Jak Hartlen

Wow!

That's all I can say about this sketch.

Angela to me:

"Alright then! Time to see how our luck is doing!

(We only had to re-concept one character and that's the evil nasty Duward and Lady Sedi will be facing off against...which, well, I'm going to keep to my self for now. Sorry.)  

Here are some preliminary sketches of Jak.  I went with a long-sleeved woven shirt and cloth pants with the only ornate design being his sword/scabbard.  This is without his jacket, since it won't be included in the cover...."

****To learn what the image on the sheath is, you have to read Genesis****

So what do you think. Is he too pretty? 
I tried my damnedest to scruff him up with scratches and dirt.

(We had a long and successful conversation about characters being too good looking. Too fit.

Lets just say Jak doesn't have washboard abs. His muscles are from natural, job-specific labors—which he'd only do till the job was done. He doesn't "work out". Honestly, I find that kinda stuff silly. I mean, how often are the heroes in these stories going to the Gym?)

I was a little afraid I'd made him too old, but I'm glad it matches the maturity that Jak has gained after all is said and done by the end of the book.

(Also, by this point being depicting, Jak is caught in the middle of a battle field. People are dying just outside where he is. He's considering the weight of it being all his fault.)

I figured you might like to know that from an artist's standpoint, I took the rugged appeal of Karl Urban, but combined it with that more idealistic charisma that Heath Ledger exudes. Christian Bale was helpful as a reference as well, though I relied less on him, as he strikes me as a tad more imbalanced and sinister."


My reply to her besides how much I like it:

"I always consider the line from Interview with a Vampire,

1791 was the year it happened. I was 24, younger than you are now. But times were different then, I was a man at that age: the master of a large plantation just south of New Orleans. I had lost my wife in childbirth, and she and the infant had been buried less than half a year.

This is not the language or life of an average 24yr old today.

Nor is Jak's life normal to his age group today, but unlike Louis though, Jak wasn't born to wealth.
His life is harder.

Also, per the difference between the beginning of the novel and the end, this Jak fits well.
His physical age (which might seem harsher here given the roughness of the sketch—will likely be smoothed out when you do a final rendering) can't be compared to that of a 20yr old today. Jak's life before, during and at the end of Genesis is very taxing."


So, what do you think about Jak?
I'm so excited to see how it all comes together and I hope you are too.