hasn’t washed it in days. She’s tired. Whatever she’s just gone through, the last thing that she’s worried about is looking good for the camera.

So her hair is just “there”. It’s weighed down, like she is. It’s tired, like she is. It’s dirty, and greasy, and tattered, like she is.

Would it be cool to have it the other way? Sure. But as soon as I settled into HER, and who she is as a character, I FELT the image fall into place.

It’s not always about being cool for the sake of being cool. (I’m talking to you Zack Snyder) It’s about really trying to understand and properly convey the purpose of a character and their story, and presenting that, and ONLY that.