One of my favourite books is The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
It's a retelling of Homer's The Iliad through the eyes of Patroclus
and his relationship with Achilles as it changes through war
Miller grew up reading the Iliad and spent 10 years writing the book
The characters are rich and complex, the language mysterious but accessible
Deadlines were coming up, I had no work, my head was empty, but hey
there was this great book that offered a great basis for character design
Let's start with Thetis
I begin by choosing passages that give me a good understanding of who she is
not only ones that physically describe her, but ones
that give you a sense of how she makes others feel
I often find that figurative language is more useful than literal descriptions
Something like a metaphor can say a lot about a character beyond physical appearance
At the same time, I'm also looking at her character throughout the entire book
I try to identify what role she plays in the story
and how she fits in with other characters
At first glance, Thetis is an antagonist
she wants to separate Patroclus from her son Achilles
so that he has a better chance of becoming a god
But, there's always more to it
She has a distaste for humans because they've abused her in the past
Thetis is many different things at once
Before we meet her we're led to believe that she's this ethereal,
graceful, beautiful character
But when Patroclus finally meets her,
he's struck by how terrifying she is and mentions nothing of her beauty
So now, the challenge is, how do I balance these
conflicting perspectives? How do I design a character who is both
beautiful but dreadful, graceful but powerful?
Being a frustratingly logical person,
I turned to charts
On the y axis a scale from beauty to dreadfulness, and on the x axis,
a scale from power to grace
then, I filled it up
The Thetis I wanted to represent would have to
fall around somewhere here
At this point, I felt stuck because none of my drawings resonated with me
I decided to compile some visual references. I like to take inspiration from a variety of unrelated
sources so I can combine and hopefully come up with something interesting
For instance, sea creatures — I looked at the angler fish when designing her mouth, and the shape of her
hair resembles tentacles. They both give her this vicious quality
I also looked at Ancient Greek statues to get a sense of what their beauty standards were
I used this as a base, but ultimately felt limited by their perfect proportions
Instead, I pushed her height and the length of her limbs, the redness of her lips and
length of her hair to beyond what was natural
Now onto the main characters, Patroclus and Achilles. These two are friends, romantic
partners, and more than anything, soulmates. It only makes sense that they be designed together
I started with Achilles — his beauty is emphasized and for me, it’s just much
easier to draw beautiful, proportional figures. As you can see, because I tend to draw stiffly,
I did a couple of redraws, each time making his body more dynamic before I settled
Colouring was straight forwards. I used a flatter style because I was short on time
Even still, I added cast and form shadows to bring more dimension and make him stick out of the page.
If you have trouble choosing shadow or highlight colours, I recommend messing around with the
blending modes to see what kind of results you can get.
Lastly, I’ll add some glow using the blending mode Overlay
It just makes the character more vibrant in the smallest of ways
I also wanted to add on that I changed the design of his clothes to be more asymmetrical
I spent a lot of time making his body look dynamic but the clothes he wore in the original hid that
The newer version is more unexpected, thus more interesting to look at
Once I decided on his shapes, I had a better idea of how to approach Patroclus
Where for instance, Achilles was top heavy, I made Patroclus bottom heavy
While Achilles has his chest thrust out, Patroclus is more withdrawn
They’re different, but similar enough to be a pair
Kind of like puzzle pieces
I also chose to draw another, older version of Achilles, because his character is forced
to undergo major change when fate drags him into the Trojan War
This is the hero we know from the legends
The challenge was to balance being consistent with his younger version
but also changing him enough to indicate that he isn’t the same anymore
I tried to make him recognizable through shared colours and motifs
For instance, his golden hair translates into his golden armour
I kept the fluidity of his body, a representation of his agility
And, in the book, this character is strongly associated with the lyre—a musical instrument
I admit, the integration of this element isn’t
that well done, but the intention was there. I think adding these kinds of references can
reward attentive viewers and it’s always something extra to unpack
Now, onto HECTOR. He is Trojan, enemy to the Greeks, and Achilles’ main opponent in war
Because their fates are inherently intertwined, it also makes sense to design them together
Despite his central role in the conflict,
we know very little about him. Hector’s helmet is practical and symbolic. It protects him,
but also masks his eyes and throws his face into shadow. In battle, he becomes less
of a person and more of a figure. The same applies to Achilles. In wartime, our characters’
morals become increasingly gray and it becomes harder to tell who is right and wrong
My intention among the wartime cast was to have it less clear as to who was the villain
When I don’t want you to relate to a character, I will either omit, or make their eyes small
The opposite is true for more compassionate, insightful characters
As for details, these lines that indicate his muscle mass were influenced by the figures
that decorate Greek vases. I think it’s important to be aware of preexisting art;
it can inspire a lot of detail that can make your designs more believable
If you’re having trouble exaggerating your characters, I recommend likening them to an animal
In the book, Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks and the prime antagonist is often
described as having bear-like qualities. Animals themselves are highly symbolic. For instance,
when we think of owls, we think of intelligence, even if biologically, owls are not very smart
Bears are strong-willed, savagely powerful, and sometimes, dull-witted. There’s a reason
why many fairy tales feature animals as their main characters - it makes it relatively easy
for a child to identify their personality and role in the story
I should mention that my design process is rarely ever the same. While I put a lot of
thought into Thetis, I drew Briseis once and was satisfied. She came to me more instinctively
I just want to emphasize that there is no one way to approach character design
Both your instincts and research are valuable.
To wrap things up I’d like to spend some time talking about these designs as a whole
Before I even started with a single character, I scribbled the overall shape and size I wanted
each one to have. This way, I could ensure unity and diversity among all of them
Now you've probably heard this before, but good design isn’t just about how aesthetically pleasing
something is - it’s also about advancing some functional purpose. In this case, good
design includes being able to glance at these characters and get a sense of how they fit
into the story
Anyways, I’ve looked at these for way too long and I can’t tell good from bad anymore
but I’m really interested in hearing what you think. Constructive criticism is welcome
Or, if you just want to geek out about the book I’d be happy to geek out with you